The Old Barn (Part Two) (standard:other, 2036 words) [2/4] show all parts
Author: Kenneth Nash	Added: Feb 20 2006	Views/Reads: 2471/1778	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Part Two Of "The Old Barn"

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

could see no soldiers. Jeremiah's anger had now turned to raw fear and 
despair. 

The old man looked to be about eighty. Skin wrinkled and brown from
years of working in the sun, he gazed at Jeremiah with watery blue 
eyes. “Whut did you say yer boy looked like?” Jeremiah described Luke 
again. “He was probably wearing an old worn out coonskin cap” Jeremiah 
almost forgot his fears for a second as he thought about Lucas and the 
old cap he had won in a rasslin' match with that Deerfield boy. Matthew 
had told Luke many a-times he was gonna burn that stinky old cap. 

“Naw, suh, don't reckon I seed him here” the old man drawled. He spit
out his tobacco chew, turned, and limped toward the saloon. He turned 
back to face Jeremiah saying, “ They's a-takin' a lot of boys around 
the age of yer boy. Mostly, if their pa aint there to sign, they just 
make up a name and lie about how ol' they be.” “An awful shame, it is, 
taking kids.” “I tried to sign up but they jes' laughed at me.” He 
swore, and said, “I caint ride so good no more, but I can shoot dang 
near as good as I ever could” 

The sheriff of Bluff City said the troops had left by daybreak in the
morning. They were boarding the train just a few miles to the south. 
“No, he did not know their destination. That was closely guarded.” 
Jeremiah thanked the sheriff turned his horse west, and headed for 
home. 

It was a long ride back to the McCauley place. Too much time to think.
He vacillated  between hope and despair. Maybe they would find out his 
age and send him home. He might get frightened and just come back. No, 
neither argument held water. He knew how desperate the military was for 
manpower at this point in the war. He had seen the fliers posted all 
over Hickory Ridge and Bluff. He had heard that boys under sixteen were 
assigned as drummers, or ammo and flag bearers. Probably the most 
dangerous assignments in the armies. As for running away. Never! Lucas 
was fearless, especially when he had his mind set on achieving a goal. 

For the first time in years Jeremiah wept. He feared for the lives of
his two sons. 

Back at the McCauley farm Sarah, Hannah, and Leah tried to comfort each
other. “I just know pa will find him,” young Leah said, choking back 
the sobs. 

After Jeremiah's return home with the dreadful news that Lucas could not
be found, Sarah and Hannah started writing letters to everyone they 
could think of that might shed light on which company or regiment Lucas 
might have been assigned to. 

Letters were written to the last place that Matthew might possibly be.
Maybe he could ask around about Lucas' whereabouts. 

Communication between soldiers and their families was almost impossible.
Letters could take months, or in most cases, never reach the soldier. 

The McCauley family received two letters from Matthew. He only said in
each that he had not received any mail from home, that he was okay, and 
was sure the war would soon end. He wanted to come home. 

He was lying in the hospital bed at a field hospital when the letter
came. A letter that would change his life forever. 

It read: “Dear son Matthew;” “We don't know if this letter will find
you. We have written so many                             but, we must 
try again. As was mentioned in our previous letters we have to tell you 
that Lucas ran away and joined the army a few weeks after you left. We 
received word that he was a flag bearer and was killed at the battle of 
Pea Ridge almost a year after he volunteered. I am sorry you have to 
find out this way. But we wanted you to know that he felt the same need 
to defend our land as you did. Luke was courageous and true to his 
convictions. I know you would have been proud of him. We are anxiously 
awaiting your return home.” “Love, Ma, Pa, Hannah, and Leah” 

“There has been so much bloodshed, hunger, thirst, and pain caused by
this war but nothing as bad as the pain I feel in my heart.” thought 
Matthew. “It is my fault that he is dead. If I had not volunteered, he 
would still be at home with ma and pa.” 

The scars that were left in his legs, from the bullets and surgeons,
would possibly, someday heal. But the death of Lucas and the guilt that 
filled his soul would remain forever with Matthew McCauley. 

In 1865 the war ended. Matthew arrived in Hickory Ridge after he was
released from the hospital. He was home again! 

The reunion was bittersweet. He had missed the family and was glad to be
back, but it made the absence of Lucas even more poignant. 

Hannah was now twenty years of age, and was moving to Bluff City to
teach school. Leah was fifteen and still writing stories. Her dreams of 
being a writer were being fulfilled. 

Sarah and Jeremiah began to sense the change in Matthew. Even as a child
Matt had been quiet and reserved by nature. Yet, this was different. He 
hardly spoke and would never mention the war at all. He seemed to turn 
all his emotions, and thoughts inward. Matthew could not sleep at 
nights, often Jeremiah would find him down at the old barn sitting on 
the wooden corral fence staring at the sky. Even the work on the farm 
didn't interest him as before. Matthew began to spend more time at Big 
Ed's saloon in Hickory Ridge than he did at home with the family. 
Although, he had a few dates with some of the women he knew when they 
were both children, he would soon break off the relationship. 

Matthew left the McCauley family and traveled west with a wagon train
the next year; it was the last time he would see his ma, pa, and 
sisters. 

He worked on ranches in Texas, and Oklahoma. It was in Oklahoma that he
married his first wife. A year later he had a son, Jeremiah Lucas 
McCauley. His wife died the following year; Matthew left the baby with 
his wife's sister and told her about his family and the old McCauley 
place near Hickory Ridge. He left and traveled the country working in 
oil fields, and other odd jobs he could find. 

Matthew could never find the peace within himself to settle down. He had
no more contact with his family. 

Hannah and Leah had both moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Hannah married a
doctor, and was still teaching in the public school system. Leah was 
never married. She followed Hannah to St. Louis, and was enjoying the 
fact that she was successful in having many stories and plays 
published. 

During the times they visited ma and pa at the old McCauley place the
reasoning was always the same. “Ma, get pa to sell the old place and 
move near us.” “He is getting too old to run it by himself, even with 
the help of the hired hand that helps occasionally.” Sarah's answer was 
always the same. “Now girls you know your pa aint ever gonna leave this 
place. He has cut down on the farming, but wild horses couldn't pull 
him away from that ol'barn he built thirty-nine (or was it forty) years 
ago. 

Jeremiah seemed to age quickly after Matt left. His unruly brown hair
had turned to silver. His body showed signs of the hard work that had 
gone into keeping the farm going. Yet he would never leave his 
homestead—alive. 

It was in the fall of 1880 when the “hired hand” found Mr. McCauley. He
was lying on the floor of the old barn he built, and loved. 

Sarah had her beloved husband buried just to the west of his barn. She
put the farm up for sale and moved to St. Louis. 


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