Page 27 (1/2)

Cunninghaesture like a schoolteacher, or like so the family’s political opinion to a child with too , that’d be fine But if all they wanted was to move their own folks back, they didn’t have to send five hundredtheir way up past Oneida They could’ve just sent so--since they got papists co out the ears--or maybe they could’ve talked to that Red Cross Get some people out to help the relocaters relocate, that’s fine; but don’t send the contents of a presidio and expect everybody to believe they’renobody’s business but their own"

Mercy nodded, even though there was a lot she didn’t really understand She followed enough to ask, "What happened to the troops, then? Five hundred ain, still drawing shapes with his pipe, which was nearly burned down cool "I don’t know if it was five hundred or not Soh And I don’t knohat happened to ’e That far north and west, shootcould’ve been rattlesnakes or Indians, or cholera, or a twisteror h to object to a full-​onacross their property I’ it could’ve happened, and it wouldn’t surprise me none" He put the end of the pipe back in his mouth and bit at it, but didn’t suck at it And he said, "Wouldn’t be nobody’s fault but their own, neither"

"I’ht," Mercy said, despite the fact that she wasn’t But she didn’t want to be rude, and there were lots of things she didn’t know about Texas--and even more she didn’t know about Mexico--so she wouldn’t open herelse interesting in that paper?" Cunningha up over his knee so he could taainst the heel of his boot

"Most of the rest of it’s just stuff about the war"

"No big surprise there, I guess Does it say anything about what the Yankees were doing, pushing that line down all the way past Nashville? They ood reason for a spearhead like that God knows they went to plenty of trouble to ain," he ood reason Maybe we’re just whittling the war down to the end, and this latest back-​and-​forth is only its death throes It feels like the end It feels like so about before it’s done for"

Mercy said, "Naw, it don’t talk about why; it just talks about the it up She offered it to the Texian, asking, "Would you like it? I’ve read it now, top to bottom and front to back, and I’m done with it"

"Thank you, ma’am, but no thank you Looks like more bad and pointless news to ht I’ll just put it in the gaha the front of his hat

He then sat back down and refilled his pipe Once it was alight again, he leaned back into the bench to watch the river, the boats, and the occasional fish, turtles, and driftwood sweep on past

Ten

Supper came and went, what felt like ether as the Providence dragged itself upstrea spots between the big cities, loading and unloading cargo, and every now and again losing one or two passengers and taking on one or t ones At the Festus stop, the Providence picked up another Texian, as if toto think they must be as common as brown, to encounter them just about everywhere

The new Texian was Horatio Kor to keep to himself for the short ree (Mercy guessed he ht be thirty-​five or forty, but with soe, and his was one of thereen eyes, and hair that was quite dark, except where a faint streak of white went tearing along the part Hisas a sparrow, and clean but not excessively grooht he looked rather pleasantly like a Texian on an advertise tobacco, as if he fit some mold that she’d heard about, but never actually encountered

He cae cases that appeared to be heavy, even for a , apelike aruns he wore openly on his belt They were bigger than her inherited six-​shooters by another third, and they hung off his hips like anchors A long, slileamed a little when he walked

Captain Greeley saw Mercy watching the new Texian board and find his way to a room He told her, "That Horatio He’s a real piece of work, as they say"

"How’s that?"