Chapter 1
Yadkin awoke as the thick gooey mass splattered against his left cheek. He lifted his hand and gingerly brushed his cheek. "Yep," he thought to himself, "great way to start the day." He sat slowly and leaned over, flicking the bird dropping from his cheek in disgust.
Beside him Mingo's deep even breathing indicated that he slept the sleep of the blessed. Opposite the campfire Daniel lay on his side, also breathing deeply. With an irritated growl, Yad stood and bellowed, "Get up, you lazy varmits. The birds and beasts are trespassin' all over us and I'm hungry!" Mingo jerked awake and sat up with his knife in his hand. Daniel rolled several feet and also came to rest with his knife in his hand. The two startled men glared angrily at their buckskin-clad friend who stood laughing in the center of their camp. Sharing an annoyed look, Mingo and Daniel stretched and also stood. Yadkin banged the metal pot against the fire ring as the newly revived blaze started to burn.
"What's got into you, Yad?" Daniel asked as he knuckled the sleep from his eyes.
"Got hit with a bird bomb and just decided to punish you two for the privilege."
"Rather a cold-hearted way of displaying friendship, Yad," Mingo said, his irritation still evident.
Grinning, the tall blonde frontiersman continued his breakfast preparations. Mingo rolled his blanket and readied his pack. Across the camp Daniel did the same. The three men were only four days away from Boonesborough and they were anxious to get back. Their trip to Williamsburg had been stressful. The information each man carried was identical and they had traveled separately in case of capture. But all three arrived in the Virginia capital safely and were relieved to find each other. They started back to Boonesborough before dawn the following day.
Suddenly Mingo raised his eyes. He tilted his head in a listening pose. Across the camp Daniel noticed his friend's attitude and eased his gun into his hand. Yadkin continued to bang the camp equipment and the noise made listening difficult. Daniel frowned in annoyance as Mingo crouched and slipped silently through the summer grass. Daniel crawled to Yad and hushed his friend's rowdy preparations. The blonde man flattened beside his friend as they strained to hear Mingo's signal. It came through the morning air, a sweet trilling sound. Daniel replied and crawled to Mingo's side. Yad trailed behind.
Across the waving summer grass the three men could see a wagon, two oxen, and three people. Two appeared to be women, and one a young man. The wagon was listing to one side as one of the wheels turned misshapenly. One of the oxen seemed to be lame, and the other was speckled with what appeared to be buckshot. The older woman wore a sling around her left arm and the young man had a bandaged leg. There seemed to be no injuries to the young woman. The three friends watched the travelers for several minutes, exchanging puzzled glances.
Finally Daniel stood and hallooed. The three strangers stopped nervously. The man raised a gun awkwardly. He had trouble balancing the heavy weapon with only one good leg. Daniel raised his hand in the universal gesture of friendship. Mingo and Yadkin rose to stand beside Daniel, their hands likewise raised in friendship.
Approaching closer, the three Kentucky men could see that the outfit was even more untrailworthy than they had previously thought. The misshapen wheel was hopelessly broken and poorly mended. Another wheel was missing several supporting spokes. The wagon's splintered boards and chipped chassis caused it to tilt crazily. The yoke was cracked and the tongue mended, and both oxen were thin. The lame one was barely able to stand on his injured foot and the other did indeed have a load of buckshot in its red hide. All three men exchanged another look, this time one of disbelief.
"Howdy, there. I'm Daniel Boone, this is Yadkin and this is Mingo. You folks seem to be in need of some help."
The older woman strode forward and extended her right hand. "Howdy yourself. I'm Milly Moss, and this here is my boy Rocky and my girl Ivy. We're pleased to meet 'cha."
The three tall men nodded their greetings to the three travelers before them. Up close two of the three people were even more banged-up than they had seemed from a distance. Milly not only had her left arm in a sling but she had a bright red sunburn. Rocky's leg wound was joined by a knot on his forehead and a burned left hand. Ivy seemed to be totally uninjured.
Mingo recovered before his companions and assumed his most courtly manner. "Please be our guests at breakfast. Our camp is only a few hundred yards west. We don't have a feast, but we are willing to share our provisions."
Daniel nodded and added, "Yad and I'll bring your team and wagon. You three go on with Mingo and we'll be along soon."
The three newcomers looked carefully at Mingo's tall frame. They looked at his long black hair, his clothing, his beads, his whip and his knife. Then they looked into his dark eyes. The three exchanged a long look, then Milly stepped forward. "Thank you, Injun. Breakfast sounds mighty good. We ain't had a good meal in days. Lost most o' our supplies a ways back when the wagon went down the hill. Let's go, kids."
Milly strode forward towards Mingo, who turned and shot Daniel a look that said 'Come quick'. The Cherokee accompanied his three guests and was soon out of earshot. Daniel turned to Yad and shook his head.
"Kind o' reminds me o' Jasper Ledbetter's Lucy. You never met her. We'd best hurry before Mingo gets into trouble."
Yad nodded his head. His hand brushed his cheek where the bird had deposited the morning's first warning. A shudder ran through his body as he grabbed the near ox's horns and pulled the wounded animal towards the peaceful camp.
The two men heard Mingo's voice raised in aggravation long before they got the weary oxen to camp. Daniel turned to Yad and grinned. They could plainly hear Mingo's words as he argued with Milly Moss.
"Madam, let me finish the coffee my way please."
"But hit won't have no strength, Injun! You got it way too weak. Hit'll be like water. Here, let me."
"Madam, it is my coffee and my pot. I will brew it my way." Mingo extended his left hand to ward off the large woman's advances as his right clutched his embattled coffee pot.
Rocky sat as far away from the campfire as possible. It was as though he mistrusted everything about the camp. He kept his eyes on his sister, who stood motionless near the fire. As Dan and Yad approached they saw Mingo shift his weight as he balanced himself between Milly Moss and his coffee pot. Suddenly the pot slipped from Mingo's hand as though it had been pulled with a string. The water doused the fire as the ground coffee spilled onto the ground.
"There now, see what you done? If you'd a let me brew hit, we'd have a good brew now instead of a dead fire and no coffee!"
Mingo rose to his full height, his face taut and his eyes narrowed. Dan could see his friend biting back the angry words that were rising in his throat. He stepped beside Mingo and took his arm. "Why don't you get some more firewood Mingo? This here is all wet. Yad, you get some more water. Mrs. Moss, why don't you sit and rest? I'll make another fire." Dan nodded to Yad and Mingo. They turned to do Daniel's bidding, leaving the tall pioneer alone with the Moss family.
"Have you been travelin' long?" he asked politely.
"Only since Tuesday." Milly heaved a deep sigh and sat on her ample rear end.
Daniel frowned. The oxen and wagon looked like they had been traveling for at least a month, and over hard ground. He looked up and met Ivy's unusual green eyes. They were a light, vivid green. Just the color of her namesake. She smiled shyly. Daniel heard Rocky snort and shift farther away from his sister.
Suddenly there was a yell and Yadkin dashed back into the camp, swinging his arms madly. The water splashed from the coffee pot, wetting Daniel's brown hair. Milly let out a yelp, then Rocky yelled and leaped from his rock as fast as his wounded leg would let him. Ivy stood completely still. A sharp sting stabbed Daniel's neck, another under his right eye. He jumped up and ran as fast as possible into the nearby forest. He met Mingo coming back with an armload of wood.
"Bees!" Daniel shouted as he dashed past his frozen friend. Mingo dropped the firewood and followed Daniel into the forest. After a quarter of a mile they stopped. Daniel inspected the stings on his arms while Mingo dabbed mud on his neck and face.
"You've got a dozen stings or more, Daniel. What happened?"
"I don't rightly know. Yad came runnin' back yellin' and then the bees got me. Ever'body ran a diff'rent direction."
Mingo looked into Dan's eyes several seconds, then shook his head. "Well Daniel, I have an unsettling feeling that we are going to regret ever setting eyes on the Moss family. Maybe they've all run away and we won't see them again."
From behind his rapidly swelling eyelids Daniel looked at his friend and nodded in hopeful agreement.
After a breakfast of corncakes and coffee, the three travelers and the three Kentuckians settled down to digest the meal and get acquainted. Daniel, Yadkin, Rocky and Milly all sported an array of mud-spackled bee stings. Ivy and Mingo were unscathed.
This immunity caused Mingo to feel a bit strange and he made it a point of staying as far from Ivy as he could without hurting her feelings. He couldn't help but notice that Rocky was doing the same. The young man constantly eyed his sister, his unease plain in every line of his battered body.
Mingo also couldn't help but notice that Ivy seemed very taken with Yadkin. Her remarkable green eyes never left the buckskinned frontiersman. Evidently Yadkin was also aware of her fascination. The ruddy blonde took Mingo's cue and stayed as far away from Ivy as possible.
Milly's high-pitched voice told the family's tale of woe. "So ya see, Mr. Boone, me and the younguns just had to leave that little burg. Ever'body there was certain sure that my Ivy was a Jonah. Why, the day couldn't end without somebody chuckin' a rock at our cabin. Ever' time it thundered you'd a thought the world was comin' to a end, the way them folks took on. Ever' accident was Ivy's fault, ever' sickness was Ivy's doin'. Plumb silly they was."
Yad, Mingo and Daniel all glanced at the slight girl with the bright green eyes. She sat quietly on a fallen log, her skirt neatly arranged around her feet. There was no evidence of anything unusual about the girl. Yadkin cleared his throat and addressed Mrs. Moss.
"Don't none o' your tale make sense, Ma'am. How could a little slip of a girl cause all that calamity?"
Everyone sitting around the fire plainly heard Rocky snort. The young man stiffly rose and limped out of the camp. Yad and Daniel exchanged a look of suspicion. Milly continued her tale.
"Exactly right, Mr. Yadkin. Ain't no way possible. All acts o' providence they was. My Ivy is a sweet child and no more to blame for ever'thin' that happens than the man in the moon." Milly rose and patted her daughter's slight shoulder. The girl hung her head in embarrassment.
"Well, Daniel, Mrs. Moss. I believe that we should be on our way. I suggest that we leave the wagon here and send a party back from Boonesborough to gather your belongings in a few days. The two oxen can rest and graze in the meantime." Mingo's reasonable suggestion was met with a nod from Milly Moss.
Daniel nodded at his friend and began to gather the camp equipment. Yadkin devised a pack from a scrap of canvas and helped Mrs. Moss rescue the bare necessities from the wagon. Mingo tidied the camp and released the oxen to graze. The weary, wounded beasts gratefully grunted as the heavy yoke released their necks. They slowly moved apart and began to eat the abundant grass.
An hour later the party began their four day trek to Boonesborough. Eight days later they would arrive with an unbelievable story to tell.