And after givinghim a hard time about keeping secrets!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But—

But what, little trailhand?

But Benny, that was what. Benny was the problem. Or maybe it was Jake himself who was actually the problem. He’d never been much good at making friends, and now he had a good one. A real one. The thought of getting Benny’s Da’ in trouble made him feel sick to his stomach.

Seven

Two days later, at five o’ the clock, Rosalita, Zalia, Margaret Eisenhart, Sarey Adams, and Susannah Dean gathered in the field just west of Rosa’s neat privy. There were a lot of giggles and not a few bursts of nervous, shrieky laughter. Roland kept his distance, and instructed Eddie and Jake to do the same. Best to let them get it out of their systems.

Set against the rail fence, ten feet apart from each other, were stuffies with plump sharproot heads. Each head was wrapped in a gunnysack which had been tied to make it look like the hood of a cloak. At the foot of each guy were three baskets. One was filled with more sharproot. Another was filled with potatoes. The contents of the third had elicited groans and cries of protest. These three were filled with radishes. Roland told them to quit their mewling; he’d considered peas, he said. None of them (even Susannah) was entirely sure he was joking.

Callahan, today dressed in jeans and a stockman’s vest of many pockets, ambled out onto the porch, where Roland sat smoking and waiting for the ladies to settle down. Jake and Eddie were playing draughts close by.

“Vaughn Eisenhart’s out front,” the Pere told Roland. “Says he’ll go on down to Tooky’s and have a beer, but not until he passes a word with’ee.”

Roland sighed, got up, and walked through the house to the front. Eisenhart was sitting on the seat of a one-horse fly, shor’boots propped on the splashboard, looking moodily off toward Callahan’s church.

“G’day to ya, Roland,” he said.

Wayne Overholser had given Roland a cowboy’s broad-brimmed hat some days before. He tipped it to the rancher and waited.

“I guess you’ll be sending the feather soon,” Eisenhart said. “Calling a meeting, if it please ya.”

Roland allowed as how that was so. It was not the town’s business to tell knights of Eld how to do their duty, but Roland would tell them what duty was to be done. That much he owed them.

“I want you to know that when the time comes, I’ll touch it and send it on. And come the meeting, I’ll say aye.”

“Say thankya,” Roland replied. He was, in fact, touched. Since joining with Jake, Eddie, and Susannah, it seemed his heart had grown. Sometimes he was sorry. Mostly he wasn’t.

“Took won’t do neither.”