Sadie

The little Cabin came slowly into view, as a worn path lead you into a world where Sadie had been born and raised her whole life. Her Grandfather and Father had built this Cabin when they first came to the Mountain. It had just two rooms for all of them to live in. the roof had been made with logs also and filled with mud and straw to keep the rain and cold out. There was a window in the room where her Grandfather and Grandmother slept and two windows in the other room where her Father had slept as a child and now that was where she slept still. The sunlight would shine through in the mornings filling the room with a bright light as her Mother had cooked from the big fireplace with its stone frame and hearth. At night her Mother would read from the Bible and her Father would tell her stories from his earlier life in Sweden and the crossing to come here to this Mountain that was all she knew and could remember of the stories he had told back then.

When her Grandparents had passed her Father taught her how to hunt with the bow and skin and put up the meat and then clean the hides, it became a way of life for her early on as her both of her Parents passed suddenly one winter and she had now been on her own for many years. Her years crept slowly at first and she roamed the mountain looking for food and anything that she could harvest and put up for the coming winters. Her Father had built a Smokehouse so he could cure the meats and she had helped as they made a root cellar to store the root crops in. The winters on the Mountain were long and hard, Snow piled well above her small frame, but she always knew spring would come and bring her wildflowers and lots of warmth, Sadie couldn’t remember ever being lonely as she had taken to this solitary life and enjoyed her days as they passed year into year.

A small woodshed was off to the right and a work shed that held her simple made tools lay strewn about; Sadie knew where each lay and had crafted them from her own hands. She had made a simple plow to plow her rows of vegetables and such. A hammer made of rock and stone, being worn from hours of use. A harness made of wild grapevines hung on a wall and when needed she would wrap them around her small frame and pull the plow to make her rows. Her body had become stooped from the hard labor and long hours of dusk till dawn, each day bringing her many chores to do. She had learned so very much in her time here in the Mountains, living from the land was a good life she believed and nourished it as a Mother would nourish a child.

Back to the left of the small cabin was a creek, the current was always strong and swift, it curved back into a small bank and there she would bathe and swim when the weather would allow her to enjoy it. When she was younger she would stare into the clear stream and see her long Dark Blonde hair with lighter streaks from the suns warm rays, her curls would get tighter as the water ran through it, often she could see the color of her Brown eyes and they would stare back at her. As a child she would play this way when her chores had been done. It was now harder to see those eyes and color of her hair, she noticed her face felt rough and lined, looking at her hands all gnarled and worn from too much hard work, she made short her bathe and staring into the water now she would gather her long curls and pin them on top of her head with a bone she had finished to a smooth surface and then be on her way back to more work. It seemed it was never done and there was little time for anything else.

Off to the back of the small Cabin, about a few hundred yards, surround by stones gathered from nearby was a small Burial Ground. There lay her Father and Mother and her Grandparents, with a Sister and baby Brother, whom had never seen the light of day. Sadie would visit here from time to time keeping weeds away and making sure no critters were digging about. Always she would stand in silence and offer a small prayer and then slowly leave returning back to the Cabin to do more chores. She wasn’t sure of how long her years were, as she had never learned to read or write and her Mother had the Family Bible that lay on a small table beside her straight back caned chair. Sadie would sometime sit and pass through the pages and stare at her Mother’s writing, never knowing of what it might say she imagined her own words and stories to go with what she knew of her life here in the Mountains.

Sometimes Sadie would gather things she had made and pack her Cart full to travel a hundred miles or so as the crow flies to try and sell or barter her goods away for flour and sugar and a few seed for the coming year and settle in before winter arrived. Her trip would take her a few weeks, going down the Mountain and then trudging back up was beginning to take it toll on her small frame, it seemed she was needing to stop and rest more often these days, so she just took her time as no one was there waiting on her to return.

Sadie was shy about going into the small town that lay below her Mountain, but the man in the small store always seemed to welcome her with a nice smile and offer to shake her hand, but she would pull it away and in her few words tell him of her goods and let him know of what she wanted to trade for. Sadie had made baskets from vines, and had some furs from critters she had made into small blankets. She never wanted much and was eager to be done with this and be on her way to where she felt safe, people seemed to make her afraid and she wanted little to do with them. Closing the stores doors, she went to her Cart and loaded her goods and began the long trek back to her Mountain.

Sadie saw her little cabin gleaming in the early twilight and made her way into it, the Cart was secure so she would unload it tomorrow and taking a biscuit out of a piece of cloth she ate it and drank some water, the laying down on her small pad she fell fast asleep. Her dreams at first came flying through as her young life played out she saw her Mother and Father tending to chores and such, then they seem to just leave her and she fell into a deeper sleep.

It had been long over six months since the man at the store had seen Sadie and telling his wife he wanted to go up and check on her and make sure she was in good health, he left the following day and as he trekked the long way up the Mountain he wondered how she had done this for so many years, he had been gone for two weeks now as he spied the Little Cabin through the overgrown bush and trees. Everything was grown high and the weeds had taken over all of Sadie’s hard work. He walked up to the Cabin door and gently knocked; with no answer he pushed the door open. Looking for a lamp to light he found one and lit the worn wick, their lying on her pallet was Sadie, her body had begun decaying long ago and the stench from her small frame made him cover his nose and mouth.

He went back outside and stood there shaken, he had never expected to find her passed away, shaking his head he sat down to think and decide what to do next. Getting up he walked around came upon the small grave yard, there he looked about and going back to Sadie’s tool shed finding a make shift shovel, he went back to dig her small grave. After digging he went back in and gently wrapped her remains in her pad made from Furs he placed her into the deep hole and filled it and placed stones on top of it to keep any critters from digging, saying a prayer he turned and went back into the Cabin, seeing the Family Bible he picked it up and with a pencil he pulled from his coat wrote these simple words. Sadie’s name had been entered here when she was born in year of our Lord 1827 May 20th, “Sadie died sometime ago” he said “I just buried her this day of the 27th, in the month of April, in the year of our Lord 1887.” Laying the Bible back where he found it he left the cabin and went back down the mountain, he would miss her he thought as he marveled at how she had survived all these years on this Mountain so very much alone. He would always call this Sadie’s Mountain, when he got back to town he would see about having it named in her memory. Smiling he knew Sadie was at peace now as back when she still lived.
©Tobie Haga Roy