"Well, maybe next year, I'll give him some acreage to build on."
"Why next year?" she asked curiously.
"I guess because he's young, he needs time to make sure, and he needs time to really get to know her. If they are still going together then, I'll give him the land. He's a good worker."
"You'd give away what your grandfather worked so hard for?" she asked.
He smiled at her now, "I'm not one of those big-time ranchers who has to have all the land in the valley. I consider myself rich enough. And I like having good people living around me too. I share my water rights with my neighbors, and they share some of their crops with us. It's a good way to live, Trudy. It makes you feel good when you get up in the mornings."
"It's hard for me to imagine anyone having enough that they don't want more and being able to give away something as valuable as land. It's such a grand gesture. Are you always so generous?"
"With people I care for, yes."
That took her by surprise.
"I got that from my grandfather, he gave away a lot of land when he was older. He wanted my father and I to have enough, but he taught us not to be greedy. When a man has enough, he should know it. I always remembered him saying that." After a short silence he glanced at her. "What was your mother like Trudy."
She sighed heavily, then smiled in remembrance. "She was a happy woman. My dad saw to that, when he wasn't telling her some funny story, he was lovin' on her. She'd act like it bothered her, but she'd smile so contentedly. Even though somehow, I knew she hated scrubbing floors, she always told me funny stories while doing it. I'd go with her on her jobs as a child, and she'd tell some whopping funny stories and we'd laugh together. She made things that were difficult fun. She taught me to be happy, as I was. She said just because you do things you don't like to do; don't mean you can't have some fun doing them. She also loved my father. Believe it or not, at one time he was a sailor on the sea. Anyway, he'd be gone for months and when he came home my mother would make him the biggest cakes and carry them down to the dock so he could share them with his mates. They'd dance with no music sometimes, and they loved each other truly. I might have been poor, but I was a happy poor." She smiled. "They taught me that life doesn't have to be bad unless you make it that way. You can complain about anything, but it won't change a thing."
"Sometimes money has little to do with who you are, it's what's inside you. Sounds like she had a gift for making good out of bad situations."
"That's it exactly. My father became that way for me after she passed on. Even as hurt as he was losing her, he'd always try to cheer me up. Do things special for me. We'd sing silly sailor songs. We'd dance together with no music."
"Was your mother Irish too?"
"Yes, they both came from the old country as babes and they grew up in New York. They had hard times then, the people didn't like the Irish back then. So, my father gave up the sea and moved us to St. Louis, hoping it would be a better place."
"Was it?"
"Some, I suppose."
"I guess giving up the sea must have been very hard for him?" He looked at her.
"It was, and it wasn't. My mother was right the
re with him all the way. They made the best of it. Even though it was a hard thing. My Mom knew and understood how he felt about the sea. She told me men that loved the sea were a different breed. She did everything to keep his spirits up. The sea was like another wife to him. Sometimes he'd get this far off look in his eye, and I knew he was missing it. He never stopped. But he didn't complain."
"Did he work there in St. Louis?"
"Yes, he worked for a cabinet maker. He was pretty good at it, but the sea was his third love."
"Third?"
"After Mom and me."
He smiled.
"I can't imagine how hard it was for him, I couldn't give up ranching, I don’t think."
"He gave it up for her. It was hard on my Mom, him being gone so much. Takin' the insults that people threw at her, the way she was treated. If she hadn't had a sense of humor, I think she'd have died sooner."
"I can't imagine all the hardships they must have gone through. One thing I don't understand, why Irish people?"
"It started in England, a long time ago. The Irish, the Scots and the English warred all the time. The English won. Many Irish were imprisoned, then later sold as slaves. Then even later some were forced to mingle with the black slaves. Soon it became a new breed altogether. My father told a tale handed down to him by his father from his grandfather that on one ship, there were so many slaves, they tossed them overboard so they could feed the crew. There were at least a thousand of them on that ship, crammed together like sardines, my father said."
"I can't imagine such a thing," Lance shook his head.
With a tear in her eyes she told him. "Hardships in time make life easier. It teaches you humility and to appreciate what you do have."