Chapter 4
Joe felt a little guilty about the way the hands had been treating Mama’s Boy Roy. Seems they ought to at least be polite enough to pass the time of day with the boy, even if nobody really had anything to say to him. With breakfast under their belts, Joe made his decision: he would be the big man and make the first move. If Roy turned up his nose at talking to a plain cowhand, that’d be the end of it, but at least Joe would have tried.
He spotted Roy by the chuck wagon talking to Frank Malone, so he saddled up and rode out. Time enough to be friendly once they got a move on. Joe wasn’t going to interrupt a man’s conversation just to say hello.
Once they got the herd moving good, Roy rode straight up to Joe.
“Frank says I can shadow you today, see what the job is like,” he sai
