After about a week on the road. the wagon train settle in to a routine. up before dawn, breakfast, hitch up

wagons and get on the road just as the sun gets above the horizon. Stop for nooner to rest animals and those hungry

could get some cold food to eat. Circle the wagons about an hour before dusk send hunters out for meat and have dinner just as the last rays of the sun are going down. Everyone had a job either gathering firewood or buffalo

chips, or fetching water from nearby streams or rivers. Most of the women did the cooking. Klause was happy to gather fuel and water and let Olga do the cooking. He even gathered extra in case others ran short.

There was one on the train that did nothing. He sat on his wagon or his horse and ordered his wife around all the time. His name was Leon Jorden his wife was Lilac. Lilac would drive the wagon gather fuel and fetch water and make his dinner while he sat around like a king. It was the women in nearby wagons that noticed it first and told their husbands. The men went to talk to Sam Jones who was elected leader of the train. Sam got the 3 member board together and went over and had a talk with Leon. They told him everyone on the train has to pull their weight

or they will be kicked off the train. You Leon Jordan have had your one warning if you do not pull your weight

tomorrow we will ask you to leave the wagon train. Leon said my wife does the work for both of us I don’t have to do a thing. Sam started getting mad and said either you help your wife or you are out of here day after tomorrow.

Leon said I bought her is mine and I can do what I want with her. Sam said some of the women are talking to her now and she can stay with the wagon train but you are leaving. There are no slaves west of the Missouri, she is a free lady now and can do what she wants. Leon got made and said we will see about that and stormed off.

The next morning the found Lilac beaten up and Leon no where in sight. he had taken one of his horses and road out in the middle of the night. His trail was headed east. The women took care of Lilac and she healed enough in a week to drive her wagon again. It had been driven by a teenage son of another couple in the wagon train.