Ralph Neighbor

A Gathering of Orphans Ralph Neighbor

It is 1846, the year of the Mexican war. Ray Dobbs, a retired fur trapper and mountain man, has been engaged to guide an English nobleman's party on a hunting expedition in the North American wilderness. Ray is to meet the nobleman, Lord Edwin, and his entourage at the hunting grounds, a large basin deep in the Rocky Mountains known as Bayou Salade, present day South Park, Colorado. Ray's initial task is to bring fifty horses and a wagon load of arms, ammunition and supplies from St. Louis to the Bayou. As they traverse the prairie Ray and his native partner, Crowbait, are blessed with a series of waifs. The first is Dusty, an abused runaway. The second is Moe, an autistic savant orphaned by a massacre. The next orphan is Bluebird, a small Cheyenne girl and the last is Little Weasel, a white boy captured in infancy and raised in the same ill-fated Cheyenne band. The story is told by these youngsters. The prairie crossing is made difficult by an Indian attack, thunderstorms, a sandstorm and a bear attack.