Forty-One
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author. This book is a work of fiction by the author, except for some historical events which have been included. Some similarities to actual events, similar places, or real people, living or dead, are real, and some may be coincidental, but the rest are fictional.
If you like my stories, please feel free to tell me. If you don’t like them, please quietly keep it to yourself and stop reading them. The metaphorical language spoken by some of my characters may offend some people. I apologize, but those are the words or phrases some people used then, and some still do. A hundred years ago, flowery speech was fashionable. In the fifties and sixties, writers began to use more explicit and offensive metaphors. The Carpetbaggers comes to mind. My writing teachers suggested if I want my readers of today to savor my novel of any era, I should write in the metaphoric words of that time period. Please forgive me if I have offended anyone; it certainly wasn’t intended. My book was written to entertain you. Por favor, perdóname si te he fallado.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Carla L. Wood, who inspired me and encouraged me to write stories.
Book One
Riding for the JN Brand
Introduction
Born on his grandfather’s cotton farm in Virginia, seventeen-year-old Jeff Nelson and his father are compelled to fight for their civil rights. They join the Union Army at the onset of the Civil War to defend their beloved Virginia against an aggressive Confederate Army. His father soon falls in battle, but Jeff, by his wits, survives many battles. When the South surrenders at Appomattox, young Jeff Nelson, still young in years, and tempered as a war-weary veteran, returns to his farm in Virginia. He plans to continue his life as a farmer, but he discovers his land, that’s belonged to the Nelson’s for three generations, has been sold for past taxes. Now homeless and seeking a new life, Jeff leaves his beloved state of Virginia and heads west, out into the vast untamed land of Texas.
Chapter
