Gracie’s Trip to Martha Washington
An excerpt from Gracie’s Babies Chapter 8
Gracie had never been much further North than Rinnie and they were long since passed that little settlement. She knew they would cross Clear Creek although it was hard to imagine how that creek could wind around into their path again. The same water ran below the hill not far from the Elmore farm and as children Gracie’s aunts and uncles had taken them down to it to wade and fish. There weren’t many fish to catch, probably because there were always lots of little bare feet churning up the mud.
Gracie had no more begun to wonder about the creek when the little buckboard wagon started down the steepest hill she could imagine. The road turned first to the right then to the left and then back again. Gracie tried to look up at the morning sun to determine whether they were headed east or west but the curves were so sharp she couldn’t tell. She saw that Stephen was practically standing on the brake and he spoke gently to his horse, urging her to keep calm as the shafts pressed her down the steep grade. Gracie braced her feet and held on to the low back of the wagon seat, and she prayed.
Looking ahead of the horse, Gracie could see the tops of trees seemingly at eye level and she might have thought they had miraculously taken flight except that the bone-jarring ruts and rocks reminded her they were on very solid ground.
When she thought neither she nor the horse could bear that hill any longer, the sound changed as the iron-shod horse stepped onto the plank bridge. On the north side of the bridge, Stephen stopped for a rest. “Whoa girl, we’ll let you blow here before we try to climb the other side. You know Gracie I think it’s as hard on her to hold the wagon back on the downhill side as it is to pull up the other side.”
Gracie wondered if it would be as hard on the wife as it was on the horse going up the other side. But she took some deep breaths and didn’t mention her fears.
After a few minutes rest, Red, as Stephen called the sorrel mare, began pawing with her front feet and Stephen declared her ready to try the hill. With a gentle cluck he told the horse he, too, was ready and they were moving again. The climb was just as steep and just as curvy but much slower, so Gracie didn’t mind it so much. She could see the horizon ahead before she spoke again.
“Is this the way we will always have to travel when we visit my family?”
Stephen chuckled and winked at her as he said, “Nah, we can always walk, then we can cross the swinging bridge at the Ferry Bend.”
Swinging bridge, Gracie thought, would that be any better than this ride?