His Father’S Son – Book Ii –: He Wore a Khaki Collar

By Bernard C. Baumbach

A selection of Dr. Baumbachs literary endeavors is featured on his website given below. The first book of his trilogy, His Fathers Son: Book 1He Wore a Clerical Collar, was published in June of this year. This second book of the trilogy will also carry the date of 2015. It is the fifth book that he has published in the last three years. A 2016 publication date is planned for the final book of the trilogy, His Fathers Son: Book 3He Wears a White Collar. In that forthcoming volume, Julius resumes a contentious disposition regarding the institutional church while achieving amazing financial success as a Swedish masseur.

www.bernardbaumbach.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504965934

Bernard C. Baumbach

Bernard C. Baumbach grew up in Anaheim, CA. His collegiate education is certified by a B.A. degree (Capital University, Columbus, OH) and the M.A. and the Ph.D. degrees (The University of Texas at Austin). His academic career that spanned forty years was confined to Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, TX. He retired in 1990 as Professor Emeritus of Sociology and volunteered in local non-profit endeavors until December of 2002 when he and his wife, Dorothy, moved to Sun City in Georgetown, TX. A selection of Dr. Baumbach’s literary endeavors is featured on his website given below. Although the issue has little relevance for his passion for writing, he proudly announced that this—the first book of a trilogy titled “His Father’s Son”—is the fourth book that he has published in the last three years and that on February 19th of 2015, he celebrated his 90th birthday. www.bernardbaumbach.com

Book preview

HIS

FATHER’S

SON

– BOOK II –

HE WORE

A KHAKI COLLAR

BERNARD BAUMBACH, PH.D.

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2015 Bernard Baumbach, PH.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/23/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-6592-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-6593-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015920047

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Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1 Lena’s Homecoming

Chapter 2 Loose Ends and Compassionate Companions

Chapter 3 A Warm Welcome & The Search Begins

Chapter 4 A Period of Adjustment

Chapter 5 It Takes Both Families To Build A Ranch

Chapter 6 Legal, Financial, and Other Matters

Chapter 7 The Parental Promise Becomes A Reality

Chapter 8 When Do I Begin?

Chapter 9 It’s Starting To Come Together

Chapter 10 This Is How We’ll Do It!

Chapter 11 Things Start Growing: Crops and Family

Chapter 12 Farming Success & Anniversary Surprise

Chapter 13 Dedication, Development, Disappointment

Chapter 14 Religious Alignment Affirmed

Chapter 15 Ranching Becomes a Family Endeavor

Chapter 16 New Civic & Renewed Parental Responsibilities

Chapter 17 Achieving A Blue Ribbon

Chapter 18 Four Plus One Equals Five

Chapter 19 A Plan Gone Awry

Chapter 20 An Educational Calamity Clerically Resolved

Chapter 21 Educational Calamity Clerically Prevented

Chapter 22 And Now There’ll Be Instruction & Discipline

Chapter 23 From Ministerial Service to Civil Service

Chapter 24 And Then This Happened

Chapter 25 Time For A Federal Accounting

Chapter 26 The Becker Curse Surfaces Once Again

Chapter 27 That Slippery Slope

Chapter 28 A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Chapter 29 Could This Be It?

Chapter 30 A Meeting of the Sacred With the Secular

Chapter 31 The Virtue of Some Piute Influence

Chapter 32 Too Late To Be Counted

Chapter 33 An Intrusion by the Narrator

Chapter 34 Advice Offered: Advice Received

Chapter 35 Once Again, Aller Anfang Ist Schwer

Chapter 36 When News Is More Than News

Chapter 37 Details, Details, and More Details

Chapter 38 The Departure

Chapter 39 The First Step

Chapter 40 The Arrival, The Departure, A New Beginning

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Julius L.F. Becker, The Father

When single in Pösen, West Prussia, circa 1865

Foreword

In researching the early life of my maternal grandfather, Julius Ludwig Frederick Becker, Jr., I learned of people and events that I felt compelled to incorporate into a book. Research into family history uncovered facts that compelled me to revise the story line. The result is made evident in the book’s title, His Father’s Son. What I learned decades after both men had died was that our maternal great-grandfather, Julius Ludwig Frederick Becker, Sr., up until his death in 1924, was a continuingly influential figure of notable significance throughout our grandfather’s life.

As the life of Grandpa Becker, the son, began to blossom, it became clear that this most colorful life could not be contained in a single volume. Thus I chose to organize and present this fictionalized biography as a trilogy. The first volume of the trilogy (June, 2015) bears the subtitle, Book 1 – He Wore A Clerical Collar. It traces his early life and his entry into and demission from the Lutheran ministry. In this second volume—Book 2: He Wore A Khaki Collar—I focus on his becoming a rancher in the absence of any farming background experience. This occurs in Inyo County, CA, the area of his first parish assignment and the home of the young woman who became his wife as depicted in Book 1. The third volume will have the subtitle Book 3 – He Wears A White Collar. This volume will present his life in Southern California as a Swedish masseur as he pursues yet a third career into his retirement and on to the end of his life.

I am indebted to two of my cousins, Dalene Marie Fricke Eimon and Edward Eugene Busch for a variety of pictures, letters, and various publications that provided insight into the lives of the persons featured in this trilogy.

The picture of the Christening Gown was provided by its current custodian, my niece Michelle Annette Baumbach Schumacher, the first of Julius and Lena Becker’s Great-grand children.

I have inserted various German words, phrases, and idioms in the first two books of this trilogy as repeated reminders to the reader that the greater part of the dialog that took place within the Becker homes was in German. A fellow resident of Sun City, German-born Hanna Hooper, has graciously reviewed and corrected both the German insertions and their English translations. Furthermore, she has been of significant help in editing the entire manuscript. She also translated twenty-eight letters—a total of eighty-eight pages of various sizes—that, for the most part, were written in elegant German script which the Rev. Julius Becker, Jr. exchanged with his betrothed, Lena Ehlen during the year (1893-94) of their betrothal. Those letters are briefly referenced in Chapter 28 of the current volume.

Information pertaining to Julius Becker’s public activity in Inyo County was gathered from perusing copies of the Inyo Register that were published when he was in the valley, 1892-1894 and 1901-1911. Because of the generally pedestrian nature of most of those notices, I have chosen not to reproduce any of them in an appendix as is found in Book 1.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the help I received by consulting: (1) Clarabelle E. Hawkins booklet, Story of Laws California (1975), (2) W. A. Chalfant’s The Story of Inyo, Rev. Ed. (1975), (3) Richard T. Du Brau’s The Romance of Lutheranism in California (1959), and (4) Jeff Putman & Genny Smith, Eds., 2nd Ed. Deepest Valley: Guide to Owens Valley (1995).

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Owens Valley: Viewed from Mount Montgomery Tunnel Exit

Tunnel enables a 2-degree track slope on into Laws

Chapter 1

Lena’s Homecoming

There was no spirit of ‘Westward Ho!’ as the Rev. Julius L. F. Becker, Jr. family boarded the train to begin its journey to California. It would take three different trains to transport Julius and Lena and their three daughters, Julia, Ester, and Gladys, from a situation that only the parents could experience as one of depressing despair; one that only the parents would perceive as inflicting a devastating uncertainty. Hence, there was nothing in their move across the country that even suggested escape; there was only the prospect of refuge in the house that Lena had called home before her marriage. Their journey would end on the Ehlen ranch just outside the township of Laws in Inyo County, California.

The day-in and day-out confinement aboard the Union Pacific Railroad coach was beginning to take its toll upon each of the family members. The restlessness of the two older daughters doubled the stress experienced by Lena who, in trying to maintain a balance in her disposition toward her husband, her daughters, and her self, had her patience severely tested in part because she was still nursing Gladys who was but fourteen months old. Julius’s patience was not as severely tested simply because he would occasionally lapse into a dream-like state and literally—that is, mentally—exit the reality of the moment.

It was during their second day of travel that Lena devised an agenda that, from Julius’s point-of-view, made their final days aboard the train as pleasant as the circumstances could possibly allow. She grouped the girls about her and asked each—first Julia who, in another month and one-half, would be six and then Ester who, in another month, would be four—what it was about living in St. Clair that each would like to remember always. In nearly every instance their answers would be either ‘Grandma’ or ‘Grandpa.’ Lena would then respond with a reply like ‘Soon you will meet a new Grandma’ or ‘You’ll meet a new Grandpa and a new Grandma where we’re going.’ Then she’d relate stories that had similar experiences in her life; first in Freetz, Germany, then in Orange, California, and finally on the Ehlen ranch in Inyo County, California. That’s where we’re going she always added enthusiastically. Each day the same stories were repeated, but to the girls they seemed to be brand new.

Lena told her stories with such enthusiasm that the girls were always delighted. Julius was also intrigued to learn some additional bits and pieces of Lena’s earlier years. He was particularly pleased by the masterful manner in which his wife, his ‘little Lena,’ was able to restore peace and contentment within the family circle within the confines of their railway coach. Lena, of course, had yet another purpose in exposing her daughters to her childhood and later experiences. She wanted the girls to have a pleasant experience of bonding with their other set of grandparents. They know and love their Grandpa and Grandma Becker who live in Detroit. But now they will need to know and to love their Grandpa and Grandma Ehlen whom they have yet to meet.

In Reno, the Becker family transferred from the Union Pacific Railroad in order to be in Carson City where, on the following morning, they would begin the final leg of their journey. The Carson & Colorado Railway had a track that ran all the way into California, down the eastern edge of the Owens River Valley, and terminating at Keeler on the south eastern shore of the Owens Lake. Several years prior to the Becker’s journey, it was purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad which kept its narrow-gauge track that provided the rails upon which ran the ‘Slim Princess.’ It was that train that would carry them into Laws, California, and the town nearest the Ehlen ranch that Lena once called home. It was the Slim Princess that Rev. Becker used primarily to travel between California and Nevada in pursuit of his pastoral assignments before he and Lena were married.

Lena’s mind, however, was swirling with images as she anticipated her reunion with her parents after more than six years of separation. Somewhere in that mix were the oft-recycling thoughts that reminded her of how grateful she was for the confident manner in which her husband had managed their wrenching departure from St. Clair. Their three daughters were far too young to understand the depth of the anxiety their parents were experiencing as the family traveled westward. For Julius, the experience was primarily simply one of getting away from a failed endeavor made all the more troubling because there was no goal for him to pursue at the other end. For his wife, the trip signaled her returning home, and that thought alone brought her great comfort. She had the advantage over her husband in that regard. Her memories were enhanced by recalling that it was in her parents’ home where she met Pastor Becker on what was his first day in Inyo County in September of 1892.

The fall weather in Carson City, Nevada was typical for the afternoon of Thursday, October 31, 1901. The Rev. Julius L. F. Becker, Jr. was unconcerned about the fact that it was Halloween or Reformation Day. After all, even though he was a Lutheran pastor, he now was one without a Call. He continued to experience a rising level of anxiety, however, due to the murky picture of his future. His mind was troubled ever since he and Lena agreed that for reasons of his health he should resign his pastorate at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in St. Clair, Michigan.

The travel-weary family arrived at the hotel booked on their itinerary that was only a block away from the Carson & Colorado Railway depot. As soon as they had gathered about the reception desk, Julius stepped forward and resoundingly struck the announcing bell on the Registration Desk. From somewhere on the other side a clerk suddenly appeared and assumed a formal position. May I help you? he inquired officiously.

I believe you have my reservation. It’s for Julius Becker, Jr. I have your confirmation letter here, somewhere here. Julius began the hunt for the letter from among the papers he had stuffed into the inner pocket of his coat. He had not yet recovered it when the clerk, now presenting a most welcoming smile, nodded reassuringly.

Yes, sir, Mr. Becker. We’ve reserved you a room for one night, Thursday, October 31, 1901: one double bed, one single bed, and one infant’s crib.

Julius almost choked when the desk clerk called him ‘Mr. Becker.’ Ever since his ordination in San Francisco in September of 1892, he had always been addressed as ‘Rev. Becker’ or as ‘Pastor Becker.’ Even following his demission from the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod), he chose to identify himself as ‘Rev. Becker’ in all introductions and on all the documents he had to fill out in the process of pulling up stakes in St. Clair.

May I see your reservation entry?

Surely, Mr. Becker! Let me turn the ledger around so you can read it. With the ledger adjusted, the desk clerk placed his finger just above the hotel’s entry in their Reservation Book, directing Julius’s attention to the entry for him.

And there it was—simply ‘Julius Becker & Family.’ Apparently the person who had received his request for a reservation didn’t think it important to write in anything else within the small space allotted for the name of the guest.

Thank you. I wasn’t questioning you about the reservation. But I had included the names of my wife and my three daughters when I wrote, but I guess that that information was not required for your records. As he filled out the guest register, his mind was also dealing with that issue: he was no longer, officially, a ‘Man of the Cloth.’ Even though he was officially rostered with the Joint Synod of Ohio Lutheran Church, he was without a Call. He and Lena had spent a great deal of time over the past month praying about how he, though no longer wearing a clerical collar, might continue his life as a servant of God.

May I inquire as to the time your dining hall opens for the evening meal? We’ve been aboard a train for several days now and we’d like to get a decent meal and turn in early. We’ve reservations on the Slim Princess for the trip to Laws, so we’ll want to clean up after supper and get to bed early. You’ll put the dining charges on my account, won’t you?

Of course, Mr. Becker. The dining hall will begin serving at 5:00 o’clock. If you ask your waiter, he’ll provide highchairs for the girls. But I’m certain that you’ll want breakfast as well. The dining hall opens at 6:00 a.m. for that service. The morning clerk will have your total bill ready for you when you leave.

Good morning, Lena! There were only a few guests in for breakfast at that time and so the voice that came from behind them shocked Julius, but it devastated Lena. There’s only one voice like that in the whole world, was Lena’s excited response. She jumped from her chair, handed Gladys over to Julius, and rushed to embrace her mother. The void that the two had shared during their six years of separation was attested to by the mutual flow of tears that fell upon the other’s shoulder.

It’s not difficult to visualize that tender moment. As Lena deftly dabbed her tears she managed to add, I’ve never had such a wonderful surprise, Mother. However did you get Papa to bring you here? Whatever it was, it worked like magic.

It wasn’t difficult at all. In fact, he’s the one who suggested we surprise you here. His excuse was that he couldn’t wait any longer to see his granddaughters. Truth be told—we both have really missed you.

Lena swallowed hard, released her embrace and turned in order to hug her father. Ludwig Ehlen, she quickly noted, had aged somewhat since she, Julius, and Julia moved from Gardnerville, Nevada to St. Clair, Michigan, five years earlier. It was Ester and Gladys who were strangers to Ludwig and Maria.

Julia was but a babe when you and Lena left for Michigan. She was a big girl then, but, Oh, My! She is so much bigger now. It looks as if the second girl—Ester?—hasn’t inherited your stature, Lena. I doubt if either of them will be as petite as you are. But the wee one; she’s Gladys, right? She’s a bit different, isn’t she? The older girls have dark hair, but Gladys is fair-headed. That’s nice.

"Oh, Papa. You should have heard some of the conversations that went on in our bedroom years ago when I was growing up. One reason I tried so hard at every thing I attempted was because my older sisters often referred to me as ‘the runt in the litter.’

Julius could contain himself no longer. He interrupted the father-daughter conversation by brashly declaring, Ludwig, you sly, old codger! It’s apparent that you know your way around in Carson City. Julius, now standing away from their breakfast table, grasped his father-in-law’s hand, rocking the older gentleman back and forth. In his excitement in greeting his father-in-law, he seemed oblivious of the fact that he was still holding Gladys who, by the way, seemed to be enjoying the comforting motion that her father was providing her in an unconscious manner.

It’s been too many years since you and I tried to do the Lord’s work in Inyo County. Maria and I decided that we couldn’t wait until you and Lena and our granddaughters got to Laws. Besides, after all of those hours that the five of you spent on trains getting here; well, we thought you might enjoy some help in traveling the final leg.

Won’t you join us for breakfast?

Thanks, Julius, but Maria and I arrived at the hotel after you folks had bedded down, so our plan was to get our breakfast as soon as the dining hall opened so we could really surprise you. Apparently our plan worked out; we were finished and back in our room to pack up before you came down for breakfast.

Lena, dearest! That your mother and father did this for us—isn’t that the most spectacular surprise you have ever had?

Lena had scarcely regained her composure and had relieved Julius of their youngest daughter when his question apparently provoked another, albeit much briefer, gush of tears. She was smiling, however, and nodded an affirmative answer to her husband’s question before stating, Mother just told me that she wanted to help with the girls. Isn’t she a dear? And to think that all of us spent the night right here in the same hotel! I’m glad it worked it out this way. I was far too tired last night to have been able to appreciate their meeting us here in Carson City.

For many travelers for whom this journey was their first venture into the western area of Native American territory and its non-Western cultures, those who left their eastern homes still evidencing the historical residues of the Civil War, if not the Revolutionary War, boarding the ‘Slim Princess’ in Carson City and riding through the White Mountains southward into California, presented an awe-inspiring experience. Cradled between two magnificent mountain ranges, the railway snaked through the splendor of the scenery that eyes freshly awakened afforded even the most calloused of people innumerable opportunities to gaze upon the landscape with wonder and delight. But such were not the experiences of the Becker and the Ehlen adults in their coach. First of all, the windows were dirty beyond belief. Furthermore, they would not be mesmerized by the vistas that flashed by the windows of their coach for they would regard them primarily as a continuing stream of reassurances that soon they would be home.

The clerk at the C & C depot assured both families that because it was Friday, because it was the 1st of November, and because farther south at the higher elevations there had been an earlier snowfall that had not been predicted, both families would have their choice of seats. There’s no need to assign them, was the station agent’s decision. You’ll be free to move about the coach to suit your liking, but that may not be true down the line. There’ll be stops—flag-stops—but I haven’t gotten any word on the telegraph key as to how many that might be.

At first Lena and her mother took charge of the three girls on one side of the aisle on two coach seats that faced each other. Ludwig and Julius assumed a similar arrangement on the other side of the aisle. But after a bit, Ludwig, anticipating his daughter’s welling curiosity about life in Inyo County over the course of their six-year separation, suggested that he and Lena might disturb the others less were they to take seats facing each other a row or two ahead. Understanding Lena’s anxiety regarding her return to the Owens River Valley, Julius joined his mother-in-law in order to tend to the three young girls.

The arrangement didn’t last very long because Gladys was getting fussy for reasons that neither Maria nor Julius could handle. Julius called out to Lena who returned to her seat next to her mother, took Gladys into her arms in order to nurse her. Julius, somewhat gladdened by this sudden turn of events, thanked his mother-in-law for their brief, but pleasant, visit and relinquished his care of Julia and Ester to Mother Maria. He then returned to where Ludwig was seated and their conversation instantly resumed its former intensity.

Looking back upon the little group he had just left, Julius opined that it wasn’t difficult to discern which of the two women had the greater number of questions for the other. Ludwig seemed eager to tell Julius that there was hardly a person whom Lena once knew growing up in the valley that she didn’t remember. Although she had been away from the valley for over six years, she had a vivid memory of each that launched a stream of questions about their lives during the interim. Lena had directed many similar questions tot her mother. Maria was relieved when she was able to ask Lena about her life as the wife of a Lutheran pastor. It was never so mentioned, but Maria suspected that Julius seemed to be able to stir up a bit of controversy wherever he served. When she shared that observation with her husband a couple of days later, Ludwig did not agree with her on that point. He silently concluded that perhaps it was nothing more than ‘mother-in-law’ suspicions. But Maria wisely refrained from voicing that opinion to anyone else until much later; long after Julius and Lena had settled down in their own home and had regained their bearings as to the solution to Julius’s dilemma.

Julius was driven to randomly monitor Lena’s behavior. Although deeply engaged with Ludwig in a heavy dialogue, his frequent twisting about to see how things were going on behind them across the aisle interfered with his conversation with Ludwig. He spoke with Ludwig, but his mind was also going over Lena’s years as his wife, the young wife of a newly ordained parish pastor. He was beginning to realize that through the years he was uncovering an image of her that was greatly modified from the one that first captured his heart. She had become the one who responded compassionately to the concerns of others rather than asserting the vibrant and confidant personality that was hers which was the image she projected from the moment he first met her. He was now beginning to suspect that Lena manifested a devout loyalty to him although he often let his pastoral role interfere with, if not override, those actions that befit a loving husband. How could I have done that?

Done what? was Ludwig’s explosive response to the question that Julius unwittingly verbalize aloud.

Oh! What did I say I’d done? I must have let my mind wonder. Did I say something important?

I don’t know if it’s important but you were quiet for a moment or two and then you ask out loud, ‘How could I have done that?’ I sincerely hope that there’s nothing unsavory in your past that you now regret.

I’m sorry, Ludwig. I just don’t remember.

Ludwig sensed Julius’s unease without understanding exactly what it was that was bothering him. They’ll do just fine, he admonished his son-in-law. I know the marks of that mother-daughter bond. I often wished that I might have experienced a similar relationship with my sons. But our German background taught us to be ‘männlich’ (masculine) in school and that’s how we taught our boys. I fear, however, that it carried an emotional price that may well have been far too great for me and each of my sons.

Their relationship somewhat mirrored that of Lena and Maria in that it also reflected a generation of difference between the two. However, Ludwig was thirty years older than Julius and yet they interacted more like older and younger brothers than as father-in-law and son-in-law. In the coach, however, it was Ludwig who did most of the talking, but he was not asking questions; he provided Julius with a detailed accounting of the LCMS ministry in Inyo County during the past six years. It was not an encouraging picture and early on in the conversation Julius began to realize that had he been less willing to yield to the plans of the Mission Board for the State of Nevada and more responsive to the religious needs of the Lutherans in the valley, perhaps the presence of Lutheranism in Alpine, Mono, and Inyo Counties in California might now be more of a story of vibrant growth than one of apologetic disappointment.

As the ‘Slim Princess’ rolled down the narrow-gauge track that Friday morning, those aboard were soon experiencing confirmation of the Carson City’s station agent’s declaration: an early winter snow had spread a glistening white blanket across the landscape. Lena had called out to Julius, Schatzie, I think we’ll need our coats for the rest of the trip. Anyway, we’ll need extra wraps when we get to Mount Montgomery and the tunnel. That’s my favorite part of the trip; looking down from over seven thousand feet into the Owens River Valley three thousand feet below. I packed the girls’ sweaters and our coats in the smaller case. Would you get it down, please?

Ja wohl! (Certainly!) Lena. I’ll get it. Ludwig, would you mind helping me? I might need some back up; you know how a sudden lurch in the train might bring the luggage down on top of us. That’s when your help will be needed the most. The two men stood in the aisle adjacent to where the Becker luggage had been placed and Julius proceeded to ease the smaller suitcase out of the rack and into his outstretched arms.

If that’s all it takes to help you, Julius, you can call on me any time. Ludwig used that opportunity to convey subtly to Julius that he really preferred a light-hearted quality to dominate their relationship.

I’m sure that you know that we were lucky; the train encountered no sharp curves. I tell you, Ludwig, I’ve been aboard the Slim Princess when a sharp sway in the coach brought miners’ gear tumbling off the luggage rack. Happily, there were no women or children involved in the mishap. But had it not been for an intervening conductor, the person who had not properly secured his gear above would have been beaten to a pulp. While I was ministering in this area, I learned early on that miners and foresters rarely relied on a peaceful solution to personal problems.

The coach windows had remained closed from the beginning of the journey. Even though the suitcase was opened and woolen sweaters and winter coats were extracted and put to comforting use, no Becker and indeed no Ehlen or any of the other passengers in the coach seemed inclined to open a window. The vistas that were rolling by were splendid indeed, but the dirty windows discouragingly besmirched those vistas which only the engineer and the fireman were able to appreciate. But they, in consequence of their innumerable round-trip journeys, probably had become a bit callous to such magnificent beauty simply because they had the advantage of ‘a front-row seat’ with an open window in the engine’s cab on each trip.

Next stop in ten minutes. Ten minutes before Laws. There’re facilities next to the Agent’s office. We depart again after ten minutes. The conductor’s voice left little doubt in any passenger’s mind—if Laws was their destination—as to what would happen during the following ten minutes. Ludwig retrieved the Ehlen suitcase from the overhead rack and then assisted Julius as he struggled with the Becker luggage. Julius was encouraged when Lena responded to his query about what they might need for the trip to the Ehlen home. She answered confidently We won’t need anything more. Mother told me that they had packed blankets and scarves in the surrey for us to wrap up in for the ride out to the ranch. Isn’t that thoughtful?

Your mother never ceases to amaze me, Lena. That we’ll be guests in her home for a little while is an invitation that no one should ever refuse. I can’t imagine how much of a thrill that this is for you.

The Slim Princess had slowed to scarcely a slow roll when, just as Ludwig began to shout We’re here! the coach brakes squealed one more time and the train jerked to a stop.

Its home! Lena shouted. I’m home, Lulu; we’re home. Julius had to smile. That must have been the first time that Lena publicly called her husband by the nickname she gave him after they were betrothed. It had been a struggle, but during their first several months as husband and wife in Gardnerville, Lena sought to confine her use of that name to very personal situations. She reasoned that since it was a very personal name it should be reserved for private and intimate conversations with Lulu only. Julius was the name she should use in public as was befitting his pastoral status. In family situations when the children were present, she would call Julius ‘Father.’ But he no longer had a parish position, so she no longer needed to be as cautious about calling her husband Lulu. Their circumstances now were no longer subject to those former restrictions. But if the children were about or if she was in the presence of her parents, she rarely called her husband Lulu.

Lena had secured Julia’s right hand as Ester held tightly to Julia’s left hand. The trio walked onto the platform. Lena spotted her father’s surrey within seconds after having exited the railway coach. Its appearance in the yard was so reassuring for Lena that she turned to see if her mother, who was carrying Gladys, also understood how important it was for her to see her father’s surrey. It had transported her from the Ehlen home to wherever she was going and back again over the course of her life before she and Julius were married. As per Ludwig’s instructions to the manager of the livery stable in Laws the previous day, the surrey was in place and the horse with a protective blanket was tied to the hitching post awaiting the trot out to the Ehlen ranch.

Maria and Lena proceeded to bundle up the girls while Ludwig and Julius spoke with the station agent regarding the steamer trunk and large boxes that contained the remainder of the Becker’s possessions.

We won’t be free to pick up those items until next week. We’ll come in on a buckboard and haul them to my house. You won’t assess a storage charge, will you? It will only be over the weekend. Ludwig dubiously surveyed the steamer trunk and the boxes. Surely these items can’t be all that you have acquired as man and wife!

"Oh, we sold all of our furniture; maybe not for the best possible price, but I wanted to be rid of it in a hurry. We left a few things behind; things that my father and step-mother wanted as mementoes. Then there were the books and parsonage stuff that we decided to leave for the couple who would come to St. Peter’s after us. Not knowing