Pa Gets Company

"Who's that man, Pa? I ain't never seen him afore." Pa looked towards the dust being raised from a team of horses and a wagon coming up his driveway. "Man, it's hot and dirty, Nathan! Ya got somethin' cold to drink around here?" he laughed.
Marlee Ada couldn't believe her ears. Her pa was laughing. He never laughed anymore. He was always tired and sad like. But there he was pounding on that man's back and laughing. "Good to see ya, Floyd. I haven't seen you in a coon's age. What brings you out here anyway?"

"Well sir, I got to thinkin' of ya and thought I'd bring you out a newspaper. I kinda had an idea you probably won't like, but I just want ya to hear me out, alright?"

Pa shooed Marlee Ada into the house to fetch their company a drink of water. "Well, what's this all about?"
Nathan's friend told his boys to go get a drink and visit with Nathan's children then he sat down on a bench and took out a small newspaper from his hind pocket. "Well, it seems as though you need a helpmate with these little ones and the farm and all. They got something new out east. They are sending women out here to marry up with single men and widowers and such. They are calling these women Mail Order Brides. I know, I know now don't go gettin' your dander up. Now just listen to me for a minute. These women are just as hard up as you are. They need to find a home and are willin' to travel all this way to help out on the farms and even in the schools and stores. I think it just might work for ya. You need to write to this one that I circled for ya. It looks like she can sew anyway and she's not that bad lookin'. Says she has no family, but she lives in St. Louis. You would need to send her some money for the stage and train ride. It wouldn't hurt to send a little extra for food and such. It would take her a while to get here though. What do you think? I know you miss your wife somethin' fierce, but you just gotta have some help with these younguns."

Nathan quickly changed the subject and talked about the freight that was loaded on his friend's wagon. The visited about the weather, their children, and news from in town. Nothing else was said about the Mail Order Bride ad in the newspaper.
After Nathan had fixed supper for his children and put them to bed he got to thinking about that woman that was brave or hard up enough to risk coming hundreds of miles to marry a strange man. "How in thunder could something like that work? I can't even imagine marrying someone I didn't love let alone never saw before." He blew out the lantern and went out on his porch looking up at the fiery orange sunset. "What should I do, Catherine? How am I going to care for our little ones and keep the farm going? I miss you so, I just don't think I could marry a stranger. Could I? What should I do?"

Mittie had gone with Nell to the newspaper office to put her name in the Personals saying that she was willing to be considered as a Mail Order Bride in Iowa. She was hoping that she would be safe and not be hurt in any of the Indian wars that she had read about. "I guess I am game for an adventure," she told her friend. "I can't find work here and I'm afraid that my landlady is going to make me move if I don't pay my rent. I really don't have much of a choice. Hopefully I will hear from a nice man that doesn't care if I am a good cook or not. I can sew and that's about it. I wonder if I will have to learn to milk a cow," she giggled. "I sure hope not. That could be a disaster."
                                                                          *****
What Nell didn't know was that the disaster was awaiting her return to her little cold room.