Chapter 24Bear and I went to work. I built a forge near Stout Ox’s shack and located an old anvil, tongs, and a hammer in a nearby settlement. After trading for those, Bird helped me fashion a bellows. The first thing I crafted was a plow blade from scrap iron littering the grounds near the agency. Bear set about instructing the reluctant young men of Rivers Bend in the finer points of agriculture, even though it was too late in the year to expect anything but a poor autumn crop.
Meanwhile I made a few shovels and a rude auger, which we used to dig two wells at opposite ends of the settlement. Water from the wells helped us make crude adobe-style bricks, even though the clay content of the soil was inferior. Utilizing these, we constructed two large structures as better shelter against th
