By Elaine Rassel
This story has some very different characters in it. It took place in the 1870’s when outlaws were frequent. Many sheriffs paid to have “bounty hunters” help round up the outlaws. These bounty hunters were good shooters, sometime better than the outlaw itself.
The bounty hunter’s name was Bill. He had been on horseback for what seemed days trying to capture Carson Evans. Evans had robbed two banks very successfully and gotten away with a lot of cash. It seemed he was also interested in stagecoaches. Just a week ago, he had held up one and made off with a cattle buyer’s cash. There was a big reward posted for him.
Bill rode into the small town, knowing Evans wouldn’t be here. He just needed a quick drink before he went to the boarding house to get a good nights sleep. As he neared the saloon, he couldn’t believe it. The noise was loud and it would appear there might even be a fight going on. As he went through the swinging doors he saw a crowd of cowboys having more than a good time. There were dance girls up on the tables getting the attention from the cowboys. The piano player’s music was drowned out by all the hollowering that was going on. The bartender had no control over the bunch.
Bill had just gotten a bottle set in front of him when a young man came up to the bartender and asked if there was any room for his wife and he. They were coming home to their parents and needed a place to stay. He said, “My wife is going to have a baby and we need a room.”
The bartender said, “Sorry, there is no room here as all these rough riders have come to have a good place to sleep other than on the ground. Oh, there is that shack out behind the saloon that you could bed down in. You might have to get the pig and some chickens out of the way.” Bill was amazed that this was the only place for this couple_and probably a new baby.
The chickens were busy brushing the dirt out of the way for the guests. They politely told the pig that he would have to find another place for the night. Even the goose had to relocate. They no more than tidied up the place when the couple arrived. They had gone away from their parents and eloped two years ago. The young man had recently lost his job and with a new baby due soon, they decided to go back home and hope their parents would accept them.
Sue found a place on the floor to lie down. There was even a pillow of hay for her head to rest on. When Sue commented on how clean this shed was, the chickens clucked away as if telling her they were the ones that cleaned up. Moo! Moo! It was time for the cow to be put in the shed and be milked. As Bossie stood mooing outside as if to remind someone that it was milking time, the chickens told her the shed was occupied and she would have to find another spot to be milked. Bossie didn’t understand what was going on but did walk away mooing the whole way.
Bill was checking with the bartender once again if they was a doctor in this town. The bartender took him to a corner of the saloon and pointed to the man hunched up. He lifted off his cap and said, “That’s the doctor, but he is so drunk, he wouldn’t know what to do.” Bill walked off and shouted to the loud crowd, “Is there anyone who knows about delivering a baby?” They all laughed. “Certainly one of you has had a baby in your life.”
Once again they laughed. One said, “None of us wants an old lady waiting for us when we get off a cattle drive. Not when we can have a pretty girl like this one, and he pointed to a saloon girl on top of a table doing her dance.”
Bill went outside and wandered to the shed. The animals standing outside seemed to be anxious about something. He looked in and saw Sue lying on the floor and ready for her baby. Once again he went back inside the saloon. “You,” he said to the one saloon girl atop the table, come with me. The lady in the shed needs you.”
“Absolutely not!” she replied. “Baby business is not my business. I’m here to entertain the cowboys.”
Bill said, “You are a woman and the girl in the shed needs YOU.” He pulled her off the table with her kicking and screaming the whole way to the shed.
He went back into the saloon and said, “The least thing you roughnecks can do it show your respect and quiet down.”
That is when one of the cowboys came forward and said, “Mister, you have no idea what we, and he pointed to the others, have gone through. We have just returned from a cattle drive that had us out for six weeks. We have put up with weather thunderstorms and rain for days. Because we were late, we even ran into a snowstorm. We are responsible to get the cattle to their destination and that means all of them. Well, we have had stampedes and went looking for some lost ones that took forever. Then we had some outlaws that the came in the middle of the night and wanted money. We don’t get paid until the cattle are delivered, but they wouldn’t believe us. They killed one of our drivers, stampeded the cattle, and went their way. If the bounty hunters would get busy, we wouldn’t have all the trouble with the outlaws.” Bill certainly wasn’t going to tell them that he was a bounty hunter, at least not right now.
“We just got paid and we deserve some wild time to ourselves. Six weeks without seeing anything but cattle and our own men, is a long time.”
Bill went back to the shed. That is when he heard a baby crying! Yes, with the help of the saloon girl, a baby boy was born. When Bill told the girl she could go back to her job, she refused. “I’ve never felt so good as I do now about life,” she said. “There is more to my life than what I have been doing.”
Just then the shed door opened up and the once loud crowd of cowboys stood looking in. One of them had a hat with a collection of money they had thrown in. The storekeeper had brought some “baby things” that were wrapped. “It isn’t every day that this town has a new baby.”
Yes, the doctor was still sitting in the corner not knowing what day it was. The cowboys had found out that miracles still do happen in spite of many bad circumstances. The saloon girl was going to change her ways. There was no room in this town for him so it was time for Bill to hit the road and keep looking for his Evan, the outlaw. He went to the livery to pick up his horse. Looking upward, he saw one bright star that seemed to be over the shed. Before he opened up the door to the livery station, he looked up at the sign over the door. It said, “Livery Station” and then he saw Bethlehem, Texas below that. He had been part of a miracle and so had everyone else including the animals.