by“Jess, enough reading. That lamp don’t give enough light, and there’s chores in the morning.”
It’s always chores. Milk the cow, feed the chickens and gather eggs, give Daisy her oats and a brushing, start the fire in the stove for Ma to cook breakfast. Then more in the afternoon. Clean the barn stalls, w**d and gather in the garden, chop wood, fix or patch the latest thing that done broke. Any or all the things Pa did before he died. All the things that take up the day from sunrise to sundown, so kerosene light’s all I got if I want to do any reading at all these days.
I miss Pa. But sometimes I think I miss school even more, even if the books there weren’t near as exciting as the Dodge Tombstone stories.
I tried to keep Dodge Tombstone and the Chinese Pirates hidden from Ma behind th
