Merry Christmas, My Love

sle as the train began to move forward. She found a seat next to a window and waved goodbye to her papa and her life of twenty years in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

By noontime, Priscilla was restless and hungry. She’d never been one to sit still for long periods of time, and the ride had already become arduous. Perhaps if she ate something, she might be able to take a short nap, since her excitement the last few days had not allowed for many restful nights.

She pulled out the cheese sandwich, apple, and oatmeal cookies Mama had packed for her. One look at the lovingly made food tightened her throat, and she had to push the tears away again. She shook her head. This was ridiculous. She was an adult, headed to Dogtown, Colorado, to teach children in a town far away from civilization. She was a trained educator, and this would be her opportunity to help children who needed her. She could make a huge difference in their lives.

Despite the pep talk she’d given herself, she still had a hard time getting the food past the lump in her throat. She wrapped the scraps from her meal and tucked it into her satchel, then leaned back, closing her eyes, thinking about her new life.

She’d been slightly misleading when she’d answered the ad in The Guthrie Daily Leader. A Mr. Mitchell Beaumont had advertised for a single or widowed female teacher of mature years to teach the children of Dogtown. Perhaps she wasn’t truly of “mature years” but she was certainly enthusiastic and a graduate of Central State Normal School.

Although she could have taken a job in her home town of Guthrie, she wanted to travel from home. Her cousin, Ellie, taught at the high school before her children were born, and her husband, Max, was still the principal there.

From the time she’d been a girl, Priscilla had known it was her destiny to make a difference in the world. Ellie had made her mark by being involved in women’s rights for years, and while Priscilla agreed with her cousin, her passion was children. There were so many who needed her. Beginning the career she was passionate about as a teacher in a school so far from the things she’d grown up with, and taken for granted, excited her.

It was four twenty-two in the afternoon when the train rolled into the Topeka station. She would spend the night at the hotel one block from the depot and then board the nine o’clock train the next morning with an arrival in Denver at nine that night. Although going to Topeka first seemed to take her out of the way, it was the only route to Denver from Oklahoma.

She checked the packet Papa had prepared for her. Her reservation was made for the Topeka Hotel for one night. The ticket for Topeka to Denver was tucked into the envelope, along with the pass for her ride on the Mail Coach from Denver to Dogtown. She could ride that conveyance any Monday, Wednesday or Saturday that she wished. There was more than sufficient money for her to pay for her meals and room in Denver until she took the Mail Coach.

As she studied the papers Papa had so diligently put together for her, tears welled in her eyes once again. Yes, she would certainly miss her family. She sniffed and reached for her satchel. But this was her new life. And she was more than ready for it.

Mitch Beaumont checked his appearance in the mirror over his dresser. He straightened his string tie and tucked his straight black hair behind his ears. He frowned, thinking he should have gotten a haircut. As the representative of the Dogtown Town Council to greet the new teacher, he wanted to make an impression and have her know she wasn’t coming to some backwoods town to teach a bunch of roughneck kids.

“Ian, you ready to go with me to meet the coach?”

“Pa, I don’t see why I have to go meet the new teacher.” His eleven-year-old son, Ian, leaned against the doorframe, his hands crossed over his chest, giving Mitch a jolt at how the boy was slowly turning into a man.

“I have to meet her, and it would be nice for her to see one of her students.”

“I don’t need a teacher. You’ve taught me all I need to know.”

Mitch backed up from the mirror and turned to his son. “No one knows enough, Ian. I’m learning every day. And besides, I’ve told you many times I want you to go to college. You’ll need more education than I can give you to pass those entrance exams.” He pulled his jacket from the back of the chair and shrugged into it. “Now hurry and wash up and change your shirt. The mail coach is due to arrive in about half an hour.”

He was relieved to be meeting the coach so the town would finally have a stable school. It had been a clever idea to advertise for a mature woman for the position. They’d had a difficult time with the last teacher Dogtown had hired. Miss Sally Fisher had stepped off the mail coach, looked around, and burst into tears. For two weeks she cried as she taught school until Mitch finally put her back on the mail coach with a month’s pay and wished her well.

This was not the town for a young woman. They wanted more stores, more social life, and more young men to flirt with. Miss Priscilla Cochran had sent her teaching certificate from a Normal School and said she was a woman of mature years, loved children, and teaching. She’d written that she would bring the list of schools she’d worked for with her. She was anxious to bring education and enlightenment to the children of a small town.

He envisioned a cheerful, plump woman of maybe fifty or so years, who would take the children to task and make them learn. If they ever expected to have the town grow by attracting more families and businesses, they had to have a stable school. The twenty or so children in Dogtown hadn’t had consistent teaching for the last two years since their last teacher, Mr. Hudson, had up and died.

“Ian, let’s go,” Mitch yelled as he headed to the front door. He wanted to make a quick stop at his gunsmith shop before he met the mail coach to make sure Ernest, the man who ran the shop in his absence, had everything under control. He was getting on in years and had a hard time hearing customer questions.

Mitch and Ian walked the length of the boardwalk, the heels of their boots thumping on the boards in rhythm. Mitch tried to see the town as the new teacher would. Up and down the street were his gunsmith shop, the church, a small schoolhouse, the general store with the telegraph office inside, Miss Janson’s dress shop, the bank, Mrs. Gillis’s boarding house, the newly opened restaurant, and the marshal’s office that doubled as Justice of the Peace and courtroom. Luckily the town saw very little in the way of crime so Marshal Anders performed more civic duties than anything else.

Doctor Benson attended to patients and mixed medicine out of his home two blocks over. There were many more businesses that would help the town grow, and Mitch worked hard on attracting them to Dogtown. The town desperately needed a blacksmith, a real pharmacy, an undertaker, and a barber. He also envisioned a butcher and bakery, but any new business he could attract would help,

The main street where the businesses stood was muddy from an earlier rainstorm, another drawback, especially for the ladies concerned about their skirts dragging in the mud.

“Run over to Mrs. Stevens’s house and see if she’ll part with a few of her flowers for us to give to Miss Cochran,” Mitch said to Ian as he entered the gunsmith shop. “I’ll meet you over at the mail coach stop in a little while.”

“Aw, Pa. You gonna make me carry flowers, too, like some girl?”

“If you ever want to have a girl, you better learn how important it is to the females.”

Ian made a face that looked like he’d tasted something nasty. “Ugh. Why would I want a girl?”

Mitch laughed. “I’ll ask you that in about four years. Now go on. Ernest, how’s business today?”

The man who had sold the gun shop to Mitch’s father years ago peered at him from behind his thick spectacles. “Is that you, Mitch?”

“Yeah, it’s me, Ernest.” Mitch sometimes worried about having a man who was half-blind behind the counter of a gun shop. One day he would have to hire another employee. Once he got the new teacher settled, he would have more time to devote to his business and to growing the town.