Journey of Honor A love story by Jaclyn M. Hawkes

and a calf, hanging out in the willows on the creek bank. The young bull and cow were grunting and pawing the mud and dust up over their backs, while the four hundred and fifty pound calf of the year grazed nearby.
    Sneaking to within sixty yards of them, Trace shot the calf and then headed back to camp to get a team of mules to bring it in. After he and Mose cleaned, skinned and quartered it, they brought the meat and hide back into camp to cut up and distribute.. Fresh meat was always appreciated out on the trail. He spread the hide out, hair side down, to dry. Later he would try to trade it to an Indian at one of the trading posts or forts.
    Giselle was fascinated by the buffalo, and even the slaughtering process—although Trace wondered for a second if she was going to be sick again. She was looking a little green around the gills when she headed off to bed. Early the next morning, she asked him to take her and show her the great beast’s innards. He thought that was strange, but he agreed and helped her up on the back of his horse and took her to see it.
    She walked around the huge, smelly gut pile, and taking a stick, tried to poke around to inspect every little thing about it. Finally, Trace began to point out the different parts of it, explaining what each was and what it did in the animal’s body. She was inordinately interested in it and, finally, he asked her why.
    She smiled a little self consciously. “I’ve always wanted to see something like this. Home in Holland the only time that I saw meat was when it was served. I wanted to see what everything looked like and did, but my father believed that terribly unladylike and was actually somewhat embarrassed that his daughter was curious about that type of thing. He wanted me to be well-dressed and well-mannered and not well-educated.
    “Even here in America, I’ve only seen meat after it’s all cut up. You should be grateful your father encouraged your formal education. How marvelous to know, not only about animals, but about the human body as well. Our Father in Heaven has given us wonderful bodies that are miraculous in the way they function.” She hesitated. “At least I think so.”
    Helping her back onto the horse, he said, “I think so too. I’m not only fascinated, but I have this need to fix it as well. There’s something in me that makes me a doctor. I’ve been that way since I was a child. Unlike you, my father encouraged me to dissect and study everything. Animal, plant, chemical. It didn’t matter. He wanted me to understand it all and I thought that was just dandy.
    “I dragged Mose along with me for most everything. At first he thought I was torturing him to make him learn it all, especially after the fact that my mother made him wear shoes. When he came to live with us when he was seven, he’d never worn a pair of shoes in his life. In Georgia it was warm, and he didn’t think he should have to wear shoes unless his feet were cold. I’m afraid they butted heads over the shoe issue.”
    She laughed her musical laugh almost in his ear. “Knowing Mose, your mother must have been a strong woman to win that battle.”
    “My mother is definitely strong, but that’s a good thing. She had to be strong to stand up to the bigotry there and adopt a young slave boy into her family. That wasn’t done in Georgia seventeen years ago. That’s still not done in Georgia.”
    Sadly, Giselle said, “That is a shame. How long will it be before we all learn to love and value each other? When that lamb will lie down with the lion and Christ can come back again?”
    He shook his head. “Sometimes I wonder if we humans will ever figureit out, Elle.”
    She hugged him around the waist. “Some have always had it figured out, Trace. And you’re right. Some never will. But we must do the best we can to help each other learn. As Mose would say, “It’s what Jesus would want.’”
    Back in camp, they had to hurry in order to not make the other wagons