On The High Plains Ch. 04

I noticed that they had a wide variety of animals in the barnyard, including a sizeable contingent of chickens. I had been thinking for some time about the advantages of raising chickens, both for eggs and for occasional meat, so I asked if he every sold any of them. He informed me that the chickens were his wife's property and he never did anything with them without her approval. We both laughed at that truism.

Back at the house, Joshua asked his wife, Lizbeth, about me asking to buying some chickens. Lizbeth said that she didn't have layers that she'd be willing to sell right then but she had a group of chicks that had just hatched and she'd be willing to work out something. I asked Moxie about possibly trading one of her buckskin dresses and, when she saw it, Lizbeth was ecstatic. She agreed to swap two dozen baby chicks for the dress. We asked if they could hold them until we were headed home and they agreed.

Although the Parkers offered to put us up in their home, we decided that the easiest thing would be just to continue our practice of sleeping under the wagon, so we thanked them for the offer and went out to make our beds. By then we had it down to the work of just a couple of minutes.