The Princess Sisters

Sam Ketchum stared at the two men sitting across from him. They sat on a veranda on the north side of his Texas house, looking across the vast prairie surrounding it. Sam was a large man and the house was large to accommodate him. Everything on his property had that sense of largeness from the windmill and the barn to the symbolic Texas longhorn steer Sam had built on the rise approaching his house. He emptied his coffee cup and held it up for his cook, Chin-se, to fill. “Dolly is being sent to Dallas, to a facility there where they will take care of her for the rest of her days. Since Brandon’s death, oh, Bobby, you remember, Brandon was Dolly’s beau who was killed in Mississippi the last week of the war, in fact after the armistice was signed. She cannot seem to get control of herself. She has lost her will to live and, as such, I don’t know what to do for her. Also,” he threw a piece of paper with writing, several signatures and the imprint of a stamp, “this is my will. As far as the authorities are concerned, I am committing suicide. I will disappear and never be heard of again.”
John Cody, a man who had been with Sam several years, started to object, but Sam held up his hand. “John, we’re brothers, my friend, deeper than any man I’ve ever known. You’ve been my right hand in these last days, you’ve taken charge of the ranch where I couldn’t seem to get things straight. We’ve been through wars, getting our ship sunk from under us, gone through Indian fighting, through getting this great state settled, and we have never argued or quibbled about anything. Don’t start now, please.”
He pushed his chair back from the table and picked up his coffee cup again. “I’m beat. With Sophy gone, and Dolly going, I can ‘t take any more. We fought Indians and came out alive, but this is bigger than any Indian battle. This has destroyed my soul.”
Robert Knight, the younger of the two talking to Sam, listened with his head bowed. “Bobby, you prayin’?” Bobby nodded. “I should thank you, but the dice is cast and it’s come up snake-eyes—double one.” Sam reached out to his young friend. “Stay close to John. You’re a smart lad and that’s why I brought you into the family. I got the best library in Texas, use it. Learn from John, for you will be sole owner someday, and I’ll be watchin’ to see if you’re doin’ it right. You got a substantial amount of money stashed, John knows where it is. You may have to sell off some of the herd after while. When you get a little older, marry a local girl, one who knows what it’s like to live in the desert. And, Bobby, have a houseful o’ kids.”
Bobby blushed a bit, but nodded. Then he asked, “Where will I find a girl? We never have any kind of party or any activity where more than one family comes.”
“Speakin’ o’ that one family, avoid the Haggards if at all possible. Old Joe and I used to be friends, close friends, but lately, he seems to ‘ve been influenced by Junior. They resented the fact the train is stopping on our ranch. I had an agreement with old Joe, but his kid fought it. He tried to finagle the railroad to give them my land south of the tracks, but that didn’t work. I got word from a lawyer friend in San Antonio what they were trying to do, and he stopped it.”
He reached across the table to the youngster. “Bobby, you’re a smart young man. You know numbers, you can read, and you understand what you read. John’s gonna let you take care of the books so you’ll have full responsibility of ordering and the finances.” He turned to John, “Let him make some mistakes, while learnin’, but none too serious. I mean, don’t let ‘im give away the ranch. Check his work once in a while to see if he’s got it down.”
He drained his coffee cup and set it down. “Now as to the men. Silas is part Indian and as good a tracker as there is around, but he’s apt to go off on a tear if you don’t control him. Arlie is young, work with him. Gramps Horner is old and not much help, but if you need someone to shoot the eye out of a squirrel at a hundred yards, he’s the man. But don’t expect too much work out of ‘im. He’s put in ‘is time.”
Sam leaned back in his chair and sighed. “John, find God. Don’t go down the path I have. Let Bobby help you in that. Bobby, I wish I’d had one like you years ago. But it’s too late now, I’m a broken man.”
John leaned forward, elbows on the table, “Sam, I’ve never know you to do a stupid, irrational thing before, but this is one. Take some time off. Go see a doctor in Dallas and get revived but come back to us. We need you.”
“No, boys, I guess my time is up. Take the paper to San Antonio and get it filed. You will then have the farm. Be careful of the Haggards. They’ll cheat you out of everything you own if you let them.
“I’m gonna take one more look upstairs and then I’m gone.” He turned, “Don’t grieve for me, boys, I gotta go. I ain’t no good for nothin’ anymore.” He stuck out his hand and John clasped it with both his, then released it. He grabbed Bobby and drew him tight against his chest, tears showing in eyes of each man. “You’re a good boy, Bobby, and smart. You’ll do all right.”
He turned and walked up the stairs. The pair below listened as Sam’s footsteps halted at the top step. They started again as John nodded. “He’s going to Dolly’s room.”
The footsteps paused for several seconds as John and Bobby sat without a word in the room below. One step, followed by another pause, followed by quick steps leading to the stairway. In a minute, he was back down and, without a word, walked through the door to his horse waiting outside. Then, all they heard was the sound of a horse, galloping off into the distance.

John waited six months, hoping Sam would suddenly, if not miraculously, show up, but it didn’t happen. He and Robert went to San Antonio and were told they had to go to Austin, to the capital. They filed the will and found it had to go through some probate, to verify any charges against the property, and then it was cleared. They verified their brand and changed the owners’ names on it.
A year from the day Sam rode away, they became owners of his ranch. It took two months to do a count of the herd, and to brand all the yearlings that had accumulated for two years, and they found out more cattle than Sam had anticipated. There would soon have to be a shipment to San Antonio

Bobby sat on his front veranda looking south and east and thought of his lot in life. This land, as far as the eye could see, was soon to be his. The town of Haggard was off to the south-east, and even though it carried the Haggard name, it was still on Sam’s ranch land. Who knew what was out there? Sam had insisted he not investigate. Sam knew the Haggards and he knew that Bobby had a quick temper. Someday, maybe, he’d find out. And where was he to find this wife that Sam insisted on. He didn’t remember seeing a young woman in the last year, so, unless he found one in San Antonio, he was probably going to wait a while before that suggestion is fulfilled.
He leaned back in his rocker, laced his fingers across his chest, and looked again to the south-east. One day, perhaps soon, he would find out about the Haggard name.