“It already is. He’s here, in the car. There ain’t no choice in this.”

“No.”

“Listen old man. You want to retire there’s only two ways to do it. This is one of them. This is the best one. You comprehend that?”

Binter took breath, weary. Again: “It cannot be.”

Jamie shook his head. “You should’ve of thought this through all those years ago when you started in. Once you fill a need you can’t just quit in this world. The same way I can’t let you just quit me. It’s not just you and me, it’s a whole line of people. But then again it is just me; you’re what I got right now. And I won’t let you go just because you got tired. Why, you look at it the right way, it’s not so bad. What am I talking about, four-five months?”

“I sold the cows.”

“You what?”

“I sold the cows.”

“What was all that I saw driving in here if they wasn’t cows.”

“They’re sold. Once they’re gone I got no excuse for all that corn. Same man’s wanting the sheep.”

“Well fuck.”

“Just right. Like you say, I’m tired. Also, things have changed. People, they watch different now than it used to be.”

“Well fuck this now.” Both then quiet a long moment. Jamie looking around the room, Binter watching him. After a time Jamie looked back at Binter and said, “You sold your stock, how come it’s all still here?”

“He give earnest monev.”

“Sure.” Jamie nodded. “I see. How much?”

“A head?”

“No the whole fucking lot of them.”

“Chust the cattle or the sheep too?”

“Oh my christ all of it. The whole deal.” Digging around behind him and pulling out his wallet. Unzipped it and took out the roll of bills circled with a rubber band. The roll he’d never once let another man see. Hoping he had enough. Knowing Binter could well mention any figure at all and he’d have no choice, no gauge, no knowledge. Cows and sheep. Fucking farmboy.

“I’m too old,” Binter said. “Too old for this work.”

“Like I said I got a man for you. All you got to do is tell him what to do, how to do it.”

“A man to live here?”

“That’s right.”

“Who pays his board?”

“Well christ. I figured he’d earn it.”

Binter shook his head. “The kind of man you’d bring, I’m thinking, will be more work than doing it myself. However much he learns.”

Jamie considered Carrick. “How much board then?”

“Twenty a week.”

Jamie paused counting the bills, looked at Binter. “I’m buying the cows, the sheep, be buying the feed too. And you want twenty a week to board my man?”

“Yuht.” Binter smiled.

They walked out through the pasture that bordered along the Gale, stood there with the summer sun hot on the backs of their necks. The river a small oxbow a dozen feet across, the water five or six feet deep. The opposite shore heavy in shade, beds of fern smelling sweet and cool, the smell coming off the water like a breeze. Carrick kicked one foot toefirst into the ground.