Page 32 of All She Left Behind


  Yes, Sarelia was the verbal one; Emma her quietest child at seven. Albro, middle son, was her husbandry child, tending the sheep and cattle. He followed after his father as a dreamer. Octavius would want to go. Would Clark? Already fifteen, he was her studious boy, thoughtful, often engaging in philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and God’s relationship to man as he worked in the family boot-making shop. And then Virgilia, her firstborn, seventeen, who was her helpmate. In ways, Virgilia was more like a younger sister than a daughter. She’d hate to lose the girl’s baking, cleaning, and child-tending skills when the right young man took her fancy. But wasn’t that what life was about, raising children to give them confidence to make their own lives, separate from their parents, letting them fly off into the future, giving them courage to face the inevitable losses? What if some wanted to go to Oregon and some stay? Break up her family? She stopped mid-kneading. The crust would be tough if she didn’t calm down.

  Virgil had come in from the fields, followed by his son. Was that a twinkle in his eye?

  “Orus is back,” Virgil said.

  “You already knew?”

  “He stopped in the field after seeing Mrs. Brown. He looks fit. Slimmer but strong.” Her six living children moved around the log home as though in a dance, each knowing the steps that kept them from bumping into each other. That dance was all Pherne had ever hoped for as a young girl, to find the kind of love her parents had had, live a comfortable life surrounded by the things that brought her pleasure. Fine furniture. Jewelry. Books. And family, of course. She’d raise her children to be faithful and be kind to each other and their neighbors. Virgil had been the perfect choice. But now, disruption promised to raise its little head in the form of Orus Brown.

  Virgil led the prayer after they’d swarmed around the breakfast table, and together they all said, “Amen.” Pherne stood up to bring coffee to her husband. She turned and surveyed the scene. All she loved sat around that mahogany table, high-back chairs with carved harp-back design and arms (to help her mother push up out of the chair when she ate with them). Virgil had spared no expense to bring those luxury items on board ship to their Missouri home. What more could she ask for? She hoped they’d stay here forever.

  Her eye caught her husband’s as he passed the platter of biscuits. He winked at Pherne. She felt her face grow warm. She was pleased that Virgil had resisted Orus’s pressure to go west with him to explore two years previous. She needed to tell Virgil that and not let him ever wonder who she saw to be the head of her family: It was her husband and not her brother. Nor her mother, either. She meant to keep it that way.

  Bibliography

  Apothecary Society. Little Lookbook. Utah: Young Living, 2015.

  Cornell, Virginia. Doc Suzie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies. California: Carpinteria Publications, 1991.

  Fuller, Tom, Christy Van Heukelem, and the Mission Mill Museum. Images of America: Salem. South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2009.

  Gladstar, Rosemary. Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide. Massachusetts: Storey Publishing, 2012.

  Harris, Sharon M. Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832–1919. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

  Kirschmann, Anne Taylor. A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

  Larsell, O. The Doctor in Oregon. Portland, OR: Binford & Mort for Oregon Historical Society, 1947.

  Lockie, Andrew, and Nicola Geddes. Homeopathy: The Principles & Practices of Treatment. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1995.

  Okrent, Daniel. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2010.

  Tilford, Gregory L. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West. Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1997.

  Also by Jane Kirkpatrick

  This Road We Traveled

  The Memory Weaver

  A Light in the Wilderness

  One Glorious Ambition

  The Daughter’s Walk

  Where Lilacs Still Bloom

  A Mending at the Edge

  A Tendering in the Storm

  A Clearing in the Wild

  Barcelona Calling

  An Absence So Great

  A Flickering Light

  A Land of Sheltered Promise

  Hold Tight the Thread

  Every Fixed Star

  A Name of Her Own

  What Once We Loved

  No Eye Can See

  All Together in One Place

  Mystic Sweet Communion

  A Gathering of Finches

  Love to Water My Soul

  A Sweetness to the Soul

  NOVELLAS

  Sincerely Yours

  Log Cabin Christmas

  American Dream

  Midwife’s Legacy

  NONFICTION

  Promises of Hope for Difficult Times

  Aurora: An American Experience in Quilt, Community, and Craft

  A Simple Gift of Comfort

  Homestead

  Jane Kirkpatrick is the New York Times and CBA bestselling author of more than thirty books, including A Sweetness to the Soul, which won the prestigious Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Center. Her works have been finalists for the Christy Award, Spur Award, Oregon Book Award, and Reader’s Choice awards, and have won the WILLA Literary Award, USABestBooks Award, and Carol Award for Historical Fiction. Many of her titles have been Book of the Month and Literary Guild selections, with more than 1.5 million books in print. You may read her work in more than fifty publications, including Decision, Private Pilot, and Daily Guideposts. Jane lives in Central Oregon with her husband, Jerry. Learn more at www.jkbooks.com and sign up for her newsletter Story Sparks.

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  Jane Kirkpatrick, All She Left Behind

 


 

 
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