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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

It wasn’t until a week later, when Ben’s knee was so swollen he could barely walk, that Ezra drove him to the hospital. Doc Miller said he had a narrow fracture of the kneecap and a torn ligament. “It’s what we call the anterior cruciate ligament. I can’t fix it, but Doc Noulis down at the University of Wyoming can, if we can get you to Laramie. You’ll walk okay after that, but I don’t suppose you’ll fight in any man’s army. Knee won’t stand up to a twenty-mile march after this.”

“I can still ride?”

“You can still ride, much as you please.”

12.

ON A SUNDAY MORNING IN MID-MAY, JUANITA drove Eli to the little country church three miles east of the 8T8. He rarely attended church, but the long struggle to recover his health and keep the ranch in one piece had worn him down. He wasn’t a religious man, but he had always found that church was a good place to think and in these times, a man could use all the help he could get. If that help came from the Lord above, so be it.

The minister was the Reverend Cletus Barnwell, a tall, bookish young man from Kansas. It was the first time in a long while that a man of the cloth had delivered a sermon that made Eli Paint sit up and take notice. The Reverend Barnwell took his theme from the twenty-fourth chapter of Job, verses 19 and 20:

Drought and heat consume the snow waters; so doth the grave those which have sinned. The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

The Reverend Barnwell talked about things most preachers wouldn’t touch, problems that mattered in this life rather than the next. He came right out and said that farmers and ranchers from Montana to Texas had created a disaster when they allowed their cattle to overgraze the prairie or plowed up grassland and left it lying fallow for the heat and the wind to do its work. Eli agreed with every word. This was exactly the view of the agricultural experts that FDR had sent trooping across the land. They were trying to explain that folks had been going about things the wrong way for a good thirty years and that, if they didn’t mend their ways, the land would be gone and the entire prairie from Montana to Texas would become a desert, a haven for rattlesnakes, buzzards, jackrabbits, rodents.