"Right up the road!"  Smiling brightly, Emeline gripped his hand.  "The house will be done, and the barn, the bunkhouse..."  What they had left had just been framing for the house, and the beginnings of a barn, and she was interested to see if it was anything close to what she pictured in her mind.

"I hope the window got there in time...and intact."  That would be magnificent, like the crown jewel.  "It's going to be such a change, to be starting our life on the ranch."  There would be so much to keep them busy, but they had already decided to put time aside for themselves, especially once the baby arrived.

"I suppose I may need to hire some help...on occasion...but that's something that can be changed, depending on circumstances."  She shrugged.  "I suppose it depends...I want to spend time with the horses, and the baby, of course, so having someone to help with the cleaning and cooking..."

This was all so foreign to her, she had always been the one taking care the domestic chores, and having a 'maid' just seemed odd and extravagant.

"It's so good to know our children will be taken care of.  Not that I'd hesitate to have children, but knowing that they can do whatever they fancy, and won't have to toil or be destitute is so good."  Not that they wouldn't be expected to earn what they got, they wouldn't be coddled in any way, they'd just have opportunities, for education in particular, that might not be available otherwise.

"I don't mind sleeping under the wagon tonight, setting a simple camp," she commented, "I can build a small fire for coffee while you tend to the horses, that way we can push farther tonight."  It was an easy thing to just toss bedrolls under the wagon, and since they had sandwiches from town, there was no need to cook, and every extra mile was a mile closer to home!

He grinned as they rolled along at a seeming snail's pace after all of the train rides, and the handsome cabs of San Francisco, just a nice easy pace, the two of them seated on the plank seat behind the horses pulling their wagon;

"No worries for the Pike children, not at all. And they will learn to work, alright. No matter how many hands we have hired,'er kitchen help, 'er whatever, they'll do their fair share to keep the Rockin' P doin' jest that, rockin' forward. Knowin' the rewards of a hard day's work, which ain't cash money, but a job done well." He said with conviction. "Won't be the hard life I come up in, but hard enough to appreciate what they have."

He was enjoying this more than he had thought he would, driving the team into the late afternoon and evening, but it was what he had been missing in the past months that they had been gone. Tomorrow he would be in the saddle while Em drove the wagon, not all day, but some, then she'd have her turn while he drove. He was getting excited about it, though that had a ways to go yet.

While she had greatly loved seeing new places, meeting all manner of people and experiencing new things, Emeline was more than happy to be doing something that had a goal, so that, at the end of the day it felt like they'd accomplished something.

There wasn't much light left when they finally stopped to make camp a short way off the trail in a stand of trees.  There was plenty of fuel, so it didn't take long for Emeline to have a fire going, and water on for coffee.  It was a simple task to toss the bedrolls on an oilcloth under the wagon, and by the time Barnabas was done with the horses, she had the sandwiches set out, along with a can of peaches.

"Your feast, Mr. Pike, the like of which you'll never find in the finest establishments in San Francisco!"

"Yes Ma'am! Now, this is eatin'! Out here in the open country where all the noises we'll hear are the birds and the other animals, Coyotes  howlin', lettin' their brothers know that man was around." He dropped down, sitting cross-legged, Indian style, and looked at what was laid before him, then before anything else, he picked up the cup and took a sip of the hot coffee and smiled as it went down, "Like I was sittin' in the Lickskillet! That, can't be duplicated nowhere!" He stated, tasting her coffee.

"I'll be keepin' my eyes peeled for some game, maybe a small buck, or somethin'. We'll need to supplement what we got, or be eating taters an' such. I almost hate to take any game because of the waste. But it'll go bad before we can eat it all." He said, though their survival was more important than the waste.

He looked across the fire at her and offered, "Life'll be good if we take care in how we're livin' it. Can't be lordin' over others, I think we gotta help where we can. Do as much good as is possible without takin' credit for it. Well, when we can get out of it. Reckon there'll be times we can't, we'll have ta learn to deal with that." But there was that ever-ready smile when he was around her, "Gonna be just fine, Love, just fine."

"Of course we'd never 'lord it' over anyone," Emeline assured him, "having money doesn't make us any better than anyone else, and yes, we can use it to help where we can."

Sighing, she took a bite of her sandwich, looking up at the star-spattered sky before adding, "The difficult thing, I think, is keeping people from coming to us for a handout.  I don't mind those in need asking, but..."

Well, there was a fine line between asking and mooching, and she was sure that if people got wind of how much they had, there would be those coming to them with sob-stories, looking for something for nothing...and she had such a soft heart...

Still, she relished the thought that they could help out folks like Millie's brother in San Francisco, and she knew there would be plenty of opportunities.

"Let me think on it, but I might be able to rig up a smoker if you bag a deer, or we could just take a day to smoke meat, and we'd have it for a while." 

Pronto laughed out loud, slapping his knee, "If that don't beat all. A smoker! Well yes if you can, then that's what we'll do. May only need to take one deer in that case." He took a moment to look at her, "Now that's somethin' I didn't know about you, wonderin' what more there is to find out, one way 'er tuther. Doggone, a smoker. That there's a capital idea!" The sandwiches were good, and would be just enough.

"Now on this money thing. I believe folks 'er too proud ta come lookin' for a handout. Them that might, likely as not ain't they type ta wor for it so, we loan no money to no one. Maybe if Pike was in need, 'er ta help Miss Steelgrave, 'er Doc Danforth, somethin' like that." He said firmly. "Don't you worry none about it We won't get took by no schemers. Ma didn't raise no fools, neither'd Pa!"

"Get us that deer and I'll see what I can do."  Emeline smiled, thinking on what they had that could be put to use.  "Of course, I might inadvertently burn down the wagon, but life is risk, right?"

She laughed at that, then shrugged.  "Nope, no fools here, and you're right, no one will really know how much we have, and we'll be working hard on the ranch..."  She really did like the idea of being able to help people, and she'd have to temper her urges to help everyone who needed it!

"Why does the food taste so much better in the open air?"  She glanced at Barnabas.  "Maybe it's the company!"

"Burnin' down the wagon ain't part'a the deal woman! We need this here rig, not just for this trip, mind you, but on goin' for a lot of things. I can't even put to mind all the possibilities for it. So mind your smoker, please." He said, all the while smiling. He was sure that she was safe around fire by now. "Smoked venison, that'll last us a good while."

"You gotta point there, if folks don't know what we got, they can't ask about it. But sure enough, it's likely word would get out sooner 'er later, but we ain't the bank of Kalispell." He paused a long moment then went on, "I couldn't tell you why, I just know it does, most times. Maybe the air all fresh an' clean. Be my guess, but it surely does."

"So back a ways we talked some about maybe doin' somethin' for the town after we were back home." He began, "Not sure I remember all we talked about or even how much, But I remember we did start talkin' about it. Maybe we can talk about what we'd like to do. Maybe along the way we figure out what we can do along them lines, you know?"

"A big fandango, maybe? I mean there's gotta be things out there that'd come ta Kalispell for the right price. Don'cha think?"

"I promise I won't burn the wagon...my clothes and the sewing machine are in there!"  Emeline chuckled at the sorry reason to keep the wagon intact, not that she would do anything to jeopardize it.

Then the topic turned to doing something for the town, and her smile widened.  "You mean like a circus?  I saw a small one back home before I was married...they had an elephant...goodness, that was big!  And there were some cougars, and a dogs that danced, and trick riders...it was really something!"

But then a thought struck her.  "Although, we'll be well into the fall season when we get back, it may be too cold...and I think they need the rails to travel."

Well, it had been a good thought while it lasted!