bucking.
I guess you think I'm goin to get down and flank that big son of a bitch and me on one leg.
He waited until the calf had bucked itself into a clear space among the creosote and then
he put the horse forward at a gallop. He paid the slack rope over the horse's head and
overtook the calf on its off side. The calf went trotting. The rope ran from its neck
along the ground on the near side and trailed in a curve behind its legs and ran forward
up the off side following the horse. John Grady checked his dally and then stood in one
stirrup and cleared his other leg of the trailing rope. When the rope snapped taut it
jerked the calf's head backward and snatched its hind legs from under it. The calf turned
endwise in the air and slammed to the ground in a cloud of dust and lay there.
John Grady was already off the horse and hobbling back along the rope to where the calf
lay and he knelt on its head before it could recover and grabbed its hind leg and yanked
the pigginstring from his belt and tied it and waited till it quit struggling. Then he
leaned and pulled the leg up to take a closer look at the swelling on the inside of its
leg that had made it run oddly and caused him to cut it out and rope it in the first place.
The calf had a stob of wood embedded under the skin. He tried to get hold of it with his
fingers but it was broken off almost flush. He felt along the length of it and pushed on
the end of it with his thumb and tried to feed it forward. He got a bit more of it exposed
and finally leaned forward and got hold of it with his teeth and pulled it out. A watery
serum ran. He held the stick under his nose and sniffed it and then pitched it away and
went back to the horse to get his bottle of Peerless and his swabs. When he turned the
calf loose it was running worse than before but he thought it would be all right.
He ate his lunch at noon in an outcropping of lava rock with a view across the floodplain
to the north and to the west. There were ancient pictographs among the rocks, engravings
of animals and moons and men and lost hieroglyphics whose meaning no man would ever know.
The rocks were warm in the sun and he sat sheltered from the wind and watched the silent
empty land. Nothing moved. After a while he folded away the wrappings from his lunch and
rose and went down and caught the horse.
He was still currying the sweated animal by the light from the barn stall when Billy
walked down picking his teeth and stood watching him.
Where'd you go?
Cedar Springs.
You up there all day?
Yep.
The man called that owned that filly.
I figured he would.
He wasnt pissed off or nothin.
He had no reason to be.
He asked Mac if he could get you to look at some horses for him.
Well.
He moved along the horse brushing. Billy watched him. She says she's fixin to throw it out
if you dont come.
I'll be there in a minute.
All right.
What did you think about that country down there?
I thought it was some pretty nice country.
Yeah?
I aint goin nowheres. Troy aint either.
John Grady ran the brush down the horse's loins. The horse shuddered. We'll all be goin
somewhere when the army takes this spread over.
Yeah, I know it.
Troy aint leavin?
Billy looked at the end of his toothpick and put it back in his mouth. The shadow of a bat
come to hunt in the barnlight passed across the horse, across John Grady.
I think he just wanted to see his brother.
John Grady nodded. He leaned with both forearms across the horse and stripped the loose
hairs from the brush and watched them drop.
When he entered the kitchen Oren was still at the table. He looked up from his paper and
then went back to reading. John Grady went to the sink and washed and Socorro opened the
warmer door over the oven and got down a plate.
He sat eating his supper and reading the news on the back side of Oren's paper across the
table.
What's a plebiscite? said
I guess you think I'm goin to get down and flank that big son of a bitch and me on one leg.
He waited until the calf had bucked itself into a clear space among the creosote and then
he put the horse forward at a gallop. He paid the slack rope over the horse's head and
overtook the calf on its off side. The calf went trotting. The rope ran from its neck
along the ground on the near side and trailed in a curve behind its legs and ran forward
up the off side following the horse. John Grady checked his dally and then stood in one
stirrup and cleared his other leg of the trailing rope. When the rope snapped taut it
jerked the calf's head backward and snatched its hind legs from under it. The calf turned
endwise in the air and slammed to the ground in a cloud of dust and lay there.
John Grady was already off the horse and hobbling back along the rope to where the calf
lay and he knelt on its head before it could recover and grabbed its hind leg and yanked
the pigginstring from his belt and tied it and waited till it quit struggling. Then he
leaned and pulled the leg up to take a closer look at the swelling on the inside of its
leg that had made it run oddly and caused him to cut it out and rope it in the first place.
The calf had a stob of wood embedded under the skin. He tried to get hold of it with his
fingers but it was broken off almost flush. He felt along the length of it and pushed on
the end of it with his thumb and tried to feed it forward. He got a bit more of it exposed
and finally leaned forward and got hold of it with his teeth and pulled it out. A watery
serum ran. He held the stick under his nose and sniffed it and then pitched it away and
went back to the horse to get his bottle of Peerless and his swabs. When he turned the
calf loose it was running worse than before but he thought it would be all right.
He ate his lunch at noon in an outcropping of lava rock with a view across the floodplain
to the north and to the west. There were ancient pictographs among the rocks, engravings
of animals and moons and men and lost hieroglyphics whose meaning no man would ever know.
The rocks were warm in the sun and he sat sheltered from the wind and watched the silent
empty land. Nothing moved. After a while he folded away the wrappings from his lunch and
rose and went down and caught the horse.
He was still currying the sweated animal by the light from the barn stall when Billy
walked down picking his teeth and stood watching him.
Where'd you go?
Cedar Springs.
You up there all day?
Yep.
The man called that owned that filly.
I figured he would.
He wasnt pissed off or nothin.
He had no reason to be.
He asked Mac if he could get you to look at some horses for him.
Well.
He moved along the horse brushing. Billy watched him. She says she's fixin to throw it out
if you dont come.
I'll be there in a minute.
All right.
What did you think about that country down there?
I thought it was some pretty nice country.
Yeah?
I aint goin nowheres. Troy aint either.
John Grady ran the brush down the horse's loins. The horse shuddered. We'll all be goin
somewhere when the army takes this spread over.
Yeah, I know it.
Troy aint leavin?
Billy looked at the end of his toothpick and put it back in his mouth. The shadow of a bat
come to hunt in the barnlight passed across the horse, across John Grady.
I think he just wanted to see his brother.
John Grady nodded. He leaned with both forearms across the horse and stripped the loose
hairs from the brush and watched them drop.
When he entered the kitchen Oren was still at the table. He looked up from his paper and
then went back to reading. John Grady went to the sink and washed and Socorro opened the
warmer door over the oven and got down a plate.
He sat eating his supper and reading the news on the back side of Oren's paper across the
table.
What's a plebiscite? said
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