Epilogue
A week after they arrived home, Slim drove into Laramie to pick up some supplies and stop at the post office. In his hands he had a letter to the McAllisters and Cam.
Dear beloved McAllister family and Cam,
We arrived home three days after we left you. We stayed overnight, in Laramie, as David suggested. Jess bore the wagon ride, to Red Bluff all right - as I'm sure Gordon told you - but he was exhausted by the time we got to Laramie on the train.
I wanted to thank you for the wonderful time we had during our visit. True the boys had a rough time of it toward the end - sprained ankles and a beating resulting in cracked ribs - but up until that time it was wonderful to get acquainted with Cam's family. She's a wonderful girl. She's gentle, kind, considerate, and talented. She's also one of the few people that can keep Jess occupied when he's stuck in bed. She certainly keeps Slim and Jess on their toes. It does them good to be around a young woman that doesn't fawn all over them.
Jess is doing well. He doesn't need the laudanum unless he tries to do too much. Slim's keeping an eye on him. He's not permitted to lift saddles or harness though he is allowed to bridle the more cooperative horses. He spends a lot of time with Drifter and Galway while Mike is at school. I put him to work peeling potatoes and apples and such other light duties as I can find to keep him occupied. It's far too cold for him to take Mike fishing and he can't go hunting yet so I have to be creative in finding things for him to do.
Slim's ankle is completely healed. He spends his days with a couple of the neighbors' ranch hands tending to the damaged fences and moving the herds down to lower ground. Tommy Everett, Dan Fulton and Mark Dennison - boys that Cam met during her visit last summer - have been helping him by keeping up with the barn chores and changing the teams when the stages come in. Jess is permitted to supervise but the boys know what they're doing. They humor him though. They know he's frustrated at being so limited as to what he can do until his ribs heal.
Mike is having a wonderful time telling his friends about how he and Cam set Jess up to enter the pie eating contest. Of course, he leaves out the part about having to help Cam do the laundry to make up for Jess having blackberry stains all over his shirt and on his pants. Boys will be boys and boys will keep secrets when it comes to doing "women's work" - though that's not what he calls it. He calls it "girls work". He's not told anyone, I don't think, about how he won the corn husking contest. I'm not sure whether he thinks that's bragging or what. I know that our sheriff, Mort Cory, enjoys that story. I believe he eggs Mike on to tell him about it and the greased pig contest. Has Cam been writing to him by any chance? I'm sure Gordon and David have told her all about it and she'd certainly enjoy telling others about how her uncle tricked them into entering. Mort's very fond of Slim and Jess but he's not above having a good laugh at their expense when the opportunity presents itself.
As for me - my days are filled with feeding the boys and the stage passengers, cleaning house, doing laundry, cooking. Jess eats twice as much as the others. I can make a pie, or a cake, that should last for several days but is gone in less than two.
Please do keep in touch. Cam is welcome to visit any time. I'm sure the boys would agree though they might hesitate slightly when they remember the snowball attack of last winter. Mike says she's promised to teach him how to ice skate so he'll be thrilled if she comes for a visit this winter.
Daisy
It was this letter than Slim was mailing when he bumped into Tommy Everett at the post.
"Hi Mr. Sherman!"
"Hi Tom! How're your folks?"
"They want you to come for dinner so they can hear about your trip to Evergreen and maybe help plan a fundraiser, of some kind, here in Laramie. To help that orphanage."
"Be glad to. The folks in Evergreen raised a considerable amount of money with the fair they just had. We wouldn't want the folks in Evergreen to think Laramie's not just as generous now would we?"
"No sir," Tom said.
Slim spied the envelope in Tommy's hand. "I see you have another letter to mail. It wouldn't be to a certain somebody in Evergreen would it?"
Tommy blushed to the roots of his hair.
'"Yes, sir. It's a letter to Cam. We write each other once a week."
"I see." Slim's eyes twinkled. "You wouldn't be sweet on her by any chance would you?"
"We're just friends. That's all. Just friends."
Slim laughed, clapped the boy on his back and left with the mail for the ranch. He was still laughing when he went into the general store to collect Daisy's groceries and such. Young love. It was going to be a lot of fun watching this potential romance develop.