Trego. J. D. Oliver

righteous people didn’t like women to wear pants, I could feel myself swelling every time she bent over. That brought to mind,

      “When do you want to get married?” I asked her.

      “Now! Is that too quick?” She said, as she came over and straddled my lap, kissing me.”

      “No, that’s not too quick, do you know where this so called preacher lives?”

      “Yes, I know he’s home, I just passed his house.”

      “Come on then, lets the three of us go over there. Jake can be our witness.”

      He was a little cantankerous at first. He was spouting something about me not being a member of his faith. I looked him in the eyes and shifted my right hand gun around just a mite. He blanched and said, “Well, I guess I can make an exception. Who’s going to be your witness?”

      “My friend Jake, he’s right outside the door.”

      “Well, bring him in then, we’ll get started.”

      I brought Jake in, he said, the preacher I mean, not Jake. “He can’t be your witness, he’s an animal.”

      “I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where a dog can’t be a witness.”

      “He can’t write his name, that’s one reason.”

      “Shoot half of the men in this town can’t write their names, they have to just make their mark. Jake can make his mark, just as good as they can.” Brie was almost choking, trying to keep from laughing. I shifted my left hand gun around, the Preacher said, “well alright then, what are your full names?

      He balked again, when I said Trego, with no other name. He really pitched a fit. I gave in, I gave him the name of Shelby. Brie gave her name, Brie Colleen Stevens. He made short work of the ceremony, which I was glad of.

      When it came time to sign the wedding certificate, we did. I took some ink and put on Jake’s paw and had him press it on the paper right next to his name of Jake Shelby. The preacher was the last one to sign, Ichabod Plower. He sure looked like his name. He cleared his throat, “This has to be sent to the court house at Dillon, so they can register it, then they will send it back. That’ll be ten dollars.”

      I took out a double eagle, “keep the change, buy your wife something nice with it.”

      That made him smile, one way to get on the good side of a preacher was to give them money. The three of us left his den and went out to the clear clean mountain air. It had started to snow again.

      Brie said, “You really don’t like Preacher’s do you?”

      “What gave you that impression?”

      “Just your general demeanor, sometimes the expression on your face was one of complete disdain.”

      “I’m sorry Honey, they do seem to rub me the wrong way. But why do they always say ‘blessed be the name of God’, but never use his name? They use the same King James version, and it’s right there at a lot of places, one of them being Psalms 83:18.”

      “It is? I guess I’m just as dumb as them. What is it?”

      “It is Jehovah. But you know even the Crow Indians use a name for him, they call him Akbaatatdia. And the Cheyenne say Ma’heo’o. Why can’t these stupid pulpit pounders use his name, not just his title?

      “Wow! I’m sorry I got you started, I won’t mention it again.”

      “No, I’m the one who is sorry. This is the happiest day of my life and I go off on a tangent. Please forgive me sweetheart?”

      “Sure I do. What do you want to do, it’s almost supper time?” Brie said, snuggling close to me.

      “First I’m going to walk you home, then I’m going to bank the fire at the jail, then take a quick turn around town, is that alright?”

      “Sure, it’s not like we can go anywhere on a honeymoon. This snow is just going to get deeper.”

      “What better honeymoon could we have then to snuggle deep into your featherbed on a snowy night?” I said.

      “Hmm, you’re right, I can hardly wait. Don’t take too long, we’ll eat in the kitchen, by ourselves…” She said as she closed the kitchen door.

      Jake followed along behind me. I turned and went toward the barn, I wanted to check Jim. The barn was a medium size one, big for what it was used. That was the milk cow, my horse and in one corner the chicken roost. The temperature felt like it was in the high thirties or low forties. Alright if it didn’t get below zero outside.

      The secret about having a warm barn, was having the proper animal to space ratio. This barn needed a few more. In the old country, my Dad told me, they built the family living quarters above the animal barn, that way not only the barn stayed warm, but also the humans.

      I fed Jim and the milk cow. Then tossed the chickens some feed. Caitie came in to milk the cow. “Hey, it’s getting a little cold in here.” She said.

      “Yeah, I noticed that. I’ll try and remedy that.”

      “How? Are you going to sleep out here? Brie wouldn’t like that.” Caitie said, with a smirk on her face.

      “No, I’m not going to sleep out here. I noticed a few people in town with just lean-to’s for their horses. I’ll offer them free space for them, that’ll raise the temp in here.”

      “I know of some, Old Lady McBeth has a couple of mares, I don’t think she even has enough feed for them, heck she might even give them to you. Her place is two house’s west of Evan Blythe’s place.”

      “Fine, I’ll check. Jake, you stay with Caitie, help her with the milking.” He looked at me. He didn’t want to stay, but I didn’t want a stray shot killing him, when they were aiming at me.

      I made my rounds. Everything looked pretty quite. This snow was probably making everyone hunt the back side of their stoves. The towns’ many dogs were evidently snug somewhere also.

      As I passed Blythe’s house, their shutters were closed tight. At the McBeth house, I seen smoke coming from her chimney. At least she had heat. There were two horses backed into a small lean-to, trying to stay dry. There was a very small stack of hay close by. Not enough to last for the next few days. I went over to them.

      They came over to me. Looked to be five or six year olds. They nuzzled my hand. I tossed them a little hay. They went after it, like this was the first hay they had today. I went to the door. I knocked. I heard a ‘come in’, I called out, “Miss McBeth, it’s the Marshal, I need to talk to you.”

      “Well come in then, if you want to talk.” She called out. I opened the door and went in. She must have been in her sixty’s, still spry enough.

      “Mam, I was just looking at your horses, you don’t seem to have very much hay for them, did you feed them today?”

      “My goodness, I forgot, I’m sorry I’ll do that right now.” She said, reaching for a wrap.

      “That’s alright, I tossed them some hay. Do you ride them much?”

      “Heaven’s no, they belonged to my late husband. I don’t know what I’m going to do when that hay runs out.”

      “I may have a solution for you. But let me ask you this, would you be willing to sell them?”

      “Who would buy them? It’s winter, they’d just have to feed them through the winter.”

      “Well, I might be in the market, how much do you want for them?”

      She looked at me, “Well I don’t want to be greedy, but I don’t have much money, would you be able to pay a hundred?”

      “Sure, no problem,” I said, as I reached into my pocket and gave her two hundred dollars in greenbacks.

      “Oh,