The Jump-Off Creek (25 page)

She had to drag the dead goat out from beneath the broken-down corner of the shed roof before the mule would stand under it. Then she tied him there on a stout rope and went in the house. Her hands were stiff. She fumbled, nursing a smoky fire in the stove, and stood over it while ice was melted again in the kettle. Her hands began to burn. She didn't want to go back out in the stinging rain and wind, across the slick field to the shed. But she took hold of the kettle grimly, and clutched a handful of precious sheaf oats in her other hand, and shoved the door back with her hip.

The mule pushed his nose down in the water. She pulled his head up after a moment and numbly walked him back and forth along the front edge of the shed. Then she let him drink again loudly, bumping his muzzle against the bottom of the kettle in his nervous thirst. Lydia heard a scrabble on the ice and looked. Rose led her kid out of the brush, coming anxiously across the field for the water. The clapper of the bell was frozen, but on the goat's long fleece hard marbles of ice rattled flatly. Lydia stood and looked, with her hands in her coat pockets and her shoulders hunched up coldly.

Rose came in under the edge of the shed and pushed her face down eagerly in the kettle. The mule had begun to snuffle the sheaf oats by then, and the goat licked the cold tin with her tongue and blatted and pushed the empty kettle around. She wouldn't stand still for the kid, trying to get at her teat. Lydia looked at her, without the energy for feeling. She took the piece of rope out of her coat. It was stiff, rimed with ice. She put it around the doe's neck and tied the end around one of the poles of the shed. Her fingers worked the knots poorly, laboriously. Crossing the field with the empty kettle, she fell on the ice and sat there crying dryly, tiredly. But she got up after a while and went on the rest of the way, because the goat was bawling, thirsty, waiting for her.

11 Dec
Bright today and cold, the old Snow under the trees & on the North sides of the ridges frozen hard. Went over in the Morning to Mr Whiteaker's with potatoes & a squash and had a Visit, tho I had dreaded it and put off going rather longer than was kind. The missing Dog of his has come meekly home, no telling where he had been or if the other was poisoned after all. Mike Walker had told me Mr Whiteaker was brooding over this, imagining events might have ended differently if the Dog had been found on the Day. But he keeps the Dog in the house w him, it may be as company against Loneliness, and I believe he does not hold the poor dog to account, no more than Fate. We had a good talk once started, comprising of the prospects for more Snow & of our supplies holding out & sick Cows & Mrs Walker's successful delivery of a Son. He said the Jump-Off Creek was named due to the Whitman party camping along it in 1837 on their way to starting the mission at Waiilatpu, it was the “jump-off point” for crossing the Summit of the Blue Mts & down onto
the Walla Walla plain. I was rather foolishly happy when I heard it, as Narcissa Whitman & Eliza Spalding in that Party were the first White Women to cross the Continent and I believe I felt some kinship w them. On account of our speaking of names, I got up courage & deliberately asked him if Mr. Odell was named for the Blue Mts or if it was part of a longer Indian naming. He was not unhappy w my raising the name of the dead, it could be he was glad for it. He said No & told a long story about a near-drowning in a frozen lake & Mr Odell brought up blue as block-ice, thought to be dead, and when left in a cold room he came Awake & afterwards always was called Blue. His true given name, which not many knew, was Lincoln, after the President. He had rather less Indian about him than seemed. We had a talk about putting up Hay, Mr Whiteaker more disposed to it than beforetime. When I said I had made Hay, he said he would learn it from me if I would teach him, and I said I would.

 

 

 

 

A MARINER READER'S GUIDE TO

 

The Jump-Off Creek

by

M
OLLY
G
LOSS

 

“As plain and durable as hardtack, but a good deal tastier. With careful, precise language, Gloss reaches back a century.”

—Milwaukee Journal

1. What details of frontier life emerge from Molly Gloss's portrait of the Blue Mountain homesteaders in the 1890s? What is the significance of the name Jump-Off Creek for Lydia and the earlier pioneer women with whom she feels kinship?

 

2. What has driven Lydia Sanderson to homestead on her own in the remote, sparsely populated Blue Mountains of Oregon? What is the significance of her statement to Blue Odell that “I was seeking the boundless possibilities that are said to live on the frontier”? What are some of these boundless possibilities, and do they change for Lydia?

 

3. In chapter four, we learn that Lydia “had a habit of going quick in these events, before the misgiving would set in.” What instances are we shown of Lydia's “going quick” when confronted with difficulty or danger? In what ways does this habit serve her well, or not?

 

4. Lydia writes in her journal, “I am used to being Alone, in spirit if not body, and shall not be Lonely, as I have never been inclined that way.” Yet Evelyn Walker, in chapter sixteen, reflects on her own loneliness and triggers a similar unspoken response from Lydia. How does Lydia deal with being alone?

 

5. In chapter twelve, Blue sees Lydia “hiding [a] little flash of satisfaction” when she brings down a calf for the first time. Why does this incident fill Lydia with such satisfaction? What other activities provide Lydia with a sense of satisfaction, reward, or pleasure?

 

6. How would you describe the reality of women's lives on the northwestern frontier? How do Lydia, Evelyn Walker, and Doris Oberfield each cope with the challenges of living as a woman, single or married, on the frontier?

 

7. Every once in a while, Lydia feels “a sudden itchy need for sympathy, or for forgiveness,” or just for some human interaction. In what ways does she deal with those needs? Does she fully appreciate the limitations of the life she has chosen?

 

8. Why do you think details of Lydia's past in Pennsylvania and her reasons for heading west begin to emerge nearly halfway through the novel, after we have already begun to form an impression of her? What details of Lydia's past help to explain her determination to go it alone, and eventually change our view of her?

 

9. As she is stitching up Blue's back, we read that Lydia “was tender, but pitiless, having never gained pity and so never learning it.” What are some of the hardships endured by Lydia and the others that require both tenderness and an absence of pity?

 

10. What might be Tim's motives for suggesting marriage to Lydia, and Lydia's for saying no? What other indications are there that marriage is expected of Lydia and other women?

 

11. As cold nights return in October, Lydia admits that she “had no instinct yet for the weather in this country.” How does Lydia prepare for the onset of winter? Are her preparations adequate?

 

12. One of Tim Whiteaker's infrequent aphorisms is “Carelessness is something that will get people killed.” What does he mean by this? What instances are there of carelessness and of caregiving, and what are the consequences of each?

 

13. Lydia notes that Tim and Blue's house “looked well established and was soundly built.” And Gloss adds, “She set a high value on those things.” What are some other examples of what Lydia values?

 

14. In her first journal entry at Jump-Off Creek, Lydia writes, “I have not lost Heart, having done so in years past and no false hopes this time. There are Graces at all events.” What are the “Graces” to which she refers? Which additional graces does she discover during the subsequent six months?

 

15. What impact does the wolf bounty have on the motivations and actions of the Blue Mountain homesteaders, trappers, and ranchers? What are its consequences?

 

16. What is “the quick, small grief” that Lydia unexpectedly feels when she learns that Evelyn Walker will go to her mother's to have her baby? Why does Lydia experience this grief, which she finds inexplicable?

 

17. What are some of the ways in which the outside world encroaches on the inhabitants of the Blue Mountains?

 

18. How does
The Jump-Off Creek
change what you thought you knew about the West, men's and women's roles on the frontier, and homesteading at the turn of the century? What was the biggest surprise or challenge to a preconception you might have had about frontier homesteading?

 

MARINER BOOKS/HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
For information about other Mariner reader's guides, visit our Web site:
www.hmhco.com/popular-reading/reading-groups
.

 

M
OLLY
G
LOSS
is the best-selling author of
The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek,
winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Oregon Book Award,
The Dazzle of Day,
winner of the PEN Center West Fiction Prize, and
Wild Life,
winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award.