Me and the boys rolled out at 5 like every morning. The cook had sent us down some biscuits and Charles fired up the stove and put the coffee on. I set them biscuits out on our little table and found the jar of honey the cook give us last time. As usual Danny stayed in bed till the last minute.
We was all a little surprised when the Boss Man showed up
just as we finished our breakfast. He was all washed and shaved and his big ol’
face kinda glowed. He was a short man, but his upper arms strained the sleeves
of his shirt, and I’ve seen him pick up a 94-pound bag of cement in each hand
and throw them in the truck without no effort.
“Boys, good morning to you.” He put his boot up on the bench
I was settin’ on but I didn’t mind. “Maybe you heard that me and the Missus are
headed out of town for a while.” We all said, “Yessir.”
“Well, now, o’ course the farm won’t be going on holiday.”
He beamed, like we was supposed to laugh. We did our best to chuckle and said,
“No sir, that’s for sure.”
“Anyway, I want to kinda divvy up the responsibilities you
boys will have while I’m gone.” We nodded, not really looking up. He was a good
man, but we mostly didn’t make eye contact. He was our Boss, not our pal.
“Ray, you are smart and you been with me a long time. You’re
the foreman while I’m gone, and I’m going to hold you responsible for
everything runnin’ smooth. Charles and Danny, you all report to Ray. Got it?”
Them two said yessir, but without a lot of enthusiasm.
“And Ray, pay close attention to them cows. You know how –
get them in and out, milked on time, pastured right. Got it?”
“Yes sir,” I said, “and thank you. I won’t let you down.”
“Now Charles, you’re a steady man, and you’re the best one
with tools in our whole operation. I know you’ll give me an honest day’s work
and more. I’m puttin’ you in charge of the fencing and any other repairs that
come up. Ride the fence line every day, and make sure you check for predators
digging holes to get after our calves. Take you a rifle and be ready.”
Charles was pleased, you could tell, and he nodded. “Yessir,
I won’t let you down.”
“Now Danny. I gotta admit I’m not sure about you. I know you
can do any job on this farm, but I don’t know yet if I can trust you. I hope
you work out okay, and this is a chance for you to prove you will.”
Danny kept his eyes on the table, and didn’t say nothing,
but I seen his jaws all clenched up and I know he resented what the Boss said.
At least the boy was smart enough to keep his yap shut. The Boss didn’t appreciate
backtalk.
“So, it’s not a glamourous job, but I want you to muck out
the barn and the milk house, and do that every day. Ray will give you other
jobs as they come up, and you do them like it was me tellin’ you. Are we
clear?”
“Yessir,” Danny said, but his voice was tight with anger.
Well, that was enough excitement for me, and I was already
calculatin’ in my head how to keep things running smooth, maybe even a little
better than usual, while the Boss was gone. But he was still talkin’, and what
he had to say next was nothing I could have ever expected.
“Now boys, I got a little surprise. I guess you could call
it an experiment. You probably know that the farm’s just barely making it. Milk
prices are down, and with the factory in town closin’, there’s people out of
work. So no wonder we’re stretched a little thin. I figure if we can keep going
for another year, things will come back and we’ll be okay. But I’m going to ask
you to help. It’s my farm, but it’s your jobs.
“So here’s my experiment. If you think I’m crazy, you might
be right. But this morning I’m going to give each of you some money. Now it’s
my money and I want it back. This isn’t a bonus. What it is is seed money. I
want you to use it somehow. Each of you is smart, and you will have time to
figure this out.
“I’m hoping you will put this money to work. Use it on the
farm, take it to town, get creative, and make more money with it. I got an
envelope for each of you.”
He handed me a sealed envelope and the same for Charles and
Danny. “Me and the Missus are leavin’ this morning, but when I get back, we’ll
meet again and see how you done.” So he walked out, and the three of us just
sat there, staring at our envelopes.
“I don’t get it,” says Danny. “I ain’t his stock broker. Let
him invest his own money.” Then he started callin' the Boss some ugly names. I give him a look and he stopped.
Charles said, “Well, are we going to see how much we each
got?” So I tore my envelope open and so did the other two. I guess we could
have kept this to ourselves, but we was curious, naturally. I pulled out five
$100 bills. Charles had him three $100’s, and Danny, well, he had just one
hundred-dollar bill. Danny wasn’t too happy, and he started cussing, saying it wasn’t fair and how he deserved as much as me. Tried to get
Charles upset, too, pointing out that he had less than me, too.
But Charles said, “Well, I figure it’s the Bossman’s money. He
don’t owe us nothin’. Not you , Danny, not a single one of us. I’m going to try
to take this here $300 and make some more. I might just make more than you, Mr.
Foreman.” He smiled at me when he said it to show he wasn’t mad.
“Okay, boys, you got your seed money, and let’s see what we
can do with it. But for right now, let’s get to work.”
Charles got up and headed out to the tool shed, and Danny,
still muttering and cussing, walked to the barn and grabbed a pitch fork. Me, I
made for the milk barn to check on the milking crew.
Well, in the weeks ahead, Danny never shut up about
being robbed, and how it wasn’t fair, or how much he deserved. Charles and me
didn’t say much. He never seemed like he was in a learnin’ mood. We both was just
trying to figure ways to multiply our money. Charles went to the lumberyard and
bought him some oak – a lot of it. In the evenings we could hear him sawing and
sanding and hammering and routering. In a few weeks he had turned that oak into
some of the most beautiful furniture I’d ever seen.
He used the wagon to haul it all to town, and for three weekends in a row he set up a sign and advertised “Custom Maad Furniture – Resnable Prices.” Charles wasn’t much of a speller, but he was an incredible woodworker. He set it all out - chairs and tables, a big old bed, and a couple rockers - in the empty lot next to the general store. He had also made some smaller stuff – some jewelry boxes and some toy trains. Well sir, in three weeks he sold the whole lot of it.
Me, I had a different scheme. Before I come to work for the Bossman I was a gambler. I was never no cheat, but I was good and I was lucky. ‘Ceptin’ my wife got sick of our life in hotel rooms and me smelling of smoke and booze when I come home at night. One morning I woke and she was gone. I drank myself through the next few months, stumblin’ from one game to another. Even sloshed I still won most of the time.
But one day the Bossman showed up on a cattle-buyin’
trip. He’d never laid eyes on me before, but he sat and watched me play for a
while. I won, though my head was poundin’ like a bass drum. He looked hard at
me and said, “Boy, why don’t you quit this mess and get you a real job.” That
was the day I quit drinking and quit cards. And when he left with a small herd of Holsteins,
I come with him.
So I’m done with that old life, but I decided to make this one
exception. I drove into town with the Bossman’s money, and found me a poker
game. The fellas in town had never seen me play – they just knowed me as a
farmhand. But I hadn’t lost my touch.
As for ol’ Danny, he just sat in the bunkhouse, working
himself into a lather.
Well, eventually me and Charles had our envelopes stuffed
full and then some. One night we sat drinking coffee, not talking much. But
Danny was buildin’ up steam. “The Bossman cheated me of what I’m owed,” he
said. “And you losers (and that wasn’t the word he used) are in on it.”
“How you figure that, Danny? Looks to me like it’s his
money,” Charles said.
“He’s always had it in for me. Why am I muckin’ out the
stalls and you’re riding the fence line?”
“Well, Danny, I think I remember the Boss sayin’ why. But
what do you figure?” I said, trying to be calm.
“I’ll tell you, if you’re so dumb you can’t see it your
ownself.” Danny’s face was red and he was puffin’ like he had just run up a
hill. “It’s because I’m from the city! I went to the college there for a year. I’m
educated. You boys are just dumb country hicks, just like the Bossman. The
Bossman has had it in for me since day one. You’ve always been keepin’ me down.”
Danny was shouting , his eyes was wild, and spit was flying out of his mouth.
Well, Charles and me looked at Danny like you would somebody
who’s just announced they was an Egyptian Pha-row. “Danny, come on, man. Give it
a rest.”
But he was still goin’. “You know what I’m sayin’ is true!
You owe me for all the times I’ve
been kep’ back. I deserve a chance!” He stomped over to his
bunk and climbed in with his face to the wall. Charles and I sat silently for a
while, occasionally shakin’ our heads and then we turned in, too.
I woke up in the middle of the night, hearin’ a kind of rustlin’
sound under my bunk. I swung my legs over and saw Danny with his hand in my
pack where I was keepin’ the Bossman’s
money. “What do you think you’re doin’, Danny?” “Just trying to even it out. It’s
only fair. I take some of his and some of yours and that’ll make it right.”
“Boy, I think you got a different idea about what’s right,”
I said, gripping his wrist, and ripping the money from his hand. By that time
Charles was standing there, too. “Let’s have it,” he said. Danny pulled out
some more bills from his jeans and handed them over.
“Danny, you had an equal chance just like everybody else
here. I been here 14 years, and I had just got out of prison when the Bossman took
me in. I been workin’ every day to prove myself,” Charles said.
“And I was a drunk and a loser, and the Bossman give me a
chance, too.” I didn’t feel like tellin’ my full story. I was real close to tryin’
to beat some sense into Danny.
“Danny, as the foreman here, this ain’t workin’ out for you.
Pack your stuff and move on. We ain’t waitin’ till morning. Me and Charles will
escort you to the train station.”
He started in on another round of how we was against him and
the Boss was unfair, and he kept saying’ we had privilege and he was oppressed.
I finally clapped my hand over his mouth. “Danny, you have the right to remain
silent, and I'd advise exercisin' that right. Especially if you want to walk to the truck under your own power. But
if you keep talkin’, we will shut your trap for you, and then we will have to
carry you to the truck. Either way, you’re going.”
A few days later the Bossman and the Missus arrived from their
holiday. I met their car, helped them
unload their baggage, and explained that I had fired Danny and why. The Bossman
pursed his lips and said, “Okay.” He
said he’d meet me and Charles in a half hour.
We was both nervous about what he’d say. We was fidgetin’
and sweatin’ and we both jumped when he come in the bunkhouse. He sat down. “Okay,
boys, how about the gifts I give you to invest?”
Well, I just pushed my envelope over to him and didn’t say
nothin’. “Let’s just see,” he said, pulling out the bills and starting to count.
“I left you with $500. But you are givin’ me back…why, there’s $1000 here!” He
smiled. Then he picked up Charles’ envelope. “You had $300….and lookee here!
Now there’s $600 for this farm!” He had
a big ol’ grin on his face and it just stayed there for a long moment as he
nodded at both of us.
“Okay, how about my former employee? Did he take off with my money? “
“No sir. Seemed like he was planning to, but Charles and I persuaded him not to. So here
you go.” I handed Danny’s envelope over. The Bossman opened it, and pulled out
the one bill. “Figures,” the Bossman said.
“Well, I gotta say, I’m proud of you boys. You proved
yourself good and faithful hands! Well done!” Me and Charles was uncommonly
happy. It’s kind of a good feeling – pleasin’ a man who has already done everything to
save your life.
He got up and walked outside, and we followed him. “The farm
is going to make it, boys. And I’ve decided what I need now is a couple
partners. I’ll still run things, but tomorrow the three of us are going into
town, and I’ll write it up legal and proper. This is all yours, too, boys,” he
said, sweeping his arm in a big arc to include the fields, the herd, the orchard,
and all the buildings built with his own grit and sweat and blood.
And then he held out that big hand and we took turns shakin’
it! Charles, well, he kep’ wipin’ his eyes and, to tell the truth, I guess I had
some dust in mine, too.
