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Jake waved back, and although the river and the raft e were still a quarter of a mile away, their eyes were uniforrinned

Susannah cupped her hands around her ar! Come see your mama!"

Uttering shrill yips that were the closest he could get to barks, Oy flew across the raft, disappeared into the barnlike structure, then e up the path with his ears lowered against his skull and his gold-ringed eyes bright

"Slon, sug, you'll give yourself a heart attack!" Susannah shouted, laughing

Oy seemed to take this as an order to speed up He arrived at Susannah's wheelchair in less than two ain and looked at them cheerfully "Olan! Ed! Suze!"

"Hile, Sir Throcken," Roland said, using the ancient word for bumbler he'd first heard in a book read to hion

Oy lifted his leg, watered a patch of grass, then faced back the way they had co at the air, eyes on the horizon

"Why does he keep doing that, Roland?" Eddie asked

"I don't know" But he almost knew Was it soon but one like it? Roland thought so For a reen eyes, watchful in the dark, and a little shiver went through hiht have been a part of it), but of reone

There'll be water if God wills it, he thought, and only realized he had spoken aloud when Eddie said, "Huh?"

"Never mind," Roland said "Let's have a little palaver with Jake's new friend, shall we? Perhaps he has an extra popkin or two"

Eddie, tired of the chewy staple they called gunslinger burritos, brightened iinary watch on his tanned wrist "Goodness obble o'clock"

"Shut up and push, honeybee," Susannah said

Eddie shut up and pushed

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The oldwhen they euns Roland and Eddie earing--the big irons with the sandalwood grips--and his eyes widened He dropped to one knee The day was still, and Roland actually heard his bones creak

"Hile, gunslinger," he said, and put an arthritis-swollen fist to the center of his forehead "I salute thee"

"Rise up, friend," Roland said, hoping the old man was a friend--Jake seemed to think so, and Roland had come to trust his instincts Not to mention the billy-bumbler's "Rise up, do"

The oldit, so Eddie stepped aboard and gave him an arm

"Thankee, son, thankee Be you a gunslinger as well, or are you a 'pre

ntice?"

Eddie looked at Roland Roland gave hied, and grinned "Little of both, I guess I'm Eddie Dean, of New York This is my wife, Susannah And this is Roland Deschain Of Gilead"

The riverman's eyes widened "Gilead that was? Do you say so?"

"Gilead that was," Roland agreed, and felt an unaccustomed sorrow rise up froreat river before the but flow

"Step aboard, then And welco man and I are already fast friends, so we are" Oy stepped onto the big raft and the old man bent to stroke the bumbler's raised head "And we are, too, aren't we, fella? Does thee remember my name?"

"Bix!" Oy said pro his snout His gold-ringed eyes stared raptly at thecolumn of clouds that marked the Path of the Beam

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"Will'ee eat?" Bix asked theh, but such as there is, I'd be happy to share"

"With thanks," Susannah said She looked at the overhead cable that ran across the river on a diagonal "This is a ferry, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Jake said "Bix told me there are people on the other side Not close, but not far, either He thinks they're rice farmers, but they don't come this way much"

Bix stepped off the big raft and went into the boathouse Eddie waited until he heard the old guy ru around, then bent to Jake and said in a low voice, "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Jake said "It's the e're going, and he's happy to have someone to take across He says it's been years"

"I'll bet it has been," Eddie agreed

Bix reappeared with a wicker basket, which Roland took froht have tu in the wicker chairs,popkins filled with some sort of pink fish It was seasoned and delicious

"Eat all you like," Bix said "The river's filled with shannies, and most are true-threaded The muties I throw back Once upon a time ere ordered to throw the bad 'uns up a-bank so they wouldn't breed ed "Live and let live is what I say As so himself, I feel like I can say it"