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Show LEE NELSON'S pany had stopped at what seemed a friendly Indian camp to attempt some trading. When the Missou-rian Missou-rian asked to see a brave's bow and arrows, the Indian refused. The settler persisted until the Indian expressed his annoyance by jabbing jab-bing the man in the ribs with one of the arrows. The settler drew his pistol and shot the Indian dead. Add to that Boggs bragging about ab-out sprinkling poison over the dead mule and you had a group of settlers set-tlers constantly looking over their shoulders for hostile Indians. In fact, several braves had been seen on distant ridges, watching the progress of the wagon train. There was an urgency to get out of this country as quickly as possible, and now the road was blocked. bishop stunned the settlers by telling tell-ing them a large number of Indians were assembling to attack the wagon train. Their worst fears were suddenly reality. The bishop knew about the Indian who had been shot with the revolver. He also knew about the poisoned mule. News traveled fast, even on the frontier. The bishop explained that the balance between peace and war with the Indians in this part of the territory was very delicate, especially espe-cially with the Indians outnumbering outnumber-ing the whites four to one. Allowing Allow-ing settlers, who had already alienated alien-ated the Indians, to enter and enjoy the safety of their town could upset that balance, and the bishop simply could not endanger the lives of the pany. The ugly boisterousness that had existed for weeks, blaming the Mormons for everything that went wrong, suddenly gave way to cold, silent fear. For the first time, the people of the Fancher Company realized they were in deep trouble with nowhere to turn. Some regretted regret-ted the nasty comments they had made about Brigham Young and other church leaders when passing through Mormon settlements: Some had second thoughts about the threats they had made thaf upon arriving in California they would urge Californians to send aother army to Utah from that direction. There was no more talk about Mormon leaders and the order not to sell supplies to settlers. The ing Boggs. When Susannah put her arm around Ruth, she could feel the taut muscles and the trembling tremb-ling deep inside. A touch to the cheek revealed an uplifted face, looking directly at Boggs. At first Susannah thought little Ruth was consumed by fear, but ' As Susannah began to loosen the collar, she wondered won-dered if she had experienced a miracle. Who was .i this little Ruth? How had this child whipped the cruel, strong Dick Boggs? J ; A delegation of five men approached the town in an effort to negotiate safe passage. To their surprise, the Mormon populace was friendlier than at earlier settlements. settle-ments. The bishop, the man in charge, expressed regret that his people could not sell supplies to the settlers. Deseret, as he called the Utah Territory, was at war with the United States. It was therefore forbidden to sell supplies to U.S. citizens, especially since those supplies would be desperately needed by the Mormons when the U.S. Army invaded. As for the closed gates, the people under his care by allowing the settlers to come into the town. The bishop promised the settlers that after they passed he would order a beef killed in an effort to slow the Indians, who were always hungry for a fresh beef. He said the Indians were indeed serious about attacking the settlers, and if the Missourians didn't get out of the country very quickly, they would probably find themselves under attack. He said he regretted' not being able to do more for them. When the five men returned and reported what the bishop had told them, a hush fell over the corn- items of discussion in the camp outside Parowan that night concerned con-cerned the number of Indians following fol-lowing them. How many guns dild they have? When might the Indians attack? How far away was the U.S. Army? Might there be any hope of Mormons helping the settlers fight the savages? Later that evening while cleaning clean-ing up after the evening meal, Susannah noticed the girls gathering gather-ing close about her legs. Someone was coming. The uneven shuffle of a single Continued on next page touching one of the little clenched fist and the set jaw told Susannah that it was defiance, not fear, that consumed the little girl. A defiance spawned by hate, perhaps. If only the girls could speak English. Susannah wondered at what seemed so much defiance in one so little, so young. How could this little lit-tle girl become a slave, especially to a man like Boggs? How would he try to break her spirit? How would she fight back? How long before she would succumb to the submissive submis-sive role demanded by slave girls and women? It wasn't until the Fancher Company Com-pany reached the outskirts of the little town of Parowan that Susannah Susan-nah began to wonder if Boggs or anyone else would ever break Ruth's defiant spirit. It was early afternoon when the wagons halted prematurely because be-cause the gates to the town had been closed to the Fancher wagon train. The main road led through town, and with the road now blocked, block-ed, they would have to break trail around the town. There was a lot of heated discussion discus-sion throughout the company. It had been bad enough having the Mormons refuse to sell them badly needed supplies like dairy products, pro-ducts, produce, honey and, most of all, fresh meat, the hunting being very poor near the Mormon settlements. settle-ments. But now the Mormons were even blocking the road, causing unnecessary delay and hardship. , The mood was ugly. Furthermore, one of the Missouri Mis-souri men in the company had shot an Indian about a week earlier, back near Corn Creek. The com- CHAPTER 15 Susannah Stevenson couldn't understand the strange Indian tongue. ton-gue. Still, she loved the two little girls. According to Dick Boggs, their mother had been killed by Indians In-dians from another tribe, and he had taken them in to save their lives. Boggs said the same Indians who had killed the girls' mother had also killed his mule. He said he had sprinkled the dead animal with poison just in case the hostile Indians Indi-ans returned to skin or eat it. It didn't bother Susannah that the children were black, and according to Boggs, the future breeding stock of the California slave population. She couldn't see them anyway. To her they were two four-year-old girls who had lost their mother and needed mothering from someone else. And Boggs was perfectly willing to let Susannah take in the girls. His only interest in them was keeping keep-ing them alive until they were old enough to become his breeding stock. Until then, Susannah could save him a lot of bother as long as she didn't put any ideas in their heads about not wanting to be slaves. But there was no danger of that now. The little girls could neither understand nor speak English. En-glish. Ever since Susannah had first volunteered to take care of the girls they had followed her about more closely than if they were her own. They chattered back and forth to each other in their strange Indian language. At first they seemed very unhappy, unhap-py, certainly the result of being uprooted up-rooted from their family and experiencing ex-periencing the death of their mother. When they cried, they usually did it together, Susannah holding them close in her arms. If there was anything they really liked, it was being held by Susannah. If there was anything they didn't like, it was Dick Boggs. At first Susannah thought the terror she felt in their little bodies when Boggs came around was a result of the rough treatment they had received re-ceived at his hands before she began be-gan caring for them. When he had brought them to Susannah, ragged and dirty, they had had leather collars col-lars around their necks. Boggs had used the collars to tie them up at night or when he was away from the wagon. He had tethered them, like dogs. As time passed and the children's chil-dren's terror of Boggs did not diminish, Susannah began to think that perhaps Boggs had lied, or at least not told the entire story about where the girls had come from and how their mother had died. Perhaps Boggs was at least partly responsible. That would explain the terror the girls had of him. Susannah had a lot of questions about the girls. Why were they black? Who was their father? If they belonged to an Indian tribe, shouldn't they be returned to that tribe? Perhaps they had relatives . who would want to raise them. Wasn't Boggs breaking the law by taking the girls out of the territory? After all, Deseret or Utah was not a slave territory. What was better for the girls growing up as slaves to white people, or living among the savages? Why did none of the other people in the company seem concerned con-cerned about Boggs taking the girls? Perhaps the fact that every one in the company was from Missouri Mis-souri or Arkansas, both slave states, had something to do with it. Both girls had strong negro features. fea-tures. Susannah mourned her blindness. blind-ness. It inhibited her ability to find answers. If only she could see the girls, watch them, seek out other people to talk to, go into nearby towns by herself or talk to strangers. stran-gers. Being blind made it difficult just to stay beside her own wagon. If only she could see. Things would be different. Still, Susannah wanted to care for the girls. Having them around helped her forget the bitterness and emptiness she felt at not having children of her own. They filled a need, and she loved them. She really real-ly did. And the children responded. They trusted this beautiful white woman who couldn't see. Not only did she make sure they were washed, fed and kept warm but she tried to comfort them when they cried, and most of all, she held them close when the man with the wooden leg came around, the man who had killed their mother. The girls responded to Susannah's Susan-nah's love, helping where they could, gathering firewood, watching watch-ing the grazing oxen, helping tend the fire, cleaning up after supper, rolling out the night's bedding. Susannah's husband, Seth, didn't object to having the girls around. He welcomed the dollar a week Boggs paid Susannah for taking tak-ing care of them. Susannah was a beautiful woman, and Seth savored the comments com-ments of envy and appreciation from other men in the company. Still, being married to a blind woman while crossing a vast wilderness wil-derness was a chore. There were so many things she could not do. The dollar a week from Boggs compensated, compen-sated, at least in part, for some of those things. CHAPTER 16 Susannah named the little girls Ruth and Lucy. At first she couldn't tell them apart, except for the marks on their necks where Boggs' leather collars had been. Ruth's neck had more bruises and scabs. Susannah, of course, couldn't see the bruises, but she could feel the scabs. Ruth had fought the collar with a lot more intensity than Lucy had. Gradually Susannah began to notice other differences. Lucy was more affectionate, seemed to crave being held. Lucy talked more too. She even seemed more helpful when it came to fetching items to help prepare supper. Ruth helped too, but not as eagerly. Her mind was often elsewhere, thinking of other things. Susannah longed to talk with the girls. Even though they were learning learn-ing words like "food," "horse," "wagon" and "gun," it would be some time before they would know enough English to carry on the kind of conversations Susannah longed for. But the big difference between the two girls was the way they behaved be-haved when Dick Boggs came around. While Lucy scrambled into Susannah's lap, hiding her face against Susannah's breast, Ruth would stand at her side, fac- shoot her? Susannah had never seen Boggs back down to anyone, not men with guns, not painted Indians. In-dians. How could this child be so foolish? Ruth remained still. Boggs was silent for what seemed a long time. Susannah's ears told her that neither neith-er Boggs nor the girl had moved since the beginning of the confrontation. confron-tation. She assumed both were looking into each other's eyes. Boggs was the first to speak and he spoke to Susannah, not Ruth. "I'll tell Luke about your offer. If he wants the little hellcat, he can come and fetch her hisself." He let go of Lucy, turned and shuffled away. Lucy flew into Susannah's arms. As Susannah began to loosen the collar, she wondered if she had experienced ex-perienced a miracle. Who was this little Ruth? How had this child whipped the cruel, strong Dick Boggs? Continued from previous page boot across the rocky soil told her the approaching person was Dick Boggs. Unusual. He had paid her the weekly tending fee just the day before. He couldn't be coming by for that. "Going to take one of the girls," said Boggs without any preliminary prelimin-ary conversation. "No," responded Susannah. "You can't do that. They have lost their mother. They need each other." "Too bad," said Boggs coldly. "But I sold one of them to Luke Jenkins. Got to make delivery." Susannah knew Luke Jenkins, another of the Missouri Wildcats, a large filthy man with a foul mouth. He didn't have a wife to help care for a little girl. Susannah noticed the girls clinging cling-ing closer, especially Lucy, as if they sensed what Boggs was up to. What she didn't see was the leash and collar in Boggs' hand. But the little girls saw it and knew what it was. Without understanding English, En-glish, they knew why Boggs had come. "I have come to take my property proper-ty half, that is," said Boggs calmly, calm-ly, reaching out and grabbing Lucy by the arm. She began to cry as Boggs pulled her towards him, She was still holding onto Susannah's outstretched hands as Boggs began to fasten the collar. "Please, Mr. Boggs," pleaded Susannah, "tell Luke I'll take care of the child for him." "Naw, he wants the girl delivered, deli-vered, and that I aim to do." "No!" screamed Ruth, surprising surpris-ing Susannah, Boggs, and even Lucy. "No!" she screamed a second time. Susannah reached out to touch Ruth, who was standing a little to the side and forward a foot or so. The shoulder was taut, the little muscles much harder than one would expect in a child so small. The child did not respond to the touch. Perhaps she didn't notice it. It was as if she felt no need for the protection of an adult, not even in confronting a strong and cruel man like Dick Boggs. "No! she scramed a third time. "She s mine and I'm going to take her," said Boggs, his voice less gruff than before. , "No!" screamed Ruth, louder than before. But it wasn't the volume of the voice that sent the chills up and down Susannah's spine. There was an intensity in the voice, a force that was more than loudness. Had the girl been whispering, whis-pering, Susannah felt the effect would have been the same. The . voice was more than a voice, more like an arm, or an extension of an unseen power, a power that could not be ignored, denied or swept aside. Susannah wondered what effect this strange child was having on the hardened Dick Boggs. How would he respond to a challenge from a helpless child? Would he strike her? Would he draw his pistol and |