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Back Come Again No More Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Back Cover
  3. Title Page
  4. Contents
  5. PART I 
  6. 1.
  7. 2.
  8. 3.
  9. 4.
  10. 5.
  11. 6.
  12. 7.
  13. 8.
  14. 9.
  15. 10.
  16. 11.
  17. 12.
  18. PART II 
  19. 13.
  20. 14.
  21. 15.
  22. 16.
  23. 17.
  24. 18.
  25. 19.
  26. 20.
  27. 21.
  28. 22.
  29. 23.
  30. 24.
  31. 25.
  32. 26.
  33. 27.
  34. 28.
  35. 29.
  36. 30.
  37. PART III 
  38. 31.
  39. 32.
  40. 33.
  41. 34.
  42. 35.
  43. 36.
  44. 37.
  45. 38.
  46. 39.
  47. PART IV 
  48. 40.
  49. 41.
  50. 42.
  51. 43.
  52. 44.
  53. 45.
  54. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  55. Touchstone Reading Group Guide

Emaline hurled an egg at his head from across the kitchen. He caught it deftly, tossed it behind his back, caught it again with his left hand, cracked it on the edge of the frying pan. He dropped the egg into the pan and tossed the shell into the slop pail for the hogs.

“That’s one,” he said. “I expect I’ll need about five more.”

Three weeks later, they woke to find Colonel Amen gone. He had been sleeping rough, tucked into a bedroll on a mound of hay in the barn. The carpenter work on the house was finished, there was nothing to keep him. Jake figured that with the cold weather coming, the colonel wanted to hop a freight for a warmer climate before the first snowfall.

The Lindquist brothers came by and helped them move into the main house. To Emaline, it seemed like a palace. She had a kitchen with a big cast-iron coal stove, a comfortable bedroom, a second bedroom, where the Duncan children had slept, a parlor big enough for a davenport and four chairs. There was a cellar under the house where she could store potatoes and onions and apples, and a pantry off the kitchen where she kept her cream separator, her butter churn, her washtub, the vegetables she managed to can before winter. They had a small barn with three stalls and a haymow, a chicken house, a hog shed, a smokehouse, a tack shed for harness and saddles, two outhouses. Apart from the exhausting, unceasing labor, it was a good place to live.

22.

THEY WERE STILL GETTING THINGS ARRANGED in the main house when Emaline was awakened sometime after midnight by the sound of tires on gravel. It was a hot night, the sheets sticky and uncomfortable, and she had fallen asleep without a stitch on after performing her usual bedtime duties for Jake. As she pulled her nightgown over her head, headlights swept across the south window of the basement house. A car was creeping along the narrow dirt track between the house and the barn.

“Jake?”

He answered with a long snore.

“Jake!”

This time he sat bolt upright. “What the damned hell?”

“There’s a car coming. Someone right outside.”

He jumped out of bed, peered out the window. “Somebody in a pickup truck.”

“Who could it be at this hour?”

“Damned if I know. They better have a damned good reason for bein out there.”