CHAPTER ELEVEN

Adam's melancholia lasted into October. Josie was able to coax him into spending more time with the family, but he typically sat at the far end of the settee, not engaging in conversation. She consulted all her medical books, trying to find a treatment that would bring him back around. Unfortunately, all her books suggested the same thing: a healthy diet, adequate sleep, and hard work, all of which Adam already partook in. When one book suggested horseback riding as an effective therapy, she nearly threw her book into the fireplace. She gave up on the "experts" and returned to getting Adam out of the house and among friends as often as she could.

One evening in mid-October, Josie was in the kitchen with Ben peeling apples to make applejack for Christmas when there was a frantic pounding on the front door. Hoss beat them to the door where Sheriff Coffee's deputy, Henry, stood, panting.

"Dr. Cartwright!" he said, catching sight of Josie. "Doc Martin sent me. He needs you at the clinic. Seems a whole passel of miners came in from the camps, every single one of them with influenza."

"Angels and ministers of grace, defend us," Adam quoted softly from behind Hoss.

"I'll be right there!" Josie said. She raced upstairs and grabbed her medical bag as well as a carpetbag that she stuffed with extra clothes. She'd likely be in town for several days, at least.

When she returned to the living room, she gathered her uncle and cousins together. "Listen to me." She made eye contact with each of them in turn. "None of you is to step foot off this ranch until I say it's clear, do you understand? Influenza is highly contagious, and I'll not have any of you catching it."

The four men nodded. Even Ben was willing to concede his authority to Josie in this situation. He'd lived through epidemics before and wasn't about to take any chances.

"That goes for Hop Sing and the hands too. I'll be back as soon as I can." She turned to leave, but Adam caught her arm.

"Don't go," he said, his eyes burning with anxiety. "You could get sick."

"I have to go," she said, brushing his cheek with her palm. "I'll be fine." She pulled out of his grasp, kissed each of them goodbye, and then she and Pip sped out of the house behind Henry.

The situation in town was as bad as Josie could have imagined. Six miners, four women, and three children had flooded Dr. Martin's clinic late that afternoon. They all had the same symptoms: fever, chills, headache, cough, body aches, and runny noses. Dr. Martin immediately diagnosed influenza and sent for Josie. Thirteen seriously ill patients were enough for any doctor, and Paul Martin knew the situation would only get worse. Once influenza took hold in a town, it swept through like wildfire.

When Josie arrived, Dr. Martin and a few townsmen were moving the ill people from the clinic to Widow Hawkins' boardinghouse across the street. There weren't enough beds in the clinic for everyone, and the widow had graciously offered the use of her boardinghouse. Josie tossed her carpetbag in the bedroom over the clinic and rushed to the boardinghouse.

She and Dr. Martin worked through the night trying to lower fevers and keep their patients comfortable. Even Pip assisted, sticking close to the three sick children and barking for Josie whenever one of them needed her. By morning, all the patients showed signs of improvement except for one of the children. The four-year-old had already developed pneumonia by the time his parents brought him into town, and despite the best efforts of Virginia City's two doctors, the little boy died in Josie's arms around three a.m. There was no time for grief. Josie pulled a sheet over the child's face and returned to work.

As the day wore on, six more people arrived at the boardinghouse, all of them sick with the flu. Josie wiped her brow and turned to Dr. Martin.

"This is going to get worse before it gets better, Paul. We need more help."

He agreed and sent Widow Hawkins to round up as many people as she could who would be willing to help tend to patients. She came back two hours later with three young ladies in tow. Josie nearly burst into tears when she saw Sally Cass, Patience Lovejoy, and Margaret Crawford coming to her rescue. She hugged them all and ushered them inside, where she gave Margaret instructions for quinine dosages and Sally for sponge baths. She set Patience to work heating up chicken broth and brewing pot after pot of willow bark tea, which Widow Hawkins delivered to the patients.

By the end of the third day, twenty-seven patients were crammed into the boardinghouse. The two doctors and four nurses took turns sleeping in three-hour shifts so there were always at least four people looking after patients. By then, however, several of the ill, particularly the oldest and the youngest, were succumbing to pneumonia, and Sally visited the undertaker with the solemn request that he build more coffins.

On the fourth day, Sheriff Coffee and his deputies began carrying bodies to the undertaker, freeing up the beds for the patients who continued to stream into the boardinghouse.

Back on the Ponderosa, the Cartwright men obeyed Josie's orders to stay put. Ben, Hoss, and Little Joe used the time to relax, read, and play checkers, but Adam couldn't sit still. Josie sent Pip home on the fifth day with a note describing the situation in town and reiterating her command for them to stay on the ranch. Adam sent Pip back with a note telling Josie they loved her and to let them know if she needed anything, but it felt so inadequate. He was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace on the sixth night when his father finally reached the end of his rope.

"Adam!" Ben barked, looking up from his book. "Quit wearing a rut in the floor and sit down."

"Sorry, Pa," Adam said. He dropped onto the settee and began jiggling his right leg up and down as he tapped his fingers on his knee. Little Joe and Hoss looked over from their game of cards and snickered.

Ben sighed. "Son, what's eating you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

Ben set his book aside. "Yes, you do. Ever since the Battle of Antietam you've been melancholy and irritable. Now you're fidgeting like a schoolboy in a boring lecture. So, either come out with it or let it go!"

Adam heaved a sigh of his own. "It's just people, Pa." When Ben said nothing, Adam reluctantly continued. "I always thought that humanity was fundamentally good. Even after this summer, when I saw all the food the ladies from town had brought, I could still believe that. But Antietam proved me wrong. Even President Lincoln proved me wrong. I'm sure he means well with this Emancipation Proclamation, but even he wouldn't issue it out of the goodness of his heart. Even he has an ulterior motive. The world just isn't the good place I thought it was." He dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck.

"So that's what it is," Ben said. He had expected Adam's troubles were something along this line.

"That would be it."

"Son, you want the world to be a good place? Then go make it one. Stop moping about the house, and go make the world a good place, like I've always known you can."

Adam looked up, a new light in his hazel eyes. "That's a great idea!" He jumped from his seat and took off for his bedroom.

"Where are you going?" Impulsivity was Little Joe's department, not Adam's.

"To pack some clothes," Adam called down the stairs. "I'm going to town."

"You can't! Josie said to stay on the ranch."

Adam reappeared at the top of the stairs. "That's why I'm going. You read Josie's note. They're up to their ears in patients. She would never say so, but I know she needs more help."

Ben sighed. "That's not exactly what I meant about making the world a good place, Adam," he said. "It's wonderful that you want to help, but influenza is highly catching and dangerous. You can't go putting yourself at risk—"

"Why not? Josie is. Even when there isn't an epidemic, she puts herself at risk every single day for the good of others." He paused, then continued more quietly. "Just like all those Union soldiers at Antietam."

Ben sighed again. "All right, son. If you feel that's what you have to do."

Adam grinned and ducked back into his room to finish throwing some clothes and a couple books into his carpetbag. Within thirty minutes, he was mounted up on Sport and heading for Virginia City.