Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

It struck Call that they should have educated the boy a little better. He seemed to think north was a place, not just a direction. It was another of Gus's failings-he considered himself a great educator, and yet he rarely told anyone anything they needed to know.

"It's a ways farther than you've been," Call said, not sure the boy had ever been anywhere. Probably they had at least taken him to Pickles Gap at some point.

"Oh, I been north," Newt said, not wanting the Captain to think him completely untraveled. "I been north clean to San Antone-remember?"

Call remembered then-Deets had taken him once.

"Where we're going is a sight farther," he said.

"WELL, I'M GOING TO MISS WANZ," Augustus said, as he and Call were eating their bacon in the faint morning light. "Plus I already miss my Dutch ovens. You would want to move just as my sourdough got night at its prime."

"I'd like to think there's a better reason for living in a place than you being able to cook biscuits," Call said. "Though I admit they're good biscuits."

"You ought to admit it, you've et enough of them," Augustus said. "I still think we ought to just hire the town and take it with us. Then we'd have a good barkeep and someone to play the pianer."

With Call suddenly determined to leave that very day, Augustus found himself regretful, nostalgic already for things he hadn't particularly cared for but hated to think of losing.

"What about the well?" he asked. "Another month and we'd have it dug."

"We?" Call asked. "When did you hit a lick on that well?"

He looked around and saw to his astonishment that Augustus's two pigs were laying under the wagon, snuffling. In the half dark he had thought it was Bolivar snoring.

"Who asked them dern pigs?" he said.

"I guess they tracked us," Augustus said. "They're enterprising pigs."

"I guess you're planning to take them too?"

"It's still a free country," Augustus said. "They can come if they want the inconvenience. Wonder where Jake camped."

At that point the late shift came riding in-Newt, Pea, Dish Boggett and Jasper Fant, plus a fifth man, who hadn't been part of the shift.

"Why, it's Soupy Jones," Call said.

"Godamighty," Augustus said. "The man must of have lost his wits, what few he had."

Soupy had rangered with them a few months, before they quit. He was brave but lazy, a fine cardplayer, and by all odds the best horseman any of them had ever known. His love of being horseback was so strong that he could seldom be induced to dismount, except to sleep or eat.

"I thought Soupy married," Call said, as the boys unsaddled their night horses.

"That was the gossip," Augustus said. "Married a rich woman and became a sheriff, I heard. Well, maybe she run off with a preacher. If she didn't, I don't know why he's out this time of night."

Soupy, a short man, came walking over with Pea Eye.

"Look what rode up," Pea Eye said. "I near mistook him for a bandit since it was pitch-dark."

"'I god, Soupy, you should have waited till we lit the lanterns," Augustus said, standing up to shake hands. "A sharp bunch of gun hands like us, you're lucky not to be shot."

"Aw, Gus," Soupy said, not knowing what else to say. He had always been nonpiused by Gus's witticisms.

"Morning, Captain," he said, as Call shook his hand.

"Have some grub," Call said. He had always been fond of the man, despite his unwillingness to dismount if there was something to do on the ground.

"Where'd you come from, Soupy?" Augustus asked. "Didn't we hear you was mayor of someplace. Or was it governor?"

"I was just in Bastrop, Gus," Soupy said. "Bastrop don't have no mayor, on governor either. It's barely a town."

"Well, we're barely an outfit," Augustus said, "though we got two fine pigs that just joined us last night. Are you looking for employment?"

"Yes, my wife died," Soupy said. "She was never strong," he added, in the silence that followed the remark.

"Well, you're hired, at least," Call said.

"I lost two wives myself," Augustus remarked.

"I heard Jake was around but I don't see him," Soupy said. He and Jake had been close buddies once, and it was partly curiosity about him that made Soupy want to rejoin the Hat Creek outfit.

"Well, he is," Call said, not anxious to have to explain the situation.

"Jake won't camp with us old cobs," Augustus said. "He's traveling with a valet, if you know what that is."

"No, but if it's traveling with Jake I bet it wears skirts," Soupy said-a remark which for some reason seemed to catch everybody wrong. Or everybody but Gus, who laughed long and hard. Feeling a little confused, but happy to have been hired, Soupy went off with Pea Eye to get breakfast.

"I'm going in and pry up that sign I wrote so we can take it with us," Augustus said. "I may pry up one of my Dutch ovens and bring it too."

"Bol ain't said that he's going," Call said. It was a mild anxiety. If Bol quit and they had to depend on Gus to do the cooking, the whole trip would be in jeopardy. Apart from biscuits, his cooking was of the sort that caused tempers to flare.

In fact, Bolivar was standing by the cook fine, staring into it with an expression of deep gloom. If he heard the remark he gave no sign.

"Oh, Bol's got the adventurer's spirit," Augustus said. "He'll go. If he don't, he'll just have to go home and whet his wife more often than he cares to."

With that he went and got the two mules that constituted their wagon team. The bigger mule, a gray, was named Greasy, and the smaller, a bay, they called Kick Boy, out of respect for his lightning rear hooves. They had not been worked very much, there seldom having been a need to take the wagon anywhere. It was theoretically for rent, but rarely got rented more than once a year. Greasy and Kick Boy were an odd-looking team, the former being nearly four hands higher than the latter. Augustus hitched them to the wagon, while Call went to inspect the nemuda, meaning to weed out any horses that looked sickly.

"Don't weed out too many," Augustus said. "We might need to eat 'em."

Dish Boggett, who had had little sleep and had not enjoyed the little, found the remark irritating.

"Why would we need to eat the dern horses, with three thousand cattle right in front of us?" he asked. He had spent hours riding around the herd, with a tight wad of anger in his breast.

"I can't say, Dish," Augustus said. "We might want to change our fare, for all I know. Or the Sioux Indians might run off the cattle. Of course, they might run off the horses too."

"Happened to us in that Stone House fight," Pea remarked. "They set fire to the grass and I couldn't see a dern thing."

"Well, I ain't you," Dish informed him. "I bet I could see my own horse, fire or no fire."

"I'm going to town," Augustus said. "You boys will stand and jabber all day. Any of you want anything brought? It has to be something that will fit in this wagon."

"Bring me five hundred dollars, that'll fit," Jasper said.

There was general laughter, which Augustus ignored. "What I ought to bring is a few coffins," he said. "Most of you boys will probably be drownt before we hit the Powder River."

"Bring a few jugs, if you see any," Jasper said. The fear of drowning was strong in him, and Gus's remark spoiled his mood.

"Jasper, I'll bring a boat if I notice one," Augustus said. He caught Bolivar staring at him malevolently.

"Come on, if you're coming, Bol," he said. "No reason for you to go north and drown."

Bol was indeed feeling terrible. They only talked of going, not of coming back. It might be he would never see Mexico again, on his lovely daughters, if he left. And yet, when he looked across the river and thought of his village, he just felt tired. He was too tired to deal with a disappointed woman, and much too tired to be a bandit.