WESTERN WOMAN COPYRIGHT 2013, RZEVANS
Josephina Lay knew that her father hadn't always been a store clerk or farmer. She didn't know why she knew that, for her father and mother never spoke of their early married life. She once asked where she had been born, and her mother laughed and said, "behind the wash pot." Whatever was in the past the family had left it there and had been happy in Ohio. Her father helped Uncle Moody run the store and farmed their little place outside town, part time. She helped her mother put up vegetables, make butter and cheese, and even helped do some of the sewing for the store. Her mother bragged about Jo's tiny, straight stitches. Somewhere around her eighth birthday, Jo opened the big chest in her parents's bedroom and discovered a large pistol in a worn scabbard. Her mother came in about that time and calmly told her that the chest contained things that belonged to her and her father and it wasn't polite to get into other people's things. She didn't berate Jo for "meddlin", and Jo was satisfied with the explanation that the gun was there just for emergencies. It was about that same time that Jo started noticing the creases in her mother's brow and the perspiration that would suddenly break out on her mother's face when it wsn't even a hot day. It really worried her when her mother began spending more and more time in bed. Her mother finally told here that the doctor said she had a deteriorationg kidney disease and asked Jo if she could start doing the cooking and maybe some of the washing.
It was a brave little nine year old that cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, and followed all the doctor's instructions. Her mother was never without cool drinks or warm broths, for the doctor said, "plenty of liquid". As her mother's appetite began to fail, Jo sat at her bedside and read aloud all the books and magazines she could get her hands on. The day came when Aunt Sue took Jo home with her, telling her that the doctor was coming to see her mother again and that her mother was now very, very sick.
When Jo and her aunt entered the house the next morning, her mother lay in a freshly made bed. Her mother's prettiest comforter had ben placed over all clean linens, and her mother lay there unmoving with closed eyes.The neighbors and friends had washed and brushed her hair and attired her in her prettiest dress. Her father allowed Jo to hug her mother, and he told her that mother had gone to be with the Lord. Jo took her mother's hand and held it to her cheek; she felt the coolness of her hand and then reached up and placed the back of her own hand against her mother's cheek. She knew that it was true, her mother was no longer there. After awhile her tears subsided and she asked Aunt Sue if they could put her mother's favorite white stockings on, her mother had never liked her legs to be cold. Aunt Sue and one of the neighbors did that and then Aunt Sue asked, "how does that look Jo?"
"Much better," said Jo, "she looks so pretty, do you think she will see Jonathan's little brother in Heaven?"
"I am sure of it," said Aunt Sue, "now we will go back to my house and we'll see your mother again in church before we say goodbye."
*********
Emmet Lay could no longer find peace in the little town where the family had been so happy. He finally told his brother-in-law, "I need a change Moody; every time I walk in the door I expect to see Virginia, I wake up calling her name, and I go to bed waiting for her to ask me who I saw at the store today."
"What do you have in mind?" Moody asked.
"I'm not sure, there's some cheap land out in one of the Colorado valleys," said Emmet, "I thought about going out there and farming again."
"You won't go back to the old Emmet, will you?" asked Moody.
"Not unless someone pushes me way too far," said Emmet, "I love Jo too much to cause her any more pain than she's gone through these past three months."
"Well, I'm behind you, anything you need just let me know," said Moody.
*********
Jo and her father traveled to southern Colorado by rail, and Emmet shipped only a few pieces of his farm equipment. Knowing how exasperating a green broke pair of pules could be, he thought the expense of shpping Maggie and Moses was well worth the cost.
They found a small farm place south of Alamosa, and the two began doing together the things that Jo and her mother had done. They used a combination of coal and wood to heat the old farm place, so another thing they did together was to collect fuel. Jo had to show her father how to put up apple and choke cherry jelly. A few chickens provided eggs, and a neighbor provided them with milk. Emmet didn't want to go to the trouble of keeping a cow. All went well for the first three years. Then they received word that Moody had succumbed to the flu. About that same time Emmet started having some strange abdominal pains and his bowel habits began to change. He began resting a lot, and Jo was really surprised one day when he hauled out his big pistol. "Jo," he said, "you are going to learn to shoot this and the rifle. After you have mastered these I am going to buy you a smaller caliber pistol that you can easily hide on your person or in your purse."
From then on, each trip to town saw a replenishing of ammunition, and by the time of her fifteenth birthday, she was proficient with her father's big pistol. However she had to hold it with both hands. She was expert with the rifle as long as she didn't have to hold the barrel steady too long. True to his promise Emmet bought her a small thirty-eight caliber pistol and a smaller carbine. She thought her education in firearms was complete, but she soon found that there was more, a lot more.
"You have to always know what or who you are shooting at before you pull the trigger," her father said, "you don't want someone scaring you into firing your weapon." He rigged one of his old coats into a straw dummy holding a wooden gun and one of Jo's old dresses into a dummy holding a doll. He took her into one of the cedar and brush oak areas blindfolded and then stood well away, telling her to take off the blindfold but not to turn around. Then he rattled some tin cans tied to a long string and shourted, "Watch out." Jo knew of course, the game they were playing, and she whirled, swung her sights past the girl with the doll, and shot the thug with the gun dead center. From then on, it was a continuous game. They would go for walks, and she never knew where the dummies would be found. One day they were well hidden, and when she heard the noise, she swung her firearm around to find the two dummies holding hands and there was no gun. She didn't fire but broke out in a sweat and got shaky.
"I want you always to have that fear you showed today because once done, it can never be undone. Now I want us to work on you being able to recognize dangerous situations." Her father began to tell her of the many atrocities he had seen or heard of in his life. "I hope that in your life time you never are in a situation where drastic action is necessary, but you need to be prepared to pull the trigger immediately when you perceive such a situation."
Jo was ten yearss old when they came west and settled in the San Luis valley; now she was almost seventeeen. She and her father loved their Colorado valley. There were beautiful mountains all around, and the soil produced an abundance of potatoes. Her father's health had prevented him from being able to put his all into the farming, but even so, the crops had been ample.
"Honey, I''ve taught you about firearms because I don't want to go away and leave you at the mercy of the world. I needed to know that you can take care of yourself. I have put off telling you, but we cant't stay here; Doc Strobel doesn't know for sure what's wrong with me, but whatever it is, it's getting worse." Emmet Lay grimaced as another spasm hit, then looked at his daughter and continued,:"Before it's too late there are a couple of more things I want to talk to you about." Emmet turned the wagon team toward Bear Creek and popped the reins a bit. The team responded with a slow jog.
Emmet knew that he could rely on his sister to take care of Josephina in the event of his death, so he planned a quick exodus strategy from their home of six years, purchased rail tickets to Denver, and with twelve hundred dollars in hand, they began their journey back to Ohio.
It was just two months later that Emmet, Josephina, and Aunt sue were in the doctor's office for the final diagnosis on the pain that had plagued Jo's father for so long.
Jo held her father's hand and squeezed it as the doctor came into his private office. Aunt Sue had an anxious look on her face, fearing the worse. The doctor said, "Emmet, you have cancer of the colon, and because of the length of time you have been experiencing pain, it must have been a slow growing kind. Cancer of the bowels is sometimes much more aggressive. It's probably involving your other organs by now and large enough that you have almost total blockage; it's only by God's grace that you have lived this long. I will prescribe all the pain medication you need, there is no snese in skimping or doing without."
*************
Her father had been gone a long while before Jo was easy enough in her mind to start thinking about what she would do with the rest of her life. She knew she had absorbed too much of the west to ever be content living in the city, attending lovely little teas and lawn parties. She wished she was back in Colorado, riding old Jack, putting up vegetables, picking berries, and hauling firewood. Picking up potatoes hadn't been all that much fun, but then it wasn't all that bad either. She was afraid that her yearnings for the west were warping her thinking too much. She told herself that she should be happy to have a safe secure life in the city, but the more she worried on it, the more confused she became. She knew that if she were on her own, Aunt Sue could stretch her meager income a lot further. She had accepted several social invitations from sons of some of Aunt Sue's friends and acquaintances but could never develop an interest in those young men. The words Pa had spoken to her that last month in Colorado often came back to her: don't marry someone you don't love and respect,and don't tell you husband you know how to handle a gun. She thought about that conversation a lot.
To make herself helpful, Jo cleaned Aunt Sue's house each morning, doing a thorough job, and in the afternoons, if there were no other chores that needed doing, she usually sat down and read the newspaper from front to back. One Friday evening she had almost completed the paper when she came across a small advertisement consisting of only three lines: WANTED, A WIFE TO GO WEST WITH ME. CONTACT LES FLEMMING, in care of the Daily News. THE SOONER THE BETTER
What kind of man would place an advertisement like that, and how old would that kook be? For some reason she folded the newspaper and put it away so Aunt Sue wouldn't throw it out. Over the next few days, she found she was continually retrieving the newspaper from its hiding place and reading and rereading the advertisement. She finally decided she would just like to meet the person and pass judgment on the poor man. She wrote a note in care of the newspaper: Dear Mr. Flemming, I would like to meet the person who is of such a strong mind to place an advertisement, which may not altogether be improper, is certainly very unconventional. I will withhold any judgment until out introduction. I will be accompanied by my Aunt Sue Beatherford and will expect a noteworthy person of your acquaintance to be present to vouch for your ethics and sincerity.
Dear Miss Lay, I would be most appreciative to make your acquaintance. I must be honest in telling you that there have been several answers to my advertisement, none of which were satisfactory. The objections were not all on my part. Those of my part were not based on beauty or wealth, but had more to do with age and expectations. Two of the ladies said they did not want to raise anorhter son, one wanted to take along her mother and three sisters, and one was a woman of the streets. Thank you for withholding judgment. I shall do the same, and I shall explain all circumstances involved in my decision to move west. Would you and your aunt please meet me for lunch in the dining room of Hotel Blakeland at two PM on this coming Thursday. I will be accompanied by my father, who I may say in advance has some reservations about me, I will explain all.
Aunt Sue was quite taken aback when Jo explained her desire to meet Les Flemming. "Really, Jo, it takes a long time to know a person well," said Aunt Sue, "how on earth could you know whether or not you would be making a mistake. What if he turned out to be a sot or wife beater." Aunt Sue finally, but reluctantly, agreed to accompany Jo to the meeting.
Franklin Flemming, Les' father, was a distinguished looking gentleman, well groomed, and approximately the age of Sue Beatherford. Les Flemming was a nice looking young man in his early twenties and neatly dressed. As Les turned his head in Jo's direction, she could see a large scar on the left side of his face running from above his ear down his cheek to his jaw line. Her first thought was what a magnificent scar, it would easily match the one on the Ute brave she had seen in Pueblo, Colorado. She averted her eyes quickly to the father and returned them to Les' dark eyes. Les invited them to sit down and began the introductions.
'I guess the first question is why do I want to go west. The answer is that I think there is a lot of opportunity there. Father is in the farm implement business, and I have persuaded him to let me open a warehouse and distribution branch in southeastern Colorado."
At this point Franklin broke in, "If I invest in this venture, I want my son's full attention on the business. I am fully aware that the availability of decent women is limited on the frontier. I want him settled when he gets there and not be spending all of his time courting. That's not an unreasonable request, is it Mrs. Beatherford?"
Aunt Sue answered firmly, "No, Mr. Flemming, provided the couple truly love and respect one another." From the time Les had stopped speaking, his eyes had been on Jo. As the father and aunt paused in their conversation, they observed the two young people staring at each other.
The enchanting smile on Jo's face and the boyish grin on Les Flemming, caused the father to turn toward Sue Beatherford and say, "Somehow, I think those trivialities will shortly be overcome. Mrs. Beatherford, will you have dinner with me tomorrow night, and we can discuss this unique situation alone."
Over the next two weeks, Les Flemming and Josephina Lay saw each other almost daily. There were dinners, buggy rides, and an occasional opera. "I thought about busines in Kansas, due to the large amount of farming," said Les, "but other companies are pretty well entrenched there. I think eastern Colorado is a smaller but more open market. If we set up in Pueblo, we will be closer than Denver, and we can serve both the eastern high plains and southern Colorado."
***********
The plan was to make the trip west a part of their honeymoon and to seek a building in Pueblo to serve as warehouse and office. A small house was secured in the better residential section of the city and while Jo set about giving it the woman's touch, Les explored the business areas for a building that would serve their needs. He wrote his father and together they decided that they would stock the commonly asked for implements and would order in larger items as needed until they got a grasp of what was going to be popular in their area. When things seemed to be running smoothly, Les decided the couple should take a buggy trip east spenidng the night in a recommended boarding house in LaJunta, exploring the farming area out that far. They were welcomed into several homes and Les obtained orders for several items that were already in stock.
On their return trip, about fifteen miles west of Rocky Ford, they spotted in the distance five horsemen coming toward them at a slow pace. Jo asked Less to quicly give him all the cash except fifty dollars. She immediately stuck the money into her bosom and placed her purse in her lap with her right hand inside her purse. The horsemen stood their horses in the road not moving aside, so Les stopped and said hello. One of the tobacco stained characters grinned and said, 'Yeah, its a good day alright, a good day for us, not such a good day for you."
Les said, 'Move aside and let us pass."
Jo looked over the other men and saw that the one who spoke was the only one grinning. The others acted as if they really didn't want to be there. The same character said, "We want your money, " and with a nasty grin he added, "and a little honey."
Les was on the verge of whipping the horses on through them, but Jo knew they would just catch up and maybe shoot both of them, so she said, "Give them you wallet Les." Les threw the wallet to the man, who examined the contents and just as the man started to open his mouth Jo pointed to one of the other men and asked if this was his idea. He shook his head and backed his horse. She went down the line asking each of the other three and two of them shook their heads. The third one grinned a little, and she decided this one would lose an ear, and the leader would die. She stood up quickly firing two shots. She shouted to Les, "Go." The riderless horse jumped out of the way, as did the others, and the would be bad man was holding on to his ear trying to staunch the bleeding. She looked back to see the others retrieving the wallet and horse, leaving the leader in the dirt.
When the team finally slowed and the couple were able to breathe more easily, Jo said, "I guess they really upset me to cause me to do somethning stupid like that. Do you think I hurt them?"
"I would say so," said Les, smiling, "remind me never to upset you."
Josephina Lay knew that her father hadn't always been a store clerk or farmer. She didn't know why she knew that, for her father and mother never spoke of their early married life. She once asked where she had been born, and her mother laughed and said, "behind the wash pot." Whatever was in the past the family had left it there and had been happy in Ohio. Her father helped Uncle Moody run the store and farmed their little place outside town, part time. She helped her mother put up vegetables, make butter and cheese, and even helped do some of the sewing for the store. Her mother bragged about Jo's tiny, straight stitches. Somewhere around her eighth birthday, Jo opened the big chest in her parents's bedroom and discovered a large pistol in a worn scabbard. Her mother came in about that time and calmly told her that the chest contained things that belonged to her and her father and it wasn't polite to get into other people's things. She didn't berate Jo for "meddlin", and Jo was satisfied with the explanation that the gun was there just for emergencies. It was about that same time that Jo started noticing the creases in her mother's brow and the perspiration that would suddenly break out on her mother's face when it wsn't even a hot day. It really worried her when her mother began spending more and more time in bed. Her mother finally told here that the doctor said she had a deteriorationg kidney disease and asked Jo if she could start doing the cooking and maybe some of the washing.
It was a brave little nine year old that cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, and followed all the doctor's instructions. Her mother was never without cool drinks or warm broths, for the doctor said, "plenty of liquid". As her mother's appetite began to fail, Jo sat at her bedside and read aloud all the books and magazines she could get her hands on. The day came when Aunt Sue took Jo home with her, telling her that the doctor was coming to see her mother again and that her mother was now very, very sick.
When Jo and her aunt entered the house the next morning, her mother lay in a freshly made bed. Her mother's prettiest comforter had ben placed over all clean linens, and her mother lay there unmoving with closed eyes.The neighbors and friends had washed and brushed her hair and attired her in her prettiest dress. Her father allowed Jo to hug her mother, and he told her that mother had gone to be with the Lord. Jo took her mother's hand and held it to her cheek; she felt the coolness of her hand and then reached up and placed the back of her own hand against her mother's cheek. She knew that it was true, her mother was no longer there. After awhile her tears subsided and she asked Aunt Sue if they could put her mother's favorite white stockings on, her mother had never liked her legs to be cold. Aunt Sue and one of the neighbors did that and then Aunt Sue asked, "how does that look Jo?"
"Much better," said Jo, "she looks so pretty, do you think she will see Jonathan's little brother in Heaven?"
"I am sure of it," said Aunt Sue, "now we will go back to my house and we'll see your mother again in church before we say goodbye."
*********
Emmet Lay could no longer find peace in the little town where the family had been so happy. He finally told his brother-in-law, "I need a change Moody; every time I walk in the door I expect to see Virginia, I wake up calling her name, and I go to bed waiting for her to ask me who I saw at the store today."
"What do you have in mind?" Moody asked.
"I'm not sure, there's some cheap land out in one of the Colorado valleys," said Emmet, "I thought about going out there and farming again."
"You won't go back to the old Emmet, will you?" asked Moody.
"Not unless someone pushes me way too far," said Emmet, "I love Jo too much to cause her any more pain than she's gone through these past three months."
"Well, I'm behind you, anything you need just let me know," said Moody.
*********
Jo and her father traveled to southern Colorado by rail, and Emmet shipped only a few pieces of his farm equipment. Knowing how exasperating a green broke pair of pules could be, he thought the expense of shpping Maggie and Moses was well worth the cost.
They found a small farm place south of Alamosa, and the two began doing together the things that Jo and her mother had done. They used a combination of coal and wood to heat the old farm place, so another thing they did together was to collect fuel. Jo had to show her father how to put up apple and choke cherry jelly. A few chickens provided eggs, and a neighbor provided them with milk. Emmet didn't want to go to the trouble of keeping a cow. All went well for the first three years. Then they received word that Moody had succumbed to the flu. About that same time Emmet started having some strange abdominal pains and his bowel habits began to change. He began resting a lot, and Jo was really surprised one day when he hauled out his big pistol. "Jo," he said, "you are going to learn to shoot this and the rifle. After you have mastered these I am going to buy you a smaller caliber pistol that you can easily hide on your person or in your purse."
From then on, each trip to town saw a replenishing of ammunition, and by the time of her fifteenth birthday, she was proficient with her father's big pistol. However she had to hold it with both hands. She was expert with the rifle as long as she didn't have to hold the barrel steady too long. True to his promise Emmet bought her a small thirty-eight caliber pistol and a smaller carbine. She thought her education in firearms was complete, but she soon found that there was more, a lot more.
"You have to always know what or who you are shooting at before you pull the trigger," her father said, "you don't want someone scaring you into firing your weapon." He rigged one of his old coats into a straw dummy holding a wooden gun and one of Jo's old dresses into a dummy holding a doll. He took her into one of the cedar and brush oak areas blindfolded and then stood well away, telling her to take off the blindfold but not to turn around. Then he rattled some tin cans tied to a long string and shourted, "Watch out." Jo knew of course, the game they were playing, and she whirled, swung her sights past the girl with the doll, and shot the thug with the gun dead center. From then on, it was a continuous game. They would go for walks, and she never knew where the dummies would be found. One day they were well hidden, and when she heard the noise, she swung her firearm around to find the two dummies holding hands and there was no gun. She didn't fire but broke out in a sweat and got shaky.
"I want you always to have that fear you showed today because once done, it can never be undone. Now I want us to work on you being able to recognize dangerous situations." Her father began to tell her of the many atrocities he had seen or heard of in his life. "I hope that in your life time you never are in a situation where drastic action is necessary, but you need to be prepared to pull the trigger immediately when you perceive such a situation."
Jo was ten yearss old when they came west and settled in the San Luis valley; now she was almost seventeeen. She and her father loved their Colorado valley. There were beautiful mountains all around, and the soil produced an abundance of potatoes. Her father's health had prevented him from being able to put his all into the farming, but even so, the crops had been ample.
"Honey, I''ve taught you about firearms because I don't want to go away and leave you at the mercy of the world. I needed to know that you can take care of yourself. I have put off telling you, but we cant't stay here; Doc Strobel doesn't know for sure what's wrong with me, but whatever it is, it's getting worse." Emmet Lay grimaced as another spasm hit, then looked at his daughter and continued,:"Before it's too late there are a couple of more things I want to talk to you about." Emmet turned the wagon team toward Bear Creek and popped the reins a bit. The team responded with a slow jog.
Emmet knew that he could rely on his sister to take care of Josephina in the event of his death, so he planned a quick exodus strategy from their home of six years, purchased rail tickets to Denver, and with twelve hundred dollars in hand, they began their journey back to Ohio.
It was just two months later that Emmet, Josephina, and Aunt sue were in the doctor's office for the final diagnosis on the pain that had plagued Jo's father for so long.
Jo held her father's hand and squeezed it as the doctor came into his private office. Aunt Sue had an anxious look on her face, fearing the worse. The doctor said, "Emmet, you have cancer of the colon, and because of the length of time you have been experiencing pain, it must have been a slow growing kind. Cancer of the bowels is sometimes much more aggressive. It's probably involving your other organs by now and large enough that you have almost total blockage; it's only by God's grace that you have lived this long. I will prescribe all the pain medication you need, there is no snese in skimping or doing without."
*************
Her father had been gone a long while before Jo was easy enough in her mind to start thinking about what she would do with the rest of her life. She knew she had absorbed too much of the west to ever be content living in the city, attending lovely little teas and lawn parties. She wished she was back in Colorado, riding old Jack, putting up vegetables, picking berries, and hauling firewood. Picking up potatoes hadn't been all that much fun, but then it wasn't all that bad either. She was afraid that her yearnings for the west were warping her thinking too much. She told herself that she should be happy to have a safe secure life in the city, but the more she worried on it, the more confused she became. She knew that if she were on her own, Aunt Sue could stretch her meager income a lot further. She had accepted several social invitations from sons of some of Aunt Sue's friends and acquaintances but could never develop an interest in those young men. The words Pa had spoken to her that last month in Colorado often came back to her: don't marry someone you don't love and respect,and don't tell you husband you know how to handle a gun. She thought about that conversation a lot.
To make herself helpful, Jo cleaned Aunt Sue's house each morning, doing a thorough job, and in the afternoons, if there were no other chores that needed doing, she usually sat down and read the newspaper from front to back. One Friday evening she had almost completed the paper when she came across a small advertisement consisting of only three lines: WANTED, A WIFE TO GO WEST WITH ME. CONTACT LES FLEMMING, in care of the Daily News. THE SOONER THE BETTER
What kind of man would place an advertisement like that, and how old would that kook be? For some reason she folded the newspaper and put it away so Aunt Sue wouldn't throw it out. Over the next few days, she found she was continually retrieving the newspaper from its hiding place and reading and rereading the advertisement. She finally decided she would just like to meet the person and pass judgment on the poor man. She wrote a note in care of the newspaper: Dear Mr. Flemming, I would like to meet the person who is of such a strong mind to place an advertisement, which may not altogether be improper, is certainly very unconventional. I will withhold any judgment until out introduction. I will be accompanied by my Aunt Sue Beatherford and will expect a noteworthy person of your acquaintance to be present to vouch for your ethics and sincerity.
Dear Miss Lay, I would be most appreciative to make your acquaintance. I must be honest in telling you that there have been several answers to my advertisement, none of which were satisfactory. The objections were not all on my part. Those of my part were not based on beauty or wealth, but had more to do with age and expectations. Two of the ladies said they did not want to raise anorhter son, one wanted to take along her mother and three sisters, and one was a woman of the streets. Thank you for withholding judgment. I shall do the same, and I shall explain all circumstances involved in my decision to move west. Would you and your aunt please meet me for lunch in the dining room of Hotel Blakeland at two PM on this coming Thursday. I will be accompanied by my father, who I may say in advance has some reservations about me, I will explain all.
Aunt Sue was quite taken aback when Jo explained her desire to meet Les Flemming. "Really, Jo, it takes a long time to know a person well," said Aunt Sue, "how on earth could you know whether or not you would be making a mistake. What if he turned out to be a sot or wife beater." Aunt Sue finally, but reluctantly, agreed to accompany Jo to the meeting.
Franklin Flemming, Les' father, was a distinguished looking gentleman, well groomed, and approximately the age of Sue Beatherford. Les Flemming was a nice looking young man in his early twenties and neatly dressed. As Les turned his head in Jo's direction, she could see a large scar on the left side of his face running from above his ear down his cheek to his jaw line. Her first thought was what a magnificent scar, it would easily match the one on the Ute brave she had seen in Pueblo, Colorado. She averted her eyes quickly to the father and returned them to Les' dark eyes. Les invited them to sit down and began the introductions.
'I guess the first question is why do I want to go west. The answer is that I think there is a lot of opportunity there. Father is in the farm implement business, and I have persuaded him to let me open a warehouse and distribution branch in southeastern Colorado."
At this point Franklin broke in, "If I invest in this venture, I want my son's full attention on the business. I am fully aware that the availability of decent women is limited on the frontier. I want him settled when he gets there and not be spending all of his time courting. That's not an unreasonable request, is it Mrs. Beatherford?"
Aunt Sue answered firmly, "No, Mr. Flemming, provided the couple truly love and respect one another." From the time Les had stopped speaking, his eyes had been on Jo. As the father and aunt paused in their conversation, they observed the two young people staring at each other.
The enchanting smile on Jo's face and the boyish grin on Les Flemming, caused the father to turn toward Sue Beatherford and say, "Somehow, I think those trivialities will shortly be overcome. Mrs. Beatherford, will you have dinner with me tomorrow night, and we can discuss this unique situation alone."
Over the next two weeks, Les Flemming and Josephina Lay saw each other almost daily. There were dinners, buggy rides, and an occasional opera. "I thought about busines in Kansas, due to the large amount of farming," said Les, "but other companies are pretty well entrenched there. I think eastern Colorado is a smaller but more open market. If we set up in Pueblo, we will be closer than Denver, and we can serve both the eastern high plains and southern Colorado."
***********
The plan was to make the trip west a part of their honeymoon and to seek a building in Pueblo to serve as warehouse and office. A small house was secured in the better residential section of the city and while Jo set about giving it the woman's touch, Les explored the business areas for a building that would serve their needs. He wrote his father and together they decided that they would stock the commonly asked for implements and would order in larger items as needed until they got a grasp of what was going to be popular in their area. When things seemed to be running smoothly, Les decided the couple should take a buggy trip east spenidng the night in a recommended boarding house in LaJunta, exploring the farming area out that far. They were welcomed into several homes and Les obtained orders for several items that were already in stock.
On their return trip, about fifteen miles west of Rocky Ford, they spotted in the distance five horsemen coming toward them at a slow pace. Jo asked Less to quicly give him all the cash except fifty dollars. She immediately stuck the money into her bosom and placed her purse in her lap with her right hand inside her purse. The horsemen stood their horses in the road not moving aside, so Les stopped and said hello. One of the tobacco stained characters grinned and said, 'Yeah, its a good day alright, a good day for us, not such a good day for you."
Les said, 'Move aside and let us pass."
Jo looked over the other men and saw that the one who spoke was the only one grinning. The others acted as if they really didn't want to be there. The same character said, "We want your money, " and with a nasty grin he added, "and a little honey."
Les was on the verge of whipping the horses on through them, but Jo knew they would just catch up and maybe shoot both of them, so she said, "Give them you wallet Les." Les threw the wallet to the man, who examined the contents and just as the man started to open his mouth Jo pointed to one of the other men and asked if this was his idea. He shook his head and backed his horse. She went down the line asking each of the other three and two of them shook their heads. The third one grinned a little, and she decided this one would lose an ear, and the leader would die. She stood up quickly firing two shots. She shouted to Les, "Go." The riderless horse jumped out of the way, as did the others, and the would be bad man was holding on to his ear trying to staunch the bleeding. She looked back to see the others retrieving the wallet and horse, leaving the leader in the dirt.
When the team finally slowed and the couple were able to breathe more easily, Jo said, "I guess they really upset me to cause me to do somethning stupid like that. Do you think I hurt them?"
"I would say so," said Les, smiling, "remind me never to upset you."