Speaker 1: This episode may contain content that is not suitable for
all audiences. Listener discretion is advised, especially for those under
the age of thirteen. Welcome to Endo the Night. I'm
Narri your guide on today's excursion down a twisted path.
Be careful not to get lost. Be it dark or light,
it's easy to lose your way. Are you ready, then
let's begin the Abandons Part four. We grew stronger in
a lot of ways in the weeks to come. Each
payday we stuffed our wages into pouches, continuing to work
for the day we could free the girls from the
hellish orphanage where they were trapped. Melva passed messages between
us and the girls. She made a point of filling
us in on all the happenings of high Lake and
Tom about burst when Malva told him that Shanny had
asked about him. She even slipped Melva a piece of
needlework she had made just for Tom, and he tucked
that into his pocket as if it were a hundred
dollar gold piece. We grinned and he blushed, but we
were all pleased for the two of them. Lord knows
happiness was a welcome thought in our world. Knowing that
the girls, whether there were sisters or sweethearts, missed us
and needed us to rescue them as quickly as possible.
It ignited a renewed drive in each of us. Each
time we heard from Miss Melva. It also became clear
to us that while they seemed like two very different people,
there was a close knit bond between Gratt and Grebby
and his younger sister. Whenever Melva called on the ranch,
we saw a lightness of spirit in him that reminded
us that he was no more than thirty. Most of
the time, it was easy to mistake him for a
much older man. It wasn't until years later that I understood.
Speaker 2: Why both Gratting and Melva had a soft spot in
their hearts for boys and girls who faced unimaginable tragedy.
Months passed and we fell into a routine of tending
the live stock and doing repairs around the ranch. Fences
needed mending, and it seemed there was a never ending
number of tasks to complete, even on days that didn't
involve wrangling angry cats. Finally, at Christmas time, after we
rounded up the last of the stragglers we could reach
before the winter storms, buried the valleys. We were told
there'd be a special gathering at the ranch house. We
at first assumed that Elroy Willingham, the owner of the ranch,
had decided to pay the place a call. Daily operations
were under the supervision of mister Grebby, but the land
and the cattle were owned by a man we knew
in name only. What we had been able to piece
together was that he was elderly and lived back east
after the rigors of ranch life no longer made living
in the West a comfortable option for him. He trusted
Gratt and Greby implicitly, and we we were to follow
our foreman's orders without fail. None of us would have
considered doing anything else. Gratt and Greby was the boss,
but he was also the father figure and older brother
we all needed. We could tell by the way Melvin
talked that she filled the mother's sister role for the
girls too. We all considered ourselves blessed. As Christmas approached,
we shined our boots and made ourselves as presentable as
possible to meet mister Willingham.
Speaker 3: We didn't want to make a bad impression on him.
Speaker 2: He could, after all, send us away if he thought
mister Grebby had made a mistake by bringing us off.
We'd come this far and we didn't want to ruin
a good thing. We'd pulled our money together and we
were half way to being able to pay the adoption
fees for all the girls. Even the boys who didn't
have a sister or a sweetheart put their money into
the till it had become our mission to rescue all
the girls. We felt terrible for the younger boys who
would remain at high Lake, but we had to rescue
the girls no matter what. The boys might be adopted
out as lowly field workers, but the girls faced a
far greater threat, like the one we watched poor Hilda
handed over to Some children had been sent off to
farmers for a price suitable to many stultzmen, and Melva
did her part to protect the girls as best she could.
Now we had to do our part to get them
out of there. Some of us had never experienced a
real family Christmas before, and none of us were quite
sure what to expect. When we stepped into the ranch
house on Christmas Eve, we gasped. We'd never seen a
place turned so pretty in our lives. Melva busied herself
with the last of the desserts that she placed on
a long wooden table. The smell of wild turkey and
grouse roasting wafted from the kitchen, making our mouths water.
Speaker 1: Here, boys, grab some of these cookies.
Speaker 3: It'll be just a little bit longer before dinner's ready.
I can tell you're ready to eat now.
Speaker 2: Melva smiled at us, her normally quiet personality a little
more enlivened for the holiday.
Speaker 3: Miss Melville, I could probably gnaw on the meanest coyote
out there right now.
Speaker 2: That food smells better than I've ever smelled before.
Speaker 3: She chuckled.
Speaker 1: Well, no need to track down some poor critter out
in the.
Speaker 2: Wild tonight, Oran, we have a real feast planned for you, boys.
Her brother strode into the room, but he looked haggard.
We'd noticed a change in him for the past week
or so, and it had us concerned. We hoped this
meal wasn't our last at Brighton, But it was hard
to discern what worried the man looking out at our faces.
He must have sensed our apprehension. Boys, gather around. There's
something I need to talk to you about. Our appetites disappeared,
and I was tempted to spit out the bit of
cookie I held in my mouth, where a moment before
it tasted divine. Suddenly it crumbled into sand in my mouth.
We moved closer to where grat and Grebby stood. I've
tried to hide it for the past week, but there's
something that's weighed heavily on me. No one breathed. I
worked hard to control my stomach. Elroy Willingham isn't the
only owner of this ranch, but he's the finest man
I've ever known. I've spent my life trying to make
him proud, and I hope I've done right by him
in this ranch. I stole a glance at Melville, and
she dabbed her eyes with a kerchief while taking in
a shuddering breath. I was frozen with fear because clearly
bad news was about to be told, and I wasn't.
Speaker 3: Sure how our world would be changed because of it.
Speaker 2: Oh, everything I am and everything my sister is to
that man.
Speaker 3: That is why this is so hard to talk about.
Speaker 2: But you boys understand grief better than most, and I
knew you'd understand. The man who I considered my paw
died a week and a half ago. A collective gasp
went around the room, and I saw the fear in
all our faces. What did this mean for us? We
felt terrible for mister Willingham and the Grevis, but had
ostable life just been ripped away once more because of
what he did for us, he said, glancing at his sister.
Speaker 3: I aim to do the same for you. Boys. He
took us in when he didn't have to.
Speaker 2: I want you to know that you will always have
a home with us. In the silence that followed, Tom
found his voice. We can't thank you enough for that,
mister Grevy. Agreeing voices rang out. I have to ask, though,
what does this mean for the ranch? Is Brighton getting sold?
He said, out loud, the ugly question we all wanted answered.
Bratton raised his eyebrows, and Melvi gasped. I saw Tom shrink.
Oh boys, is that what you think? Melvia stared at us.
Our faces couldn't hide the guilt and apprehension that had
taken hold of us. Tell them, Gratton, they need to
know the ranch isn't for sale. Elroy Willingham left it
to Melva and me. We can do with it what
we want. He paused, and that is why we wanted
you here tonight. We hadn't noticed Melvi stepped toward the
door that led to the hallway. Then we heard footsteps
and turned our attention to the sound. Rizzie I screamed.
We raced towards the girls and threw our arms around them.
How long can they stay? Will they be in trouble
with the stultsman's for being here? The girls smiled as
tears fell down their cheeks. They aren't leaving. They are
here to stay. But we've only raised half the money.
How I inherited more than the ranch. Melva and I
are the only heirs to mister Willingham. We paid for
all of them to be here with us. You boys,
keep your heart earned money and consider this our gift
to you. They have a home here, and so do
you boys. For as long as you want to be here.
The girls will stay in the ranch house while you boys,
his voice trailed off. He cleared his throat, while you
boys need to set up more beds in the bunk
house for them. He pointed to the hallway where the
younger boys from the orphanage stood. They ran to greet us.
Once we realized they were there, we scooped them into
our arms and whooped and hollowed. Once the weather is
nicer in the spring, we'll build some more living spaces
here at the ranch.
Speaker 3: No more orphanages for any of you. This is home.
Speaker 2: That was the first of many happy years spent with
our loved ones at the Bridle. Not every day was happy,
of course, We faced our share of sorrows too. Doak
McFadden fell off his horse in a stampede and died
at the age of fourteen. We took it hard, and
we did what we could to comfort his younger brother Clyde.
In the years that followed, children were born, illnesses struck,
and injuries happened. We never felt alone though we were
more than a community of friends.
Speaker 3: We were family. Ike rescued me.
Speaker 2: From drowning one rainy spring day when the snow melt
rushed down from the mountains. Tom and I fought off
bandits who ambush Gratton. We thought we'd lost him, and
we would have had it not been for the care
of Melva's husband, the town doctor, who moved to the
area two and a half years after we all left
the orphanage. Doctor Milton Treat loved Melva and it was
in honor to witness the angel who watched over our
sisters have such a wonderful life with a good man.
Speaker 3: To no one's.
Speaker 2: Surprise, Tom and Shanny married once she turned sixteen. They
raised a parcel of fine children and were devoted to
each other their entire lives. Rizzie and Ike, to my surprise,
fell madly in love as teenagers and married in a
ceremony held in the front yard of the ranch house.
The two, besides being wonderful stewards of the Brighton, also
spent their lives bettering the community through their works. When
the orphanage was abandoned after the untimely deaths of the
Staltsman's at the hands of thieves, Ike renovated the building
into a school.
Speaker 3: I don't wish ill.
Speaker 2: On any one, but those Staltsman's got what they deserved.
Rizzie couldn't hide the anger in her eyes. Serves them
right to be robbed and murdered by thieves, after all
they took from others.
Speaker 3: Ike and I didn't disagree with her.
Speaker 2: The building was put to good use, and Ruby Lipscomb
became a fine teacher for the children of the town
of Highlake and surrounding ranches. As for me, orn Hamby,
I met the prettiest girl I'd ever seen, the daughter
of a neighboring ranch, when I was nineteen. Maddie still
well and I wed nearly fifty years ago, and I
haven't regretted it even for an instant. For a ragtag
bunch of abandons whom no one had much hope for,
we turned out to be good people who lived good lives.
The helping hand and generosity Elroy Willingham showed Gratton and
Melbowe when they were children was held out to us.
In turn, we spent our lives trying to help others,
especially those who needed that extra nudge in life. We've
done our best to honor our friends like Lester Peake
and Doak McFadden who didn't have a chance to grow
up and do the same. The world, especially in the West,
could be unforgiving, and they paid the price of being
in the wrong spot at the wrong time. We will
never forget the ones like Hiram and held a Bots either,
who never had a chance at all, sold to evil
and heartless men. It pains me to think how many
children suffered the same fate. I'm too old to believe
that places like the orphanage in High Lake weren't found
in lots of places. Grat and grebby my lifelong mental
and friend never married. He said we were all the
family he needed, and he treated our children and grandchildren
like his own. A find a man I've never known.
We buried him on the hill overlooking the ranch house,
and there's a certain comfort that comes from knowing he
still watches over us. He continues to remind us that
we will never be abandoned again.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me for this episode of the
End of the Night Anthology podcast. Written by Caroline Giamanco,
narrated by Nari, Theme music by Nico Rodriguez, all other
original music, sound design and editing by Ohmenhawk Studios. You
can find our links in the show notes. Into the
Night is on your favorite podcatcher, so make sure to like,
subscribe and leave a five star review to help other
excursionists to join us. I'll see you next time, and remember,
whether in the shadows or in the daylight, all twisted
paths lead you into the night. Into the Night Anthology
is a creative typo entertainment production