The Land(121)
Rachel Perry’s words moved me into another time and another place
“Now, far’s this other thing ’bout you and her livin’ up here not married, Caroline done said you willin’ t’ marry ’cause that’s what Mitchell wanted. Well, Caroline told me she wasn’t marryin’ nobody jus’ ’cause Mitchell said t’ do it, so don’t you worry ’bout it. One thing I want you to know, though, Paul Logan. I liked Mitchell. He had a way ’bout him. But I figure you t’ be a steady man, and I be proud t’ call you my son, things work out that way. I don’t think my girl could do no better.” Rachel Perry’s eyes met mine, and that was all she said.
The next morning at dawn Sam and Rachel Perry, Hugh, and Callie with her baby got onto their wagon and headed back to Vicksburg. After they left, Caroline, Nathan, and I went back to our daily business of chopping the trees, hacking the branches, and burning the brush. We said few words among us, even though our thoughts were on Mitchell and missing him. That night we sat at the outdoor fire for a spell before turning in, and Caroline said to me, “In all this time I ain’t asked you ’bout the land.”
“Land?”
“The land you was wantin’ from J. T. Hollenbeck. You’d gone off t’ Vicksburg t’ see ’bout gettin’ money for it,” she reminded me.
I nodded. “Seems so long ago now.”
“I know,” Caroline agreed. “Whole lifetime.”
“Well, didja, Paul?” asked Nathan. “Didja get it?’
“I got it.”
“Knowed ya would!” he exclaimed, sounding much like Mitchell.
Caroline smiled. “Mitchell done told me anybody could get it, you could.”
I smiled too. “And he used to tell me he didn’t have any faith.”
“Well, he sure done had faith in you. He told me he give you a paper for his half of the forty t’ use as you seen fit.”
I nodded. “Is that all right with you?”
“I ain’t worried ’bout it.”
“I intend to put the forty up for sale. It’ll help me pay for Hollenbeck’s land, that along with a crop. I’d figured to sell Thunder for the rest of the money.” I glanced across at her and she met my eyes. “I’ll have to figure something else.”
Caroline only nodded. For some time we sat in silence. Then Caroline said, “Mitchell know ’bout you gettin’ Mister Hollenbeck’s land?”
“First thing he asked me.”
“Well, I’m glad.”
“One thing I always intended was for Mitchell to see it—the land, I mean. But seemed like we were always too busy. I regret that. It’s truly something to behold.”
“Well, maybe his baby and me, we can see it for him,” she said.
“I hope that too,” I murmured.
Soon after, the three of us fell into silence, but that was all right. After a bit we all went off to our sleep. We’d gotten through another day without Mitchell, and somehow the next day we went on with another one.
In the days and weeks that followed, I don’t know how I would have made it without Caroline and Nathan. Each day I woke, I thanked the Lord for Caroline’s stubbornness and her determination to stay. Having her still on the forty gave me the will to go on, and having Nathan gave me some of the help I needed. Thing was, though, I figured I’d have to hire on another man to provide at least part of the work Mitchell had done. But I put off doing that. I kept Tom Bee on, and exhausted myself with the kind of hours Mitchell and I had put in when Filmore Granger had demanded more trees. Caroline objected mightily to the amount of work I was doing, but I didn’t heed her words to slow down. I figured I knew better than she what it would take to ensure that all the trees I’d contracted with Filmore Granger to cut would be off this land by the date we’d agreed.
I had since Mitchell’s death thought things through about J. T. Hollenbeck’s land. I had already paid eight hundred and fifty dollars and made the first monthly payment of twenty-five dollars, plus the five-dollar interest charge. If I gave up on buying the land, I wouldn’t be getting any of that back. J. T. Hollenbeck had made that clear. More than losing the money, I didn’t want to lose the land. I loved that land. It touched my soul. I intended to keep on paying the notes. To help pay the final thousand, I had planted more cotton than I had figured to do before, and added to that, I was planning on selling all but one of the mules once the timber was cleared. Maybe, just maybe, if cotton prices were good, and I could get a good price for the mules, I could make up some of my loss.