Chapter 15 - My First Duty as Sheriff
My very first day on the job was pretty much uneventful. I had my new horse Thunder, but no place to keep him in the nights. It was summer then but I knew winters were mighty cold up here. I needed somewhere where I could give him the shelter he required. I worked out an arrangement with the Blacksmith to board Thunder with him until I could get a small barn built.
The doctor had some extra land behind the lodge and said he didn’t mind if I built a small barn there provided that I paid for all of it and if I ever left the area, I would give it to him. All I needed now was to get the money to buy supplies.
I went on over to see Ben at the bank who was more helpful than I could ever have imagined. He said, as Mayor, he could grant me half the money towards the barn and could give me a loan for the other half.
Everything fell in place so easily that I started thinking I may have moved to Paradise. Events later proved to me that I was wrong.
I started to build the barn right away and used all my spare time in that pursuit. I wanted to be sure I finished before October because I wasn’t quite sure when the cold weather would start coming. Some of the folks in town were glad to lend me a hand. Being Sheriff did seem to have some privileges.
I had the barn finished by mid-September and moved Thunder to his new home right after the last nail was banged in.