CHAPTER FOUR
SO THIS IS TEXAS

We had no time to decide whether we liked this new country or not. We didn't have to be told that winter was hovering around the corner, and a shelter had to be built. Marion Pulled out his sharp axe and felled the first tree; Then he looked up to see a one-armed man walking up the creek.

"Halloo! Halloo! Are your neighbors come to stay?" We turned to smile at each other and wave at the stranger. This was a fine welcome to this new west.

Tom Blake had heard that axe chopping a good mile away, and he wasn't one to sit at home when his help was needed. He pitched right in, and that crude cabin was up in no time at all. Then the men went a quarter of a mile away and put up another cabin for Marion and Geriah. I heard Pa Tell Ruth that was a pack of foolishness, but Ruth insisted and Pa was too busy to argue, I think.

This was the first time in my life that I could remember Pa fretting because he was running short of cold cash. He and Marion were talking about this lack when Pa looked up at the huge pecan tree to the right of our cabin. That was the way out. Fort Bellnap, just twenty miles away could like as not use two-foot boards.

The next thing we knew we had saddled a horse, ridden to Fort and gotten a contract. When he got home, he put all of us to work in earnest. First of all, it was necessary to start cutting from the butt of this giant tree if the crosscut saw was to remain unbroken. It took Pa and Marion one full day to fell the tree; then Preston and I and that good one-armed neighbor, Mr. Blake, were told we were to work that saw. Pres and I stood high platform and worked one side of the saw handle, while Mr. Blake made good use of his one arm on the other side of that saw handle. Let 'em tell you, your arms would get tired, but Pres knew when I was giving out and would yell for rest.

The men calculated that the first four cuts averaged a thousand boards a cut: then dwindled to eighteen cuts for the remaining eleven feet of the tree.

While we were sawing away, Pa and Marion were working feverishly with frow, drawknife and jack-plane to make good looking lumber' then they were at it again, riving and stacking boards. When they had a wagon-load Pa hurried to the Fort to fulfill his contract for a thousand boards for fifteen whole dollars.

Melvin and Warwick, in the meantime, had gathered four bushels of pecans from the great tree. Pa bragged to them about their part when he showed them the money they had brought to this household. Can you beat it. Four bushels at four dollars a bushel. The boys had no trouble with their multiplication tables here!

Pa and Marion were busy for days making odd pieces of furniture from the pecan scraps, and then just to be sure there was no waste, the little boys and I piled limbs and brush on the big stump and had a big fire. Ruth said no nicer piles of ashes could be found. She and Geriah ran lye by the buckets-ful, then mixed that with antelope fat and had a year's supply of soap.

Before we knew it, that was the first hard winter was over and things looked much brighter for this McCarty family. It was time for spring planting, and already the horses were getting slick fat on the new grass. We were all in good health and waiting around for Ruth and Geriah to have their new babies. Wouldn't you know they would both have big bouncing boys. Marion and Geriah named their new son James, which didn't surprise me, for I knew how much Marion thought of his younger brother, James. Ruth and Pa settled on William for their baby's name, and of course, he never knew any other name but "Bill."

The first thing we knew there was a new family settled one mile to the north of us and another to the west. You may know we made them all welcome, and Pa and they boys helped them build cabins and put in their crops. Ruth and Geriah put forth every effort to do neighborly acts for the new women. That's the way people were in those days. We really depended on each other.

About this time Ruth remarked to me one day, "I'm glad to see that strained expression leave your Pa's face." I was very pleased to hear him laugh and tell jokes again. I think the things that surprised me most was that he took to playing with Bill every time he came around the house. I know that made our Riyadh very happy.

Seems to me, when everything in our lives seemed to be on the "ups', we should have remembered that plenty of "downs" were just around the corner.

We had no way of knowing, though, until many days afterwards that over in Indian territory the Apaches, Kiowas, Tonkawas, and Lapans saw their Comanche brothers preparing for an extensive raid on some whites. All the tribes watched with much interest as white men's horses became more and more numerous. Comanches could start the raids, but Comanches must not get all the new horses.

One beautiful spring night we, the McCarty's of Hubbard's Creek, got the rudest awakening of our lives. I sat up in my bed and yelled at the top of my lungs, "Ruthie, Pa! What is that?" Surely all the horses in the county were running around our cabin. When Pa Grabbed his gun and ran to the door, a wild, weird yell greeted him; then we heard pounding of horses feet moving away fast--then just complete silence.

Pa and Preston stood just outside the door peering into darkness. Then I heard Pres's trembling voice ask, "Pa, was... that Injuns?"

There was no need for Pa to answer. He and Pres came in quickly and barred the door. Ruth, the boys and I hovered around them; I tell you, we knew real fear! We talked excitedly, nervously until Pa cautioned us, "Hush! They may come back, and we've got to be ready for 'em. You young'uns get back to bed. Ruth, you and Pres, take the guns for that side of the cabin. I'll stay at this door! Angie, you see that the boys are quiet! Not a word, yo' hear me!"

Daylight came at last, and the unfriendly visitors did not return. Pa ventured out of the house very captiously the minute the sun was up. From all directions he could hear his neighbors yelling at him. Evidently all of us had been cursed with the same callers.

Tom Blake was running towards Pa cursing at every breath, "Them devils took my work team!" Pa whirled and ran in the opposite direction. We knew his heart was in his throat. But there in the corral, hidden by the trees, Lady Jane and Polly Hopkins waited for their breakfast. Pa looked over a small pasture in back of the house, and he had reason to feel sick. Two of his best Steeldust horses were missing. He rushed to the house and yelled at Pres, "Get a move on you! Ride out away and see if there are any more horses gone. I headed them south last night, I sure hope they drifted that way!"

The neighbors gathered at our house very soon, and each man reported he had lost two horses. This was a profitable raid for the Comanches. One of the older settlers remarked sadly, "They've found us now, and if we stay, they'll not leave a single horse."

Pa was plainly shocked. "You mean you'd leave your crops and your new homes to these devils!"

I mean we ain't got a chance, McCarty. From the tracks around here, I'd say there was over fifty Indians here last night. We've got to get near a fort before we are all scalped. If these are Comanches, we're done for. They'll be back and back until there's nothing left to show of us but our scalps hangin' from their belts.

Pa looked at all the men around him. These men had fought Indians for years; I they knew what they were talking about. He turned to Ruth and me and said, "Pack up! Let's go by and get Marion and Geriah. We're leavin' for Fort Bellnap!"

By nightfall the settlement on Hubbard's creek was no more.