Leon swung down from his horse, led him over to the porch, looped the bridle reins loosely around a banister post at the top of the steps, and followed Clovis into the house. There was a fire in the sitting room, a rocking chair before it which she had occupied. A full-grown hound sprawled flat on his belly beside the chair.

“Sit and get warm,” she said and left the room. When Leon went to the fire and opened his hands to it, front and back, the dog raised his head from the floor and gave him a full, serious look. “Hey there, old boy,” Leon said. The dog lazily rose to his feet, stretching his hind legs to their full length behind him and yawning. Then he wagged his tail slowly and went to the man. Leon took the dog’s ears in both hands and tugged and scratched them, and the dog keened his pleasure. “What’s this?” Leon said. He had found a deep indentation in one ear.

Clovis came back with glasses and a jug which she set down on a round table, moving a table scarf she had been sewing. “See you made friends,” she said, pouring whiskey into the glasses. “Only thing on this place I can abide. Only thing that can abide me.” The hound left Leon and went to Clovis, butting her thigh with his head.

“What happened to his ear?” Leon said.

“That Turnip—was it last winter or the one before? I don’t know. Don’t matter. Two or three my hogs broke out and went wild in the woods back yonder. Early spring Turnip took Sunup there to round ’em up. They did, all right, but not before a crazy sow got a piece of his ear and crippled him some in the left back leg. Like to bleed to death, Sunup did. Here.” She held a glass to Leon which he took and drank from. She sat down with her glass and said, “Pull a chair to the fire.” He found another rocking chair and brought it over, setting it at an angle to hers so that they might glance at each other as they pleased without having to confront each other directly. “Since,” she went on as the old dog put his head on her knee, “Sunup elected hisself the house dog. Won’t go outdoors ’cept to pee and so on. Scared.” She ran her hand lightly over his muzzle and head. “Never mind, Sunup, it’s you and me.”

They sat before the fire sipping whiskey, talking a little but mainly keeping quiet in a companionable way. When Leon got up to go home, it was nearly dark. Clovis and Sunup went to the door with him. Clovis squinted to judge the weather as Leon mounted. “Is it drizzly still?” she called, more to be sociable than to get an answer.