“Yes, sir, Mister—uh, Smoke,” Jules said. He looked back at the cattle he had brought up. “Uh, what do I do with these critters?”
“Take ’em out to the north range, join them with the others you see there, then go on down to the house and see Sally.”
“Sally?”
“My wife,” Smoke said. “She’s taking care of the business end of this. She’ll make sure you’re on the payroll. Uh, by the way, could you use a little advance to send back to your folks?”
Jules shook his head. “No, sir,” he said. “I appreciate the offer, I purely do. But I don’t want nothin’ till I’ve earned it.”
Smoke smiled, and nodded. “You’re a good man, Jules,” he said. “I don’t care how old you are, you’re a good man.”
“Thanks.”
“When’s the last time you ate?”
“I had me some jerky back this mornin’,” Jules said.
“Well, I know you don’t want any money before you’ve earned it, but you wouldn’t mind eatin’ with us, would you?”
The broad smile returned. “No, sir, I wouldn’t mind that,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind that none at all.”
“When you get back to the house, tell Sally there’ll be one more for supper.”
“Yes, sir!” Jules said. He turned to the cattle he had brought up. “Get along, cows. They’s grass for you and vittles for me.”
Smoke watched Jules ride off, driving the cattle before him. He didn’t really need another man, but there was something about this young man that reminded him of Matt, and there was no way he was going to turn him down.
Pearlie came riding up shortly after Jules rode off.
“Who was that?” Pearlie asked.
“Our new man.”
“I thought we had everyone we needed.”
“There’s always room for one more,” Smoke said.
Pearlie smiled. “Uh-huh,” he said. “And if you particular like a person, why, I reckon you’d make room for him even if there weren’t none.”
“I made room for you once, didn’t I?” Smoke asked.
Pearlie nodded. “Yes, sir, you done that all right,” Pearlie said. They were referring to the fact that Pearlie, who had once been hired as a gunman to run Smoke off his ranch, had wound up joining the same man he was supposed to kill.
As a means of allowing everyone to get better acquainted with each other, Sally invited all the cowboys to have supper in the big house that night. She fixed roast beef, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, lima beans, and hot rolls.
“Do you folks eat like this all the time?” Jules asked.
“We sure do,” Pearlie said.
“Ha!” Cal laughed. “Pearlie wishes we did.”
“I figure that during the trail drive,” said Sally, “there are bound to be times when you boys are going to get pretty frustrated by pushing a bunch of cows. So, if they start giving you too much trouble, maybe you can take some solace in having eaten their cousin tonight.”
The others laughed.
“Say, Smoke, the county fair starts tomorrow,” Cal said. “You reckon we could all go in for a bit? I mean, especially as we are going to be on the trail drive for so long.”
“I don’t see why not,” Smoke said.
“You know what we ought to do? We ought to play a baseball game,” Jules said.
“What?” Billy asked.
“We ought to play a baseball game,” Jules said again. “We’ve got enough for a baseball team. There’s Pearlie, Cal, Andy, Dooley, Hank, LeRoy, Billy, Mike, and me. That’s nine people.”
“What about Smoke?” Billy asked.
“Smoke can be our manager.”
“What’s a manager?”
“A manager is someone who doesn’t play, but sort of bosses the ones that do.”
“Ha! That’s Smoke all right,” Cal said. “The bossin’ part, I mean.”
“Well, tell me just who we are goin’ to play with this baseball team?” Pearlie asked.
“The St. Louis Unions.”
“The what?”
“The St. Louis Unions,” Jules repeated. “They are a professional baseball team and they go around playing local
