Sally laughed. Now, this I want to hear,” she said, “you explaining a novel that is farcical, but also serious and philosophical about the theme of deception.”
Smoke shook his head. “I guess you are right,” he said. “Cal, it’s just an expression, that’s all. It means wasting your time.”
“Oh. Sort of like bailing out water with a sieve,” Cal suggested.
Smoke laughed. “You might say that,” he said.
“Well, then, why didn’t you?”
“I guess I didn’t think of it. Tell me, Cal, with all the reading you have done about Herefords, is it your opinion that it would be worth investing in a champion bull?”
“Do you mean a bull like Prince Henry?” Cal asked.
Smoke nodded. “That’s exactly who I mean. From what I hear, Prince Henry is a true champion.”
“He damn sure is!” Cal said excitedly. Then, with a flushed expression on his face, he looked over toward Sally. “I’m sorry ’bout the language, Miss Sally.”
“Oh, don’t be silly,” Sally replied. “I’ve heard much worse. You know about Prince Henry, do you?”
“Yes, ma’am, I looked him up and read all about him. He’s a direct descendant of one of the Seventeen.”
“One of the Seventeen?”
“Henry Clay was the first to bring Herefords to America,” Cal explained. “He brung seventeen of them over. Prince Henry is a direct descendant from one of them—uh—those bulls. He would be a great bull for us. Oh, I don’t mean anything by saying ‘us.’ I mean he would be a great bull for Sugarloaf.”
“Of course you mean us, Cal. You are part of Sugarloaf and you know it,” Sally said.
“Yes, ma’am, you and Smoke have sure made Pearlie and me feel like that. Are you going to buy Prince Henry?” Cal asked.
“I’ll buy him if he isn’t too expensive,” Smoke said. “The problem is, some people get so caught up in the idea of a bull being a champion that they think he is worth more than he really is. I mean, when you get right down to it, all we really need is a bull who has an eye for the ladies, right?”
“An eye for the ladies,” Cal said. He slapped his knee and laughed out loud. “Yes, sir, he sure needs to have an eye for the ladies all right.”
Sally laughed as well.
“Where do you find this—handsome fellow—Prince Henry?” Sally asked.
“He is in Colorado Springs,” Smoke said. “The auction is two days from now. I thought I would take the evening train—that would put me into Colorado Springs first thing in the morning and leave me a couple of days to look him over. I would also get to see who else might be bidding on him.”
“Good idea,” Sally said. “That way you might also get an idea as to how much you are going to have to spend.”
“And, if there are several others interested in him, then it will tell me for sure that a new era in cattle breeding is coming,” Smoke said. “That would be good to know, because I sure don’t want to get caught a day late and a dollar short.”
“You’re leaving this evening?” Sally asked.
“Yes. Cal, you can ride into town with me, then bring my horse back?”
“All right.”
“No need,” Sally said. “I’ll take you into town in the buckboard.”
“I’d still like to go into town with you, that is, if you don’t mind, Miss Sally,” Cal said.
“I don’t mind,” Sally said.
“I don’t have to go to Colorado Springs alone, you know,” Smoke said. “Colorado Springs is a nice place to visit. You might enjoy coming along with me.”
“I’ll just pack a few things,” Sally said, getting up from the table.
Smoke laughed.
“What is it?”
“It didn’t take much to convince you to go with me, did it?”
“Ha! You were just being nice, weren’t you? You didn’t really expect me to go.”
“To be honest, no, I didn’t think you would want to go. But I wasn’t just being nice. I’m glad you decided you would.”
During the drive into town that afternoon, they talked about what would be required in order to convert the herd to all Herefords. One of the first things to do would be to sell off all the remaining longhorns.
“If everyone else is selling off their longhorns at the same time, that’s going to have the effect of even further depressing the market for them,” Sally said.
“I know.”
“I mean, we just barely broke even with what we did sell. We’ll take a loss by selling all the rest of them.”
“It could be worse,” Smoke said. “You do remember the big freeze out, don’t you? We lost thousands of cattle that year, with no compensation at all.”
