Page 1 of A Joyful Ring
Chapter One
July 1876
Eastern Oregon
“Thank you kindly, Charlie. I sure appreciate the ride.” Gunder Birke shook hands with the wiry man holding the reins to the team of hulking horses, then swung off the big wagon that had carried him the past few weeks of his journey.
Puffs of dust rose from his feet when he landed on the dirt road and lifted a hand in parting.
Charlie tipped his head to the right. “Just follow that trail and it will take you straight to Lovely.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” Gunder stepped back and watched as the man snapped the lines and continued on his way to Baker City with a load of freight. From what Charlie had said,Baker City was a booming place, serving as a hub of commerce to all the smaller mining towns in the area. Maybe someday Gunder would walk there, since it was a short distance up the road.
Today, though, he was eager to reach his destination of Lovely, Oregon.
Gunder took a folded newspaper clipping from his pocket and read the advertisement he’d come across in an old newspaper he’d caught as it had blown past him on a blustery November day last fall. The advertisement for a town in Eastern Oregon he’d never heard of promised “Lovely is a lovely place to find your fortune and future.”
It seemed the newly established mining town was seeking residents as well as men willing to work in the mine. Gunder didn’t know a thing about mining or life in the West, but he had a strong back and a willingness to learn. He mourned having missed the big gold rushes of previous decades, but his adventurous spirit liked the idea of mining something of value from the earth.
Besides, a town named Lovely had to be a pretty place to live. Although, when he’d questioned Charlie about it, the man had cackled so hard, he might have laid an egg if he’d been a chicken.
Gunder couldn’t imagine a town named Lovely would be anything like some of the ugly, scarred-earth places they’d passed through on their way from Idaho to Baker City.
Regardless, anything seemed better than spending his life like his father, laboring long, endless hours in a Pittsburgh steel mill. Emil Birkewould never complain, but Gunder knew his father was tired of the work. Tired of never getting ahead. Tired of the cough he couldn’t shake and the ache in his back that made him look like a stooped old man, even though he wasn’t yet fifty.
It was a good thing Gunder’s sisters were now old enough to help their mother, Minna, with her business of taking in mending. It seemed there were plenty of snobby folks with more money than sense in Pittsburgh who were willing to pay a skilled seamstress such as Minna to mend tears or alter seams. Amalia and Anna had been trained at their mother’s knee and could wield a needle almost as skillfully as Minna.
Gunder returned the advertisement to his pocket and smiled, thinking of his younger sisters and hoping they both behaved with school out for the summer.
He removed his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow on the dusty sleeve of his shirt before shifting the bag he carried so it rode higher on his shoulder. After he settled his hat back in place, he turned and started down the road toward Lovely. According to Charlie, it was only a few miles and an easy walk through the sagebrush-dotted hills. Gunder intended to press a piece or two of sagebrush and mail it to his sisters. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen or smelled. He broke off a piece of the plant and rolled it between his fingers, breathing deeply of the sharp scent.
Despite the heat beating down on him from the searing July sky and the dust swirling around his feet with each step, he filled his lungs. He’d spenthis entire life in Pittsburgh and never knew air could be so clean and pure, or the sky so richly blue.
He tilted his head back and looked up, watching a few lazy clouds drift by as he continued on his way.
Sweat ran like a river down his back and dripped into his eyes, but he kept walking. He hoped to reach Lovely in plenty of time to figure out a place to stay, and perhaps even inquire about work. He didn’t particularly want to work in the mine, but he was willing to do whatever was needed to secure his place in the growing town.
When he’d first happened upon the advertisement, he’d ripped the page out of the newspaper, stuffed it into his coat pocket, and finished his shift at the livery where he’d worked since he’d finished his schooling at fourteen. He’d been as green as a spring ear of corn when it came to working with horses and the fancy carriages Mr. Adamson kept at the livery, but the man had given him a chance, paid him fairly, and taught Gunder everything he knew about horses.
The one thing he might miss about being in Pittsburgh was getting in daily rides on the incredible horses stabled at the livery. Gunder smirked. Regardless of his love of horses, he would not miss cleaning out stalls or carriages, or polishing tack and harnesses to a high shine.
Gunder shifted the pack he carried, then stopped when a rattling sound yanked his attention to the left side of the road.
A fat diamondback snakecoiled on the rock where it had likely been sunning itself and shook the rattles of its tail in warning.
“Don’t worry. I have no interest in aggravating you, snake,” Gunder said softly, slowly moving away while keeping his eye on the reptile. His nerves remained taut until he was well out of striking distance.
He owed his thanks to Charlie for educating him about the various snakes and creepy-crawlies that inhabited this region. Thanks to the man’s lessons, Gunder knew which ones were deadly and which were harmless.
Gunder glanced around, uncertain how, exactly, to describe the landscape. Sagebrush and dried grass that might have been green back in the spring covered rolling hills, but there were also towering rocks that looked like insurmountable mountains and random trees Charlie had said were junipers.
The sun felt as though it might broil his skin as Gunder walked up a hill. He stopped before he reached the crest and took a drink of water from the canteen he carried. It wasn’t cold, but at least it washed away the dust coating his tongue.
“It can’t be much further,” he said to himself, hoping Charlie hadn’t sent him down the wrong road. Then again, the freighter had been kind and helpful, offering Gunder a ride in exchange for his help caring for the horses. To Gunder, it seemed as though he’d gotten the better end of the bargain, but he certainly hadn’t voiced his opinions.
At the top of the hill, Gunder gaped at the sight of the small, thrown-together town in the valleybetween two hills. To the right of where the road made a T was a mine. An assortment of buildings had been erected in a cleared area, but a massive building constructed into the hill grabbed his attention. He could see men moving like ants around it, and from the noise bellowing from the building, he assumed it had to be the mine. To the left of the mine, a tent city looked as dusty and dirty as he felt. Past the tents were a dozen shacks on either side of a dusty road that must have served as the street. Beyond the shacks, in the town, were a handful of buildings that appeared sturdy enough to survive a strong wind.
If the rough, rugged town was indeed Lovely, he concluded someone had been a terrible liar. There wasn’t a single redeeming quality that he could see about the town, at least from where he stood. Not a thing about the ugly place could be even remotely considered lovely.
