Chapter 5
Hannah had no idea what to expect as they rode the horse together
toward her new life. She was frightened and scared of the new life she had
chosen for herself. Never one to make any decision on the spur of the moment she
knew in her heart she had made the right decision and as they rode into the yard
of her new home and she saw the magnificent house made of native stone resting
on the rise she felt at once at peace with her new life.
During the time after he had returned Samuel had spent days working the yards
around the house planting huge flower gardens, trees and putting in fences that
would protect the gardens and flowers from the numerous deer that abounded the
land. His workers were amazed at the detail he put into each new project. Never
had anyone planted flowers and fenced in yards. Time was better spent by men
hunting and working the fields instead of doing the work of women that lived in
the cities. Samuel just laughed off their annoyance at his work. He spent as
much time in the fields and woods as his workers but spent his free time
preparing his home for the woman he knew one day he would find and when he did
he wanted to bring her to a home she would be proud of and would never want to
leave.
After jumping off the horse Samuel reach up and pulled Hannah down into his arms
and carried her through the waist high fence he had placed around the front of
the house and set her down on a walkway made of native stone placed closely
together leading to the front door of the huge one story house.
Standing beside of Hannah, Samuel lifted his left arm and waved it toward the
house.
“Hannah this is your new home and I want you to take it with the intent it was
built for, to provide shelter for my family and comfort for our old age. I have
waited all my life to complete a dream and today I have done that. Our life
shall start on this day and may it last for many years and with many children to
help us through our journey.”
She just stood there speechless at her surroundings. Slowing turning around to
look at where she had come from and then turning back to face the door of the
house she took her first step up the walkway to her home, her home with no one
to take it away. Her home with more than two rooms separated by only an old
blanket she placed over a rope every night to have some privacy from a drunken
father.
“Samuel I have never saw such a house it must be a castle.”
“ No it is just a house I have built to grow old in. Castles are for kings and
queens, you and I are just people who have been fortunate enough to be born in a
country where a common man can rise as far as he likes with hard work. I hold no
thoughts of being famous or better than the next man. I am no better than the
next man who has worked hard to achieve his goals and the land I hold and work
is part of me and will continue on to my children and their children. Now let’s
get you settled in and then I will return and we will take a walk and I will
show you your new home and the people who have made possible.”
She spent the night in the new house alone and Samuel slept in the barn. The
next day they got up early, Samuel hooked up the new surrey he had bought and
never used and they were off to Little Rock to be married and take a long trip
for their honeymoon.
Samuel was not a man who had been with a lot of women and usually avoided places
that had women in them but with Hannah he felt like he had just been united with
the best friend he had never had. He felt comfortable in her presence and that
was what he was looking for in a woman to spend his life with. He could feel the
confidence she had in herself and would never be one to lean on another person
for her security again. Within minutes of taking to the road they were talking
like old friends and flirting with each other as if they had been courting for
years.
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Jaclene Lowe was eighteen years old and the splitting image of her mother in
looks and had the same dogged determination of her father. Standing close to 5
foot and eleven inches she was an imposing figure in any setting and could take
over a room full of people with her personality either with kindness or with
cold hard authority. She was the oldest of the three daughters and the only one
with any responsible notions in her head. Taking care of her younger sisters in
a world of rough men and dangerous surroundings had made her mature beyond her
age. At eighteen she should have been married with at least one or two children
but she had decided long ago it would take a special breed of man to take her
away from the life she loved on the farm with her father and family. Besides she
had two younger sisters that would be married before they were sixteen and that
would give her mother the grandchildren she longed for.
Coming out of the woods at the end of the long drive way leading up to the house
her father had built many years ago she paused and looked around to make sure no
one was watching were she came from. She had kept a secret from her sisters and
family for over three months, which was a miracle as her sisters were into every
bodies business on the farm and knew what was going on throughout the county
much to the distress of their father.
She had kept the secret not for herself but to help her father if what she had
found was turned out to be real. Knowing her father needed money to pay off
debts he had taken on to protect his wife from any distress over her father who
had taken it on himself to gamble away what little money he had been able to
keep from selling his small farm to Samuel many years ago. Jaclene knew her
father had money stashed away in banks in the east but she also knew he would
never use that money for any reason. She had overhead him talking to her mother
about the money saying it had been taken from people that had more rights to it
than he did and he refused to use anymore of it for any reason. He believed he
could make do without it but Jaclene was worried it might be to late for him to
get the money needed to pay off her grandfather’s debts. The people grandpa owed
money too were tired of waiting and they were men who would kill, plunder, rape,
or do anything that was against the laws of man and God.
Thankfully Samuel Lowe had the foresight and the means to hire a tutor for all
the girls as they turned into young women. He had traveled to St. Louis and
hired an older woman from the school system there to return to the country of
east Arkansas when Jaclene turned 12 years old. Her mother had taught the girls
well in basic reading and writing and Jaclene could take care of the farms books
better than her father by the time she was 12 years old. Jaclene had excelled in
reading and her thirst for knowledge forced Thomas to bring back books each time
he went east on business and this continued until she was 17 years old and
Thomas decided it was time she settled down and started looking for a mate.
Little did he know of his daughter’s determination not to get married but to
someday manage the farm.
The knowledge Jaclene had gained from all her reading had caused her pause one
day crossing over a large field freshly plowed the day before.
Rain had fallen all morning and Jaclene tired of being stuck in the house with
her noisy sisters decided to bundle up and take a walk to check the fields that
were plowed the day before. She knew her father would be angry if she went alone
but it was just too much trouble to drag along her sisters and besides they were
being so noisy today she might just be tempted to leave them out in the woods.
Walking out of the woods into the edge of the fresh plowed dirt the smell hit
her as if it was a bottle of the most expensive perfume in the world. She loved
the smell of this land and when it was fresh plowed there was nothing on earth
that could compare to it. The rain was intermittent now and the sun tried to
shine through the scattered rain clouds causing the rocks and old Indian arrows
to shine like new money across the length and breadth of the large field. The
dirt in this area was always her favorite because it was almost black in color
and always soft and easy to plow and work.
She had stepped out of the underbrush of the woods and directly into the field
and reach down to pick up a hand full of the wet dark soil. It was not wet
enough to make a mud ball but would fall from her hand between her fingers.
Holding onto a small handful she brought it to her nose to smell the rich
fertile smell of good soil when she notice there were several small clear
looking stones the size of a kernel of seed corn.
The stones were not shiny but had a dull milky look to them when wet. She saw
there were at least ten of the stones in the one handful she had picked up.
Gently moving the dirt around in her hand she picked out 11 small stones from
the one hand full. These she put in the leather pouch she always carried on her
walks. There was always something to pick up and take back home to study at a
later date or maybe she could find some wild berries or on a wet day there was
always some wild fish to be had from the apple orchards her father had planted
years ago
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