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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Summary

Evening in Lonesome Dove, a parched border town on the Rio Grande. Augustus McCrae drinks from his whiskey jug on the porch of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, arguing with the pigs and waiting out the heat, while his partner Captain Woodrow Call works until dark. The chapter establishes the outfit and its people: Call, terse and driven, nursing a fresh bite from the vicious mare known as the Hell Bitch; Pea Eye, loyal, literal-minded and half deaf; Newt, seventeen, still forbidden a gun and aching to ride into Mexico on the night raids; Bolivar, the retired Mexican bandit who cooks badly and beats the clapperless dinner bell with a crowbar; and Deets, away on an errand. Over beans and sowbelly the men bicker about whores, emancipation and Call's Scottish birth. Call, thinking the quarter moon is right for crossing stock, takes his hat and Henry rifle and walks out into the dark.

Analysis

Exposition disguised as comedy. The Call–Augustus opposition — work against talk — is installed as the novel's engine, along with Newt's thwarted ambition and the outfit's stagnation. The closing beat is the real hinge: Call privately reads the quarter moon as a rustler's moon, and the plot begins.

Plates

Augustus comes out onto the porch to find the two blue pigs having a tug-of-war with a rattlesnake, and steps down into the yard to kick the shoat off the boards.
00 Augustus comes out onto the porch to find the two blue pigs having a tug-of-war with a rattlesnake, and steps down into the yard to kick the shoat off the boards.
At the springhouse Augustus waits in the sun for the rattlesnake inside to calm down and crawl out, then lifts his whiskey jug from the mud.
01 At the springhouse Augustus waits in the sun for the rattlesnake inside to calm down and crawl out, then lifts his whiskey jug from the mud.
Augustus sits tilted back in his rope-bottomed chair on the porch, working at the jug and watching the sun ease out of the day.
02 Augustus sits tilted back in his rope-bottomed chair on the porch, working at the jug and watching the sun ease out of the day.
Call and Pea Eye come up from the lots at quitting time; Call rinses the dry out of his mouth at the wagons and spits a mouthful of good whiskey into the dust.
03 Call and Pea Eye come up from the lots at quitting time; Call rinses the dry out of his mouth at the wagons and spits a mouthful of good whiskey into the dust.
The Hell Bitch stands in the corral in the last light, the mare that took a hunk out of the Captain, while Newt throws rocks at her from the rails on his way up from the well.
04 The Hell Bitch stands in the corral in the last light, the mare that took a hunk out of the Captain, while Newt throws rocks at her from the rails on his way up from the well.
The sun sets and Bolivar lays into the clapperless dinner bell with a broken crowbar, drowning out the quiet of the evening for a good five minutes.
05 The sun sets and Bolivar lays into the clapperless dinner bell with a broken crowbar, drowning out the quiet of the evening for a good five minutes.
Walking to the house for supper, Newt stops and turns to look across the river at the big darkness settling over Mexico, where the night raids go.
06 Walking to the house for supper, Newt stops and turns to look across the river at the big darkness settling over Mexico, where the night raids go.
Inside by lamplight, Call sits with his shirt off while Bolivar waits to pack the mare bite with axle grease and turpentine and Augustus bends in to inspect the wound.
07 Inside by lamplight, Call sits with his shirt off while Bolivar waits to pack the mare bite with axle grease and turpentine and Augustus bends in to inspect the wound.
At supper, as Augustus ladles himself a second scoop of beans, Call slides his own plate under the ladle and Newt laughs out loud.
08 At supper, as Augustus ladles himself a second scoop of beans, Call slides his own plate under the ladle and Newt laughs out loud.
With nothing more said, Call takes his hat and his Henry and stands a moment in the doorway before going out into the dark, moths crossing the lamplight behind him.
09 With nothing more said, Call takes his hat and his Henry and stands a moment in the doorway before going out into the dark, moths crossing the lamplight behind him.