out to the wilderness, Blackjack?â
The big man grunted. âYou do have a point. A lot younger than Rupert, thatâs for sure. Surely he ainât as dumb as he sounds âbout half the time. You know, it sure seemed back then like we knew a lot more about livinâ than he appears to.â
âWe did,â Charlie agreed. âThese young folks nowadays . . . I donât know about âem. Seems like they ainât got no respect for their elders. You canât tell âem a damn thing. They know it all. Countryâs goinâ to hell in a handbasket, âway I see it. Why, I heard from my sister back home two/three years ago, and she told me the kids are a-sparkinâ each other at a mighty young age nowadays.â He shook his head sorrowfully. âItâs pitiful. Morals has gone to hell.â
âYou mighty right âbout that,â Snake said.
Blackjack grinned. âI come out just âfore you did, Preacher. Wasnât it grand?â
âIt was, for a fact.â And that got the men off spinning tall tales far into the night. Why, it was at least 8:00 P.M. before they wound down and hit the blankets.
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Preacher heard the first drops of rain begin falling just about midnight, he figured, and pulled his robe over him more snugly. The Delaware had said before the men retired that it was going to rain for two or three days. Up to this point there had been only a few brief showers that didnât last too long. Now the ladies were going to see a mighty soggy trail.
âWalk!â Faith said, standing in the downpour, hands on her shapely hips. âHave you taken leave of your senses?â
âProbably,â Preacher told her. âIâm here, ainât I? But you still gonna walk.â
âWhy?â
ââCause I ainât gonna put no more strain on them mules and oxen than needs to be, thatâs why. Look at them ruts yonder, Missy. Theyâre deep and gonna be a lot deeper âfore the dayâs done. The groundâs already soaked. Look at them clouds behind us. This is one of them storms thatâs cominâ out of the east. And theyâre always bad. Weâre gonna have rain for about three days.â
âWho says so?â
âSteals Pony. Thatâs who.â
âThatâs ridiculous! Nobody can predict the weather with any degree of accuracy.â
âThe Delaware can.â
âPoppycock and balderdash!â She stamped her little booted foot and it sank about ankle deep.
âItâs raininâ ainât it? You canât deny that. Just like he said it would.â
âWe will all catch pneumonia and perish out here!â
âNaw. Itâs unnatural warm for this time of year. Youâll just get wet, is all. Youâll dry out.â He grinned. âGet a bar of soap and take a bath. Iâll hold the canvas soâs nobody can see you.â
âYou are a vile and evil man, Preacher,â Faith flared at him. âYour thoughts alone will surely guarantee you a place in the Hellfires.â
Preacher laughed at her and that made her madder than ever. She flounced around and tossed her strawberry curls and jumped up and down in the mud and sank a little deeper. She sure was cute when she was all flustered up.
âPass the word, Eudora,â Preacher called. âEverybody whoâs drivinâ oxen will walk, and only the driver will stay on the box behind the mules. The rest of youâwalk!â
âYou are perfectly horrid man!â
âWalk, Missy, Walk!â He looked down at her feet, which were out of sight in the mud. âProvidinâ you can pull your boots out of that mess.â
In a downpour that reduced visibility to only a few hundred feet, the wagons rolled out, with the women slogging along beside them. Long before the nooning period, most of the women had removed their slickers and tossed them into the wagons;