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Show <£S enough riding with the summer work on us. Juck saw us coming, got down from the cultivator and walked over to the fence 1 when we pulled up he was rolling a cigarette. He twisted one end, lit it, shook match out and tossed it toward me. Billy shied and I pulled him down. Buck nned, put a foot on the barbed wire and leaned one elbow on top of the fencepost. 'That's a nice lookin' horse." 'Yeah," I said, patting his neck. He was hot and sweating. 'Cn he run?" "Yeah, he can run all right. He's out of a quarterhorse stud." "Yeah? Yours?" "No, Lathrop's out west of town." "Don't know 'im." "He's got that first place on top of Ashenfelter Mesa." Buck didn't even listen. "Who's his mother?" "This mare right here." "That buckskin?" He looked her over, then turned back to Billy. "How old is he?" "Three, gettin' close to four." » Where his shirt opened at the eaSat he had golden curly hair and his arms were md and brown and smooth and thick with muscle. I was half a head taller than he t he hardly noticed my brother or me, looking at Billy. "Wish I coulda caught that bastard this mornin'," he said. "I'da sure as hell Iden some of the fat off 'im." "I guess he needs it." "We better get goin'," my brother said. "Yeah," I said. "The old man's mad as hell. We're supposed to be shocking hay." He didn't even answer, dragging on his cigarette and looking at Billy with eamy half-closed eyes. We were trotting away when suddenly the bay jumped rward and damn near ran out from under me, going top speed before I could get tight rein on him. When I'd pulled him down I looked back and there was Buck ughing, his teeth white in his brown face. There was a spot of white dust on lly's rump from the clod he'd thrown. Babe had broken out too but my brother id pulled her down right away and he wheeled her back, Babe dancing half back-irds and my brother standing up in the stirrups to yell at Buck: "You son of a tch! You stupe! You stupid damn stupe!" Buck reached down for another clod and y brother whirled Babe and humped it out of there and when they went by I let illy go with them. It looked like I was running too though and I could have busted at idiot brother of mine, the little snot. But underneath I was thinking of Buck, : meeting him and his grabbing the front of my shirt and jerking me back and >rth and probably smashing my nose. Taller or not, I knew 1 couldn't fight him and uch worse than the fear of a beating was the fear of the shame of it. Day and night thought about it and I'd work myself up and get so mad I could have killed him. bad this dream of meeting him but with him on foot and me on Billy, and he would ly Father's Money 213 |
