All the men folk as well as the women

 Page 10.

All the men folk as well as the women loved Granny and some but not all even preferring her to Myra’s company? Granny was kind and generous and watched over things. You just felt safe and secure when you were around Granny and there wasn’t anything you couldn’t talk about with her. There didn’t seem to be anything worth knowing that Granny didn’t know about and she always gave you her greatest gift which was her time and full attention. She asked Myra to keep her nudity in private reminding her of the presence of children as well as using the Lords name in vain during her nightly hoot owl calling and moaning sessions. Granny lost her husband the late great General Horace McBride ten years ago after he was killed defending her honor. Granny evened the score after the killer of her husbands privates became the main course for a hungry beaded lizard who mistook the organ for a rat? Granny never acted her age, she was high spirited, open-minded and would cuss a blue streak when she found it necessary. She almost shot Lorenzo for fooling with Doris but she couldn’t find her blunderbuss she kept under the seat of her wagon fast enough.

Granny tended to Lorenzo after Doris made her point and she helped him understand the dangers of alcohol to his well-being. She told Lorenzo the creatures of this earth where to be respected and cherished and not used for sport. Lorenzo felt ashamed and foolish and made a promise of Granny he would change his careless ways. It seemed that Granny was really the only person in the party that Miller steered clear of. Granny was the force that guided the party and later she would be the one person that would lead them to safety. The shelter was beginning to take shape as the men lashed and tied freshly cut logs together. The logs formed a long narrow square approximately six feet high with the walls constructed of pieces of boards, long wagon planks and sheets of canvas. The woman and children stuffed strips of rags and even small stones scraped from the snow to fill the cracks. The men laid branches of Ponderosa pine over the roof and covered the branches with any remaining canvas salvaged from the wagons. Two fire pits were made on either end of the shelter and folks started laying out areas for their beds.

Now completed the shelter was small and the quarters were cramped and cold but it was all they had and it had to do. Everyone in the party started to file in that is everyone but Potts Miller. That was alright with the folks sense there was barely enough room to stand let alone lay down. Granny tried to call Miller into the shelter but Miller wouldn’t listen. Granny told him he’d die if he didn’t come inside but Miller yelled back, “ you’re the one’s who are going to die”. Millers raving screams frightened the children and some folks remarked if that thing comes in here the stench alone will kill us all. Granny didn’t push the matter and secretly hoped a few well placed icicles would form on Millers private parts, however; she thought to herself it could convince Miller to come inside and surly this wasn’t what the rest of the party wanted. Once the fires were started inside the shelter the smoke was so thick you choked and couldn’t see beyond your hand so the roof was quickly vented and the white and grey smoke quickly cleared. The trick now was to prevent the now falling sheets of snow from smothering the fires as one nearly did until a solution was finally found.