The Horsecatcher by Mari Sandoz

Author:Mari Sandoz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 2024-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Heat lightning helped the empty belly to keep Young Elk awake that night, with occasional crashing bolts that ripped the sky and the prairie. Several times he climbed to the top of the canyon to look over the lightning-split little Hat, hoping that the rain would pass around, as it plainly did most of the time. A rain would fill the baked water holes in the lower valley and over where the grass grew. Then he couldn’t hope to capture the rest of the duns until next summer. He thought about making a little weather medicine and put the thought aside. “Good medicine is made when it’s for the people,” the wise men of his tribe always said, men like Elk River, Owl, and Ridge Tree, men who lived good lives this way.

By dawn no more than a scattered spatter of great drops had fallen under the glare of the heat lightning, and wrapped themselves in gray dust almost as soon as they fell. Elk thought about the blue stallion, afraid that, if still alive, he would recover enough to kill the hobbled dun, even though he was too weak or afraid yesterday to come for water.

At dawn Elk started up over the ridge to see. The horses were in a little cluster about a mile off. He swung far around behind them, and as the sun rose he came over a low knoll not far away. For a moment his heart seemed to stop, and guilt flooded over him. There was the blue, grazing easily with the rest, the dun stallion nowhere in sight.

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