CHAPTER EIGHT
MRS. JAB, THE MOTHER

It was lucky for us this time that Fort Davis afforded enough houses for this group from Camp Cooper, and in a short time we were settled in our respective homes and the horrors of the Indian attack were soon forgotten.

Pa and Ruth lingered with us for a few days, then told us they were on their way to Fort Worth to make a new home. It was about five months later that Joe suggested we pay them a visit. I was so thankful that he suggested this, for I needed to visit with my Ruth. I knew it would be about four months until my baby was due, and I needed advice and comfort from my very good friend. You know, I wouldn't have dreamed of saying anything to my men folks. Gracious, no! Bother them with such trifles! Besides, it would embarrassed them to death.

It was nice, though, to be the center of attention on this visit. Of course Pa and the boys would never have mentioned that they knew I was pregnant, but they were just more attentive, and did little things to please me. I was mighty glad, though, that I had Ruth as a solid rock to lean on. I told her so.

"Honestly, Ruthie! You must be one woman in a thousand. Here I've had my wits scared out of me by all the talk the women give me at the first, and now you come along and make havin' a baby as easy as walking down the road."

We visited for a month; then Joe announced that it was time to go home, as Marion was probably worked down taking care of two bunches of cattle. When I started to get into the wagon, to my horror and disgust I burst out crying. "Oh, please excuse me! I'm such a little fool. I didn't mean to cry."

Joe came over and put his arm around me. "You're just nervous, Honey. I know I am, myself, a little. Don't you think it would be nice for Pa and Ruth to go home with us for a visit?" I looked over at Pa to find him gazing far out in the fields. He was having no part of this discussion. Ruth winked at Joe and went in to start packing. Pa went to the corral to hitch up his team, when we're in our wagon, Joe started chuckling to himself, and then he let forth with, "That Ruth! She sure knows your Pa!"

On our way home we stopped at Weatherford, where I bought the necessary things for our new baby. There was white Canton flannel to make shirts and gowns, red flannel for petticoats, and calico for dresses especially calico with tiny blue dots in it.

As soon as we were home, Ruth and I spent every sparing minute knitting woolen shawls and stockings. When my time was at hand, Joe went after the best midwife at the fort, who charged us thirty dollars in wool. She delivered a little baby girl who was named Diane.

I would have been up on the third day, but Ruth demanded that I stay in bed a whole week. Naturally, all the Camp flocked in to see this new baby. They thought she was the prettiest baby around, but one elderly grandmother had to take us down a notch or two when she peered at little Diane and commented, "She looks normal to me--maybe a mite to little, but I guess you warn't so big yourself, were you, Angie?"

Since there were several women around, this old blatherskite felt she had to deep the center of the state. "One's nice, Honey, and you'd love a dozen, but women oughter not have to bear them all. I guess you-all have heard the story my Ma said her Ma told her. She said if men had to bear half the young'uns in the world, there'd be just three in every family. The man, te be perlite, would allow woman to have the first one; then he'd have the second; then it would be the woman's turn again, and that would settle it. No man on earth would go through such a thing twice."

Old granny laughed the loudest at her story, and the rest of the women laughed politely at this old saw which most of them had heard a hundred times. I grinned with the rest, but I was really thinking, "Crazy old goose! Makin' so much to-do about havin' babies. Why, babies are nice....actually the nicest creatures in the world!"

When Diane was nine months old, Joe and Pa decided that Indians had quieted down enough for them to try their luck in Miller valley which lay west of Fort Griffin.

I wasn't paying too much attention to their plans these days for I had some news of my own that I could only share with Ruth.

"Ruthie, I'm in a family way again."

"Well, Angie, you can have your family close together, and then the young'us will be up and out of the way in a little while."

"Oh, Ruthie! I'd have no more back bone than a rope if you didn't give me courage. What'll I ever do without you!"

"Well, I'm right here, Honey. Now, let's get ourselves moved and settled so you can rest a lot before this next baby is due."

About the time my second baby was due, Joe received word that his mother and stepfather, Mr. Stegall, had moved into Cooke County, Texas. This was the first time I saw Joe really restless, and he talked constantly about his boyhood days. One day I asked just as innocently as I could, "How far is Cooke County from here, Joe?"

"About a hundred and fifty miles, straight through."

"How long would it take you to ride that?"

"Silver could make it in sixteen hours, I reckon."

"Pa and Ruth are coming over tomorrow; why don't you go see your mother?"

Joe's green eyes said plain enough, "I love you for that," but a minute later he remarked, "Suppose you have my boy before I get back?"

"Gracious sakes! I don't expect you to be gone all winter! You better get started right away and you do hurry back. I keep thinking how anxious your Ma must be to see you after all these years."

Don't you think, sometimes, all women enjoy being martyrs? I was certainly feeling noble until I saw Joe ride out of sight; then I could have bawled my eyes out, but I wasn't going to let Ruth and Pa see any red eyes on me, and what's more, when they came, I made it very plain that I had forced Joe to go see his mother, and he would be back in less than a week.

I remember Ruth's impish grin when she said, "That's fine, Angie. You're going to have company for a week. How do you like that?"

When Joe returned home, he brought his seventeen year old brother, Jim Browning, with him. Jim told me later that Joe talked about his Angie all the way home. He vowed his wife was the prettiest gal in west Texas, and all that stuff and nonsense. Just think how Jim felt when he saw me the first time, heavy with child and weary of waiting. But I looked at this tall, rawboned farmer boy and thought he was no bargain himself. His pants were much too short and were held up by one suspender. He did have a nice smile, though.

I wasn't permitted to peer into the future and know that the time would come when I would be so very proud of this country hick who lived with us for seven years.

Jim Browning became one of the fine lawyers of Texas, a member of the state legislature, Judge of Forty-seventh Judicial District, a Regent of the state university, and Lieutenant Governor for two terms.

Just at this moment, though, he was trying to cover his embarrassment at meeting all these strangers, while I was gritting my teeth and trying to look pleasant, fully aware that the first pains has started.

When the second girl was born, our little Della, I felt a little put out. After all, I had asked for a boy, and if you went to all this trouble to have them, seemed to me you out to get your choice. To Joe's undying credit, he never showed the least disappointment, and Ruth and I could have hugged him for that. Little Della was one of his favorites all the days of her father's life.