Wild Heart on the Prairie (A Prairie Heritage, Book 2) (9 page)

The six surviving chicks, at around eight weeks, were fully
feathered and beginning to act and sound like grown chickens. Elli started teaching
Kristen and Sigrün how to feed and water the chickens. Later, God willing, they
would gather eggs, too.

After days of dedicated labor, the soddy was ready to move
into. Jan and Karl hitched the two loaded wagons, put the table and benches on
them, and drove the wagons to the soddy.

Jan unpacked Elli’s cookstove and reassembled it. It was a lovely
thing, a gift from her parents before Jan and Elli left for America.
Elli ran her hands over it, admiring her pretty new stove with its colorful
tiled doors and enameled handles.

They placed the stove outside the soddy’s front door. The
women would cook outside during the heat of the summer. When the weather cooled,
they would bring the stove inside. It would easily heat the two rooms of the
soddy/dugout.

Jan placed an empty crate against the soddy and hinged its
lid. He placed oilcloth over the lid and tacked the cloth all around the lid so
that the edges would drape down the sides. Here the fuel Kristen and Sigrün
gathered daily would stay dry.

The men unloaded and opened trunks and crates. The men and
the women selected items to keep out and those to be repacked. The women asked Jan
and Karl to stack a few of the empty boxes in the kitchen to use as cupboards,
as they had seen in Henrik and Abigael’s home.

Karl and Jan unpacked and set up the two iron bedsteads and
built simple frames from wooden packing crates for the children’s beds. Elli
and Amalie placed the new mattresses stuffed with hay upon the beds and covered
them with linens they had brought from home.

Jan whittled pegs and hammered them into the walls wherever
asked to. The women unpacked clothes and kitchenware, hanging them on the pegs.
Jan hung the two guns from pegs high up on the soddy’s wall next to the door.

Karl brought in a trunk packed with their clothes and placed
it in the dugout room. Jan did the same, placing their trunk next to their bed.
Then they moved the table and benches into the soddy’s common area.

They had slept in the soddy three nights when another storm
rolled through. It was nothing like the one they had survived huddling under
the wagons. Still, as they ate a quiet dinner around their table, they felt
blessed to be inside, protected from the winds and rain.

When lightning sizzled particularly close to them, Amalie
sighed and looked around, comforted. “I didn’t think I could live in a dirt
house, but I must be honest. Until I had nowhere to run from a storm except
under a wagon, I think I could not appreciate this. Today I am grateful to God
for this dirt house.”

~~**~~

It was nearing the end of summer. Life for the Thoresens had
settled into something of a routine. Jan and Karl had planted a few fields and harvested
the early corn patch; a second field of corn was ripening quickly. Elli and
Amalie were feeding their families from the green garden and canning or drying
all they could from its bounty.

Søren milked Molly twice every day. She was a good producer;
they drank all the milk they wanted and still shared some with the Andersons; the women made butter and cheese with what was left over.

Abigael had her baby, another boy, and Amalie grew rounder
as her pregnancy progressed. A neighbor from farther west, Norvald Bruntrüllsen
and his son, Ivan, drove over to make their acquaintance.

“I am sorry we did not come to meet you earlier,” he
apologized. “This spring I had decided to break sod on another field. I know
you have found how long this takes.”

The men talked crops for an hour. Søren, delighted to see
another boy his age, showed Ivan everything the small beginnings of their farm
had to offer. Ivan was impressed with their pigs.

The boar was coming into his size, and it was considerable.
The sow was not far behind him in weight. In the spring when they were both a
year old, the Thoresens would mate them.

“You brought them on the ship, eh? I’ll bet they were a lot
smaller then.”

“Oh,
ja
. Just weaners,” Søren replied. “I could hold them
in my arms like big puppies when we left.” They wandered back to listen the men
talk.

“Some of the farmers around here have decided to take our
corn and wheat to Omaha together,” Norvald was saying. “We can sell our corn to
the feedlots there and negotiate a better price for our wheat if we sell it to
the eastern buyers at the same time.”

Jan and Karl were keen to hear more.

“We heard you have four oxen and three wagons,” Bruntrüllsen
continued, “but perhaps not a big enough harvest this first year to fill all
your wagons? If this is so, we were thinking to make you a proposition.”

It was true that Jan and Karl would not have much to send to
market this first year. In fact, of every crop they grew, they had to save back
some for feed, some for seed, and enough to eat until the next harvest. What remained
over and above these needs could go to market. The Thoresens would have little corn
and wheat to send this first year.

“
Ja
, we are listening,” Karl answered.

“We propose that you load what you have into a wagon. We
will send responsible men to fetch your teams and wagons. Two of our neighbors
have offered to pair their mules to pull your third wagon. The men we send will
load your wagons with crops others have grown and haul them to the siding where
the train stops for water. We will take your crops to market for you and barter
something in return for the use of your oxen and wagons.”

Karl and Jan both became quiet. They would not allow their
oxen out of their direct control to men they had just met.

Jan cleared his throat. “Perhaps one of us will come along.”
Karl was relieved; Jan had said just the right thing.

Bruntrüllsen nodded. “Good; I said as much to the others. What
would you like in return? We thought a calf. A heifer.”

Karl and Jan looked at each other. It was a generous offer.
“
Ja
,” Karl answered. “We agree!”

“Most families are also sending supply lists to Omaha
with us,” he told the Thoresens. “We will keep accounts of every man’s crops,
how much they sold for, and how much we spend at the grocers and hardware
stores to fill his list.”

Norvald showed Jan a small book of lined pages. “Here are
last year’s accounts. Only four of us farmers did this last year. They voted to
send me to Omaha with the crops. You can see how I managed each man’s account.”

“It is a big job,” Jan noted, appreciating the careful figures
under each man’s name. “How many farmers are sending crops this year?”

“Eleven, now that you and your brother have joined us,”
Norvald answered. “The farmers voted for me and Klaus Schöener to take the
crops this year.”

He smiled. “We may fill two cars this year! I will keep the
accounts the same way so that every man may see what he has earned and what we
spent for him.”

“Will we not pay you and Klaus for your work for us?” Karl
asked.

“
Ja
; We agreed that whoever takes the crops will split
two percent of every man’s earnings. See here,” Norvald pointed to Klaus’
earnings from the previous fall. “Klaus earned $75 last year. I kept $1.50 for
taking it to market. Also, we split the cost of the cars and my ticket back.”

Karl and Jan were impressed with the system the farmers were
putting together. “This is a good way to do business, Norvald,” they both told
him.

Elli and Amalie set to work cutting burlap and stitching bags
together for the corn and grain they would send to market. Elli taught Kristen how
to seam the coarse, open-weave fabric using a whip stitch.

They decided that Karl would stay on the claims with their
families and Jan would drive one of the wagons. Jan would carry a list of items
they had carefully made for Norvald and Klaus Schöener to fill. Jan planned to
be gone two days.

On the appointed day Karl and Jan had their teams hitched
and their crop loaded. The four sacks of corn and six sacks of wheat did not fill
even half of one wagon, but it was all they could spare. Norvald and a farmer they
did not know, Gunnar Braun, arrived on horseback with a team of mules for the
third wagon.

Jan returned two days later with Gunnar and two of the
wagons. A week later, Norvald returned their third wagon and brought the
supplies they had requested. Behind the wagon he led a late-born calf.

Jan and Karl were pleased with the bargain they had struck
and more pleased with their neighbors and the system they had devised to send
their crops to market.

“Will you come to church with us?” Norvald asked. “It is a
German church and a little strict, but they accept us Swedes.” He shrugged.
“Sometimes we don’t understand everything,
ja
? But it is a good church
with good people.

“I will warn you in advance that there are many differences
between this German church and what you are accustomed to back home. Still, it
is good to sing the hymns and hear God’s word and pray together. I have asked
Henrik and Abigael also.”

Jan glanced at Karl. “We should go. We will meet new people
and perhaps find out more about the neighborhood. Søren needs to meet other
boys. Perhaps we can ask about school.”

Karl looked a little askance. “Is that why we go to church? Just
to meet people?” He shook his head dismissively and turned to Norvald. “
Ja
,
we will come.”

Karl did not seem to notice Jan’s clenched jaw and white
face, but Norvald glanced between the two brothers. He made his goodbyes and
the family drove away.

As soon as their friends were out of earshot, Jan turned on
Karl. “Listen to me, brother. You do
not
correct me in front of our
neighbors as if I were a child.” His anger was simmering, rising quickly to the
boiling point.

Karl stepped back, surprised that Jan was angry. “What? Are
you angry for those few words?”

Perhaps if Karl had stopped there or had apologized, the
situation would not have escalated. But he added, “Brother, I would not have
spoken like that if you had not said a childish thing!”

Jan’s fist shot out and clipped Karl’s jaw. Karl staggered
back, stunned.

“So? Why did you do this,
Bror
?” He touched his chin,
still confounded.

Jan was already walking away, his strides long and angry. He
strode past Amalie and Søren, not acknowledging them. They had both witnessed the
short yet explosive argument.

Søren ran crying to his
mor
, unable to understand
what he’d seen and terrified by it.

“Jan, you must tell me what you are feeling,” Elli pleaded.
“Please.” Jan had fled to the other side of the low rise on which he planned to
build their house, where he had stood that first day surveying their land.

It was hard for Jan to speak of his feelings to Elli, to
anyone for that matter. But he knew, instinctively, that the anger seething
within him was dangerous. It may have been easy to forget about it while he and
Karl labored through the summer, but it was clear that the anger was still
there.

I know this anger is not pleasing to you, Lord
. Jan’s
mind and heart were in a tumult of confusing emotions.

“Ach, my love, it seems I am always struggling so with my
temper,” he finally muttered.

“Ah.” Elli was quiet for a minute. Then she asked, “Is it
your temper that is the real problem?”

Jan rubbed his face. “What do you mean?”

“I know you,
ektemann
—my husband. You are not often
angry, but when you are it is almost always with Karl, not so?”

Jan was silent but his anger shouted
yes!
within him.

“You and Karl are very different. He is more like your
far
,
serious, maybe even a little cold at times. I think you rub him the wrong way
sometimes and I know he rubs you the wrong way sometimes.”

Jan expelled his pent-up breath. “You make it sound simple,
but it
isn’t
. Karl acts as though I live in
his
home and I am to
obey him as we obeyed our
far
. This is not how it is, and I cannot let
him continue acting so.”

Elli nodded. “I know. I have seen it, too. But I think the
real problem is that you have never told him how you feel and how it damages
your relationship. You must have a good talk with him. Explain to him why you
are angry. Explain how things need to change, that he must treat you as an
equal,
ja
? But not while you are angry. The Bible says we are to speak
the truth with love, so you must do it when you are calm.”

Jan considered Elli’s advice. “Perhaps you are right. I will
pray on it.”

~~**~~

Their wagon rattled into the yard where the German church
met, alongside others who were just arriving. The Thoresens watched families they
did not yet know greet each other. They were being scrutinized, too. It was an
uncomfortable feeling.

Soberly, the Thoresens climbed down from their wagon. Jan
and Karl unhitched the oxen and walked them to an open stand of prairie grass.
Together they hobbled the oxen and lifted the yoke from their necks.

Karl was much less comfortable with strangers than Jan. He
looked around, sighed, and clamped his mouth shut. They rejoined their wives
and children and entered the house.

The church members had added a large room to the house and
filled it with narrow wooden benches. The Thoresens counted perhaps fifteen
families, but the room was large enough.

Even though Norvald had warned them, the differences between
this church meeting and their village church back in Norway were considerable. Elli
was disappointed when she saw that the room was divided down the center with
the women and children on one side and the men and older boys on the other.

Elli and Amalie and their daughters found seats next to Norvald’s
wife, Inge. The Thoresen women nodded pleasantly to the faces staring back at
them. Elli felt that soon her face would crack from smiling so much.

The church’s lay minister, Tomas Veicht, was an old man. He
did not have much hair but he was possessed of impressive bushy, white brows. When
he spoke, his brows wiggled like fat tomato worms.

Søren stared, his mouth agape in amazement until Jan squeezed
his leg a little. “It is not polite to stare,
Sønn
,” he whispered,
trying himself not to smile.

Søren wanted desperately to say something to his
pappa
about
the old man’s eyebrows but knew he should not talk in church. After a moment’s
struggle, he was able to keep quiet and just looked around. He nodded to Ivan and
noticed one or two other boys who were looking as curiously at him as he was at
them.

The service began with the minister asking
Norvald to introduce his guests. Norvald stood up
and, in broken German, gave the people Karl and Jan’s names. Several men reached
over to shake Jan and Karl’s hands. Jan nodded to Gunnar Braun and Klaus
Schöener and some of the other farmers who had sent crops to Omaha with
Norvald. Henrik and Abigael arrived a little late, and Norvald introduced them
also.

After a short prayer, the congregation stood and began to
sing. Elli noticed that the families owned their own hymnals. The elderly woman
standing in front of them wore an old-fashioned
kapp
. She turned and
smiled, offering her hymn book to Elli.

When the woman smiled, Elli could see that her mouth was
missing many teeth. Nevertheless, the old woman’s eyes sparkled as she patted
Kristen and Sigrün’s hands, her smile growing even larger.

“Heidi,” she whispered. “
Ich bin
Heidi Veicht.” Her
voice was soft and papery. Her chin wagged and quivered when she spoke. “
Willkommen
.”

“Elli Thoresen,” Elli whispered back. “Amalie Thoresen,” she
pointed at her sister-in-law. She thanked the woman and took the book even
though she would likely not be able to read or understand many of the words.

Heidi’s kapp bobbed, her smile broadening further, if
possible. The woman standing next to Heidi, perhaps her daughter, nudged her.
Heidi smiled again and turned back to sing.

A lay elder led the singing. All the songs were slow and
reverent, and the voices rose in well-known
a cappella
harmonies.
Elli and Amalie recognized a few of the hymns, but the words were all in
German, of course. Occasionally they hummed a little under their breath.

The small congregation sang for more than an hour. After a
while, Elli closed her eyes and gave herself over to just listening to the beauty
and reverence of the harmonies. When the last song began, slow and stately,
Heidi turned around again.

She took her hymnal from Elli and turned to the right page,
pointing to the words. Grateful, Elli and Amalie tried their best to sing the
unfamiliar words to a most familiar song.

Ein’
feste Burg ist unser Gott,
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen;
Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not,
Die uns jetzt hat betroffen.
Der alt’ böse Feind,
Mit Ernst er’s jetzt meint,
Groß’ Macht und viel List
Sein’ grausam’ Rüstung ist,
Auf Erd’ ist nicht seingleichen.

A
mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.

Singing the familiar hymn, even with different words,
strengthened Elli somehow. She drew a great breath when the song finished and
clasped Amalie’s hand. They were both encouraged.

Elli tapped Heidi on the shoulder and handed the book back
to her. “
Tusen Takk!
” she whispered. Heidi, smiling and full of such
good will, clasped Elli’s hand, and Elli beamed in response.

But Heidi’s companion offered no such welcome. Rather, she turned
and stared at Elli. She said nothing, offered no smile, but examined Elli from
head to toe. With a small sniff, she turned and sat down, her back straight and
rigid. Elli’s smile faded abruptly.

“Goodness,” she breathed. Amalie looked at Elli and
shrugged.

The minister, the old man with such amazing white brows,
then stood before the people with his Bible opened. He read a Scripture and
spoke calmly and directly on the passage. Elli and Amalie, again, understood
only a few words. They listened as attentively as they could.

The message lasted an hour. Elli looked down. Kristen was slumped
against her side, sleeping soundly. As the congregation rose for the final
prayer, Elli smiled and gently woke Kristen, helping her to her feet.

Kristen involuntarily yawned and Elli smiled again. When she
looked up, the woman in front of her was staring as before—but this time she
was also frowning her disapproval. She gave another sniff and turned toward the
front to pray.

Elli was disconcerted by the woman’s cold reception.
Fortunately, as soon as the prayer ended, Heidi reached for Elli and Amalie,
giving them hearty hugs and taking time to touch each of the girls and say
something in a kind voice.

As the service broke for the shared midday
meal, the men took up the benches the congregation had been sitting on and carried
them outside to where other men were setting up long tables in the yard. Jan
and Norvald went to help. Elli saw Karl across the room having a conversation
with one of the men.

Amalie and Elli had brought food to contribute to the meal,
Elli a strudel and Amalie two pies. Inge showed them where to put their dishes and
was called away.

The two women stood about, uncomfortable and wishing to help.
Elli spied Jan carrying one end of a wooden table. The other men were taking to
Jan immediately, Elli saw.

Lord, Jan is so cheerful and easy to talk to; no one stays
a stranger long around my husband
, she smiled happily to herself. Soon one
or two of the men were joking with Jan and clapping him on the back.

Karl stepped out on the porch. The man Karl had been
speaking to stood next to him. He was not a large man, but he had an air of
authority. Unlike the other farmers, he wore a proper suit of clothes and shiny
boots, both dark and somber. The man looked around as if to see that the
business of setting up the meal was going properly.

He is very serious looking
, Elli thought. The man noticed
Jan’s easy interaction with the German men and watched intently. His expression
did not change but something about it concerned Elli.

She was relieved when Jan reclaimed her and took them to sit
at one of the tables. Amalie trailed behind with Sigrün and soon Norvald and
Inge claimed seats across from them. Søren and Ivan grinned and kicked each
other under the table until their mothers intervened.

Karl slipped into the seat Amalie had saved for him. “Who is
that man you were talking to?” Jan asked.

“Adolphe Veicht. His father is the minister, Tomas Veicht.”
Karl pointed to the women bringing food to the tables. “That is his wife,
Rakel.” Elli and Amalie looked to where Karl was pointing.

“Oh, dear,” Elli hardly realized she had spoken aloud.
Adolphe Veicht’s wife, Rakel, was the woman who had reproved her with a glance
and a sniff. She was dressed as plainly and somberly as her husband.

“Eh?” Karl asked.

“It is nothing,” Elli murmured.

Rakel Veicht was clearly in charge of the women providing
the food. Although she spoke few words and made few gestures, she watched with
that same cool air of authority Elli had noticed in her husband. Elli shivered.

“So? Are you cold, wife?” Jan asked, surprised.

“
Nei
, husband,” she muttered.

They ate and chatted as they could with those at the table
with them. Elli did not eat much and wished for them to leave as soon as possible.

When cleanup after the meal began, Elli and Amalie watched
the other women don aprons. The Thoresen women had packed aprons in their wagon
and immediately followed suit. They stayed close to Inge Bruntrüllsen, helping
wherever she was working.

Inge introduced them to many friendly and welcoming women.
Soon Elli and Amalie were ferrying dishes to the kitchen with the others,
feeling helpful and included.

Elli almost tripped over Heidi Veicht, who was sitting next
to the minister on a bench near the house’s kitchen door. “Elli!
Kommen sie,
bitte
,” Heidi beckoned her.

Elli put what she was carrying down and dried her hands on
her apron. Heidi took her hand and introduced her to the nearly bald minister.

So Heidi was the minister’s wife! Elli was pleased and gave
her name, gesturing to Jan as her husband and to Søren and Kristen as her
children.

Tomas Veicht was as kind and gracious as his wife. Right
then Elli determined that the minister’s son and his odd, cold wife—both of
them so different from Tomas and Heidi Veicht—would not influence her decision
to be part of this church.

Still, as they pulled out of the Veicht’s yard that
afternoon, Elli felt as though a weight had dropped from them. Amalie expressed
it. “It was hard meeting so many new people,
ja
? All their ways so
different from what we are used to. Everything was a little confusing, but I
liked their singing.”

“I liked
Fru
Veicht,” Elli murmured. “She was very
welcoming.”

“You met Adolphe Veicht’s wife?” Karl asked.

“
Nei
; we met Tomas Veicht’s wife,” Elli replied.
“Adolphe’s wife was sitting next to
Fru
Veicht, but she did not
introduce herself.”
Or even indicate that she was interested in meeting us
,
Elli thought.

“I met many of the men today,” Jan commented. “I liked them.
We will have good fellowship. They love their minister—that says a lot about a
church,
ja
?”

“I am glad, Jan!” Elli responded. “We were meeting some of
the women as we cleaned up. Inge was very helpful.”

As though Jan and Elli had not even spoken, Karl turned to
the women in the back of the wagon. “You must both make an effort to meet Rakel
Veicht next time and be courteous to her,” Karl said. “I had a good
conversation with Adolphe. He is an important man in the church. I was glad
that he can speak a little Swedish.”

Jan closed his mouth tightly.
There goes Karl again, now ordering
my wife around. I do not like it, Lord, but I will not say anything right now.
Later, perhaps, when I am calm
.

Jan had determined to keep his temper in check. He had been
able to restrain his tongue just now because he was praying for the Lord’s
guidance and timing to talk to Karl.

Man-to-man, Lord. I must have your wisdom and words to
speak my heart clearly
, he prayed.

With cold weather beginning to set in, Jan moved Elli’s
stove into the soddy. He cut a hole in the sod wall and piped the stove through
the hole. It would not take much to keep the soddy warm in the winter.

Jan and Karl turned their energy to building a foundation
for the barn. In the morning, as soon as they had light to do so, Jan and Karl
hitched both teams of oxen to empty wagons and loaded up pick ax, crow bar, and
shovel.

Frost rimed the fields, but it would burn away as the day
warmed. Jan, Karl, and Søren were dressed warmly for the day’s early start.

“Here.” Elli handed Jan a heavy tin pail.

“
Takk
,” he replied, grinning. Elli and Amalie would
have packed them a hearty lunch, enough to feed them all day.

Karl pointed his oxen toward the river, some five miles
away. Søren drove the second wagon, following Karl. Jan sat back, observing his
sønn’s
driving and offering occasional suggestions.

When they returned at sunset, weary and sunburned, the
wagons groaned under the weight of large stones for the foundation of the barn.
Two days later the men repeated the process and again a few days after that.

For two weeks the men worked on the barn’s foundation and
floor. The weather was increasingly cold until the ground froze, but by then
they had dug the footprint of the barn and laid the stones, cementing them and
smoothing the floor with lime mortar. After planting crops in the spring, they
would host a barn raising.

Now they hunkered down for the winter. In November Amalie
gave birth to a boy. Elli and Abigael helped Amalie with the birth. Karl and
Amalie named the baby Karl after his
pappa
. Almost immediately everyone
called him Little Karl.