After a restless night, I rose and made ready for work. As I was bound for the barn to see to the horses, my nearest neighbor, Andre Tiller, rode up. After exchanging greetings and information on the condition of our crops, Andre swung around in the saddle and looked to where Todoh watched over my cattle.
“You missing any beef?”
I stepped off the porch. “I donated two steers to some men from Pine Ridge yesterday. The agency’s slow paying their allotment, and they needed food for their families.”
“They musta figured you volunteered one of mine too. I had ten, now I got nine.”
“Sorry. Didn’t think they’d bother yours.”
“It’s not a crippling loss, but I’m gonna feel it.”
Andre was a well-formed, good-looking man who’d lost his wife and two boys to renegades years back. He’d not seen fit
