Chapter 4
"Now that our littlest brother has been named," Josiah smiled at JD, who had fallen back asleep after his initial excitement over being tossed into the trash, "We have some planning to do. We're going to need milk, bottles, and nappies for JD, plus supplies for us."
"We're also going to need horses, a wagon, or some other way to leave here," Buck added.
"How much money do we have Ezra?" Josiah's gaze settled on the slender boy sitting to his right.
"After tonight's successes, we now have eighteen dollars and fifty-two cents," Ezra supplied with a grin.
"Golly, that's a lot!" Vin exclaimed.
"It's a nice start on a nest egg if we were staying here," Nathan informed Vin, "But we're going to need a lot more before we can leave."
"Oh," Vin's smile fell.
The talk of money suddenly reminded Christ of the bulging envelope he had seen fall out of the pocket of whoever had thrown JD away. He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Josiah, "The person who dumped JD dropped this."
Josiah opened the envelope and peered inside. His eyes widened as he stared at the large row of bills inside. He quickly counted it, "There's five thousand dollars in here."
"Now that's a lot of money," Buck declared.
"It's going to get us the supplies we need, plus train tickets out of here," Nathan said.
"We can't let anyone know we have it," Josiah said looking at each brother in turn, "We'll use our nest egg money to buy the things we need for JD. In the morning, I'll go and purchase our tickets. When we get further west, we'll buy the rest of the supplies we need."
After a few more moments of discussion, the brothers settled down for the night. Chris resumed his earlier position as sentry at the mouth of the alleyway, while the rest returned to their pallets within their small enclosure. Josiah and Nathan set JD's basket between their, so that if one failed to be awakened by his cries, the other wouldn't. It was with some relief that Josiah discovered a bottle of milk, another nightgown, and a couple of nappies inside JD's basket, along with their new brother. Reassured they had something to feed JD until morning arrived, the eldest brother fell fast asleep.