Into Chelan and On to the Ranch

The train between Chelan and Seattle was about the slowest train he had ever been on. The air was cool, so the fellas were glad that the doors on the rail car were closed all the way. The nights in Washington State, even in mid-June, were not like Iowa or Texas. It was more like being in the mountains of Colorado in May. Not freezing, but the kind of cool damp weather that gives you a chill.

The other men were not talking much to Harley. He wanted to ask them why but hesitated. He wasn’t sure what was going on. Perhaps they were waiting for him to talk about working for his uncle. Maybe they were not sure if he would keep his word. He decided to get everything out in the open. That’s what his father would have done.

“Sure been quiet, guys. What ya thinking about?” Harley opened the conversation with a simple question.

“Nothin’.”

“Really, I’ve been thinking about why all you guys are so quiet. Nobody’s talking to me. Did I do something? Are you mad at me?” Harley quizzed them further.

“I ain’t mad,” said Leo.

“I ain’t mad,” said Clarence.

“I ain’t mad, either,” said Ed.

“Me neither,” added Adam.

“Well, then why the silent treatment?” pushed Harley.

Leo looked at him. Kept looking at him. Harley knew that Leo wanted to speak up.

Clarence noticed Leo’s stare and said, “Go on, Leo, tell him what we is thinkin’.”

“Well, alright. Here goes. It ain’t bad, Harley, it’s just tough. What if yer uncle can only hire a couple of us. Who are you going to choose? Or who is he gonna choose? We all came all this way together, and we wanna work together. But we ain’t sure that’s gonna get to happen, ya know what I mean?”

Okay, Harley thought. They are doubting my role here. I told them they would all get work and now they’re wondering what this setup at my uncle’s ranch is going to look like. They’re right. We came all this way, and they all want to work!

Harley looked at them. Looked at them hard. They had believed until the barn. That dog was really the first bit of trouble they had together, and it had spooked them. These men were not confident at all. It had just been too long since they had an honest job that lasted more than a day. Each one had been beaten down so many times. Harley could not be mad at them for not talking to him. They didn’t trust other people. They had not even talked much about this with each other. It was sad. Just plain sad. Well, he figured, they would be glad again when they got to Uncle Gene’s. He was a generous man with a lot of friends. These four other fellas he was with had gone through some terrible times that Harley couldn’t even imagine. They were unsure, anxious, and afraid to hope. He wanted to assure them of exactly what Uncle Gene would do or say, but Harley was not sure himself. He knew Gene would try to help, but there was no way Harley could give them a guarantee of a particular job at a particular ranch.

Ideally, they could all bunk and work together. Worst case, they would be working on separate ranches and only see each other once in a while, maybe once a month or less. Maybe they would never see each other again, but they would be working. They weren’t family after all…what were they worried about? These guys were not as tough as they acted. They were worried about getting split up! Who would have believed that? Then Harley thought about what his father had told him about the wheat crew he worked with and how they had all gotten so close, sleeping together for all those months. And suffering the death of that guy by the twister. Men had feelings. He was going to have to stay confident that Uncle Gene could hire them all. They would find out soon enough.

He temporarily satisfied their concern with the assurance, “It’s summer on a giant ranch. There will be more work than we can do.” All four of them seemed to relax a bit after hearing that.

Clarence smiled a little and said, “Yeah, a big ol’ ranch will have a whole lot of work to do.”

Chelan came up fast. They hopped off while the train was slowing down, which was a good thing, because it never did stop. Shortly after they hopped off, it started to speed up again. Apparently this was just a mail drop and the train was gone. Got lucky on that one, Harley thought.

There sure wasn’t much to see in Chelan. The railroad tracks were right behind the stores on the main street. Wagons and cars were on the street together. They still used a lot of horses here. Everyone was wearing cowboy boots. Harley had to find out where there was a telephone he could use. He had to get a message to Uncle Gene that he was almost to the ranch, and he needed to find out exactly where the ranch was.

He decided to go to the sheriff’s office, or whatever law officer they had there in Chelan. He brushed his hair back and put on a clean shirt he had saved in his bindle. He looked pretty respectable, but what made him stick out from the locals was that he wasn’t wearing cowboy boots. His regular leather shoes made him look like a city slicker, for sure. He got a few stares and a few smiles. Harley had a friendly face so he felt confident he would be able to find someone to help him. He left the other men out on the edge of the downtown buildings, near the livery stable and blacksmith. This was definitely not Des Moines. Not a lot of livery stables left there.

He did not see a sheriff’s office so he decided to ask. He stuck his head into a barber shop. There were a couple of men in there, one in the barber chair and one waiting.

“I need to get a message to my uncle, Gene Van Voorhis, who lives about thirty miles east of here on a ranch. Any idea about how I could do it?” He decided honesty was the best policy, so he added, “I’ve ridden the trains all the way from Des Moines, Iowa to get here and I need to let him know I made it. I got some friends with me and we’re gonna work on his ranch this summer. You ever heard of him?”

They started at him for a minute. Then they looked at each other. The barber said, “When’s the last time you had a haircut, boy? Looks like it’s been a month full of Sundays!” All three men laughed.

“Been a while, that’s for sure. Probably since before I graduated from high school about six weeks ago. Been spending my money on food, not looking pretty.”

“Don’t worry, you ain’t pretty, trust me, not pretty at all,” said the barber. The men laughed again.

“My uncle?” Harley asked again.

“Oh yeah, I know him. Matter of fact, he was just in town a couple of days ago, but I’m sure he’s back at his place by now. You should ask at the livery stable, boy. I think he bought some horses from Jack, the blacksmith. Maybe you could deliver them for Jack. That would give you a ride to the ranch. Jack’s been puttin’ new shoes on all of them before he takes ‘em out there.”

“Thanks, mister…maybe I’ll come back and get a haircut in a while…like a month or something…I need to earn some money first. I’m gonna go see Jack now.” He could hear the men laughing again as he dashed out the shop, nearly knocking over a chair just outside the door

Harley hurried back to the livery stable and right out in front was a burly man in in big black apron. It had to be Jack. Harley ran right up to him and introduced himself with, “Hi, I’m Harley Seibert, from Des Moines, Iowa. My uncle’s Gene Van Voorhis. The barber just told me you sold him a horse or two last week. Are they still here? Can I take ‘em to him?”

“Whoa, young fella!” The blacksmith had a blacksmith voice. It absolutely boomed and bounced off the walls of the surrounding buildings. It sounded like he was hollering down a big canyon.

“How do I know yer a tellin’ the truth? You could just be a slick young horse thief from Sacramento for all I know!”

“Well, I am telling the truth. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a hold of Uncle Gene to let him know I’m this close. I know he has a telephone, but I don’t know his number and I don’t know where there is a telephone in this town. Do you? I really want to call him ‘cause he invited me. I just graduated from high school and I gotta earn some college money.” Harley let that slip out by mistake. His hand flew over his mouth before he said anything else stupid.

“Slow down here, fella. That’s too much to even remember. I can help ya find a telephone. Go straight across the square over there to the Blue Mountain Hotel. They got one. Tell them Jack wants you to call yer uncle. Then tell Gene to give me a call back at home tonight and if you is tellin’ the truth, I’d be much obliged if you could take the horses out to him. Save me a trip. I’d even pay you a little something for saving me a couple of days and having to pay someone to watch the livery here.”

Harley hollered “okay” over his shoulder as he ran across the square to the hotel. He had to slow down and catch his breath before he got inside though, because he could tell from the lace curtains in the front windows that is was a pretty fancy place for a town like this and he could not run in there like a crazy fool. He smoothed down his hair and tucked in his shirt a little tighter. He wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve and put on a pleasant smile. He opened the door gently and stepped into a large lobby with a sweeping staircase off to the left. The front desk was on the right and there was a fortyish man behind it, writing in a ledger book like his mother used to keep for the lawyer in Valley Junction.

“Hello, sir. Jack from the livery sent me over just now to use your telephone. I am Gene Van Voorhis’s nephew, and I have come to visit him. I need to let him know I am almost there.” Harley said in his most mannerly tone.

“Well, come on in. I can arrange that. Did you take the train into town? I thought the passenger train came yesterday.”

“Oh,” Harley covered for himself, “I have been here a while now. I do need to telephone him, though.”

“Certainly, I’m sorry. Come back to the office here.” The man gestured Harley behind the desk and he followed the man into a small office.

“I don’t know his number,” Harley repeated himself.

“That’s alright...Irene is our operator, and she will plug into your uncle’s phone line for you. You just tell her his name and she will ring him for you. You have used a telephone before, correct?

“Oh yessir. I have. We have an operator, too. Marlys, back in Iowa. But I usually tell her the number.”

“That’s not necessary here, young man, Irene knows everyone’s number. There aren’t that many of us with phones.”

Harley picked up the phone receiver and clicked it twice to signal the operator, just like at home. The clerk nodded his approval. A young woman answered and said “Number, please?” just like Marlys did at home.

“I don’t know his number, but I need to speak to Gene Van Voorhis, please,” Harley informed her.

“Certainly, one moment please sir.” cooed the operator. She sounded pretty to Harley, but he did not know what made him think about that…about what she looked like. He guessed he had been hanging out with just fellas for too long.

Harley heard what he realized was his uncle’s ring. It was ‘three longs’. That’s three long rings. His ring at home was ‘one long, two shorts’. He waited and waited. It rang about ten times. Then eleven, then twelve.

“Do you want me to keep ringing for Gene?” asked Irene.

“Sure, if you have time,” Harley replied.

“Sometimes it takes a long time for him to answer. He doesn’t just sit around the house. He had a ringer installed outside on the back of his barn, so he could hear the phone, but then it takes him a few minutes to get into the house,” she explained. “Sometimes, I have had to let it ring thirty times. Is that alright?”

“I don’t want to bother him, but I really need to talk with him. So I guess you should just keep ringing.”

Just then, he heard Uncle Gene’s voice on the other end of the line. “Hello there,” he said. “Who is this?”

“It’s Harley, Uncle Gene, I made it! I made it!”

“Well, hooray for you, son, where are you?”

“I’m at the Blue Mountain Hotel in Chelan and using their telephone.”

“How was your trip? Are you alright? Are you hungry? Shall I come and get you tomorrow?” Uncle Gene fired off questions like bullets.

“Well, that’s why I am calling. I spoke with Jack at the livery stable. He wonders if I could deliver your new horses to you. He has new shoes on all of them. Do you want me to bring them tomorrow?”

“By yourself? You think you can do that by yourself? That’s a big job, Harley. I know you are a farm boy, but those are four good-sized horses I bought.”

“I met some fellas on the train, Uncle Gene. They can help me. They are good guys. We have been together on the rails since Omaha. I don’t think I could have made it out here without them. They are hoping they can work for you too, or maybe for another ranch around here. Huh?”

“Let’s get the horses here first, Harley. There is plenty of work around here this time of year. We can find work for them. How many?”

“Four other guys besides me, Uncle Gene. Two young guys like me and two are a bit older. They are all smart men, I think.”

Gene was anxious to get his horses, Harley figured, because he had work for them to do. His uncle was done with the chit-chat. “Okay, Harley. Tell Jack I will telephone him tonight at home, and you and your crew can head out here with the horses tomorrow. There are five of you and only four horses, so someone is going to have to double up.”

“It will work out fine. One young guy is little and he can double up with me. None of us are fat, after hoboing all the way out here.”

“Well, I’m glad you are safe and I will see you in a couple of days. Tell Jack I will telephone him tonight about seven o’clock, okay?”

“Yessir, I’ll tell him. Thank you! See you soon.”

“Be careful. Watch for bears and snakes. Make sure you tie them horses up good at night; you will need to camp one night. Go to the dry goods store and tell the owner, Mike, that Gene Van Voorhis wants your supplies on the tab I have there. He can confirm it with Jack if he wants to. Get yourselves a decent meal or two so you are all ready to go to work when you get here, understand?”

“Yessir. I’ll take care of everything! Thank you.”

“Goodbye now, Harley.”

“Goodbye, Uncle Gene. Thank you very much. See you soon!”

A quick click from his uncle hanging up was what Harley heard. His mother had always said Uncle Gene was a smart man and a good rancher, but he did not like to waste time on small talk. Harley had just discovered that was true. He decided it was probably a good idea to save all the hobo tales he had for when he saw his uncle in person, anyway. He thanked the hotel man and headed back to the livery stable.

The fellas were happy to hear they got to get some food from the store, but Harley had to warn them not to take advantage of his uncle’s generosity. That would not be a good foot to jump off on. They arranged with Jack to sleep inside the livery stable in the tack room. That’s where extra saddles, salves, and such were kept. It sure smelled fresh in there, a little bit like horse medicine, but clean. Not like horse manure.

Fortunately, all the fellas had ridden horses before. Ed said it had been about fifteen years; maybe even a little longer for Adam, but they did not seem worried. All five men went to the store before it closed for the night, so they could get a good start in the morning. They selected jerky, pickles, and bread, along with apples, and beans, of course. He also thought he’d better get a length of rope in case they had to tie the horses together at night. Harley had no idea how or even if they would be able to make a meal out of what they charged on Gene’s account, but they watched what they spent while they also managed to get a favorite thing for each man. They all felt like rewarding themselves for such a successful rail ride to the west coast. All of them agreed it was a good thing they did not try to go through California. Who knows what disaster might have befallen them there?

They ate a cold dinner, not wanting to start a cooking fire in or even near the livery stable. It was the best they could do, and everyone was chatting about what warm home-cooked food they were going to look forward to eating when they had their jobs set up. No one seemed to care anymore if it was with Uncle Gene or not. When Harley told them that he was sure there was plenty of work on the ranches, the former hobos practically cheered.

They bedded down in the tack room for the night and were soon all sleeping. It was an uneventful night, which gave no indication of the trauma to be suffered soon enough.