Ben Ch 4

MAYTIME of eighteen forty-five brought another birthday to Ben. This time he was eight years old. Grandmother White had a big jar of cookies as a present for the lad; and his other grandmother gave him two pairs of woolen stockings she had knitted.

"You must put these away for Jack Frost days," she said' "I'm sure your toes will be happy to snuggle into them then."

For another surprise his mother made him 'a cake, sweetened with molasses, and filled with good nuts she had saved. His father gave him a pair of beaded moccasins he had bought from a Fox Indian. It was just what he wanted to chase around with his pals when they played "Injuns." Besides the moccasins kept his feet cosy when he and Joe would take the oxen down the train to the Mississippi.

Uncle Starling added another gift--a real Indian bow, with a quiver full of feathered arrows. The sharp points of these had been removed. For further safety, the Uncle made Ben promise he would not shoot at any person or animal around the place.

"This is only for practice," he said. "I'll train you and Joe how to 'use a target. Then later you might get a squirrel or rabbit or prairie chicken for us."

A target was set up in a vacant lot. Ben and his pals got some real fun at times trying to hit the "bulls-eye." Once in a while they did make a center shot. Then out would come an "Injun yell." There wasn't much time to practice, however. The youngsters were kept too busy helping round their homes. Ben's mother needed him more than ever at that time; for a baby sister had just come.

The boy was happy as a lark over this event. Paul seemed not quite so joyful. He couldn't understand why his mother couldn't give him more attention. His big brother, however, by helping mother take care of little Hannah, as the baby was named, soon brought Paul to loving her, too. Very soon he was doing his share of baby-tending, so his brother could be free for other work.

"Raise more food," was a call that came from the leaders that year. "Make every acre produce all it can. Plant gardens. Grow corn and wheat and potatoes. Let all help to bring through a good harvest."

Just what was back of this stirring call the boys of Nauvoo could hardly know. They did sense that something unusual was in the air; everybody--men, women and children--was working as never before. Added to the home chores, the running of errands, helping his father at times in the shop, another kind of work came to Ben. He was often taken to the farm just outside of the city to help his Uncle Starling plow and plant and cultivate.

This work in the open fields brought new joy to the healthy boy. It was a bit tiring at times, of course; but he found fun in helping to yoke up Buck and Brindle, and in driving them with "haws" and "gees" along the road that led to the farm. It was interesting, also, to watch the stout oxen pulling the plow and turning the dark soil as 'round and 'round they went. Bones, always with his young master, found fun, too, barking at the oxen, and occasionally chasing a cottontail rabbit they would scare out of the grass or bushes along the near-by creek.

Later, when the corn was up, Uncle Starling would give Ben another kind of fun. He would let the boy ride old Brindle as they cultivated the corn to kill the weeds and keep the rich soil stirred around the growing plants. To keep Buck and Brindle from nipping off the mm as they plodded up and down the rows, Uncle Starling had made some little wicker baskets to hang over their nozzles.

A rich harvest came from the good work. In summer time there were roasting cars to eat. Besides, hidden among the corn were some big juicy watermelons and muskmelons Uncle Starling had planted to give a surprise to Ben and his boy pals. Then in autumn the tall cornstalks, bending down with the heavy ears, yielded a bounteous crop to make cornmeal for the family and feed for the oxen and hogs.

October brought some fun with the fall work. Ben and Joe, herding the cows and oxen in nearby Casper's Hollow, had discovered some trees and hazel bushes loaded with nuts. Squirrels were busy laying in a store of them for snowy days.,

"Why don't we get up a nutting party?" suggested Joe.

"Let's do it," added his pal.

It took no coaxing to get their parents' consent. This pastime would mean more food and fun for the whole family. Two days later most of the youngsters of the neighborhood, with a few of their parents to direct and guard them, were making the woods ring with their merry voices.

By noon, baskets and bags were over half filled with walnuts, hickory nuts and hazel nuts. Time, of course, was taken out for a picnic lunch. Before sundown everybody, tired by happy, trudged back to town carrying their loads of goodies for the winter evenings.

"Well, well!" exclaimed their father as beaming Ben and Paul reached home. "Have you boys been robbing the squirrels?"

"No, siree!" returned Ben. "There's nuts enough left in the woods for all the squirrels in the world.' We just took our share."

"Good boys," said Grandmother White. "I'll make you some nut cookies--a whole jar of them."

Joyous clapping of hands greeted this promise.

"Come, get washed now, for a good supper," said their mother. "I know you are hungry as young bears."

"It's a blessing we have more than enough to eat this season," said Ben's father. "From the way people are being mobbed and driven into this town, we'll all have to share our food with hungry folk before the winter goes by.

Ben was soon brought closer to the tragic events then happening in and around Nauvoo. Once, while he and Joe were trailing their oxen down to the river, they chanced to meet two other boys, Fred and Will, who were also taking their cattle to water. These boys with their parents and others in the Morley Settlement had just had their homes burned to the ground.

"One morning," said Fred, "just after we had gone with father into the woods for timber, a band of men with blackened faces came to the village. They ordered our mother and Aunt Alvira, who lived close by, to get out of their log cabins with their children. Then, after clearing the rooms of chairs and tables and beds and other things that were in them, these mobbers piled straw into the cabins and set them on fire.

"Why did they do that?" asked Joe. "We don't know," said Will; "they were just bad men. None of our folks had ever hurt them."

"Guess it was because you are Mormons," added Ben. "My father says that we will have to find a home somewhere that mobbers don't live. He says they are a heap worse than Injuns."

Another event that made a deep impression on Ben that autumn was the death of Grandfather White. After some weeks of illness, this fine American pioneer had passed away. He was laid to rest in the growing cemetery out in Casper's Hollow. The boy never forgot that day with its tears and flowers. And he ever remembered Apostle Hyde, a friend of the family, who spoke at the funeral and afterwards came to the home to comfort them in their sorrow.

"Henry died because he worried so much over the death of Joseph and Hyrum and over other tragic things that have been happening," said Grandmother. "He couldn't understand how such lawlessness and cruelty could be in this land of freedom."

"None of us can understand all of it, Mother White," said Apostle Hyde, "but we do know that the Lord will help us to see things more clearly in his own good time. Just keep your faith and go on in the helpful way you ever have done and all will come out right."

Grandmother White did go on. She lived for many years, always helping and cheering others. For a time she stayed in Ben's own home helping her daughter, Eliza, with her little ones and preparing for the journey, then only a few months away. Ben used to marvel as he watched her knitting socks and mittens for the children and others. How those needles would fly in her skillful fingers.

But the boy was not always at home that winter. He was sent to school with Joe and other boys and girls. It was not in such a building as boys and girls now have in our cities for their schools. This Nauvoo school was carried on in an upstairs room of a private home. There were only a few rough benches for seats, no blackboard. All the books the boys and girls had were a few spellers and some readers.

What they learned mainly after mastering their ABC's was a little spelling, some reading and "ciphering" --or arithmetic. A few of the larger boys and girls helped the schoolmaster train smaller boys like Ben and Joe with their first lessons.

If any lad was naughty-and once in a while someone forgot-there was a "hickory stick" hanging on the wall that might be used. Mostly, however, the school was a happy place filled with willing boys and girls who wanted to learn, and whose parents were glad to pay for their schooling.

This pay, however, was seldom in cash; for there was little money to be had in those days. Teachers, like other folk, had to take corn or wheat or potatoes or even loads of wood for their work. But they were happy to get such pay for helping the young pioneers get some "school book learning" along with their other training.