The Year was 1857, and it was an unusually hot fall day in the little town of Callieburg, Texas. With a population of 207 people, Callieburg was the smallest town on this side of Texas. Despite the unseasonable heat, there were young children running up and down the dirt roads, playing tag and hide 'n seek. Women were gossiping, sitting in rocking chairs in front of Jackson's General Store, drinking sweet tea. There were the occasional families riding in wagons, just passing through, perhaps going to a town further west.

         Jeweldean McArthur walked into the general store to pick up some flour and some other essential supplies. On her way out she made small talk with the ladies who were sitting in the rocking chairs on the porch. As Jeweldean walked to her wagon, she heard one of the ladies yell, "Say hi to that gorgeous husband of yours. Oh, and tell the young'uns I say hi."

          "I reckon I will, Martha." Jeweldean smiled as she replied, raising her hand in a wave. She got back to the wagon, and carefully set her box of supplies down in the back of the buckboard. As she stepped up into the wagon, the baby inside of Jeweldean kicked inside of her stomach. Jeweldean was seven, almost eight months along in her pregnancy with her third child. This made Jeweldean smile again. Very anxious to get home to see her husband, Sonny, and her other two young'uns, Jeweldean picked up the reins and clucked the pair of horses forward.

        Sonny McArthur and his ranch hands, mounted on their cutting horses, were almost to the pasture where they were leading the cattle when Sonny looked over his shoulder and saw a steer who had somehow gotten away from the rest.

          "Y'all, go on ahead and put the rest of the cattle into the pen. I'm gonna go wrangle this steer and look for any other stragglers." Sonny yelled loudly over the lowing of the cattle to his best friend, and his go-to ranch hand, Clint. Sonny just wanted to be done with this job for the day so that he could run into town to make sure the special gift that he had picked out for his wife was making progress. Sonny had offered to go into town instead of Jeweldean making the supply trip, but his cute, stubborn wife refused. She had said that he had too much to get done on the ranch to make the long trip into town, but little did she know he had to go there regardless to check on her little surprise.

           Sonny also had a gift that he was making for Jeweldean in the wood-shed by the barn. This was a special gift for the soon-to-be-born baby, but it was also a gift for Jeweldean. Despite his desperate urge of wanting to go into town to check on the gift, he turned his horse in the direction of the wandering steer. The sooner they got the wrangling done, the sooner he could head off to town. 

       "Yes sir." Clint responded to Sonny's request, then continued his whistling and leading the cattle into the adjacent pasture. "Oh, Sonny?" Clint called out the name.

         "Yeah, Clint?" Sonny asked, turning in his saddle to look at Clint.

         "Be careful." Clint said, a concerned look on his face.

       Sonny nodded then rode off. Sonny had been roping since he was around his young son, Cody's age, so Clint had nothing to worry about in regards to Sonny's safety. Cody was four, going on five in just a few months, and he was Jeweldean and Sonny's first child. The thought of Cody made Sonny want to get done even quicker. Sonny had been teaching Cody how to rope, and Cody was beginning to get awfully good.

         Sonny prepared his lariat as he slowly, and carefully, approached the lost steer, who was happily grazing on the fresh green grass. Just as Sonny was about to throw his rope, the steer lowed and took off. Sonny groaned and spurred his horse into a lope.

      The steer continued to zig zag, making it harder for Sonny to rope it. At this point, Sonny's horse, Bronco, was in a gallop. Finally Sonny got close enough to the steer to throw his lasso, and succeeded with the loop landing over the steer's horns. Sonny took a sigh of relief as he pulled his horse up, and looked up to the sky to give the Big Man a "thank you," but just as he began to loosen his hold on his rope after he thought the steer was calm, the steer took off again. Caught by surprise, Sonny tried to dally the rope around his saddle horn like he always does right after throwing the lasso, but the steer was pulling way to hard, so Sonny tried to let go of the lariay, but found his wrist was tangled up in the old, worn rope. No matter what Sonny did to try to escape the hold on the rope, he failed. By this point he was dragged off of his horse, but the steer kept moving. Looking as his wrist, Sonny could see and feel that it was losing circulation, and fast. Suddenly, Sonny lost all feeling in his hand, and he realized that all he needed to do was reach in his right pocket and get out his knife. Just as Sonny dug his left hand into his pocket, the steer made a quick turn to try to avoid a rock, but instead the sharp rock dug deep into Sonny's stomach. Sonny screamed out in pain. His left hand immediately went to the source of the pain and he caught a glimpse of crimson red blood as he tried to bring his hand up to his face.

       "God, please help me get out of this. Please." Sonny breathed out the quick prayer when he realized that there was nothing else he could do. It was all in God's hands now. "Oh, Lord God, please help me to figure out how to git this rope off of my hand." Sonny prayed out loud. Then he heard a voice inside of his head say "Use your knife." Thanks to the voice, that he knew had to be God, Sonny remembered the knife in his pocket that he had attempted to retrieve a minute earlier.

        As Sonny reached across to his right side with his left hand for the second time, he screamed out in pain because the motion caused severe pain to his stomach. Finally, he got the knife out of it's sheath in his pocket and began to saw at the rope, but cutting the rope posed difficult since he was still being dragged by the spooked, running steer.

         Just as Sonny was about to make one final cut in the rope, the steer made another sharp turn and Sonny's head hit a rock, hard. He was knocked unconscious. Sonny was still being dragged around by the steer; there was blood everywhere.

        At last, the frayed rope broke, and Sonny was free. Sonny's right hand, the one that was caught in the rope, was still tangled, but the rope's grip loosened and he began to regain circulation, but he was still unconscious, and losing a lot of blood; too much blood, and way too fast.

                                                                  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

       Jeweldean pulled the wagon up to the front porch of her two story farm house. Her and her husband, Sonny, bought this 26,000 acre ranch a year after they got married seven years ago. After about a year of being on the ranch, two years after they married, Jeweldean, who was 18 at the time, had her first child. Sonny, who was 21 at the time, was thrilled to have a son, and to be a daddy. They named their son Cody Mason McArthur Jr. Cody was named after Jeweldean's father, and the middle name, Mason, came from Sonny's father.

        Three years later, Jeweldean had her first daughter, Suzannah Lynne McArthur. Cody was very happy to have a baby sister, and Sonny was glad to be a father again and to have a daughter. Jeweldean was happiest of all. Coming from a big family of 9 kids, eight boys and Jeweldean the only girl, she was very happy to have a daughter.

        Just as 22 year old Jeweldean was about to lift the wooden box out of her wagon, Cody came running out of the house.

         "Ma, pa said that you shouldn't be carryin' heavy stuff like that. I'll take it inside for ya." Cody said, bounding down the porch steps. He held his hands out straight, asking Jeweldean to load him up with the goodies from town.

        "Why thank you, Cody. It's mighty heavy. Are you sure you don't want help?" Jeweldean asked her son. She couldn't help but smile at her son who was almost a spitting image of his father when he was Cody's age. 

       Cody grunted as he held the medium size wooden crate Jeweldean carefully set in his arms. "Yea ma...uh...I think I can git it." Cody struggled. Just as Jeweldean turned to open the wooden screen door, she heard a loud thud behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know what just happened, but she did anyways.

       Jeweldean's box of supplies were scattered everywhere. She saw Cody, his face wrinkled up, as he laid on his back, about to cry. Jeweldean rushed to his side and grabbed him, rocking him back and forth as she coaxed him, "It's okay, Cody dear. It was an accident. Don't cry. Shh, shh, shh. It's alright." Jeweldean bent down her head to kiss her son's head, but instead she saw blood.

        "Cody you're bleedin'! Let's go inside and get you all fixed up." Jeweldean stood up slowly, a crying Cody in her arms, holding him awkwardly since her growing belly created an obstacle. As Jeweldean opened the screen door she slipped on a burlap bag of flour from the box of spilled supplies, and almost fell herself. Regaining her composure, Jeweldean carefully walked over to the sink in the kitchen and set Cody up on the counter as she prepared a wash rag. She didn't pay attention to the fact that she wasn't supposed to be lifting a ten pound bag of sugar, let alone a fifty pound child, but a mother had priorities.

        "You're gonna be alright, Cody. It's gonna be okay. Look, it's just a small scratch that's all." Jeweldean spoke calmly to her son.

       "That ain't why I'm cryin' mama." Cody sniffed.

      "Then what in tarnation are you caterwaulin' about?" Jeweldean put her hand on her hip and smiled at her son.

         "I s-spilled all yer supplies that you went all-all the way to town to git. H-half of them are probably r-ruined. I'm so sorry mama." Cody sniffled, and then started crying all over again. 

         Jeweldean's smiled widened and she hugged her son close "Oh, that's all right sweetheart. It's okay. We all make mistakes."

                                                           ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Note: Hey, y'all, I hope y'all enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. My one disclaimer is that I wrote this book about six years when I was much younger than I am now, so my writing style was no where near where it is now, so I apologize that the book is not as well written as my other books. I hope that y'all still give it a chance. ;) It might seem like it takes it a while to pick up, but I promise once it does, y'all will enjoy it. Thanks again, and please let me know what y'all think of it, and if you have any advice. Happy reading and God bless. :)