"Bear Claws."

“Well, that’s it. Axel’s broken. Cain’t go no further.”

Alice looked around. She knew if her husband Earl, and her Brother Mark had made it past the River Fever…they could have fixed it. But since it was just her, Martha (her oldest) and little Ebenezer, who barely was a tall as a fence post..well, then, this is where they homestead. 

She looked around. They would build a cabin on that little rise. The creek was only a couple hundred feet from where the cabin would go. And she would build a small kitchen to bake in. 

“Mom,” Said Martha quietly: “We stayin?”

“Yes.”

“You gonna open a bakery?”

Alice smiled. 

“Honey, we haven’t seen a bakery since Ohio, and that was three months ago. We don’t need a bakery. We are going to make Bear Claws.”

“Those silly things? Ain’t but a bunch of batter, butter, and sugar.”

Alice smiled. 

“Martha, mark my words, those silly things are going to build us a cabin, make us a well, and keep us safe.”

Marth stared at her Mom. 

“You sure?”

Alice nodded. 

“Yep. First thing we do is make a batch of Bear Claws in the morning. The wind will do the rest. “

Martha shrugged. Her and Ebenezer started making a stone oven with some stones from the creek. Alice put up the cover over the broken wagon. Until she found some men to help, that wagon would be home. 

Next morning…early…the smoke drifted out into the woods and fields. The smell of something unusual on the Frontier. Baking. And not any old baking…but the smell of sweet treats. A smell no Frontiersman ever forgot, if’n they ever smelled it before. 

*****

“Duke, you smell that?”

Rufus and Mayberry lifted their heads from skinning the deer they caught in the morning mist. They stepped a few feet away from the fresh kill.  As one, all four men’s head turned towards the sweet smell on the wind. 

“Well, I be darned.”

Duke turned and told the other men:

“Hurry on up with the skinning. And make sure you cut off some prime steaks.”

“What for Duke?”

“We need something to trade.

"Trade. For what?”

“What Herbert smelled on the wind.”

“What did he smell?”

Herbert looked at Duke. They had been a team for years, and friends before that. And both remembered that time in Chillicothe on the Western Reserve where they bought hot Bear Claws from a booth down by the river. 

“Bear Claw. Hurry up, we gotta go before they are gone.”

*****

Martha saw the four men, and their horses come out of the wood line. The front two were smiling and lifting their heads to gather the smell in. She ran over to her Mom. 

“Mom, there’s four men a comin. They’s big men too. Should we hide?”

Alice turned and looked at the men coming out of the wood line. She put on a big smile and waved. 

The two men in the lead took off their hats and gave a slight bow from the saddle. 

“Don’t you fret none, honey. Those men will be as gentle as house cats. They want Bear Claws.”

“But what if they hurt us?”

“Believe me, Honey. Once they taste my Claws…and word spreads…we will be fine.”

The men ate three a piece. They stayed three days. When they left, Alice and her small family had a one room Cabin, and a proper stone oven. Duke would be coming back with butter, sugar and flour. Herbert would be coming back too. But Herbert would be staying. Martha made sure of that. 

Word got out. Nobody bothered the small family on the Hill. People came from far and away to get Alice’s Bear Claws. Even when the town formed about a mile downstream where the bottom land was fertile, and a bridge was built over the creek…they still came out to Alice’s place. They built a nice road to her place. 

When Martha’s firstborn got married, in front of the old Cabin built by Duke and his men, everyone gathered on the porch of the big house. One of the Town girls asked how they built such a pretty home, with stables and outbuildings. 

Alice smiled. 

“Bear Claws.”