After a while they all went to the hole which the negroes had dug, and
there was a long Something wrapped up in canvas. Mother wore her best
dress which was black, and father and all the boys had shaved their
faces and looked very sober. The negroes stood back in a group by
themselves, and every few minutes Buddy saw them draw their tattered
shirtsleeves across their faces. And father--Buddy looked once and saw
two tears running down father's cheeks. Buddy was shocked into a stony
calm. He had never dreamed that fathers ever cried.
Mother read out of her Bible, and all the boys held their hats in front
of them, with their hands clasped, and looked at the ground while she
read. Then mother sang. She sang, “We shall meet beyond the river”,
which Buddy thought was a very queer song, because they were all there
but Frank Davis; then she sang “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” Buddy sang
too, piping the notes accurately, with a vague pronunciation of the
words and a feeling that somehow he was helping mother.
After that they put the long, canvas-wrapped Something down in the hole,
and mother said “Our Father Who Art in Heaven “, with Buddy repeating it
uncertainly after her and pausing to say “TRETHpatheth” very carefully.
Then mother picked up Dulcie in her arms, took Buddy by the hand and
walked slowly back to the wagon, and would not let him turn to see what
the boys were doing.
It was from that day that Buddy missed Frank Davis, who had mysteriously
gone to Heaven, according to mother. Buddy's interest in Heaven was
extremely keen for a time, and he asked questions which not even mother
could answer. Then his memory of Frank Davis blurred. But never his
memory of that terrible time when the Tomahawk outfit lost five hundred
cattle in the dry drive and the stampede for water.
CHAPTER THREE: SOME INDIAN LORE
Buddy knew Indians as he knew cattle, horses, rattlesnakes and
storms--by having them mixed in with his everyday life. He couldn't tell
you where or when he had learned that Indians are tricky. Perhaps his
first ideas on that subject were gleaned from the friendly tribes who
lived along the Chisolm Trail and used to visit the chuck-wagon, their
blankets held close around them and their eyes glancing everywhere while
they grinned and talked and pointed--and ate. Buddy used to sit in the
chuck-wagon, out of harm's way, and watch them eat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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