Curly

He doesn’t much look like any Indian I’ve ever seen before. He has long, reddish brown, curly hair and tanned skin. It’s not as dark as Buck’s, but it’s darker than my own. He’s half-white, but all Hunkpapa Sioux.

I like his ‘It’s a good day to die’ way of looking at things. Facing whatever comes your way head on is better than turning tail and running. Or worse yet, hiding.

Curly and Kid had crossed paths during one of Kid’s rides, and weren’t exactly friends from the beginning, but by the time we took care of Gallagher and Walker, they were blood brothers.

I don’t know if I’ll ever lay eyes on Curly again, but I hope so. He’s made of good stock like Buck, and folks need to know that not all Indians are out to scalp and kill them.

Many Indians are just like us. All they want is to be left alone to live their lives, marry, and raise their families in peace.

Ain’t Love Grand

Lou and Kid have been a prickly pair recently. I think there’s ‘feelings’ stirring inside both of them that needs to come out. Kid seems scared to act on whatever he’s feeling and Lou’s getting danged impatient on waiting for Kid to do something. Of course, they have to be right careful like on not showing too much interest in one another around Emma and Teaspoon, since only us boys know that Lou’s really a girl.

Jimmy, well Hickok acted on his feelings alright, and nearly got himself hanged for murder in the process. Sarah Downs was a good-looking, smooth-talking, no account excuse for a woman.

Hickok was done for the moment she crossed his path. Jimmy likes to talk tough, but he has no experience with women. If he did he might have seen through Sarah’s lies, and not fallen so hard for her.

I’m just glad that Kid and Lou got back to town in time to give Sam proof that Jimmy was innocent. Jimmy’s hurting right now, but he’s alive, and that’s the most important thing.

Prettiest Con Artist I Ever

Elizabeth Kelly, or rather Amanda O’Connell, was the prettiest con artist I have ever met. She was beautiful with gorgeous dark hair and eyes. She was as smart as she was beautiful too.

She sure through our world into chaos with her arrival in Sweetwater. Before she came clean to us all about her true identity, she almost had Teaspoon convinced to leave us. She almost got him killed too, and that riled us all up.

But when all was said and done, Amanda redeemed herself in all our eyes, and we accepted her as a part of our PX family.

Let Me At Him

I don’t know what’s gotten into Jimmy, but I don’t like it. The way he had brushed off Teaspoon’s telling him to steer clear of the new saloon in town was bad enough, but the stuff he said when he came back to the station were worse.

Calling us riders sheep because we follow Teaspoon’s rules made me so mad. I admit having to follow rules gets irritating sometimes, but Teaspoon only does it for our own good. Hickok, was so out of like that Teaspoon fired him. Jimmy just shook his head, laughed, gathered up his belonging and left, leaving the rest of us reeling over what we had just witnessed.

Even if Jimmy wanted his old job back, I’m not sure Teaspoon would give it to him. Not after tonight and the terrible things he had said about Teaspoon and the rest of us.

A Grizzly of a Man

I had no notion I’d be tangling with a grizzly inside the Wild Horse Saloon when I slipped inside of it. I had only one thing on my mind, finding Jimmy, and making him see the error of his ways. The station was in an uproar over the rift between Teaspoon and Hickok, and Jimmy’s going to work at the Wild Horse.

Lou had already made an attempt to get through to Jimmy, and had failed. The sadness in her eyes when she had told the rest of us riders what she had done, and what Jimmy had said, was hurtful to see. Jimmy saying awful things to Teaspoon was bad enough, hurting Lou’s feelings was uncalled for.

I found Jimmy easy enough on the second floor of the establishment. I was all set to lay into him for hurting Lou, when he quickly filled me in on the real reason he was there. We were all set up to go after Grace’s henchmen, when the door opened, revealing a grizzly of a man standing in the hallway.

I gulped, feeling my heart ratchet up a notch, as the giant lumbered forward, engaging Jimmy and I in a battle. Hickok and I put up one hell of a fight, and in the end won, but both of us were pretty battered up by the time we had put that ole grizzly down.

Prosperity

Prosperity is not the ‘friendliest little town,’ the townsfolk claim it to be. They lure you in with good looking women and high stakes games, but it is all a ruse. They are all about laying traps for unsuspecting folks to fall into them, like Kid did.

Kid stuck up for a saloon girl and landed himself doing hard time, and picking rocks along with a bunch of other fellows, who had gotten lured in like we did. Many of those men had been there for years, with none of their kinfolk knowing anything about where they had disappeared to.

Lucky for Kid, he had us. We would have hunted to the ends of the earth if we had to, to find him. He was looking a little worse for wear by the time we found him, but he was sure glad to see us. Just as we were all glad to see him, especially Lou.

Louise

Lou sits as tall as any man does in a saddle. She can shoot and fight as good as the rest of us. She’s spunky, loyal, and caring. She’s also puny, but spry. All are admirable qualities a man likes to have in a friend.

It wasn’t until that day in Emma’s kitchen that we all saw her as a woman for the first time. Well, all of us, except kid. Something tells me he had already had the privilege of seeing Lou in a dress.

She was downright pretty. Her short, dark hair was oddly becoming, leaving her scrubbed face clear for our perusal. Her skin was rosy hued and flawless without the layer of trail dust it usually caked on it most of the time. Without the wire rimmed glasses to hide them, Lou’s eyes were large and the color of aged whiskey.

The pink and white striped dress she wore suited her coloring, and shaped her small frame nicely. I don’t know if the other fellows took notice or not, but Lou had curves in all the right places. I don’t know about the others, but I’m never going to think of Lou as anything other than a woman from here on out, regardless of what kind of clothing she’s wearing.

Jimmy and the Tooth

I never thought I would see the day when something would turn James Butler Hickok yellow. He’s faced down notorious gunfighters, chased outlaws, fought renegade Indians, and been thrown from a horse or two.

All of these things he did with an eerie calmness I’ve never seen anyone else exhibit before. But faced with the notion of having someone take a look at the bad tooth he had, and he hit the bunkhouse door at a run.

Teaspoon sicced us all on him, trying to make him see reason, but Jimmy wasn’t having any of it. He swung shovels at us and threatened to shoot us, and we knew he was serious. The only thing stopping him from carrying out his threats was Teaspoon.

It took us all some doing to finally get a hold of Jimmy long enough for Teaspoon to take a look at his tooth. Teaspoon gave him a pouch of some foul smelling stuff to wear around his neck, and press to his jaw, but it didn’t do any good. Before Jimmy knew it, we were taking him into town by force and hauling him into the dentist chair.

Mr. Jarvis used some newfangled poker-thingy on Hickok’s sore tooth and nearly got himself shot for his efforts. After that, Teaspoon washed his hands of the whole mess and told Jimmy he didn’t care if all his teeth fell out.

Hickok wasn’t partial to the idea of losing all his teeth, so he took matters into his own hands. With a bit of string and the bunkhouse door, he yanked that rotten tooth out of his head, and we were all glad the tooth ordeal was over once and for all.

Better Marshal than Carpenter

It sure was amusing to watch Sam Cain trying to repair the trim around Emma’s upstairs window. He straddled the windowsill, alternating between clinging to the window frame for dear life and nailing the pieces of trim back into place.

Kid, Jimmy, and I were placing bets on how long Sam was going to stick to it, when Lou rode into the station. She was quick to hand off the mochila, and come join us in watching Sam.

Hammering had Sam feeling a bit testy too. He sicced Emma on us and she sent us off to spread manure. With much grumbling we set off toward the barn, but didn’t get far afore we heard a splintering sound and Sam yell. I whirled around to see Sam hanging precariously on the windowsill, and heard Emma yell for us to bring the wagon of manure oven.

We quickly did as she asked and just in time too. Sam fell from the window and landed in the wagon. He promptly jumped out of it, running his backside.

Turns out Hickok left the pitchfork in the manure and Sam landed on it. Emma took him into her house so she could repair his pants, maybe to get some alone time with him as well. They are sweet on each other after all.

My guess is that after this whole fiasco, Sam might just decide to stick to marshaling, and leave the fixing up things to the rest of us.

Coward

Evan Crandall was a real piece of work. When Kid and I ran across him in the saloon, I admit to admiring him a bit.He was dressed in beaded buckskin and looked to be someone who could tell me some swell hunting and fighting stories.

He sure did, and I was quick to share some of them that night at supper. The other riders, Teaspoon, and Emma sure got a kick out of what I was telling them. Then Kid showed everyone the carved wagon and seeing it shook Emma up.

I didn’t know until later about Crandall being Emma’s husband. And how he ran out on her. Left her alone to bury their dead child. Learning what Emma had been through turned my stomach. She is the kindest, loving woman I have ever known, next to my own ma, and knowing that she had suffered that sort of loss made me mad. Made me understand something.

Crandall’s a coward.There ain’t nothing I want to learn from that lying, no good man. What he done to Emma was plain awful. No man who runs out on his sick wife and child is any kind of man in my book. I’m still learning on what kind of man I want to be, but I know one thing for certain, I was never going to be a coward.

Bart the Bear

I expect that I had gone on about a hundred rides for the express before it ended. Some were flat out ordinary and boring. Others were downright dangerous. Perhaps my most favorite one of them all was when I met Bart the Bear.

I had volunteered for a special ride. I was suppose to be delivering some important papers for the army. Ran into a mess with some deserters hell bent on keeping me from doing my duty. I managed to get the upper hand with them and thought I was clear of trouble.

That’s when I ran into some men trying to do in Bart’s owner. He was wounded pretty bad, but I took care of the varmints real quick. Bart’s owner pleaded with me to help Bart out of a pit he had fallen into.

I did so, never expecting to find out that ‘Bart’ was a bear.I was scared spitless, but a promise was a promise. Following the man’s instructions, I got Bart out of the pit, only to find out the man had died.

While Bart grieved for his owner, I dug a grave. With a little bit of anxious prodding on my part, I got Bart to retreat long enough to bury his friend.

Then with a little bit of relief, and some sadness too that Bart was all alone now. I continued on my way. I have often wondered about how Bart was doing over the years.I like to think he met a nice lady bear and he settled down to have a few cubs of his own.

A Good Man

I have known many a man over the course of my life. Most were only acquaintances, but I have been fortunate to have know a few that I have called not only friends but family.

Sam Cain is such a man. I first met him when I started riding for the Pony Express. Sam was Marshal of Sweetwater.He was an honorable man with his own sense of justice.

Like the rest of us, Sam had a past. He hadn’t always walked the straight and narrow, but he’d given up his misdeeds when he became a marshal. Sam was a flawed man, but a good one nevertheless.

Teaspoon and the Alamo

Teaspoon Hunter is a man of many secrets. He has lived a long time and has seen a lot of things. He’s lived with Indians, hunted buffalo and outlaws, too. He was even a Texas Ranger.

If I didn’t already admired the man for all he’s taught me, I would now that I know he was one of the heroes of the Alamo.

When Buck and Jimmy told us about Teaspoon being at the Alamo, I was so excited. I thought for sure that Teaspoon would regale us with stories about his time there. But that was not the case. Teaspoon turned a look on me I had never seen before and told me never to ask him about the Alamo ever again.

And I never did.

Ike and the Mail Order Bride

Annie Lawford had a sweet smile. She was pretty I expect, in a teacher kind of way. She had golden hair, blue eyes, and slender figure.

At supper when Lou mentioned Annie arriving in town with some other mail order brides, my ears perked up. I was always ready to meet new girls, especially pretty ones.

Buck must have noticed my interest and said all of the mail order brides had been claimed, including Annie. It was then that Buck nudged Ike, and I watched with amusement as Ike’s cheeks reddened.

Ike was sweet on Annie all right. So taken with her was he that he had planned to propose to her. Before he could though, Annie’s betrothed (who had been previously thought dead) walked into the restaurant with the man who had organized the mail order brides coming to Sweetwater.

It was plain to see that this turn of events was devastating to Ike. It would be for any man who was set to lay claims to woman he loved. I expect for a long time to come, Ike will be missing Annie.