Chapter Three
Jasper left for workimmediately after breakfast the following morning.He’d carried in water for the dishes and Agnes’s bath before breakfast, so she heated enough water to do the dishes, and while she did them, she worked on heating what she would need for her bath.
She’d noticed a tin bathtub leaning against the side of the cabin the previous evening, so she dragged that into the house and filled it.Once she’d immersed herself in water, she began to feel like herself again.Going as long as she had without a bath didn’t feel right.
As she soaked, she thought about what the other ladies could possibly want her to do, but she wasn’t certain if there was really room for her in their business venture.
She’d drained the tub and carefully brushed the tangles out of her hair before Maggie and Belle arrived with Belle’s infant son.“Where’s Sally?”Agnes asked after hugging them each in turn.
“She should be here any moment.She’s probably harvesting and feeding the piglets before she comes,” Maggie told her.
“Piglets?”Agnes asked.“Bacon?”
The others laughed.“Yes, for bacon.But we won’t have any ready until June or July of next year, so don’t get too hopeful,” Belle said.
Agnes invited her friends to sit and served them each a cup of tea.“I didn’t have time to make cookies,” she told them.“I needed a bath.”
“You don’t have to tell us.Remember we made that same journey not too long ago,” Maggie reminded her.
“That’s true,” Agnes said, sitting with the others after setting another cup of tea on the table for Sally once she arrived.“Sally told me you want me to join you.I’ll do just about anything to earn some money.”
“I thought you’d say that,” Belle said.“We have two ideas for you, and you can do both or either of them.The choice is yours.”
“I like choices!”Agnes said.
Sally knocked once and entered, then took her seat in front of the empty teacup.“I hope you didn’t start without me!”
“We didn’t.We started to, but realized you’d want to be part of the conversation,” Maggie said.“Did you get any harvesting done this morning?”
Sally nodded toward the baskets she’d left just inside the door.“Sure did.I have potatoes, turnips, radishes, and beets today.I’m letting the carrots stay in the ground until after the first harvest.My book says it makes them sweeter.”
“You’re the expert,” Belle said before turning to Agnes.“Now, for you.We’d like you to do one of two things, or both as I said a few minutes ago.There’s a need for salmon fishing.It would mean setting nets and smoking the salmon for a week.I thought I hated salmon, but I love it smoked.”
“I’m doing some salmon fishing,” Sally added, “but I have other things I work on as well, and I just can’t do enough for four households.”
“I would be happy to fish,” Agnes said.“I’d need a little help getting everything set up, but once it was, I could handle things from there.”
“You’ll need a smokehouse.Mine is just too small to accommodate what I’m trying to do, and I don’t think I would have the time to keep up with something bigger.”
Agnes nodded.“You have pigs and a garden.”
“I do,” Sally said.“And a husband who likes to be fed on occasion.”
Maggie laughed.“I’m sure he’d be happy to survive on hardtack and jerky.I don’t understand how the men don’t go crazy eating that day in and day out.”
Agnes smiled.“Jasper is the same way.I was shocked at how content he was to eat hardtack and jerky the whole journey.I picked some blueberries one day and gave myself a stomachache from eating so many.They were a welcome sight.”
Sally nodded.“I was hoping to find ripe berries along the way, but we didn’t.”
Belle shook her head.“We’re digressing.The second option is to raise goats.I’d say cows, but they aren’t as hardy as goats, and they tend to die in the winter here.We lost our cow in January.”
“Which is more important?”Agnes asked, wanting to do what was best for everyone.
“They’re equally important.If you choose goats, we’ll all get together to make butter and cheese.If you choose fish, we’ll help build the smokehouse.”
“I think I want to do both.Will that leave something for the others to do?There are at least three more women from the hotel interested in coming here.They’ve spoken to Mrs.Tandy, and they’re waiting on their matches.”
Sally smiled.“That’s what we were all hoping you’d decide.How we work things is that we share equally.For instance, I brought two big baskets of produce from my garden.We’ll split each thing into four shares.What you do with your share is up to you.Canning and putting in the root cellar would be the most obvious choices.Cook it for your supper tonight if that’s what you need to do.”
