Chapter 6: Womenfolk
It was a sunny afternoon at The Harriet Oleson School for the Blind. Hester Sue, the school's resident caretaker, had prepared a large picnic for the students with help from a few other women in town. Fried chicken, hot chili, loads of vegetables, cold lemonade and freshly baked cookies and pies filled the tables set up on the school's front lawn. With the school children all served and sitting together to enjoy the delicious food, the adults were finally able to have something to eat as well.
"Alice, that chili smells wonderful!" Caroline said to her friend as the two each fixed themselves a plate.
"Thanks!" Alice smiled back. "It's the only thing I can smell after having it on the stove all morning."
"Are Jonathan and Andy going to stop by?"
"I'm not sure. Jonathan had to take an order into Sleepy Eye earlier today."
Caroline nodded her head in understanding. "Charles said he and Albert would try to come. Of course, I did have to entice them with some of my pie."
Alice and Caroline both started laughing along with each other, until someone else walking down the hill towards the school caught their attention.
"Yoo hoo!"
Caroline sighed as she saw who it was waving to them. "Mrs. Oleson, I'm surprised you came."
Harriet walked up to Caroline and Alice. "Well, why wouldn't I attend a picnic at my own school? Besides, I wanted to check on the facilities to see if there was any need for repairs."
"Really?" Caroline smiled in disbelief.
"Yes." Mrs. Oleson looked over to the building. "I want my school to look presentable when my cousin comes to visit next month."
"Oh! You must be excited to see your cousin." Caroline said, now understanding the truth behind the kind gesture.
"No, not really. She's coming to gloat about her new lake house." Harriet explained. "But we'll see how much she can gloat after seeing the mercantile, the hotel and blind school all with my name on it."
"I thought Nellie's name was on the hotel." Alice quickly commented under her breath to Caroline, who was trying to hold back a fit of laughter.
Across the lawn at another table, a group of teachers were sitting together, discussing anything but school.
"So, Laura." Adam Kendall turned to his sister-in-law after finishing up the last of his food. "Have you and Almanzo picked a date for your wedding yet?"
Laura sighed. She had been getting that question a lot now that she and Almanzo were only a few months away from marrying. "Not yet, but I was planning on talking about it to him soon, especially since he wants to invite his brother."
"Has Almanzo found a piece of land that he wants to buy yet?" Mark asked. "I remember you told me he was looking around town."
"He's actually been negotiating with Mr. Gray over his property down by the creek." Laura began to explain. "He said he was hoping to have our house completely built before we get married, but first he has to secure the land purchase."
"You must be really excited." Adam said with a smile.
Laura agreed with him wholeheartedly. After spending all that time pining over Almanzo Wilder before he even noticed her, Laura had a whole mess of feelings about finally being able to marry him. "Excited and nervous."
"It's okay to be nervous, Laura." Mary tried to ease her little sister's worries. "I know I was nervous about getting married."
"Really?" Adam chimed in. "I didn't know I was so intimidating."
Just then, Hester Sue snuck up behind the group. "Are you all getting enough to eat?"
"I'd say so." Mary answered. "The food was really good, Hester Sue. Are the children still eating?"
"Well, some of them did just go back for a big round of seconds." Hester Sue said, earning a small laugh from the others.
"Don't let my ma or Mrs. Garvey start doing any dishes." Mary said. "Adam and I can take care of that."
"We can?" Adam asked sarcastically.
"Sounds good." Hester Sue then walked back over to where Caroline, Alice and Harriet were all sitting at a table together. "Thanks again for helping prepare the food."
"It was our pleasure." Caroline responded. "You picked a beautiful day to have a picnic."
"Yes. We sure lucked out on the weather. Now, what are you ladies discussing?" Hester Sue asked while taking a seat beside them.
"I was just saying how I hope a certain business in town can keep its patrons civilized while my cousin is visiting." Harriet answered.
Hester Sue figured she was referring to the Silver Coin. "Caroline, how many people do you see stumbling through Nellie's after spending a night at that saloon?"
Caroline sighed, wishing that the establishment had not been brought up in conversation. "Thankfully, I don't have to see them when they come back, considering that place is apparently open until two. But I do have to serve them the next morning."
"I'm surprised that the place is still open after all this time." Hester Sue shook her head. "How many customers can they really have in such a small town, where most of the men don't even drink?"
"Just enough come in from out of town, I suppose." Caroline answered.
"I was hoping that place wouldn't last a year in Walnut Grove." Alice commented.
Each of the women nodded their heads. "We all did. It's hard to believe that most of us have grown used to it being in our town."
"Does anyone know what the inside of that place looks like?" Hester Sue asked out of plain old curiosity.
"No." Caroline answered. "Charles avoids that saloon at all costs and forbade any of our children from going near it."
"Jonathan told me it's a pretty nice place." Alice sighed, not realizing that she had opened herself up to harassment with that statement.
"Alice Garvey!" Harriet cut in. "I'm surprised you would let your husband frequent that establishment."
"I never said that, Harriet." Alice quickly defended herself. "Jonathan went inside once to see what it was like and hasn't gone back in since."
"Well, I won't approve of Nels taking a single step into that saloon." Harriet said.
"Didn't you and Nels both take jobs at Standish's saloon back in Winoka, Dakota?" Caroline asked, knowing the remark would tick Mrs. Oleson off.
"We had no choice if we wanted to support our family in that dirty city." Harriet explained with an attitude.
"Well, at least it's good to know that the men and boys of Walnut Grove are avoiding the Silver Coin. Wouldn't want anyone to support that place monetarily." Hester Sue commented, sensing some tension developing.
"What do you mean by 'boys'?" Harriet asked with a defensive tone in her voice.
"I mean the growing boys who've been watching that saloon from a far for two years now." Hester Sue began to explain her point. "All three of you have sons, don't you? Now I'm not at all saying that they are ones to do something like that, but aren't you the least bit concerned that one night they might get the idea to sneak out and head on over to the saloon to see what it's like."
"Absolutely not!" Harriet said in outrage that someone would dare think that about her own son. "At least not my Willie."
"Knowing how we all feel about the saloon, I seriously doubt any of our boys would even think about going inside it." Caroline said, masking the reservations that she had about her own son. Albert was no stranger to saloons and knowing how cunning he could be, it had crossed her mind before that her son might get the idea to visit the Silver Coin.
Of course, Charles would never think that about his son.
Back in town, it was turning out to be a slow day for the Oleson's mercantile. Besides a shipment of orders coming in, not a single customer had yet been into the store. That was the reason why Nels let Willie man the counter while he finished putting away the delivery. Willie was crouched behind the counter top, going through the boxes of goods to find where his ma had stashed away the chewing tobacco.
"Hi, Willie!"
Willie jolted up from behind the counter. Looking over, he immediately recognized who was approaching him and his stomach turned with nervousness. "Rachel! Hi. What brings you by?"
Rachel smiled, playing it off like she had not seen Willie jump in fear when she called him. "I just needed to buy some flour and sugar."
"Oh." Willie quickly glanced around, remembering he was the only one in the store. "My pa is outside, but I can help you. How much do you need?"
"A pound of flour and a small bag of sugar." Rachel told him.
"Alright." Willie quickly got to work taking out the bags, trying not to do anything stupid. "That comes out to thirty cents."
Rachel nodded and pulled out the exact change, then handed it over to Willie. "Here you are."
Willie put the money into the store's lock box and turned back to Rachel. "Do you need help carrying those?"
The girl laughed. "I think I can carry one pound of flour just fine."
"Yeah." Willie swallowed hard, believing he had just made a fool of himself. "Well, it was nice seeing you."
"It was nice seeing you too, Willie. Maybe we should do it again sometime."
It took the boy a minute to understand what Rachel was referring to. "Wait, really? Yeah, that'd be great."
"How about we go for a walk later?" Rachel asked, half expecting to get shot down. Maybe the girls at school were only messing with her, saying Willie had been staring at her in class just to see if she would do anything to embarrass herself.
"Wait. You want to go on a walk with me?"
"If you don't want to, that's fine. It was silly of me to ask." Rachel quickly started to take back the offer and turned around to walk off.
"Rachel, wait!" Willie ran up from behind the counter when he noticed Rachel was starting to leave. "I'd love to go on a walk with you. How about this Saturday?"
"Okay." Rachel smiled, internally relieved and also very happy that Willie had agreed to spend time with her. "I'll see you Saturday then."
"Yeah. See ya' Saturday." Willie smiled back. "Bye, Rachel."
"Bye, Willie."
Just as Rachel walked out of the mercantile, Willie could not help himself and started jumping up and down with excitement. He could not remember a time when he was this happy. Wait until Albert and Andy hear about this the next time they all go over to the Silver Coin.
