Free Man of the Family by Ralph Moody Page A

school, but on Saturday we dug the hills; then Father put in the seeds and stepped on them.”
    â€œThat’s it,” she said. “Father put in the seeds and pressed them into the warm earth so they would grow. Now, what’s the big difference between rabbits and beans?”
    â€œWell . . . I guess you mean, because one’s an animal and the other’s a vegetable.”
    â€œThat’s it, Son,” she told me. “A rabbit is warm, and has blood in it, and gives milk for its young; but a bean is cold, and doesn’t have blood in it, or give milk for its young. A bean seed can draw its strength from the warm ground, but a rabbit seed has to draw its strength from the blood of its mother. Just as your father planted the bean seed in the ground, the father rabbit will have to plant the rabbit seed in the mother rabbit where it can draw its strength from her blood. Now, I’m going into the house, and I think it would be a good idea if you put one of your does in to visit with Dutch’s buck.”
    I guess I’d always known there were stallions and bulls and roosters. I’d seen them plenty of times on the ranches, but I’d never bothered to think what they were there for. Chickens just pecked their way out of eggs, and Mother always had said that God was going to send Lady a new colt in the spring. After she’d gone back into the house, I put one of my does into the pen with Dutch’s buck. They didn’t fight at all.
    That Wednesday night I got an awful toothache. Mother had Grace hold her glass to shine lamplight into my mouth while she tried to see what the matter was. It must have looked worse to her than it really was, because she said, “My, my! I’ve been so neglectful of you children’s teeth. You should have been to the dentist a year ago . . . but . . . My! these dentists are so expensive. . . . Of course, they have to have expensive educations, but . . . Well, there’s no sense in talking, it’s a permanent tooth, and I’m afraid the nerve is exposed. You’ll just have to stay out of school again tomorrow morning, and we’ll go down to see Dr. Austin—I understand he’s not as expensive as that young dentist in the bank building.”
    As soon as I finished my milk route the next morning, Mother and I went down to the village. At first she walked right along with her back straight and her head way up—the way she always used to—but before we got as far as Main Street she was all tired out, and she had to rest twice going up the steps to Dr. Austin’s office over Monahan’s saloon.
    Dr. Austin was a nice old man, but he hurt me so much I nearly squeezed the arms off his swivel chair. He had a machine drill with a treadle like a sewing machine’s, and before he was through drilling I thought my whole head was afire.
    After Mother had given him the dollar and a half for fixing my tooth, we went down to Mr. Shellabarger’s. Mother wanted to stop in and thank him for the package of meat that he always gave me on Saturday when I paid the bill. Just as we were turning in at the store, I saw Sheriff McGrath come riding around the corner by the gristmill. He was riding his chestnut horse, and leading a flea-bitten gray on a halter rope. I told Mother I had to ask him if there were any more cattle coming through town, and I’d wait for her out front. But that wasn’t really what I was thinking about.
    I walked down the sidewalk a little ways to meet him, and yelled, “Hi, Sheriff,” so he’d be sure to see me. When he pulled up, I said, “Did you hear of any more cattle coming through town this spring? I’m sorry the boys ran some of those last ones, but I couldn’t help it.”
    â€œHell, no! Course you couldn’t help it,” the sheriff hollered. “No, ain’t heard of no cattle movin’ this-a-way.