Chapter 22Recollections of last night drove me to introspection the following morning. In fact, two weeks after the Appletons left for Liberty Ranch, snowmelt had set in enough so that I stole a day from farm work and headed for the breaks country up on Trickling Water.
Hobbling Yellow Thunder near the stream in a spot bare of snow to crop sweet grass, I found a sheltered place to settle my back against the embankment. I drew my coat close around me and fingered the Bible I had brought along. Billy’s well-worn Holy Book had not survived the fire when the army burned me out in late ‘85, but I had acquired another and even managed to partially rebuild a library of sorts, although many of the books I’d inherited from Otter were irreplaceable.
The fact I’d brought these holy words along with
