Lorenz was on his way back to Rity"s bakery after a day of shoveling s**t. Margareatha had managed to find clothes, get him into a tub, cut his hair, and somehow found a job for him at the livery stable on the west side of town. Not many folks came in that way, but enough to keep the stalls packed with horse apples. Hay had to be shifted and fed to the animals. Tack always needed worked on too. The pay was miserly and his employer more interested in gabbing or playing cards with his cronies. One morning, the owner"s wife had come by the stable to ask Mr. Pickens, the owner, for some money. Lorenz wasn"t paying much attention to anything the woman said. Mr. Pickens refused her, but he was polite about it. The next day Pickens bragged to somebody about how he"d punished his wife for embarras
