The Adventures of Cherokee (4 page)

“Yes, Flying Hawk. I will do as you say.”

-4-
The Bar B Ranch
 

The next morning dawned clear and cool. The cowboys were up and dressed, waiting for Cookie to call them to breakfast. Cookie thought every meal was the most important one of the day, not just breakfast, and prepared food accordingly. Cowboys worked hard and needed hearty meals.

Cherokee and Sunee had been watching the ranch since before the sun rose. It wasn’t long until they saw a man step out onto the porch, pull the rope on the bell, and holler for the men to “Come and get it!”

The men walked quickly to the dining room, sat at their assigned place and gazed hungrily over the table. There were several platters of ham and bacon, fried eggs and potatoes, biscuits and gravy, and lots of strong, black coffee. After the blessing, they wasted no time in passing the platters and filling their plates.

Breakfast was eaten quickly with no time taken for cigarettes as they did after the evening meal. These men were used to working from sunup to sundown. It was a new day and there was much work to be done; fences to mend, stalls to clean, horses to be roped and carefully checked for injuries or brands. Each cowboy had his own responsibilities and did not need to be told what to do. Horses saddled, each went his separate way.

Cherokee and Sunee were still watching from their hiding place as J.D. and Marty stepped over to the corral to wait for Bobby Knight, the owner, to come out and look over the new horses in the daylight. He had the final say in which horses were selected for riding or driving or for children. He had a good eye and a good reputation.

It wasn’t long until Bobby stepped out on the porch, as he did every day, and gazed over his holdings. He had several corrals for the horses, believing that a crowded horse could not be comfortable and was more apt to be intolerant of anything asked of him. He built training pens for small cart use and wagons; he built his barns with large stalls to give his charges plenty of room to lie down in comfort; two storage barns held all the hay he would need for the winter and one barn housed the equipment necessary to run a 300 acre ranch.

The five bedroom two-story house was located away from the working part of his holdings, but situated on a knoll high enough for him to look out any window and keep an eye on all that was going on.

The two young horses did not understand why the man just stood on the porch without saying or doing anything. They could not realize he was lost in thought, in the past that lived with him every day of his life.

“What is he doing?” wondered Sunee.

“I don’t know,” answered Cherokee. “I think we should wait and watch. We may be needed.”

Bobby Knight was a tall man, six feet two inches, with sparkling blue eyes and sandy blond hair just beginning to grey at the temples. His face was tanned and his eyes had permanent laugh lines. His hands were gentle, as many animals knew, and he had great patience and understanding. Although in his late 30’s, he had not yet married, dedicating himself to horses, the love of his life.

Bobby and his brother, Jack, had been raised right here on the Bar B ranch. Their father before them, Benjamin Knight, was the first to claim and settle this part of Tennessee. Jack was six years older and two inches shorter, with dark brown eyes and shaggy brown hair. But when it came to horses, they were like two peas in a pod. They rode horses before they could walk. They had their own ponies before they grew tall enough to saddle them. They learned to drive ponies, too, which was Bobby’s greatest love, but Jack enjoyed riding. If the boys came up missing from the ranch, their father only had to head to the nearest inland lake where they rode or drove one of their ponies to go fishing or swimming.

As boys do, they grew up. At age 14 Jack rode a big bay mare with a wide chest and rump. She was two years older than he was, but gentle and able to always find her way back home. She had raised several foals over the years and was used to being handled and petted by the boys. Bobby at age seven, rode a smaller, ten year old chestnut gelding, who knew well where home and the grain bucket could be found. For several years the boys rode the horses to town and to school and, if they talked fast, to church. Sundays were normally days for riding as a family in the surrey, but Benjamin could remember being young and full of energy, and usually permitted the boys to ride their horses behind the family transportation. Ruby, their mother also rode horseback, but preferred driving, as did Bobby. She usually allowed Benjamin to oversee any outdoor activities the boys mentioned.

The boys were 21 and 28 when Benjamin died from an accidental blow on the head by a rank stallion. He was in a circular enclosure, with the horse on a snubbing line, when the stallion suddenly went crazy. He turned toward Benjamin with his neck outstretched, teeth bared, and eyes
glazed. “Run, Dad!” yelled the boys in unison.

Benjamin dropped the snubbing line, but held his ground. He raised the training whip to ward off the stallion. When the stallion got within range, Benjamin struck him with the whip. Instead of turning him, it maddened him even further. He squealed and spun around reversing his body. He kicked hard with both hind feet striking Benjamin square in the forehead, knocking him out.

The boys and the ranch hands from all sides of the corral were already running with ropes in hand to intercept the horse. Only the foreman was carrying a rifle, which he used, putting the stallion down without another thought. But it was too late for the boss. He was unconscious so two of the men carried him into the main house, while Bobby rode his gelding into town to get the doctor.

Ruby had treated cuts and bruises, some serious, some not so serious for many years and was not immediately concerned about her husband’s injury. The men put him in bed as she instructed and she cleaned his face and hands, checking his head closely. She knew the doctor would soon be there and there was nothing else she could do. So she gathered her knitting and sat in a rocking chair next to his bed to wait.

Benjamin died without regaining consciousness. The doctor told them it would have made no difference whether he had been there or not, the injury was too serious. Benjamin was only 58 years old. The family buried him on the ranch in their own private cemetery.

The boys were determined to carry on their father’s dream and so lived with and cared for their mother until Jack got the urge to be on his own five years later.

One early winter morning, the young men were cleaning stalls and feeding horses. Jack asked, “Ever get the urge to move on, Bobby?”

“Nope. You?”

“Yep.”

“Where you thinkin’ to go?”

“Don’t know. Heard last fall about some nice acreage in the Appalachians where ya can raise horses. Thought about lookin’ there. Want to come along?”

“What about Ma?”

“The ranch hands would look after her while we’re gone.”

“When you thinkin’ about goin’?”

“Come spring after the colts are foaled.”

“It’s only fair to talk to Ma about it first.”

So the boys talked with Ruby, eventually made the trip to Kentucky and the Appalachian Mountains, purchased land, returned home and divided up the stock.

Now here was Bobby looking over his 300 acres, while Jack was taking care of his home and ranch in Kentucky. Bobby chuckled. “And I have Jack’s stallion.”

Cherokee and Sunee watched Bobby step off the porch and head for Flying Hawk’s corral. The big horse watched without fear as Bobby approached the fence. The two eyed each other for a few moments and then the horse lowered his head and walked to the man. “Well, big fella,” Bobby said as he scratched the horse between the eyes. “How are things in Kentucky?” The horse enjoyed the human touch and relaxed under a master’s hand. Bobby smiled.

While still scratching the stallion, his eyes wandered over the herd of mares and colts. Dancing Shadow was wary of the man. Bobby watched the spotted mare as she stood aloof from the rest of the mares. He could not tell if she was more wary of the man or the stallion’s reaction to the man. He also noticed flashes of movement and color in the distance that he assumed to be the two wild colts.

Dancing Shadow was thinking how difficult it would be for her to obey
Asga ya galun lati’s
order to serve man. She had always been free. Even though her mares and the few colts they had were being well fed and had plenty of water; even though none of her charges was being harmed, she was far from home and she was not free. She worried about Cherokee and Little Sister. She wondered if Sunee and Yellow Bird were safe. She had not seen them in days and doubted if Flying Hawk had either. She wanted to talk to him, but Man was there!

Bobby stopped petting the stallion and walked to the corral of mares and colts. He selected a small black colt as a possible buggy horse for a lady or child; a yearling filly, chestnut with a white face and two white feet would make a nice riding horse for a little girl; he selected the spotted mare that was watching him so carefully and a big white one for new breeding stock. He would turn the rest of the mares and the chocolate stallion loose in the spring after breeding season. “I’ll write Jack and tell him my plans,” he thought.

Bobby enjoyed being outdoors in the fall. He went to the stable and saddled his dun mare planning to ride his ranch checking for problems and dangers to his horses and to make sure they weren’t wandering too far afield. Because he had a little more than 300 acres, he didn’t fence in his animals, but this did require more diligence on his part to keep them home.

He rode half a day without finding any problems. Deciding to turn back toward the ranch house, he reined his mare through some tall red and white oak trees. It was cool and quiet. As he cleared the trees, he noticed that his black walnut trees were spreading again. There were only a dozen or so, but any part of that tree, whether it was the bark, the leaves, or the nut husks, could cripple a horse if it happened to walk through it or graze too near. He made a mental note to have some of the men clean it up. He thought he might even have the trees fenced in to keep his horses out.

As he was returning to the ranch house, he noticed unfamiliar horse tracks. A man in his business knew the hoof marks his horses left and these he did not know. He was pretty sure they were not Indian ponies. That left only the two horses that had gotten away when his men had rounded up this herd. But there were four sets of
tracks! He followed them for a little way, but when they disappeared in the creek he decided to talk to the men and have a couple of them try to find these horses tomorrow.

J.D. and Marty watched Bobby scratch the stallion, then head off alone on his dun mare. They went about other duties, waiting for their boss to return. He would give them specific instructions about the horses when he was ready.

It was mid afternoon when Bobby rode back to the ranch, unsaddled his mare and turned her loose to graze. He ambled back to the corral of new horses to reevaluate them. He didn’t change his mind about any of them. He walked to the house, got a glass of cold tea and sat on the porch for a while, composing a letter in his head for his brother. After supper, he mentioned the tracks he found earlier in the day.

“I’ll bet it’s those two young ones we had seen before we rounded up the herd,” said J.D.

“Perhaps,” agreed Bobby, “But there were four sets of hoof prints, not two.”

The cowboys looked at each other. Marty said, “I’m goin’ out to look at the ones in the corral.”

The rest of them went along to see what he was up to. As they approached the herd of mares and colts, Marty looked them over and said, “Yep! Just what I thought!”

“Well! What?” asked J.D.

“There was two spring fillies when we rounded ‘em up that ain’t there anymore.”

The rest of the cowboys looked at each other. He was right.

“How did those two fillies get away without us knowing?”

“Maybe it happened when that stallion made a fuss trying to get his whole herd back,” suggested J.D. “Anyway, we’ll go look for them tomorrow, boss.”

Bobby nodded his head in agreement.

Meanwhile, Cherokee, Sunee, Little Sister and Yellow Bird were trying to stay out of sight of the ranch hands and still remain where they could watch their family. It was good that there were lots of hills and plenty of water and they did not have to hunt for grass, but the young fillies were impatient and wanted their mothers. Right now! Sunee tried to calm the fillies, telling them that if
Asga ya galun Latí
meant for them to be together again it would happen. If not, she would look after them until they could look after themselves.

Cherokee left Sunee and the two young ones in a copse of trees, safe and out of sight of man and beast. He planned to search for a better place to hide his young charges. It was then that he saw the man looking at the trail they had used earlier in the day. He wondered what it meant. He tried hard to think. Then he remembered one of Grandfather’s lessons. Grandfather said, “If your mind is closed as a drawstring, nothing can get in or out. If this happens, walk. When the feet are busy, the mind relaxes and can think.”

So Cherokee walked. And walked. Finally he remembered! He had found Man in the past by
seeing the tracks he made, so maybe that was how Man found him! He must let Sunee know what was happening. Man knew they were here.

-5-
A Big Mistake
 

Early the next morning J.D., Marty and two other men rode out to the area where Bobby had first spotted the hoof prints. They figured on tracking from there since the sign was still fresh. In less than an hour they found the right place. Upon closer examination, J.D. noted that the tracks led to and from the water and the tall red oak trees.

The men rode into the trees looking for more sign, but it was fall and so many leaves were on the ground, the only thing they found was the place where the horses had rested.

“Let’s try circling around and watch for tracks coming out somewhere else. We’ll split up and if anyone finds anything, give a Yahoo!’ so the others can come running. That O.K. with you?” asked J.D.