the men ate, they hurried to the stable to ready the wagons and buckboards for the trip to town. Clint hooked a team to his buckboard, planning to take Amelia and the girls with him.
While waiting for the women, Clint and Whitt were standing by the porch talking when Clint suddenly stopped in mid-sentence. Amelia and Ingrid walked from the house wearing their new dresses. Clint walked closer and removed his hat. “Ma, I’ve never seen such beautiful dresses, or two more stunning ladies.”
Smiling, Ingrid placed a kiss on his cheek. “You chose the lovely material.”
“Yes, thank you. Your mother is a talented seamstress. I’ve never owned anything so fine,” Amelia added.
Clint held out his hands to help them down the stairs. “I’ll be fighting every man in town over you two.”
As soon as Annie and Katie walked outside, they ran straight to Clint.
“Look what Miss Ingrid made for us!” Annie exclaimed, holding out the skirt of her new dress.
“You girls look so pretty.”
Annie thrust her doll at him. “Look at Lucy! She got a new dress, too.”
Clint took Lucy and examined her new dress and her new eyes, which greatly improved the little doll’s appearance. His mother had put Lucy back together. “She looks real pretty.”
The doctor took Ingrid’s hand in his and led her to the stable, where he’d left his buckboard. Honey and the puppies were hidden in the buckboard, and they didn’t want the girls to see them. The doc’s buckboard was at the back of the group as they made their way down the lane leaving Clint’s ranch.
Reaching the dirt road that led to La Grange, they rode for another quarter of a mile until a huge banner draped across the road came into view. CHRISTMAS ROAD was written in big, bold letters. Clint heard the excited chatter not only from the children, but from the adults.
Pulling the buckboard to a halt, Clint jumped down and helped Amelia and the girls to the ground. As if timed perfectly, Mr. and Mrs. Stanton rode in from the opposite direction, followed by several buckboards filled with the families from town.
Whitt and the boys jumped from his wagon and joined Clint and Amelia. “Clint, what’s all this?” Whitt asked.
Clint clapped Whitt on the back. “You’ll see.” He turned to see the excitement on the faces of the children. “There are presents hanging from the trees for the ladies and children. Now, everyone go find the present with your name on it.” He motioned for Whitt, Tom and Ben, saying, “I want to talk to you in private for a minute.”
By the time the adults were on the ground, all of the children, except Annie and Katie, were running to the trees looking for their names on the presents. Fortunately for Clint, he’d picked out gifts for all the children he’d met at Honey Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Stanton had selected gifts for the families who had remained in La Grange, and Mrs. Stanton had wrapped the presents. After Mr. Stanton delivered them to the ranch, Ingrid hid them in the stable until Clint returned. When Mr. and Mrs. Stanton told the town about the surprise Clint had planned for the children on Christmas morning, they decided to rename the road leading to La Grange to Christmas Road. Mr. Stanton and the doc had hung the banner for the families to see when they returned to their homes.
“This was the errand you had to do last night?” Whitt asked.
“Yep. The doc and I hung all the presents last night. Early this morning I left the house to go pick up Bo and Boone’s presents.”
Whitt gave Clint a puzzled look just as Bo called out to him, “Pa, look at our goats!”
Whitt looked at Clint with watery eyes and said, “I don’t know how you did this, but thank you.”
* * *
Clint motioned for the men surrounding him to move a few steps away, where they could talk in private. “I know you men were worried about your ranches being foreclosed on. I talked to the banker, and he agreed to push back the dates where he could.” He handed each of them paperwork from the bank, reflecting the now-current mortgages.
Whitt studied the paperwork. “But you paid the portion that was due.”
“It wasn’t much, and that’s a Christmas gift,” Clint responded.
All the men choked back tears as they shook Clint’s hand, thanking him for his generosity.
“Now, go see what your children are so excited about.”
Clint walked back to Amelia and