The Bones of Plenty Read Free Page A

waiting for George to tell her what to do.
    But his concern now was for the mare. “Whoa back, Kate,” he said. “Back.
That’s
a girl.
Back
now, Kate.” His voice was low and gentle, and his hands held her bridle lightly and stroked her wet neck with compassion.
    The horse trembled but she stood still, with her weight squarely on all four legs. It was hard to believe he had been so lucky. She might go lame, but no bones were fractured. Now if she just wouldn’t cast the foal.
    “There, now, Kate,” he said. “There, now, old girl. That wasn’t so bad after all, was it? Not so bad as you and a lot of other people
thought
it was going to be, was it? You never even felt it, did you? You’re just lucky it was me that was around, you know that? Yes, sir, Kate. You’re just a lucky old nag, here. You’re going to be just as good as new once I turn loose your tail.”
    He went back and disentangled the chain. Swatches of long black hairs were strung through the links. He pulled out a handful of hairs and held them up to Kate’s nose.
    “See that?” he said to the horse, but loud enough for Rachel to hear. “Now, then, that wasn’t much of your tail to lose, was it? Some people around here thought I was going to pull the whole thing right off.” He rubbed her ears and ran his hands over her legs. “You’re not going to go and get a gimpy leg on me now, are you, Kate?”
    Rachel said, “Do you need me for anything else?”
    “No, you might as well go on back in. I guess I’ll throw this load of rocks into this damned hole here, after I unhitch.” He led the horses down to the barn.
    She walked back to the house. The baby was fussing in the other room, but Rachel did not go in to her. She sat down on the kitchen stool and leaned her elbows on her thighs so she could hold up her head with her hands. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again the odd dots kept on falling through the blankness for a moment and then her vision returned. She got up and washed her hands in water she dipped from the bucket on the washstand into the mottled blue graniteware basin. She dried them on a terrycloth towel as thin and bare and flat as flour sacking.
    What if they had lost Kate? She didn’t see how they could ever have bought another. Without a four-horse team George would never get the wheat in. She couldn’t stop thinking about how bad it could have been.
    George had apparently recovered by the time he came in for another drink of water. “You know,” he said, “a lot of men that don’t treat their horses right never could have done that. Their horses wouldn’t have trusted them enough. I know some men that would have lost that horse. They would’ve just had to shoot her, probably, if they couldn’t get her out before she broke a leg. You’ve got to know how to handle a horse, and you’ve got to really like them.”
    He rested his hands on his hips, straightened his shoulders back, and took a great breath that swelled out his chest. “Well,” he said, “I reckon I better get out there and fix up that hole some son-of-a-gun left for me.” He gave her another moment to tell him what an astounding rescue he had made and to admit that hooking on to Kate’s tail was the only scheme that would have worked in time.
    “Thank God you got her out,” Rachel said.
    He dumped the last of his water into the wash basin and walked out. He began rolling the rocks into the well. He figured Kate had probably tromped it down pretty well, but a load of rocks was a good bet to cause it to collapse as much more as it was going to. He’d just have to leave it that way till the ground thawed out. Then he’d be able to tamp it down some more and fill it in properly. When he’d emptied the stoneboat he went down to check on Kate.
    He was prepared to find that she was going to cast the foal, but even though he was prepared, it made him sick. After the first eight months had gone so well—to have her lose it with only