Part seventeen.......see Mama smiling ? Marsha thought she might be dreaming. She could hear Seth talking but when she opened her eyes it was still dark in the shanty. Maby Mr. Freeman had returned or maby Mr. Forrest had walked over but she could only hear Seth. He was saying things like how are you doing? And where did you come from? Let me have a look at that was the one that got her up and moving. When Marsha went through the door there not ten feet from the shanty door stood a dark brown horse ! What in the world Seth Seth said I dont know Marsha I thought I heard a kinda strange noise and when I came outside here it stood See how his hobble has broken I have no idea where he came from or who he might belong to but he is at ease around people and I recon hes been eating marsh grass. Come here and rub his neck and ill get him some water. Marsha had wanted a horse since she and Seth had started clearing land and one walks up to them in the middle of the night. When Seth returned from the well the horse took a couple of steps toward the bucket of fresh water. Mama we need to hobble him at the edge of the marsh where he will be able to eat and ill set a full bucket of fresh water at his feet. He belongs to somebody and Im sure whoever it is will be looking for him , I would. Mama said Im sure you are right Seth , I know they cost a bunch of coins and if I owned him I would sure be looking. The boys came out of the shanty one behind the other , rubbing their eyes and walking around to the back of the shanty. Andy was the first to say a horse, I didnt even know we had a horse I love horses whats his name Ms. Marsha? Seth said we dont have a horse Andy, I woke up this morning and he was standing here thats all , we are going to hobble him on the edge of the marsh and when his owner comes looking his horse will be here waiting for him! Andy said well since hes here and since hes going to be drinking our water and eating our grass and since you already said everybody works couldnt he earn his way by dragging a few logs over to your pit thing over there? Didnt I just say we are gonna hobble him at the edge of the marsh grass? Seth asked. James punched Andy . Andy said I just thought everybody worked Marsha spoke up whos hungry? Andy spoke right up Im hungry , ill get some wood James said Ill help him. Andy , you better give daddy a chance to get used to you and once he says something dont say nothing to him , thats for Mama to do. Dad just might put hobbles on you Mr. Forrest walked up with the oldest of his daughters. Morning Mr. Ward , Mrs. Ward I see you took a beating like we did , shucks maby worse? I was hoping the boatyard had made it through the storm , Im needing some lumber for repairs. We lost our roof and a few boards off of the north side of the house. Must have been a bad time here close to the shore. Nobody hurt I hope? Oh no sir , we was mighty lucky. We rode it out at the Freeman place , real nice folks Seth said. They took us in like family ,like I said real nice folks Mr. Forrest asked Did yall here about the ship rolling over at the mouth of the York River? I.heard in Williamsburg yesterday that she had over one hundred slaves on board and all kinds of cargo from in the islands including some stock animals. Mr. Ward if you are planning to rebuild the yard I am gonna be needing some lumber , I would rather wait a few days to get it from you instead of ordering what I need from Williamsburg , that bunch will take advantage of a man then charge half again what the worth of the work might be!Seth said Im gonna be needing work once I get my pit going again. I was wondering if you had any trees down that are gonna need moving? Yes sir I do , between fifteen and twenty as best as I can figure , maby more! Seth said I will let you know when I get my pit going , ill try to give you a price on clearing your fields. Are you going to try to get a winter crop in this year , cabbage or collards maby ? Oh no I dont think so Seth , winter is coming an I need to get ready for that if I can , the wifes parents want us to winter with them and we might but not before I give my best to fixing up my place.Oh I understand , Seth said Marshas family, like mine are back in England but if they were here you can bet they would want their girl and their grandchildren staying with them.Mr Forrest said Not if I can help it , the good Lord might not let me repair my place in time , but just watch me try !Mr. Forrest wished the Ward family good luck and was a sure to say that if there was anything that he had that was needed just let him know and he would get it there ! The boys talked as they were having their breakfast. You dont know how lucky you are Andy James said daddy dosent tolerate smart talk from mostly nobody , especially a kid he just had shoved down his throat ,he would have took a switch to me or William, but I recon he knew you didnt know no better! But he said , everybody works and Ive seen the work a horse can do ! It could be a big help around here, pulling logs or pulling plows. I seen them work on the big plantations back home. Them men puts two horses side by side and they can do more work in a day than two men can do in a moons time ! I seen it I did ! William said Andy you gotta wait till daddy is in a good mood, just wait a few days so we see if somebody comes looking for the horse. Maby if nobody comes looking then we might put it to work if daddy says so.Eather way think about what you are gonna say before you say it , you dont want daddy walking your behind with a switch! Before we could get started working the two men that used to work the saw pit came walking out of the woods. Daddy got a smile on his face threw up his right arm and said good morning. Dad had been waiting no hopeing they would show up. They had told him they knew men that needed work when the fishing slowed down. Daddy had a plan but he was going to need men that were willing to do hard work for a fair wage. Working timber was hard and daddy had a lot of timber in his head. He asked his workers if they were ok after the storm , were their familys safe and did they need a advance on their wages to get them through? Seth told them he could help but he needed them to tell him what they needed and he needed at least six men who needed and were ready to work ! Both men told Seth they would be back in two days and they would ask around for six new workers. Seth was floating on a cloud. His workers were back and more help was coming. Marsha we are on our way back bigger and better. The boys were limbing the trees along the shore,I dont know whats happened but see mama smiling ,William said ? Yea,well we will see James said. Nearly a week passed before dads old workers and the six new workers were at the yard daily. Seth sailed to Yorktown with Billy only to find that Yorktown had been hit as hard as the boatyard.The shipping agent that was still there told Seth that he would ride his horse to Hampton to sumit his order for tools, he couldnt say if the tools might be in New York or if they might need to come from England ? The agent told Seth that he would get the order delivered to Poquoson upon arrival at Olde Hampton. Seth payed in advance and finally found some hard candy for Marsha and the kids. On the sail back from Yorktown Seth told Billy his plan.First he wanted a second saw pit jig. He planned to limb as many logs as he could get. He was going to find two workers he could trust to clear fields..This just might be his old workers after they had trained four men to work the saw pits. The three boys could stack the finished boards till the buyers came to get them. In the meantime her could be working with Marsha laying out and building what they could on the new house. Seth didnt know it yet but Marsha wanted a office/ store building added to the end of the new house. She would tell Seth that there had to be a office with so many new workers. Seth didnt know it yet but Marshas horse was going to need a house to live in to.......................
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 02:19:51 +0000
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