Chapter 10

Seeing that everyone was finished eating, and that the table in front of the guest of honor was cleared and cleaned, Josiah rose to his feet and clapped his large hands together.

"Well one gift is been delivered and received." Josiah smiled toothily at his audience. "Again, thank you, ladies. You certainly outdid yourselves. I do believe these fine women have one more gift to bestow. Mrs. Potter?"

Mrs. Potter, accompanied by many of the other women from town, stood up. "Rose and Agnes, you can come in now," she called out.

Two of the town's more elderly women walked into the room carrying a large colorful quilt. The smiles on their wrinkled faces were quite contagious.

"Psst..stand up." Chris urged.

Vin stood up from his seat as the two women approached.

Mrs. Potter stepped forward. "The women of this community would like to present you with this quilt, Mr. Tanner. We hope it brings you many years of warmth and comfort as you have comforted us protecting this town."

The gift was placed into the tracker's arms.

He looked down at the gift in awe. "It's beautiful," he said, "and very soft." Looking up he addressed the ladies. "I don't know what to say. I've never had such a nice blanket. When I sleep with it, I'll think of all of you. Thank you very much."

The women smiled and some of them, particularly Rose and Agnes giggled like little girls.

Josiah thanked the women and then motioned for Nettie and Casey to approach the birthday boy.

Casey placed their present on top of the quilt while Nettie, not being shy – or ever having been timid, reached across the table and pulled Vin into a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek causing him to blush.

"Enough of that, Vin Tanner," she warned. "You had better get used to that, I have a feeling I won't be the last one kissing you tonight. Anyway, Casey has a couple of things for you. Go on, open them up."

Vin's long fingers pulled on the twine holding the brown-papered wrapped gift to reveal three pairs of socks and a package of spruce chewing gum (2).

"I could use new socks," Vin said. Holding up one of the pairs. One of the socks was a couple inches shorter than its mate.

"That's the pair I made," Casey admitted. "Guess I didn't get one long enough – I'm just learning how to knit."

The people in attendance giggled.

"Makes no matter," Vin said. "Can't see them when I got my boots on anyway."

Casey smiled.

"And spruce gum. Thanks."

Nettie leaned forward. "And some people here think you chew tobacky," she teased.

With a grin, Vin pocketed the gum and thanked her again

Mary's turn was next. When he opened her present, he found writing paper and pencils.

After Vin thanked her, Nathan stood up. "Vin, my gift to you is that of persuasion."

Vin tilted his head to one side contemplating the healer's choice of words.

"I'm happy to say that I was able to convince Miss Fuller to play a couple songs for us."

Vin looked surprised, but also happy.

"C'mon, now, Miss Fuller, no need to be shy," Nathan encouraged. He placed the chair he'd been using in the center of the room, and beckoned the young schoolmarm to sit and play.

Hannah grasped her concertina and moved towards the vacant seat. "I'm afraid, I'm not much of a singer," she admitted. "But I could hardly refuse to provide a little entertainment for this most important occasion, especially when asked so nicely." She nodded toward Nathan. "I also understand that Mr. Tanner has been listening discreetly outside when I play for your children."

Vin blushed, but nodded his head and smiled.

"I also understand that he is not alone."

The other people nodded their own heads and laughed at themselves.

"The chorus will be repeated, so if you would like to join in, please do so. I would welcome the company."

Hannah deftly played the opening notes of her first song, and by the last couple of verses, most of the people were singing along with her, including Vin Tanner.

Leaning back in his seat, Nathan, observed the people around him and smiled. It wasn't very often seven men could meld together to form a family of their own. But they had done so – and done so very successfully. He didn't know of many families with as strong of a bond and he and his "brothers" had. Not only did they have their family, but they had also succeeded, in making the town a safer place, and thus a more cohesive community. The healer sighed. Life right now was good, and catching the twinkling eye of Raine who had come down from the reservation for the party, he thought that it might even get better in the near future. Drawing in a deep breath he joined with the group's voices to sing the last chorus.

TBC

(2) Spruce Gum: Per Wikipedia, spruce gum is made from the sap of spruce trees. In North America, it is known that spruce gum was chewed by the Native Americans. Spruce gum was later introduced to the early American pioneers and was sold commercially by the 19th century. [Author note: My father used to cut the lumps of spruce gum off the trees for me and my sister to chew when we went hiking up in the Central Maine woods. Got to admit, can't say I was very fond of it.]