Afterwards, Leroy led her back to her disheveled bed. He returned to the kitchen to find a piece of stale bread which he used to sop up what was left of the egg and downed it quickly with a glass of warm milk. His older brother Samuel had already been up that morning to milk Smiley. Samuel stomped up the back steps, trying to shake the mud from his boots before entering the house.
Samuel already had the bearing of a young man. He was tall for his age and looked older than his 12 years, and he carried himself with assurance and authority. He resembled his deceased dad with brown hair and brown eyes. He had been delegated man of the house, and he took that assignment seriously, although he had learned that barking orders did not work well with Leroy or their sister Mary Jane. He found asking instead of telling worked best. He too was as skinny as a rail as food was not in abundant supply.
Samuel asked, “How’s Maw this mornin’?”
“No better,” Leroy responded. “I’m gonna ride Molly to Doc Browning’s and see if he can take a look at her.”
Just then, their older sister Mary Jane came in the front door. “Did I hear you say Maw’s no better?”
Mary Jane was the oldest of the three having recently turned 14. She and Samuel favored in their facial features, but she had a sunnier disposition. She had curly hair that she struggled to keep in place and a wide grin that would break loose when she thought of something humorous. She had determined the war was not going to get her down. She wanted to mother her brothers, but they, of course, would have none of that. She wore a tattered dress passed down from her maw, which she had tried to alter, taking in the hem and the cuffs, but her sewing skills were somewhat lacking.
“Right. I tried to git her to eat an egg this mornin’. I had to feed her myself. I knowed she woulda done better fur you if only you’d been here,” griped Leroy.
“I doubt that. Anyways, I had to stay all night at the Millers helpin’ take care of their sick younguns. They all had the croup. By God’s grace, the baby’s fever finally broke around six this mornin’. What a relief! I thank they’re gonna pull through, but I’m exhausted. I’ll check on Maw, and then I’m gonna git some rest. Are you goin’ for Doc Browning?”
“I’m on my way.” Leroy quickly ran to the barn, saddled Molly, all the while speaking softly to her, and minutes later headed down the dirt road toward Doc Browning’s house. He found him at his home coming out the front door heading for his horse and buggy. “Doc, could you take some time today to look in on Maw? She’s in an awful state, and we don’t know what to do. Seems like every day she gits a bit worse.”
Doctor Browning looked sympathetically toward him, and quickly said, “I’ll try to stop by later today. I’m on my way to help Sally Simpson give birth to her first baby, so it may be some time.”
Leroy marveled at this news. The beautiful brown-eyed Sally, with deep dimples and red ringlets that framed her pretty face, was only 16, and she was already going to be a mother. Before the war, his brother John had been sweet on Sally although they did no more than look at each other with googly eyes. Once John had chased her across the school yard and grabbed her around the waist, but that was as close as he ever got. Leroy felt happy for her, even if he didn’t like her husband Walt, whom he deemed a stinkin’ yellow-belly because he refused to join the Tennessee Rebels. His own brothers, William, James and John eagerly joined the Rebs, but after the surrender at Appomattox, where were they? He had heard they had all survived, which he considered a miracle, and he hoped they’d be coming home soon.
Leroy slowly guided Molly toward home and tried to think of something they could do to help their maw and something more they could do to put food on the table. Fortunately, Smiley was still producing a generous supply of milk, and Mary Jane was churning butter to sell. Maybe they could figure out a way to make cheese. Molly was a good work mule. If they could get some seed, maybe they could plant a crop in the spring and get back on their feet. There was a small vegetable garden on the side yard, but rabbits kept helping themselves, and the drought had also taken a toll, but mostly it was just the raping of the earth by all the soldiers marching through their land that had brought devastation. Of course, the worst was General Sherman and his rotten crew.
When he turned in toward the path leading to their house that was now in great need of a white wash and repairs to the front wrap-around porch, he was startled to see a man in a tattered, dingy gray uniform tethering his horse out front. As he came closer, the man called out, “Leroy, you little whipstart, am I glad to see you!”
Leroy recognized the voice, slipped off Molly, ran the last few yards and jumped into the arms of his brother John. “Johnny, I hardly knew who you were!”
“Hey, I guess the war has left its mark on me, but I have all my limbs; that’s more than I can say fur so many others. Kid, I woulda knowed you anywheres, the way you cock yore head when yore ridin’ that silly mule. But look at you, why yore a foot taller fur shore. How old are you now?”
“I’m 10 this past month, and I was hopin’ General Lee would keep fightin’ so I could join up with you, James and Willy, but the war ended afore I could.”
“And that’s a good thang, kid. You would not want to see and do what I saw and did. I thank the Good Lord that I’m alive. I was wounded at Shiloh, but they patched me up and sent me back out to fight. Believe me, it was no picnic.”
“Did you kill any of them rottenYankees?”
“Indeedy, I did. I notched my musket three times and probably could’ve scratched a couple more, but I warn’t shore, and I didn’t want to brag without certainty. But I had enough of killin’.” John paused and looked down as the memories of the horrific sights of the war were still fresh in his mind. “I tell you after a while it was pure drudgery, and all I wanted was to come home, hug Maw and sit down for one of her home-cooked meals and maybe steal a kiss from sweet Sally.”
At the mention of Sally, Leroy remembered the news Doc Browning had shared. “Johnny, Sally married that detestable Walt Simpson, and she’s in the throes of labor right now givin’ birth to their first youngun, so I doubt you’ll be gittin’ any kisses from her. And, Johnny, Maw’s not well. She’s taken to her bed, and I hate to tell you, but we have precious little food. Thangs are truly dire.”
John frowned and looked toward the front door. He immediately bounded up the steps with Leroy right behind as John began calling, “Maw, Maw, I’m home; I’m home.”
There was a moan from the front bedroom, and John ran in. “Maw, Maw, it’s me, John.” He gathered her in his arms and carried her to the front room and laid her on the faded red velvet settee. She managed a faint smile, and with her withered hand reached out to touch his bearded cheek. Samuel and Mary Jane came running in to greet their older brother.
After some tears and hugs, John spoke with disdain, “How come you didn’t take better care of her? You knowed she was delicate. You knowed she couldn’t fend for herself after Paw died. That was yore job, the three of you, just take care of Maw. How hard could that be? Huh, answer me. How hard could that be?”
Samuel was the first to speak. “We tried, Johnny; truly we did. She was holdin’ up until this past May when she started downhill. Hidin’ out in the woods when the Yanks came through shore didn’t help her none. We did all we knew to do, and Doc Browning has been checkin’ on her, but it seems lately we can hardly git her to eat or sit up for more than a minute or two. We’re runnin’ outta food, and she’s as thin as a stick. Johnny, I’m so glad yore here. Maybe you can help her. We don’t know what to do.”
John bit his lip and assessed the situation wondering what in tarnation he could do. The farm was a wreck; the house was mostly