The Saga of Caty Sage

Chapter 1July, 1792 From her kitchen, Lovi Sage was startled by the shrill dirge that pierced the morning tranquility of her peaceful Elk Creek valley. It was the unmistakable hoot of a screech owl. “Someone’s going to die today,” Lovi Sage sighed, immediately thinking of poor Mrs. Sutherland who had been lingering for days. She bent back over the fireplace, stoking the wood to hasten the cooking of the breakfast of ham and cornbread. Her mind raced to the chores of the day that awaited her. First she would awaken the children. Samuel and Jimmy would feed the stock while Polly gathered the eggs. Then she would push them off to school. Ah, what a task that will be, she thought to herself. The boys never wanted to go, especially during the summer. They couldn’t understand that school had to be scheduled around the planting and harvest season. At least Polly enjoyed school. But then again it was just her first year. By then James would be in to eat and what a breakfast her husband could put away. Then she would awaken five-year old Caty. It was wash day and although Caty was too small to carry the water, she could gather the firewood to boil the wash water. While Caty fetched the wood, Lovi would portage the ten bucket loads from the spring. By the time she finished washing the clothes and hanging them up to dry it would be time to start dinner. Caty would need to watch her siblings Lovis, Peggy and baby Sampson during that time. Even at such a young age, Caty showed such maturity and responsibility. These were necessary traits to survive on the Virginia frontier. Lovi counted out the plates as she set them on the rough-sawn timber table. Our Father’s mercy, not married twelve years, and I’ve already birthed eight children. I pray James will decide to stop at an even dozen. After the evening meal, if she was lucky, she would get Caty to clean up the kitchen and Polly to rock the baby so she could mend. How do those boys manage to tear so many clothes? She stepped to the door to throw out the dishwater. The morning fog covered the fields like a snowy coverlet. It looked as thick as the cream that rises to the top of the churn, as if she could just reach out and scoop some on her fingertips and smear it on her cornbread. Lord, what a beautiful valley you’ve given us. She was so glad James had moved over the mountain the year before. When the haze lifted in a couple of hours, the fragrance of the wild flowers would drift into the small home. It was as if God sent the mist to freshen all of creation for the new day. But then a shiver swept over her body, as a moment of panic overtook her. The baby was running a fever last night when she put him to bed. She had lost a child, John, ten years before at about the same age. She took a pinch of the valuable salt from the bowl and threw it into the fire as she had seen her grossmutter do to ward off bad luck. She closed her eyes and began to whisper a German prayer of deliverance for the infant as she started into the back room to check on him. Just then the door swung open with enough force to almost tear the wooden slabs from their hinges. “Damned his black soul, I’ll hang him myself if I catch up with him.” “James! Watch your swearing, the children will hear. Who do you speak toward with such vile petulance?” “That no good bounder that was hanging around here yesterday. The one I ran off.” “You mean that poor man that I gave lunch to?” “Yes, I told you he was no good, that he would steal the shillings off your grandmother’s eyes.” “So just what is it you think he’s taken, James Sage?” He hesitated, allowing his anger to wane, and then slowly answered. “The black stallion and the roan mare.” Lovi grew silent. She knew the value her husband placed on the stud. “Are you sure they were stolen?” She said in a hopeful voice. “You know how those two are constantly tearing down the fence to get at each other.” “Well, if they did, they took the time to put their saddle and reins on.” “You mean the reins the General gave you at Valley Forge? Oh James, I am so sorry, I know how much those meant to you. So what are you going to do?” “I’m going to saddle up and go after him! I think the ground is wet enough; there should be good tracks. While I’m grabbing my…some things, put me some of that ham and last night’s biscuits in a sack to take with me.” Lovi watched as her husband removed the musket and long knife from above the mantle. “Promise me you’ll not go alone; please get Lieutenant Vaughan to go with you.” “No, William will be busy with his plowing. I won’t bother him. I don’t need any help.” With her eyes pleading, she pulled him to her, “James, please take William.” Lovi Sage had no doubt that her husband could handle the scrawny vagrant alone. Why, the scarecrow had looked as if a good gust of wind could blow him away. No, her James could handle any two men in the settlement. Her fear was what his indignation, if not thwarted, would lead him to do. She had seen what his ire could become, not to her, for he had never laid an angry hand on her, or the children, but to men whose actions were less than gentlemanly. Lovi Sage asked her husband for so very little, but when she did, he could never deny her. “Oh, OK. I’ll go get him”, he said. “I should be back by nightfall. If we haven’t found him by then, I’ll come back and get some help.” The wife watched her husband as he saddled up his horse and left. Remembering the baby, she rushed in and placed her hand on his forehead. The fever had broken. “Praise be to God”, she whispered. “It won’t be Sampson.” She instantly felt a pang of guilt that she was transferring the grief to others. I’ll find some time today to cook a bundkuchen cake for the family. She went to the boys’ corner of the house. Lifting the light blanket back, she shook them. “Boys. Wake up quickly. You must get dressed and finish feeding the livestock before you do your regular chores. Your papa has had to leave for the morning. And do it quickly, I won’t have you being late for your schooling.” The boys grumbled in a low voice, but did as they were told. They had felt their father’s willow switch before for not minding their mother. She placed the boys’ breakfast on the table. Today it would be something quick, the ham and cornbread she had prepared for James. On mornings she had more time, she treated the boys to “Dutch Babies”. She covered the German pancakes with lots of thick creamy butter, and fresh strawberry jelly. But those would have to wait until Sunday. While the boys ate, Lovi woke up Polly. She then looked down at her sleeping Caty. What a lovely girl she was. It was as if God had taken the best of both parents and mixed them into one child; the blonde hair and piercing eyes of the Sages, the strong face and height of her German heritage, the Otts. The boys all seemed to get the Ott shyness, but Caty was as bubbly and fresh as a mountain stream. She was everyone’s darling. Sometimes she just enjoyed standing and looking at her daughter, but she realized she had much to do today and Caty would need to help. “Caty, my dear. Time to wake up; this is wash day.” The young girl stirred, rubbed her eyes and sat up. As always, she immediately hugged her mother. It just seemed the child was never in a bad mood. If only the others were more like that. Maybe after Caty picks up the firewood, she could pick some blackberries to go into the cake. I’ll just have to find some time to take it to the Sutherland’s tonight for the wake. It was a typical summer morning in the Appalachian Mountains. The birds were singing their reveille from the nearby trees. The normal gurgling of the Elk Creek was more of a rumbling due to the recent rains. The fragrance of the rhododendron and blueberry bushes actually left a sweet taste on the tongue. In the distance Lovi could hear the scream of a hawk as it waited for the fog to lift and expose the young rabbits that would be its breakfast. Lovi had liked their first home across Iron Mountain on Cripple Creek because it was, after all, their first home after they had married in Fredericksburg and moved down into Southwest Virginia. It was also near her father’s and mother’s farm. She had actually cried the day, more than a year before, when they loaded their wagon up with the children and their household goods to start the rough trip to their new home. Everyone had told them it was impossible to cross the mountain because of its wide streams and deep ravines, but James Sage was not one to be told he couldn’t do something. He had waited until the driest part of the year so he could follow Dry Run Creek down the south slope. Once they even had to break down the wagon and carry it and its cargo around a waterfall. It took them two days, but traveling around the mountain would have taken twice as long. James Sage would always prefer taking two hard days to accomplish what would otherwise take four easy days. Now, she could not imagine ever living anywhere else other than here on Elk Creek. A larger farm was needed to support the ever growing family and to stake a homestead for the Sage sons. Land was plentiful and James hoped to increase their original 200 acre land-grant to 600 over the next ten years. The fields were flat and fertile with little rock to remove. The woods offered limitless venison. A person could stand in the front yard and shoot enough white tail deer to feed the family for the entire year. Deeper in the mountains, toward the Devil’s Den, one could kill giant elk. These animals had lent their name to the area. Elk Creek emptied into the New River just a couple of miles downstream. The river was filled with huge catfish. How the Sage boys loved catching the big fish. Every year, in the weeks between planting and before the garden had to be hoed, James would take the boys down to the river and lay out trotlines. They would bait the hooks with the small silver-sides that the boys had caught with their seine in the creek. The next day they would go back and find enough catfish that, when smoked, would feed the family for a month. One of Lovi’s favorite times though would be when the whole family would go down to the river and spend the night. A big fire would be built on the banks. James and the boys would catch the catfish and carp while Lovi and the girls would clean them and fry the flaky meat over the flames. Once in a while the boys would let one of the girls take the pole and pull the fish in. The girls would squeal in excitement as they towed the fish through the water, but once the animal, with its broad, devilish head and long, menacing whiskers was dragged onto the shore, the squeals would turn into shrieks of fear. After eating until their bellies were swollen, the family would lie on blankets, and sleep under the stars. Lovi would tell what her mother called “Märchen”, but here in the mountains people called them Jack Tales because they always involved the mis-adventures of Jack. After the last of the children fell asleep, Lovi and James would slip off to themselves. There, under the stars, listening to the cascading of the New River over the falls, they would make love. With eight children in the house, and a husband who worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, intimate moments were few and far between. But with James, few times were needed. It seemed almost every year they took one of these fishing trips, nine months later a new baby would be born. Frontier living was rough and often dangerous, so far different from the pampered life Lovi had known as a child growing up in Pennsylvania. But she had no doubt that this was the best place in the world for a family to start a new life. The Sages would be able to prosper for many years in this valley. She was thankful though that her parents had also come south to the frontier when she and James had moved, and lived only a day away. Lovi watched as Caty disappeared into the fog that floated spectrally up from the river, snaking along the creek to blanket the Sage farm. She then brought the baby and sat him on the porch. “Now Caty, don’t forget. You’re not to go into the woods. Just to the edge. And don’t go near that creek, it’s flooding.” “Yes, Mama,” the young girl said as she rushed off into the field. Lovi felt another shudder, just like the one she had felt when the owl hooted earlier that morning. She was sure Mrs. Sutherland had died. But for some reason she found herself watching her daughter, until the blonde hair disappeared over the crest of the hill.