by Ralph Moody
I don’t remember Mother ever reading anything I couldn’t understand, and I never heard any of the others say so either, but I don’t think many people would have read us the same books she did. That day it was John Halifax, Gentleman. Maybe she skipped spots we couldn’t have understood, and maybe some of it drifted over our heads, but at least we remembered the stories she read. I think part of the reason was that we could raise a hand whenever we wanted an explanation of any word or situation.
I liked John Halifax a lot, but as the afternoon passed, I found my mind wandering from the tannery to the open range, where Hi might be punching cattle on his blue roan. The more I thought of Hi, the farther I left John behind. After Mother had explained to our Muriel Joy that Father took her name from that very book, I suggested that maybe I should leave early, to get the milk before it was too late. I had my plans all made, if Father said yes. He said it.
I started up over the hill in the direction of Aultland’s, but as soon as I got over the shoulder of the first rise of ground, I headed for home as fast as I could scramble. I got the milk pail—a ten-pound lard bucket—and set it in the wagon. Next, I untied Fanny’s halter rope and led her out there, too. I tied her to one of the wheels, with less than a foot slack in the rope, so she couldn’t back away. Then I got her bridle, took one of the long reins from the driving harness, and fastened an end to each bit ring. By standing in the wagon box, I could reach her head all right, but I was afraid she would run away when I took her halter off, so first I tied the loose end of the rope good and tight around her neck. Fanny was one of those mares that fought the bit, but I didn’t know it, nor what to do about it. I guess I just expected her to open her mouth wide and wait for me to lay the bit into it. When I showed her the bridle, she tossed her head and pulled back to the end of the rope. I leaned out of the wagon as far as I dared, holding the bit up toward her lips. When I got it close, she would bob her head up and down and swing around where I couldn’t reach her.
As Fanny kept dancing away from the bridle, I kept one eye peeled for sight of the folks coming back from the creek. Usually, we would beg Mother to say poetry for us after she had stopped reading. Sometimes we could keep her going for an hour or so, but I was usually the one who did most of the begging. If they had got Mother going on a good, long one like “Horatius at the Bridge,” I’d be all right, but if it was just a short one like “The Day is Done,” I was sunk.
The more Fanny jerked her head around, the madder I got at her and the more afraid I was that I would get caught before I had a chance to try to ride her. I climbed out astraddle of the wheel and tried to push the bit in between her clenched teeth as her head bobbed. Finally I remembered that Father talked quietly to her when he made her plow, and decided to try it. I got down and patted her on the shoulder. As soon as her ears were pointed forward, I untied the halter rope and pulled it up easily till I had her chin right up to the wheel tire. Then I tied it tight and climbed back on the wagon. I kept telling her what a nice mare she was as I offered her the bit again. It made no impression; she still kept her teeth locked.
My time was running out. Even if it was Horatius, it couldn’t last forever. I stuck one thumb in between her lips and gouged down with my thumb nail. That seemed to be something Fanny understood. She opened her teeth and took the bit. I was so excited I forgot to buckle the cheek strap, but grabbed up my bucket and shinned over onto her neck. When I had worked my way back to the withers, I untied her neck-rope, and we were on our way. I was quite surprised to find that she was easier to ride than the kicking donkey—and her withers were slim enough so that I could get a good knee hold.
Fanny didn’t canter smoothly like the blue roan, and I didn’t have any stirrup straps to balance myself with, but I was still on top when we got to Aultland’s. I tied her way over at the end of the pole corral, hoping no one would see I had ridden her—and so that I would have the poles to climb up onto when I was ready to get on again.
I hadn’t fooled anybody at Aultland’s. I guess they had seen me coming up the road. Fred said, “I knew your paw was proud about you riding Hi’s pony, but I’d a bet your maw wouldn’t let you try Wright’s mare bareback.”
I remembered what he’d said before about betting his life I’d make a horseman—and I thought maybe if I acted like Mother knew already, they wouldn’t bring the matter up later—so I said, “Oh, she saw me ride Hi’s blue horse and she knows I’m going to be a horseman. She doesn’t care.”
Bessie made me take the milk in their can instead of in our lard bucket, and it was lucky she did. I tried to hold the can still on the way home, but Fanny seemed to be in a hurry to get there and ran like all get-out. The can got bouncing up and down and I was so busy holding on with my knees that I just had to let it bounce. The cover popped off and milk went everywhere. As we came out of the last gulch, there was the whole family coming up over the hill from the creek. The nerves in my bottom started to tingle—and it wasn’t from rubbing on Fanny’s back.
It was too late to turn back. I knew Father would have seen Fanny, because her feet were clattering on the adobe road like sticks on a snare drum. For just about a second I thought he might not have seen that I was on her, and that I might be able to dive off like Hi and come up on my feet. The ground was going by so fast that I was actually afraid to look down, let alone dive off, but I didn’t want to admit it, and told myself I’d better not try it because I’d spill the rest of the milk.
I had planned to ride Fanny up to the wagon, so I could get off without dropping the milk can, but she had her own ideas about where she was headed for, and shot right into the barn. I could see I was going to be raked off if I didn’t do something about it, and do it in a hurry. I dived head first at the manure pile, milk can and all. That’s where Father found me when he came running around the corner of the barn a minute later. I wasn’t hurt a bit, and I still had the empty milk can, but my best Buster Brown was kind of messed up.
Mother and the rest of the youngsters were only seconds behind Father. Mother was furious after she got over being scared, and demanded that Father give me a good, hard spanking. She said he could talk to me till he was black in the face, and it wouldn’t do a bit of good, because my wickedness was so great that it had killed my conscience. Nothing but fear of bodily pain would save me from a life of crime.
Father didn’t say a word, but just turned me over his knee while I was trying to tell him that I hadn’t lied to be able to do what I wanted to, so hadn’t injured my character any more. Father had a trick I never knew about before. He must have cupped his hand up some way, because every whack sounded like it was killing me, but they hardly stung at all. I howled loud enough to make up the difference.
8
I Become a Sort of Cowboy
BY THE beginning of May, school had pretty well petered out. Nobody sent boys to school when they were needed at home to help with the plowing or planting, so when it got down to where only four girls and I were left, school closed for the summer.
The day after it closed, Mrs. Corcoran came to see Mother about getting me to work for them. They had about thirty milch cows, and used to take cream to Fort Logan every day. In the summer they pastured the cows on the quarter section south of us. Because there weren’t any fences, somebody had to herd them to keep them from getting into Aultland’s and Carl Henry’s grain fields. She said she would pay me twenty-five cents a day, and I would only have to work from seven in the morning till six at night. I guess Mother thought they herded cows on foot in Colorado, as they did in New England, so she said I could do it.
I didn’t have any such ideas at all and was all excited about being a cowboy. My biggest worry was that I didn’t have a tengallon felt hat, instead of a straw one from the grocery store at Fort Logan. I spent the rest of the afternoon out behind the barn, twisting myself a pair of spurs out of pieces of baling wire. It seemed best to sort of take it for granted that I was going to ride Fanny, so I was up and dressed in time to
help Father feed the horses before breakfast. I shoveled manure to beat the band while he was bringing in the hay, and said, “Which bridle had I better put on Fanny for herding cows?”
Father grinned at me and rumpled up my hair—I had combed it that morning with plenty of water and had made a hook in the front lock so it hung down over my forehead like Hi’s did. He said, “Sorry, Son, but I guess you’ll have to take it on your feet today. Carl’s going to let me use his drill to plant the alfalfa, and I’ll have to use Fanny.”
I nearly hopped up and down. I tried to keep my face straight, but I was laughing all over inside. I was sure from the way Father said it that he was going to let me ride Fanny, now that he knew I could do it. It didn’t make any difference if I had to wait a day or two. After breakfast I got my spurs from where I had hidden them under the hay, and poked them in the front of my blouse. I thought I’d be at least part cowboy if I had spurs, even if I did have to walk.
Mr. Corcoran was a milk-cow man and not a horseman. He didn’t have any nice horses like Fred Aultland’s bays, or Carl Henry’s chestnuts. They were mostly horses about like our Bill and Nig. There was an old black plug in the corral with the cows. He had faded out to a brownish color. Mr. Corcoran brought out an old work-harness bridle with blinders and put it on the horse. Then he boosted me on and gave me a switch. “Old Ned ain’t too spry, but you give him a cut with that switch and he’ll get a move on. Now don’t let none of them cows get into Fred’s or Carl’s grain or they’ll skin you alive. And don’t run none of the cows—some’s with calf and they’re all milkers.”
I wasn’t too happy with Ned, but at least he was a horse. I had driven the herd nearly as far as the wagon road when Mr. Corcoran bellowed after me, “Be careful not to let ’em get no green alfalfa, it would bloat ’em and kill ‘em.”
Everything went fine till I got past Aultland’s house. Fred’s field, from the house to the section corner, was unfenced and half a mile long—and it was in alfalfa about six inches high. My cows spied it from a hundred yards away, and some of them started running for it. I kicked Ned with my heels, but he wasn’t at all nervous, and didn’t even hurry his walk. Then I clipped him a little with the switch and he took half a dozen trotting steps before he went back into a walk. His feet were as big as footballs, and every time he trotted, I bounced a foot high and came down with a thud. He was a lot wider in the withers than Fanny, so I couldn’t get a good knee clamp on him, and I wasn’t a bit sure I wasn’t going to bounce clear off his back.
Some of my cows had already reached the alfalfa, and I expected to see them start falling over in great, bloated corpses. I swung my switch high and started cutting it down over Ned’s rump—my spurs, which I had twisted onto my bare feet as soon as we reached the road, had crumpled at my first kick. At the second cut, Ned got the idea I wanted him to hurry and trotted a dozen or so more steps. I was so busy staying on that I couldn’t think to swat him again and lift him into a canter. Now all the cows were in the alfalfa, and I knew my career as a cowboy was blowing up right in my face. I didn’t care about failing off any longer. They had to be gotten out of there some way. After a couple more hard licks the switch broke in my hand. There was only one thing left to do, so I piled off Ned and took after the cows afoot, yelling at the top of my lungs. The only stick I could find was too heavy for me to handle with one hand, so I waded into the herd swinging it like a baseball bat. Instead of driving them back into the road, I only drove them farther into the alfalfa field.
I was so busy swinging and yelling that I didn’t see Fred until his tall bay horse was almost on top of me. Fred had a long blacksnake whip and snaked those cows out of there in about a minute and a half. Ned was making the most of his chance. He hadn’t moved a foot from where I slid off, and had his nose buried in the alfalfa halfway to his eyes. Fred told me to go get him while he kept the cows moving. I couldn’t much more than reach Ned’s belly, there was nothing to climb up on, and I had no idea how I’d get aboard him. Fred yelled, “Hang over his neck and kick; he’ll hist you up.”
He did, and I went up with my club in my hand. Ned had a lot more respect for it than he did for the switch, and I caught up to Fred in a hurry. The things he said about Mr. Corcoran were good to listen to. They were just the things I would have said myself if I hadn’t been afraid of the damage it might do that character of mine—I wished Father had never told me about it.
Fred helped me till we got the cows over onto the piece of prairie where I was supposed to pasture them, then he gave me his blacksnake and told me not to be afraid to lay it on if I had to. I had forgotten all about my spurs, but Fred saw them and laughed. He said that baling wire was the only thing that had held the State of Colorado together, but he’d bet I was the first one who ever made spurs out of it. Before he left he showed me how to swing the blacksnake so as to make the cracker pop right behind a cow, and said to let Ned have the handle across the rump if he wouldn’t go. Then he told me to try to keep the cows bunched pretty well in the middle of the quarter section, and that he’d have one of his men come to help me take them home at night.
It was a terrible day. The quarter section wasn’t flat like our place, but was all rolly hills. And those cows knew more tricks than Hi’s blue roan. As soon as Fred was out of sight, they started spreading out in all directions. I beat the tar out of Ned, trying to make him go fast enough so that I could keep them rounded up, but the most I could get out of him was that clumping trot. While I was driving back a few stragglers on one side, others would head for Carl Henry’s oat field on the run. When I came back with the first bunch that tried it, I found that I only had nineteen cows left in the herd—the rest had got away over one of the hills.
I beat on Ned’s rump and went to hunt them. His trot was pounding the dickens out of my behind and it was getting awful tender. I had worn off a piece of skin the size of a silver dollar. Ned had started to sweat a little right where I was trying to sit, and the salt in the sweat made it sting like blazes. When I got over the hill, I saw my strays a quarter of a mile away, headed for the oat field. They were in it before I could catch up to them.
Father must have been watching me from where he was sowing alfalfa. I had left Ned and was wading around in the oats, trying to drive the cows out with the blacksnake. I couldn’t handle it very well when I was on horseback, but it was almost useless in the oat field. I didn’t have strength enough to keep it in the air through the back swing, and the cracker got tangled in the oats. I guess my yells were getting sort of warbly, and I was about ready to cry when Father showed up on Fanny.
He got them out of there in no time, helped me to collect the rest of the herd, and bunched them way over at the east end of the quarter. Four more times he had to come to my rescue before six o’clock, and then he helped me get them back to Corcoran’s. After we had the cows in their corral, Mrs. Corcoran came out from the house and tried to give Father my quarter. He nodded his head over toward me and said, “Give it to the boy, he certainly earned it.”
I don’t think Mrs. Corcoran liked what Father said, because her face got a little red. She passed the quarter up to me and said, “Now don’t go and lose it the first thing you do.” Then she said to Father, “Too much money ain’t good for children. These young ones nowadays haven’t no idea of the worth of a dollar. I don’t know what things are coming to.”
Father only said, “Better slide off him, Son. Mother’ll be waiting supper for us.”
I slid off and put Ned in the corral with the cows. All the time it took me to climb on the gate to get his bridle off, Mrs. Corcoran kept talking. First she said, “Little boy, you didn’t let my cows get into nobody’s crops, did you?”
I kept looking right at the cheek strap buckle, but I knew I had to tell her, so I said, “Well, sometimes I couldn’t make Ned run fast enough to—”
That’s as far as I got. She sounded mad as could be. “My land sakes alive! You ain’t been running my milch cows all over creation, ha
ve you?” I tried to tell her I hadn’t, but she didn’t even stop to breathe. “Good gracious!” she said. “I’ll wager I don’t get more’n half a milking tonight. How a body’s going to eke out a living from half milkings, I just don’t know. Well, hmmmf, I suppose some allowance has to be made on account of him being city-raised. City-raised young ones ain’t been learned to do things when they was young. They don’t have the gumption of them that’s raised in the country.”
Father reached his hand down and pulled me up back of him on Fanny. As he swung me up, he said, “We better be getting along, Son.”
I knew I was fired and got an ache in my throat. It had been a tough job, and I hadn’t done very well, but I had been counting all day on the time Father would let me ride Fanny. I was sure I could manage all right with her, and now that I was fired from my first cowboy job, I was afraid Father would never let me ride her.
We were pretty near out to the road when Mrs. Corcoran yelled after us, “You be sure you ain’t late in the morning—right sharp on seven o’clock.” Raspy as her voice was, it sounded good to me.
Fanny could canter right along with Father and me on her. Sitting way back where I was, I couldn’t get a knee hold, so I had to put my fingers under Father’s belt. I held as easy as I could, so he wouldn’t notice and think I was afraid of falling off. We were about halfway home when he said, “It’s a pretty big job for a city-raised fellow; want to take another crack at it, or have you had enough cows?”
I said, “I could do it all right if I only had Fanny.”
“Well, I guess I could spare her tomorrow,” Father said—that was all.
I don’t think Father ever told Mother what Mrs. Corcoran said about city-raised young ones, because they kept right on being friends. When we got home, she let me put my quarter up in the new cupboard, in her Wedgwood sugar bowl. She knew about Father having to come over and help me, so when he came in from feeding the horses, she said, “Charlie, don’t you think that is a job for a man, not for a boy of Ralph’s age?”