JANUARY 10, 1860

At the end of last week it had been mostly sunny with no snowfall whatsoever and most of the snow had melted. But yesterday a few hours after the town meeting a blizzard sprung up from no where. The waystation was already 6 feet in snow, so Rachel had told Jesse he could stay here and not go into school today.

To keep Jesse busy, Rachel decided to clean the house from top to bottom. So Rachel and Jesse started in the kitchen. They took the pots, pans and food out of the cupboards, cleaned the shelves and put the items back in them. After the kitchen was completely spotless she made sure Jesse was bundled up and sent him out to the bunkhouse to fetch Cody inside for lunch. All the other riders were off on mail runs, but today was Cody�s rest day. He had come in from his mail run early this morning, and now he was in his bed snoozing away.

Jesse trudged over to the bunkhouse and as he entered he shook off the snow. No need for him to take off his coat because he didn�t plan on staying there for long. Jesse took off his gloves and lightly put one of them on Cody�s cheek. Cody swiped at his face, but Jesse withdrew his glove before Cody reacted.

Unbeknownst to Jesse, Cody had been waking up while Jesse trudged over to the bunkhouse. Out of the corner of his eye Cody had seen Jesse enter, so when Jesse touched his cheek again with his glove, Cody quickly grabbed Jesse by the hand. Startled Jesse tried to draw his hand back away from Cody, but Cody�s grip was tight. Cody smirked and rose from the bed. "Don�t you know it�s not nice to do things like that especially to people who are bigger than you." Cody slowly let go of Jesse�s hand.

Quickly Cody dressed and followed Jesse out of the bunkhouse. Jesse was a few feet ahead of Cody when he felt something hit the back of his coat. Jesse turned around and another snowball hit him smack in the chest. Cody was grinning from ear to ear. Jesse quickly grabbed up some snow and made a snowball and shot it at Cody. Of course Cody dodged and laughed, and then the snow fight was on. Of course Cody hit Jesse more but Jesse got in a few good hits.

Cold and tired Cody made a dash for the house. He went in and shut the door and leaned up against it. Jesse tried to open the door but it wouldn�t budge. He pounded on it and Rachel said, "Cody let the poor boy in." Cody finally relented and pulled open the door just when Jesse was about to pound on it again. Jesse fell through the entranceway and Cody caught him. He smiled at Jesse. "That was fun! I haven�t had that much fun in a long time. Thanks for the snowball fight Jesse." Cody swatted Jesse�s head. The boys quickly took of their wet coats and boots and stood by the fire to get the chill off.

That morning Melissa mounted Braids and rode to school. When she got there Miss Boudreaux told her since it was so bad out that probably none of the other kids would show up but she admired Melissa�s dedication. Melissa liked the praise. When it was 8:30 and no other kids had showed up, and the blizzard had died down again, Melissa decided to head home.

Miss Boudreaux told her to be careful, and Melissa assured her that she would. Unfortunately soon after Melissa left, the blizzard picked back up again. Melissa couldn�t see anything and she almost decided to turn Braids back around and go back to the school, but Melissa couldn�t see nothing but white all around her. She just hoped Braids knew the way back to town. But Braids didn�t know any better than Melissa. Finally Melissa saw a light in the distance. She kicked Braids to go faster. Melissa dropped off of Braids and stumbled to the door and knocked.

A young gentleman answered and upon seeing the young freezing teenager, he expediently pulled her inside and led her to the fire. As Cody helped Melissa out of her coat, Jesse realized who she was. "Melissa, what are you doing here?" Jesse asked.

"Uh, Um . . . Well." Melissa was undecided as what to say. She didn�t want to admit that she had got lost. She realized that this must be the Pony Express Station, so she said, "I went to school and no other kids showed up, so I thought I would come here and see Jimmy. Is he here?" She scanned the room and only saw the blond-haired, green-eyed lady, Jesse and the gentleman that had let her inside.

"No, he�s out on a mail run." Rachel replied.

"In this?" Melissa exclaimed. "You shouldn�t let him ride in weather like this. He could get hurt or worse, sick with pneumonia."

"Like you have a right to talk. When you were just out in the blizzard." Jesse stated.

"Well, it wasn�t that bad when I left the school." Melissa put her hands on her hips.

"Us, Pony Express riders have to deliver the mail no matter what. That�s our duty!" Cody saluted Melissa and then pulled on her ponytail. Melissa gave Cody a disgusted frown. She hated it when people pulled her ponytails.

"Are you hungry?" Rachel asked.

"Yes ma�am!" Melissa didn�t want to admit it, but she was famished. It seemed she had been traveled in that blizzard for days instead of hours, and she had lost her lunch bag. After Cody saw to Melissa�s horse, Melissa joined Cody, Jesse and Rachel for lunch. There wasn�t much conversation, although Rachel, Cody and Melissa did exchange introductions.

Astonished Melissa watched as Cody heaped his plate with his third helping. She glanced at Rachel who just smiled and said, "You can have some more, Melissa. Help yourself."

"Oh no, no thank you, Miss Rachel. I�m full." And she said that as she looked over at Cody who was still shoveling food in his mouth.

Melissa helped Rachel clear the table. While doing so she asked, "Is Jimmy due back soon?"

"No, I�m afraid not." Rachel sat the dishes in the sink. "He won�t be getting back until late tonight, hopefully."

While Rachel and Melissa washed and put away the dishes, Cody chatted with Jesse in front of the fireplace. "So she�s the girl who owns the newspaper?"

"Yeah, her and her sister." Jesse replied.

"Have you seen her sister?"

"Yes, she dropped off and picked up Melissa one day at school." Jesse answered.

Cody had Jesse describe Melissa�s sister to him, and Cody realized that she must be the cute little filly entering the bank and the livery stable that he saw last week. Cody asked Jesse to do him a favor. "When the gals come in here could you leave Melissa and I alone for a little while? I�d like to talk to her about her sister."

After a little conniving on Jesse�s part, him and Cody came to an agreement. Jesse would take Rachel to do some more cleaning if Cody showed him how to use a gun. So when Rachel and Melissa entered the room, Jesse got up and said, "Well, Rachel, I guess we better go clean the bedrooms." Jesse started off toward the rear of the house. Stunned Rachel just stood there.

"Go ahead Rachel. I�ll keep Melissa company." Cody motioned for Melissa to join him.

Rachel followed Jesse into the bedroom, and while they cleaned, Jesse asked Rachel a lot of questions about girls. "How do you know if a girl likes you?"

"Well, that�s hard to say. I guess by the way she acts and talks to you." Rachel replied.

"But what if she doesn�t talk to you much?" Jesse was having a hard time trying to figure out if Rose liked him or not.

"Well, that doesn�t necessarily mean that she doesn�t like you. It could mean that she�s shy." Rachel explained.

"But what if she talks to another guy a lot?" Thinking of all the times he had seen Rose talking with Michael.

"Well, have you talked to this girl?"

"Some but not a whole lot."

"Well, you see sometimes girls can talk to some guys more easily than others. They especially have trouble talking to guys if they like them. Sometimes the guy has to make the first move." Rachel wasn�t quite sure what girl Jesse liked, but she hoped she was helping him out a little bit.

Jesse didn�t say anything for quite some time, so Rachel continued, "The guy should go up to the girl and talk to her. Girls like it when guys show that they are interested. Ask her what kinds of things she likes. Let her know that you�re interested in things that she likes." Rachel wasn�t sure what else to tell Jesse, so they finished their cleaning in silence.

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After Rachel left, Cody asked, "So Melissa you and your older sister runs the newspaper office right?"