Buck never knew one small, tiny human being could make so much laundry, make a person so exhausted but sleep so much, cost so much money, but at the same time, smell so sweet, and fill your heart with so much joy. How did mother's do it? Today was his first run and he was leaving Isaac's care in Rachel.
"You warm up his milk then make sure it's not too hot..." Buck told Rachel.
She laughed. "Buck, we all know how to take care of him. Who do you think has been helping you since we got him? We've been there with you every step of the way. Now shoo, he'll be just fine."
"Rider coming." Jimmy said.
"Ok that's me." Buck said. He kissed Isaac and he also kissed Rachel on the cheek. "Thank you."
"Isaac's first words will probably be 'Rider coming.'" Cody said with a laugh.
At that Lou got up and ran out the bunk house.
"What happened to her?" Jimmy asked.
Nobody knew. Rachel handed the baby to Cody and went outside where Lou sat hugging her knees leaning up against the side of the house. "What's wrong, Honey?"
She wiped her eyes. "Nothin'. Everything." Then she hugged Rachel and started crying. "I miss Emily. She was quiet and she understood me and she listened and she wasn't one of the boys and she said the baby's firsts words would be 'rider coming' and.." the rest wasn't coherent.
"I know, Honey, I know." The two women sat there hugging until Cody came out.
"Uh, I hate to spoil all this womanly huggy-ness, but this little feller sprung a leak and I gotta change before I'm up to go. Jimmy's too scared to hold 'em. He's practically climbing the shelves right now to get away."
"I'll take him." Lou said getting up and dusting herself off. "Thanks Rachel."
"You could have laid him in the cradle." Rachel suggested.
"I think Jimmy'd rather ride a buckin' bronco and get tossed ten times than hold a tiny baby." Cody laughed.
—-
Jimmy was loading a bag of feed into the wagon when Cody nudged him in the side. "You could be helping." Jimmy scolded.
"I will, I will, but that's Millie Logan over there and her sister Penny is in that shop. I'm gonna go say hi." Cody said and at that he ran across the street.
"Cody!" Jimmy complained then loaded the last bags himself. With nothing else to do, he trotted across the street where Cody stood talking with Millie. Penny had gone into a shop so it was just the two of them. Penny walked up with several packages and Jimmy went over to offer some help.
"Let me help you ma'am." He said and reached forward. At recognizing him, Penny dropped all her things and put her hands over her face and a screeched.
"I'm.. I'm ... ok." She said bending over and trying to quickly pick up her packages.
Jimmy picked up the last one. He held it out to her. "That's a lot of packages. You don't have a basket or something?"
"No.. no... I don't expect to get so much." Then she dropped some. "Oh!" She said frustratedly.
Jimmy picked up all the packages. Penny just stood there trying to be as far away from Jimmy as she could get but still not move her feet. "I'm not going to bite ya'." Jimmy said with a smile.
Then she glanced at his colts.
"Oh" he said. "Or shoot ya."
She gulped. "You're... you're not going to shoot me?"
"No, ma'am. I make it a habit not to shoot ladies I'm beholden to."
"Beholden? To ... to me?" She asked with her hand against her heart.
"You saved my nephew's life."
"Oh." She simply said. "Um," she stammered, "I -I I don't know what to say."
Just then Cody and Millie walked up. "Penny, Billy offered to give us a ride home in his wagon." Millie said.
"He did?" Jimmy asked.
"We can wait for Pa" Penny said.
"If we get home soon we can make Pa a pie. You know how he loves apple pie. And help Mama get supper ready."
"I love apple pie." Cody volunteered.
"How exactly are you giving them a ride home if we are supposed to get the feed back to the station?" Jimmy asked.
"It'll just be a minute." Cody replied. "The quicker you stop yapping, the quicker we'll be back."
Jimmy sighed.
"It's ok really, our Pa should only be an hour or two longer. Millie and I were just going to spend the day in town picking up a few supplies and then window shop. Maybe have lunch."
"Oh Penny, if a gentleman offers you a ride home, the polite thing to do is accept." Millie said. "Besides, you have too many packages to carry around for us to do any window shopping."
"You made that up." Penny accused.
"Come on, please?" Millie asked hooking her arm around Cody's.
Now it was Penny's turn to sigh. "Fine." She agreed.
That's how Jimmy found himself driving the wagon with Penny sandwiched between him and Millie on the end of the bench seat. Cody rode in the back , sitting on and leaning up against the feed bags.
"Do I make you nervous?" Jimmy asked her.
"No. Of course not." Penny quickly replied.
Millie chimed in. "Everybody here makes Penny nervous. She thinks everybody's wild. I think it's exciting. Nobody back home walks around with gun belts. Penny's used to her books and schooling and boring stuff like that." She twisted around to look at Cody.
"Ain't nothing wrong with books." Cody contributed. "Or schooling."
"Oh Billy, but you're just fine. You've been on adventures, you've seen excitement."
"If I lived in the city, I think I'd've liked going to school. Maybe even college." Cody said. "When I was 16 I finished school and that was it."
"Penny's gotten as much schooling as she can." Millie said. She turned to face Cody in the back of the wagon. "She graduated at 14! Top of her class."
"What's that mean?" Jimmy asked.
"It means she's smart and got good marks in school." Cody explained.
Millie twisted around again. Jimmy wished she'd stop because with each turn she'd nudge Penny into him which is something Penny obviously wanted to avoid. Mille continued to chatter. Jimmy could see why Cody liked her, despite her being younger, they liked similar things.
They finally arrived at the Logan homestead. Jimmy could see Mr. Logan was out back. He started to come over once he saw the wagon pull up. Cody jumped out the side of the wagon and lifted Millie out., with a twirl and a giggle Millie. This left Jimmy to help Penny. "Oh I'm fine." Penny said.
"It'd be terrible if you tripped and fell on your pretty face." Jimmy said with a smile. He lifted her out of the wagon. "It's not a problem to help you out. You're as light as a feather."
"Thank you." She said then bolted to the front door.
"Hi Pa. Billy gave us a ride home. That way you didn't need to come get us. We got apples. We're going to make you a pie." Millie said. "Him and uh,-" She forgot his name already? Jimmy wondered.
"It's Hickok, sir. James Butler Hickok.." Jimmy said.
"Hello Mr. Logan." Cody said shaking his hand.
"You know, Pa, the Pony Express Riders" Millie said.
"One of you's the Pa to that baby my Penny helped deliver?" Mr. Logan asked.
"No sir. That's Buck. There's seven of us riders at the station. Buck's the only married one. He's back at the station, with the baby." Jimmy said to Mr. Logan, then to Cody. "Where we should be."
Cody clearly ignored him. "We saw the ladies in town and offered them a ride home. To help with all their packages." Cody said. "I wanted to thank you for allowing Miss Penny to come with me that day. Doc Howard said she save Isaac's life."
"I'm sorry to hear about what happened to the girl." Mr. Logan said.
"We are too. Thank you, Sir." Cody said.
"We should get going." Jimmy said.
"Penny was so sad about that." Mr. Logan added. Penny came and stood at the door.
"It wasn't her fault. She done'd the best she could." Jimmy said looking at Penny.
"Billy, maybe you can come back for some pie." Millie said.
"I'd sure love that." Cody said.
"Nice meeting you sir." Jimmy said.
"You too." Mr. Logan replied. "Thank you for safely bringing my daughters home. Saved me a trip and I can continue my work out back."
"We had fun, Pa." Millie said with a smile. "Bye Billy!" Millie bounces and waved. Cody waved back. As they turned down the path, Jimmy saw Penny wave too and it made him smile.
—
"Why'd you go and offer the ride?" Jimmy scolded as they rode off.
"Why not? We got an offer of pie later."
"I didn't. You Did. Cody, Penny didn't wanna be anywhere near me. Couldn't you tell? She was trying to get as far away from me as possible."
"Really? Huh, I didn't notice."
"And I'm the one who's supposed to be the not too bright one." Jimmy said. "Besides, we were supposed to be just a half hour and now we've been gone for over two hours."
"Nobody's ever said you ain't too bright." Then Cody shrugged. "Well, do what you like, But I'm coming back for pie."
A/N I was just going to address a few things from the reviews I've received and I can't reply to. First off thank you for the helpful proofreading comments. I am writing this all on my phone's note pad and sometimes autocorrect takes over. And since I'm doing this on my phone, I'm doing my best at making updates.
In my limited research about canned milk, it was invented in the 1850s. I read it was used for the military and I want to say carnation started marketing it for infants around 1860, but now I can't find that exact reference. But it did exist. Bottles and rubber-ish nipples were also invented around the 1850s. Some used syringes to help feed the babies. But yes, prior to that, it was goats milk , cows milk or a wet nurse.