Little Britches by Ralph Moody

Author:Ralph Moody
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Published: 1990-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

17

I Meet the Sheriff

ALL DURING the time we were building the cellar and the corral, Grace and I had to do our schoolwork after supper. Father worked with us, too, but I couldn’t make out what he was doing. He had some big sheets of wrapping paper that came with the groceries, and his steel square and dividers, and while we were studying, he’d be drawing pictures. Once in a while he’d ask Mother to figure out an arithmetic problem for him, and then he’d change his drawings all around.

The morning after we finished building the pole corral he and I drove Fanny to Englewood. It was at the end of the Denver streetcar line and had lots more stores than Fort Logan. First we went to the blacksmith shop and got a couple of lengths of angle iron, small pulley wheels, and pieces of round iron rod. Then, at the hardware store, we bought sheets of galvanized iron, three or four kinds of screen wire—some coarse and some fine—and lots of bolts, screws, and other things. There was so much that I knew it would cost a lot of money, and I asked Father if we’d have any left. He took out his long leather pouch and showed me that there was quite a little silver and some bills in it. Then he said that part of it was mine, and asked me if there was something I wanted to buy. I told him I wished I had a steel trap, so we went over to the corner where the guns and traps were, and he helped me pick out one the right size for prairie dogs and skunks.

I was wondering what we were going to do with all the hardware and iron, and after we started for home Father told me we were going to build a winnower. He said it would cost too much to have a big machine come to thresh our peas and beans, but we’d have plenty of time during the winter to do it with hand flails and a winnower.

After we got home, he spread a roll of brown paper out on the bunkhouse floor, got his drawings, and began cutting patterns the way Mother did for making clothes. Father didn’t need me to help him, so I went out to set my new trap. Before I left he told me I’d have to set it quite a ways from the buildings, so King or one of the cats wouldn’t get into it, and then I’d have to stay away from it if I expected to catch anything. I took it clear over beyond the railroad tracks and set it near a prairie dog village. I knew they liked peas, so I sprinkled dried grass over it till it was almost hidden, then put a little handful of peas right above the trigger plate.

After it was all set I went back to the bunkhouse and watched Father cut patterns for a while, but I kept asking him if he didn’t think it was about time I brought in the cows.

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