“Somehow I don’t seem to have any appetite.” Blessing shook Rusty’s hand, then paused at the door to look back at Mike. “I’d give you some advice if I thought you’d take it.”

“I won’t seek Isaac out, if that’s what worries you. But if he comes lookin’ for me, I won’t be hard to find.”

Discouraged, Rusty followed Blessing out onto the dog run. “I thank you for tryin’.”

“Isaac’s as stubborn as Mike is, but I’ll go talk to him. And you keep an eye on your daddy. Tie him up if you have to.”

Rusty walked back into the kitchen. Mike looked up from his breakfast. “I think I can see Preacher Webb’s fine hand in this. And yours too, like as not.”

“None of us want to see you get hurt.”

“What hurts the worst is knowin’ you don’t think I can take care of myself anymore. You figure I’m too old?”

“No, but this is a new situation. Preacher Webb says a lot of people are talkin’ war.”

“I’ve been to war before. I’m still here.”

Rusty gave in to frustration. “Maybe I ought to go up to the Red River and quit worryin’ about you.”

“Maybe you ought to.”

Rusty knew he would keep worrying if he went halfway around the world. “What am I goin’ to do with you, Dad?”

“Nothin’. Just admit that I’m a grown man and let me do things my own way.”

You always did, Rusty thought, but he held his tongue.

Walking out to the barn, he began to wonder about his real father. If he were living today, would he react to the current situation the same way as Daddy Mike? Would he be for secession or for the union, and would he be willing to fight for whichever he believed in?

I wish Vdknown you, Rusty thought. Maybe if I knew which way you’d have gone, I’d know which way to go myself.

A young heifer heavy with calf had not been seen in a couple of days, then showed up with her udder swollen and her sides flatter than they had been. Rusty could tell that she had calved. She probably had hidden the baby somewhere in the timber along the river, where it would be fair game should a wolf or a coyote come prowling about. He saddled Mike’s black horse, Alamo, and followed the heifer at a distance, hoping to find the calf and bring it into the pens, where it would be safe until it was stronger and better able to survive.