American Struggle Read online

  “I know.” Emma shifted herself so she could sit cross-legged beside him. “I guess maybe that’s when we need to pray the most—when we’re scared and it’s hard to have faith.”

  Rob was silent for a long moment. “All right,” he said finally. “Will you pray out loud for me?”

  Emma hesitated. She never really liked praying so people could hear her, but Rob needed her. He and she had been through a lot. They’d captured snakes together in the flooded house. They’d learned about medical things. She’d confided about her dream of being an animal doctor, and he’d told her about wanting to be a doctor. He didn’t like the country that much, but she wasn’t crazy about the town, either. They were different, and they were the same. She could trust him not to laugh at her.

  “Dear God,” she said softly, “be with Rob’s father. Take care of him. Please keep him safe. And be with Rob and his mother. Help Rob not to feel so scared. Help him to know You’re with him … and You’re with his father, too. Help us to trust You, even when we’re scared. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Rob whispered. He raised his head. “Thanks, Emma.” Emma smiled at him. “Let’s go back home. We’ve already eaten supper, but Mama saved you some beans and corn bread.”

  When they walked in the kitchen door, Rob’s mother held out her arms to him. She held him tight and kissed the top of his head.

  “You should be a carefree boy,” she said. “But you’re a young man already.” She stepped back. “You must be hungry.”

  She pulled out a chair from the table, and Rob sat down to eat a bowl of beans.

  Saturday dawned clear and bright but with an October chill in the air.

  “I’m sorry about calling your animals dumb,” Rob said as he and Emma walked down to the creek.

  “That’s okay. They aren’t important like people dying, but that doesn’t mean I want to help them any less.”

  Emma recorded the creek depth, while Rob looked up at the bright blue sky.

  “No clouds. Emma, how can cholera be spread by bad atmosphere when it’s such a clear, sunny day?”

  She stared at the sky. “Maybe it’s not so clear in Cincinnati.”

  “It’s only a few miles away. We should be able to see a few miles in the sky, shouldn’t we? I wish we could go to the library and find that book about clouds. I wish we could ask Dr. Drake what he thinks about this.”

  Emma tried to turn his thoughts in a different direction. “Let’s check on the animals. I think it’s time to turn the foxes loose.”

  Together they lifted the coop off the curled-up foxes. They didn’t move.

  “We’d better leave so they can go,” Rob said.

  Emma wanted to watch, so they ran to the crossing rocks and then made their way stealthily upstream on the opposite side of the animal hospital.

  “Look there,” Emma whispered. The foxes had scampered to the water’s edge and were drinking. Then one darted toward the brush, and another one followed, and then the third one. “Think they’ll make it?” Rob asked.

  Emma nodded with pride. “They have a better chance than if they’d been left alone. Let’s go.”

  As twilight fell that evening, the family heard hoofbeats on the road. The beats slowed as the rider turned up the lane to the house.

  Rob’s mother was the first one outside, but Rob was close behind her.

  “Anthony?” Emma heard Patricia call into the growing darkness.

  “Mrs. Etingoff, it’s me, Andrew Hollister,” the rider called out.

  “Andrew? What’s wrong with Anthony?” Panic laced her voice until it was a shrill shriek.

  The man from Anthony’s shipyard dismounted and tied his horse to a post on the porch. “Can we go inside?” he asked.

  Patricia walked into the parlor as if she were in a trance. Rob and Andrew Hollister followed. Everyone was standing: Miss Clara by the fire, Mama and Papa who had been sitting on the settee, even the younger children who had been playing on the floor. They all watched in silence as Andrew Hollister crossed over to the fireplace and extended his hands to the warmth.

  “I have a message from Anthony. He’s ill. He said he has the first sign.”

  CHAPTER 14

  A Ride to Cincinnati

  Patricia put her hand over her heart and sat down hard in a chair. “He also said for you to stay in the country,” Andrew said. “He has kept his promise; now you are to promise you will stay in the country.”

  “No,” Patricia said. “I made no such promise to him.”

  “I could sure use a cup of coffee before I go back,” Andrew said. “In the kitchen?” He looked pointedly at Rob and Sue Ellen.

  “Yes, coffee in the kitchen,” Patricia said dully, as though she hardly knew what she was saying.

  “Of course,” Mama agreed. “In the kitchen.”

  The adults hurried from the parlor.

  “They don’t want us to hear what they’re talking about,” Emma whispered to Rob. “As if we’re too young to know.”

  “I’m going to town,” Rob whispered. “I’ve got to go. Now. Remember what Dr. Drake said: Cholera could take a life in six hours. I’m going to Father.”

  “We’ll ride one of Papa’s horses.”

  “You’re going, too?” he whispered.

  “I know my way in the dark. You don’t.” In a loud voice, she said,

  “We’re going to check on the horse.”

  She slipped on her shawl, and Rob grabbed his coat. They went out the front door and circled around to the barn. The full moon lit the way.

  Emma slipped the bridle on the mare and led her out of her stall. “Carry that saddle outside.” She pointed to one that straddled a wooden railing.

  Together they saddled the horse in the moonlight. Emma climbed in the saddle, and Rob sat in front of her. She guided the horse through the pasture. “We don’t want them to know we’re gone yet,” she said. “The grass will muffle the mare’s steps.”

  They had gone maybe half a mile before Emma turned the horse toward the road. “Hold on. We’re going for a ride,” Emma said. She made a clicking sound with her tongue, and the horse took off. She slowed the horse to a walk a couple of times, just for a rest, then urged her on again. They were in Cincinnati in under a half hour.

  The city was quiet. A hush seemed to have settled over it since the last time Emma had been there, almost three weeks ago now. No wagons rolled down the streets, and many homes were in darkness. A few had soft lantern light pouring from a window.

  Emma wrinkled her nose at the smell of burning tar. She remembered that some people thought burning tar would keep away the cholera, but she wondered if it did anything but make the air stink.

  The horse’s hooves made a clomping sound on the pavement that echoed in the ghostly city. As she pulled on the reins, she couldn’t help feeling as though they had ridden into a city of the dead.

  “Why are we going slower?” Rob asked. “We have to hurry.” Emma clicked her tongue again. “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know. Father could be at the hospital or at the pesthouse or at home.” He hesitated. “We’re close to the hospital. Let’s go there first. Remember, Father said he would consult Dr. Drake at the first sign.”

  “Dr. Drake will probably be at the hospital,” Emma agreed.

  Rob slid off the horse once they stopped in front of the hospital and ran inside while Emma tied up the horse and wiped it down. Then she hurried to catch up with Rob.

  “Sister,” he was saying to a nun who was scurrying down a narrow hall carrying a bucket, “I’m looking for my father, Anthony Etingoff. Is he here?”

  “Anthony Etingoff,” she repeated in a tired voice. “Yes, he was here, but now he’s gone.”

  Rob leaned on the wall as though his legs suddenly had no strength. No, thought Emma. Please don’t let us be too late.

  “Dr. Drake took him home,” the sister continued. “We have no empty beds.”

  “He’s alive?” Rob asked in a shaky voice
.

  “Oh, what have I done?” The black-robed woman reached out to Rob. “I meant he was gone from the hospital, not gone from this earth. He’s at his home.”

  Rob was already running toward the door. “Thank you,” Emma called over her shoulder as she followed him.

  It seemed like a lifetime, but only a few minutes passed before they were on Rob’s street. A horse and buggy were tied up in front of the house, and a light glowed from the parlor window.

  Rob jumped from the horse and raced to the house. He threw open the front door. No one was in the front room, but a lantern sat on a parlor table. “Father?” he said in a low voice. He walked hesitantly toward the bedroom. Emma followed him, afraid of what they might find.

  “Rob? Is that you?” Emma recognized Dr. Drake’s voice before the doctor stepped out of the bedroom. “How’s Father?”

  “He’s got cholera, but I think he’s getting treatment in time. I’m just taking leeches off him now. Then I’ve got to get back to the hospital. You can take over here.” He turned and walked back into the bedroom. Emma and Rob followed him.

  Anthony lay in the bed, a pale figure against the white bedding. He wasn’t blue. That’s a good sign, Emma thought.

  “Father!” Rob rushed to his side and leaned over and hugged him.

  “Rob. My message was that you were not to come to town,” his father said in a weak voice. “Where’s your mother?” “She’s at Emma’s. She doesn’t know we came.” “Who’s with you?” “Emma. We’ll take care of you.”

  “Good,” Dr. Drake said. “Come in the parlor, and I’ll give you instructions.”

  “I’ll be right back, Father.” Emma and Rob followed the doctor into the other room.

  Dr. Drake seemed to notice Emma for the first time. “Good evening, Emma,” he said. “I’m glad you’ve come, because I need to go, and I hated to leave Rob’s father unattended. I’m giving him massive doses of laudanum so he’s sedated while the calomel works.” As he spoke, he wrote down instructions on paper he pulled from his pocket. “He may vomit again, but I hope we’ve stopped that. Rub his skin continually with this powdered chalk. I’m all out of mercury ointment,” he added, almost to himself.

  “We can do that,” Rob said confidently.

  “Here are the leeches for bleeding him again. It’s all on this paper. Follow the instructions, and I’ll check on him again tomorrow.” He turned to leave, then turned back. “You’ll do just fine,” he said.

  “Well, let’s get to work,” Rob said once the doctor had gone. “I’ll start the rubbing.”

  “I’ll unsaddle the horse. I waited,” she said uncertainly. “I didn’t know what we’d find.”

  She didn’t want to admit that she’d thought they might be making the dark journey back to the farm to tell Patricia and the others bad news.

  “I know.” Rob was smiling. “Thank God he’s doing all right.”

  “Yes.” Emma looked with wonder at Rob’s face. “Rob, you were more scared yesterday than you are today when your father has cholera.”

  Rob thought about that for a moment. “You’re right. I guess I stopped feeling so scared after you prayed. That’s odd.” She smiled. “Maybe not so odd.”

  When Emma had taken care of the horse, she joined Rob in the sickroom, helping him give his father water and rubbing his skin with the chalk substance to keep him warm. They were determined not to let Anthony’s skin turn blue. The laudanum was working its wonders, sedating Anthony so he didn’t feel the intense stomach cramps Emma knew were one of the symptoms.

  “What else should we do?” Emma asked at last when they had done everything the doctor had told them.

  “Help me get the medicines lined up and write down the times for giving them.” He handed her the instructions Dr. Drake had written. “Then you can sleep for a while. We’ll trade off sleeping and rubbing Father’s skin.”

  They got everything lined out, and Emma went to the other room to sleep. She fell asleep instantly, exhausted from everything that happened, but the sound of horses and a wagon outside roused her, and she stumbled out into the hallway. A moment later, Papa and Patricia burst into the house.

  “Anthony,” Patricia said and knelt beside the bed. She took Anthony’s hand and raised it to her lips.

  “I told you not to come,” he murmured.

  “I had to come get your disobedient son.” She gave Rob one of those looks that said she would deal with him later. “We’re taking you to the country. I spoke with Dr. Drake at the hospital, and he says we can move you. As soon as he sees you in the morning, we’ll go.”

  They took turns with Rob’s father in the night, giving him medicine, placing the leeches on him, taking them off, and rubbing his skin. By morning he seemed better.

  Dr. Drake returned a few hours later. He gave Anthony more medicine and told the children and Patricia that they were doing a splendid job. “I wish all my patients had this many nurses.”

  Emma and Rob walked with the doctor out to his rig.

  “We’ve kept a log of the temperatures and the clouds and the wind,” Rob said. “I don’t see how any of them caused the cholera to breed. Should I keep writing them down?”

  “Hmm. Sometimes, Rob, we prove something by disproving what we thought we could prove. Keep recording your data. When life gets back to normal, we’ll look for patterns or abnormalities. You’re going to make a fine doctor. I wish you were one now. I could use the help.” He climbed up in his buggy. “Take care of your father. His recovery may be slow, but I think he’ll make it.”

  “Thank you,” Rob called after him.

  There was much to be done. Papa had gone to Andrew Hollister’s to discuss running the shipyard in Anthony’s absence. Emma and Rob made a bed of heavy quilts in the back of the wagon. When Papa returned, the children heated bricks in the fireplace and put them in the bed to keep it warm while Patricia helped Anthony put on clean clothes.

  When everything was ready, they all carried him to the bed in the wagon and covered him with more heavy quilts. Patricia climbed on board and drove the team while Emma and Rob sat in the back with Rob’s father. They left Papa building a fire to burn the bed linen and clothes Anthony had worn when he got sick. Once the fire had burned out, Papa would ride the mare back to the farm.

  As they rode out of town, Rob rubbed his father’s face, the only part of his skin visible, since he was cocooned in quilts. As Emma watched him, in the distance, she heard church bells.

  She had forgotten it was Sunday. There would be no time for church today … but Emma knew they were all worshipping in their hearts just the same.

  Nellie the Brave

  Veda Boyd Jones

  A NOTE TO READERS

  While Nellie Starr and her family are fictitious, their journey on the Cherokee Trail of Tears reflects the experiences of many Cherokee who were relocated from their homes in the southeastern United States to Indian territory in present-day Oklahoma.

  After the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed by President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee appealed to the courts to keep their homelands. But the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a minority group of the Cherokee but called a false treaty by the majority, sealed the fate of the Cherokee. They were ordered to leave their homes. Soldiers rounded up the Cherokee, took them to holding camps, and then started groups on their way west.

  Three groups were escorted by the military. Principal Chief John Ross negotiated for the Cherokee to be in charge of the rest of the treks westward. One of the leaders was Reverend Jesse Bushyhead. From the autumn of 1838 into the harsh winter of 1839, thirteen groups of about one thousand members each traveled to their new land set aside by Congress to separate the Indians from white settlers.

  CONTENTS

  1. The Roundup

  2. The First Step

  3. The First Camp

  4. The Stockade

  5. What Happened to Lewis

  6. The Long Summer

  7. The Jo
urney Begins

  8. John’s Plan

  9. The Trail Westward

  10. The Illness Strikes

  11. A Dark Heart

  12. Morning Sun

  13. The Long Wait

  14. The New Land

  To my W&W friends: Vicki Grove and Cheryl Harness

  CHAPTER 15

  Safe at Last

  The trip back to the farm took much longer than the trip in the darkness the night before. Rob worried about his father being cold, but his mother said he should be okay. He was probably sweating under all the heavy quilts. Anthony didn’t say much, but he mumbled a couple of times that he was all right. His eyes remained shut the entire trip.

  Papa caught up with them before they were halfway home. “I’ll ride ahead and have Kristen fix a place for Anthony,” he said. “We should isolate him,” Rob’s mother said. “It’s not contagious,” Rob said. “He’ll be all right with us.” “Just the same, we’ll isolate him.” His mother’s voice was firm. By the time Patricia turned the wagon into the Farleys’ lane, Emma could see that Mama must have settled on the smokehouse as a quarantine place for Anthony. She and Miss Clara were out there with pails in their hands.

  Sue Ellen ran toward the wagon. “We’ve carried all the meat to another shed,” she said. “Uncle Thomas has started a fire, and we’re moving a bed.” She climbed up in the wagon and leaned over her father and kissed him. “I love you, Father.” A tear rolled down her round cheek.

  “He’s going to be all right.” Rob patted his sister on the back. He glanced at Emma, and she knew he hadn’t realized that Sue Ellen was scared, too, anymore than she had.

  “The room’s not quite ready,” Mama said. “Are you okay in the wagon for a while, Anthony?” She had climbed up on a wheel and peered down at Anthony, since there was no more room in the wagon bed.

  “The sunshine feels good on my face,” Rob’s father said. “I’m all right.”

  “Rob, heat up the bricks,” his mother said.