Along with the other outfits he planned for the preservation of winter pastures, not to be grazed over until it was needed later on. Owing to the scarcity of grass the cattle ranged far; forty acres was hardly enough for a cow now, and later it might need more. He covered incalculable distances in the saddle, to go back at night to an untidy house which was cold beyond his power to warm it. The water would be frozen in the kitchen pail, the remnants of his last meal still on the table, his bed unmade. Finally he nailed heavy papers over the windows, and at least kept out the wind. It made it dark and gloomy, but as he seldom entered it in daylight it did not matter.
He hardly ever went to Judson. George and Sally had asked no questions after the first.
"Wife's gone East, I understand?"
Tom knew how news traveled up and down the railroad. He nodded.
"Her mother's sick."
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that. What you needin' today?"
Once he saw Bill. A freight had pulled in for water, and from the cupola of the caboose he saw Bill waving. He limped over and climbed in. It might have been the same car in which he and Bill had gone to Chicago; the same worn black leather berths, the same stove and tin coffee pot in the center; the same desk for the conductor with its oil lamp, its green order slips, its calendar, time-tables and box of pipe tobacco; the same fuses and torpedoes in their places on the wall. But Bill was constrained.
"Hear you've got quite a herd of your own now."
"You can call it that! Still like this job?"
"S'all right. I get to hankering now and then for a horse—you know how it is—but it's not so bad."
The engineer whistled to call in the other brakeman, the train jerked.
"Well, I'm off. So long, Bill."
"So long, Tom."
That was all. Tom turned and waited until the train pulled out. Bill was up in his chair in the cupola again, leaning out and grinning.
