Page 23 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

Guinn and I rode the same horse — I behind the saddle. It was about ten miles or more to the Mask cabin but the big rawboned we rode got us there in a little over two hours. He was very frisky on the cold winter mornings, and Guinn had to ride him first (“topping off,” they called it) so that he would be safe for me to ride. After he bucked stiff-legged for a half dozen jumps, he was so pleased with himself that he was as docile as a kitten — until the next morning.
When we arrived at the Mask’s, we found that Mr. and Mrs. Mask had gone back to Oklahoma for a visit. Mrs. Mask’s younger brother, Alvin Crabtree, and their younger wife and their baby, were all alone, and had seen only each other for weeks. Both of the parents were in their teens and we felt that understanding and tolerance had reached a new low between them. They were so glad to see us that Alvin met us at the door with tears in his eyes. I believe our trip did as much good for them as it did us. We took horseback rides, had long talks before the fireplace, and had good feasting from their store of supplies so generously provided the young people by the Masks before they left.
Once during this long winter, Ed was preparing to take the wagon and mules to get a load of wood in the forest. We begged him to let us go, as a good chance of getting out. Most of the school children were staying at home during the worst of this below-zero weather, and I was teaching only the Moore children.
Guinn, Riley, Mamie, Margaret, and I drove the few miles to the forest, loaded the wagon with wood for the fireplace and the cookstove, and decided to do some
exploring before we started back. We let the mules tied to a fallen log and with young ebullient spirits went frolicking about the huge boulders nearby. We found a few caves which fired our youthful imaginations with thoughts of outlaws hiding out for years where no one could ever find them.
Time passed more quickly than we realized, and when we went back to the wagon it wasn’t there. On our several–mile walk back to the ranch, we could visualize the travels of the mules from the wagon tracks in the snow. Most of the time they followed closely the tracks we had made as we came, but once in a while they would leave the trail, go up on the hillside, circle around a grove of trees and return to the trail. Guinn said, “See, Toby is the adventuresome one. He pulls Alex off to the right to explore, but Alex is really the boss, so he circles Toby around the trees and right back to the road.”
A very cold and weary group of young people arrived home about dark, and found the mules and wagon there and the wood unloaded. I was a long time before Ed let us forget about our excursion. The next time we were nearly out of fuel, he said, “well, I guess I’d better send Toby and Alex after another load of wood.”
Once when the men were gone, Dixie brought Barbara down to spend the day with Diana and me. Although they lived only a mile apart, the two ladies didn’t see each other very often, since each one had a small child to care for. On this occasion there was some exciting family news they were sharing, so the two Moore wives sat