The next trip into Wichita allowed ARJ another game of ‘find the differences,’ as they rolled through town. He looked over the side of the wagon at the land around him. They passed mile after mile of flat brown fields that stretched as far as he could see. The only thing that stretched that far, back at home, was the ocean. He missed the harbor, walking the long pier on Sunday afternoons with his family, and the ships that docked all along the quay. He continued his game. More people rode their horses in Wichita than in Ryde, where there were more horses pulling buggies and carts. The wagon wheels sounded different in Wichita because the streets were all dirt. Dirt with deep ruts. There were no cobblestones. He used to think the cobblestones were loud and bumpy. Now, he missed them.
They arrived at the law offices in the middle of the row of buildings on main street and, as Dad secured the wagon and calmed the horse team, he reminded the boys to sit quietly while he and Mum talked to the lawyer. Dad opened the office door and ushered the family into the long building. There were three desks in the big office area behind a little wooden fence with a swinging gate. ARJ didn’t remember ever seeing a fence inside a building.
A tall man in a dark gray suit pushed through the little gate. He greeted them at the door and shook Dad’s hand. The man nodded at Mum who returned the nod with a nervous smile. “George Salisbury, Ma’am,” he said, and then looked down at ARJ and JW standing silently behind their parents.
“Why don’t we go back to my desk and talk? The children will be just fine on these chairs near the window.” Mum motioned with her head toward the chairs and the boys walked to them and climbed up. They each sat up straight in the smooth, varnished chairs with the big armrests, and green leather seats. Mr. Salisbury opened the little gate, gestured widely to them, and Dad, Mum, and Eva Anna went through before him. He followed and let the gate go behind him. It rocked on its hinges back and forth several times before catching in the closed position.
ARJ watched until his parents had walked to the back of the long room to a desk near the back where a second man sat. The man stood and shook hands with Dad and Mum. “Howitt,” he said, “E L Howitt. Please have a seat.”
JW nudged him and whispered. “They’re so far back there that I can hardly see them.”
ARJ nodded. “It’s not that far. They’ll come back this way to leave.”
Now that they were the only ones at the front of the office, it was very quiet.
A large wall clock on the opposite wall bonged, making JW jump. They watched the pendulum swing back and forth as the clock announced the hour.
Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong-Bong… ARJ counted the bongs. “Ten o’clock.” He whispered to his brother. He looked back toward his parents. They were in deep discussion with Mr. Salisbury.
They turned their heads and watched the busy scene out the big window.
Clomp, clomp, clomp. Footsteps sounded on the wooden boards outside. A man in a black suit and round felt hat, with a gray band around it, stopped in front of the office door. He gazed at a pocket watch he held in his hand before stuffing it back in a vest pocket. The man pulled on the office door handle and walked in, letting the door close loudly behind him.
The man turned to the right and hung his hat on a hook on the opposite wall. He pivoted on his heal and stopped sharply to look at ARJ and JW. “Do you have an appointment, gentlemen?” he asked, walking toward them. The boys looked at each other, then ARJ stood and spoke in his best grown up voice. “No sir, we’re waiting for our parents.”
“Very well, sir.” He held his right hand out to ARJ. “My name is Mr. Brewer.”
“My name is Arthur Robert Jarman Dibbens, but everyone calls me ARJ.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea, with such a long name, Mr. Dibbens.” The man remarked. “And what is your name, good sir?” He asked JW, extending his hand again.
“I’m John William, but they call me JW.” John William said quietly.
“Aahh! Another good idea.” Mr. Brewer exclaimed. He reached his hand into his jacket pocket and produced a small paper sack.
“Would you boys like a piece of candy while you wait?” He unfolded the top and held the sack out in front of them.
“Thank you, sir.” They said, to which he nodded and smiled.
“You are very welcome. Now, I must get on with my work.” He said.
ARJ and JW put the licorice into their mouths as Mr. Brewer took quick steps through the swinging gate and sat down behind a desk on the right. The boys watched as he moved a stack of papers aside and pulled an ink pen from a drawer.
A few minutes later, they heard Mr. Salisbury’s quick footsteps as he walked toward the front desk and leaned over it, as he spoke quietly with Mr. Brewer. ARJ heard only a few words of their conversation but the words, ‘big case’ and ‘might keep him out of prison’ was all ARJ needed to hear to make him begin to worry again. He rotated in the chair until he was looking through the window to the street outside. He watched as teams of horses pulled wagons on the dirt street.
Across the way, ARJ saw the Sheriff’s office where they’d been last week. The door opened and a man stepped out onto the boardwalk. ARJ’s stomach did a flip as he recognized Robert Williams, the leader of the mob that had invaded their farm.
The man looked around and down both ends of the street, and ARJ instinctively shrunk back from the window. He stayed frozen until the man mounted his horse and rode away.
ARJ felt his heart beating fast and put his hand to his chest to slow it down.
‘Dad said everything will be alright. I have even said my prayers about it every night since.’ He thought to himself as he twisted away from the window.
Something on the wall behind him caught his eye. He turned to see it better. The object was round and engraved, and immediately, ARJ knew what it had to be. It was the seal of Kansas Dad had told him about. He found the plowing farmer, and the steamboat, the sunrise, buffalo being hunted by Indians, and the rows of stars above it. Then he spotted the strange words written above the scene.
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
ARJ remembered exactly what Dad said the words meant because he had repeated them in his mind at least once a day since then.
‘To the stars through difficulties’ He said to himself. The Kansas Motto; his new motto.
ARJ wondered to himself,
‘Why couldn’t we have found a place to live that didn’t have difficulties?’
He didn’t have the answer to that question. Perhaps there were no places like that. Home wasn’t like that either. There were many difficulties on the Isle of Wight but the difference there was that he didn’t feel so alone. They had Grandpa and Grandma Dibbens, Grandma Jarman and Aunt Emily on the island; there was Uncle William, and Uncle Albert, all of their cousins… There, they never felt alone in their difficulties.
“Boys,”
ARJ’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Mum’s voice.
“We’re ready to go. How about we stop at the grocery story before we go home?”
The boys slid off the chairs and followed Mum outside. “Goodbye, boys!” Mr. Brewer’s voice boomed from behind. They turned and waved goodbye as they walked through the door.
The grocery was on the right, at the end of the walk.
“No need to ride.” Dad said, “I’ll walk you down and come back and move the wagon closer to the store.”
ARJ and JW ran ahead. When they reached the store, ARJ stopped and pulled on JW’s sleeve.
“Did you hear that?” He asked.
A soft whine came from around the corner. They backstepped until they could see the side of the building to investigate. In the narrow alleyway between the buildings, a dog scratched on a side entry of the store. It seemed to be white, but with hundreds of big and little brown and black spots, big black spots circled its eyes and covered its floppy ears. It whined again and scratched at the door.
“Do you think it lives at the store?” JW asked.
“Possibly. It might be hungry.”
Mum and Dad caught up with them and scooted them on through the heavy door of the shop.
The store was filled with wonderful things and the boys looked around as Mum talked to the storekeeper who stood behind a glass case. “Three pounds of buckwheat flour and …” The boys peered into crates and barrels, wandering around as they heard Mum start her order. They finally found the case they were looking for; a case filled with toys.
“Look at the horses.” John William pointed to the top shelf.
“Do you see the soldier in the back?”
“I like that drum!”
“Look at this book here in front!”
JW knelt so he could see the ink drawing on the book’s cover a little better. “Look at all the cows!” he exclaimed! “And the men riding the horses!” ARJ studied the picture for a minute. It looked as if the artist had drawn a thousand cows. Three cowboys were herding the cattle. Under the picture, the caption said, ‘Cattle Drive to Wichita!’ in neat print.
“They come to Wichita?” ARJ exclaimed, mostly to himself.
JW looked up and said, “If they come to Wichita, I want to see them!”
“I don’t know where they’d put all those cows." ARJ told his brother. "We didn’t have that many cows on the whole island!”
The boys looked up at the sound of scratching on the door behind the display case. The store clerk walked over to the door and looked out.
“I think your dog wants in, Sir.” ARJ told him.
“It isn’t my dog, but it’s been hanging around here for a few days.” He opened the door a crack and attempted to shoo it away, but the dog took advantage of the opening and pushed its way inside. The dog went directly to the boys, wagging its tail and jumping on them.
Dad appeared behind them and bent to pet it.
The clerk reached the dog and tried to direct it back out. “You boys don’t need a dog, do you?”
“How much does he cost?” ARJ asked.
“You can have him for free if you’ll take him with you. He must be a stray looking for a home. I can’t have him getting in the store every time a door opens!”
The boys looked up at Dad.
“You know, we could use a good dog to watch over the farm...” He patted the dog’s head.
As they started for home, ‘Buddy’ sat between ARJ and JW in the back of the wagon, surrounded by the staples Mum had ordered. but was immediately interrupted by Mum and Dad’s conversation.
“Arthur, do you think the lawyers can help us?”
“They seem to feel fairly confident the jury will find me not guilty.”
“How will I find the courage to testify in front of the judge, not to mention the three men who have threatened us for a second time… and the jury..., and all the onlookers Mr. Brewer suspects will come to watch?”
“Just remember how you felt that night.” Dad caught Mum’s eyes and held them. “You’ll find the courage to speak.” He continued to hold her gaze for a long time, before turning his eyes back to the road.
That evening, for the first time since the terrible night of the mob, Dad walked to the far corner of the room and retrieved the big case that held his euphonium. He set it on the bed and flipped the latch. Pulling out the instrument, he adjusted the slides, tucked it under his arm and headed for a chair near the fireplace.
ARJ sat petting Buddy and watched Dad, from his spot on the floor, as he took a couple of slow, deep breathes and then lifted the horn to play. The first notes coming from the euphonium soothed ARJ’s nerves almost immediately. He felt the muscles in his back and neck relax.
Dad’s music melted the memory of the mob away. The crowd whose anger was incited by the angry man he’d seen in town, and the untrustworthy neighbor on the next farm, that had threatened their safety and made the world seem more frightening than before.
As he listened to Dad play, ARJ could almost believe that everything would be alright after all.
The deep, mellow tones resonated around the cabin, and into each heart in the room, with a wondrous sound. ARJ could imagine the individual notes escaping up the chimney, heading into the velvet blue of the night toward the stars high above.
As Mum lay the baby in her crate bed, she began to softly sing the hymn as Dad played.
“Abide with me! Fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.”
ARJ joined in, trying to replicate the beautiful harmony he loved to listen to in church. Some of the words were hard for him to understand, but he knew what they meant, anyway.
“I need Thy presence every passing hour:
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me.”
By the time the song was done, John William and Eva Anna were fast asleep. ARJ went to sit near Dad, feeling the warmth of the fire at his back.
“Keep playing, Dad.”
His father lifted the instrument and Blessed Assurance flowed from the bell of the euphonium.
At the last note, ARJ touched his dad’s elbow.
“One more song and then it’s time for bed.” Dad told him. The melody he played next was one he knew his father had learned when he was younger. Dad called it a waltz and ARJ counted ‘ONE, two, three, ONE, two, three’ in his head along with the tune.
As he listened to the music, he thought about the story Dad told him one day as their covered wagon rocked along the bumpy trail, on their way to Kansas.
He recalled starting the conversation himself and he closed his eyes and remembered that day.
ARJ had crawled out onto the wagon bench next to his father.
“Dad, do you remember when you told us to think carefully about what to bring to America because we didn’t have much? Why did you decide to bring the euphonium? It’s so big and it takes up half of the wagon!” ARJ asked as he watched the horses follow the trail ahead.
Dad laughed. “What did YOU bring with you, son?”
“I brought the little wooden sailing boat that Grandpa William carved me.” ARJ answered. “…so I’ll never forget about him or the island.”
Dad nodded.
“I brought my horn for the same reason.”
Dad handed ARJ the reins, letting him feel the power of the horses in his hands, as he continued his story.
“I was fourteen when I saw that second-hand horn in a shop window back in Ryde. From the minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it.”
Dad gestured for ARJ to keep his eye on the horses. “At the time, I had just started working as a carter in the harbor, and every day I’d pause at that window to admire it."
“Did the euphonium cost a lot?” ARJ asked.
“For me it was a lot.” Dad nodded.
“One Sunday afternoon, I was walking the Promenade along the sea, with my parents and brothers and sisters. As we walked by the shop, I paused, as was my habit, and stared at the euphonium. My dad, your Grandpa William, stopped alongside me.”
“And he bought it for you?” The wagon suddenly tilted on the uneven ground and ARJ quickly handed the reins back to Dad.
“Not right away. He did ask me about it, though. I told him how much I wanted a musical instrument. Grandpa William enjoyed music.
He told me, ‘Son, keep working hard and someday you can buy whatever instrument you wish.”
“So, you bought it?”
Dad shook his head. “One day, I came home from working in the harbor, and there was the euphonium case sitting on the front porch. I was so surprised!"
"So, it reminds you of home."
"It does do that. And it reminds me of my dad. I imagine he just wanted me to be happy. I think most dads know how to give their children good gifts. I’ll always remember that unexpected kindness.”
Dad finished the waltz and ARJ suddenly felt sleepy. He stood and hugged his dad, then Buddy, and moved toward the palette. In seconds, he was asleep; lulled into his dreams by a few extra notes Dad played before putting the euphonium away for the night.
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