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Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Summary

Departure day. Soupy Jones, once the finest horseman any of them knew, rides in widowed and is hired on the spot. The blue pigs have tracked the outfit out from town and settle under the wagon; Augustus declares it a free country. He drives the wagon back into Lonesome Dove to pry his sign off the corral fence, finds the house and roofless barn already looking as though nobody lived there, and stops to say goodbye to Xavier, who is unshaven and past consoling and asks Gus to tell Lorena he will come if Jake is killed. On the way he passes Jake and Lorena's shabby camp, where Jake is digging a mesquite thorn out of a swollen thumb and the breakfast is burned. Lippy is waiting in the wagon with a packed bag, hired by declaring himself. Riding out, he cries at his last watery sight of the town.

Analysis

The leaving chapter, deliberately unsentimental: ten years of residence leave almost no trace, and the barn stays roofless forever. Augustus prising the sign off the fence is the most consequential piece of packing in the book. Xavier's request — tell her if Jake dies — is filed for later.

Plates

Call and Augustus eat their bacon by the fire in the faint morning light of departure day, arguing about biscuits and the well.
00 Call and Augustus eat their bacon by the fire in the faint morning light of departure day, arguing about biscuits and the well.
Call looks around in the half dark and finds Augustus's two pigs lying under the wagon, snuffling — they have tracked the outfit out from town.
01 Call looks around in the half dark and finds Augustus's two pigs lying under the wagon, snuffling — they have tracked the outfit out from town.
The late shift rides in off the herd in the pitch dark before the lanterns are lit — Newt, Pea Eye, Dish Boggett and Jasper Fant, and a fifth man nobody expected.
02 The late shift rides in off the herd in the pitch dark before the lanterns are lit — Newt, Pea Eye, Dish Boggett and Jasper Fant, and a fifth man nobody expected.
Soupy Jones says his wife died, and adds "she was never strong" into the silence that follows; Call hires him on the spot.
03 Soupy Jones says his wife died, and adds "she was never strong" into the silence that follows; Call hires him on the spot.
Bolivar stands at the cook fire staring into it in deep gloom, thinking of Mexico and his daughters and whether he will ever see them again.
04 Bolivar stands at the cook fire staring into it in deep gloom, thinking of Mexico and his daughters and whether he will ever see them again.
Augustus hitches Greasy and Kick Boy — a grey mule and a bay nearly four hands shorter — to the wagon for the drive into town.
05 Augustus hitches Greasy and Kick Boy — a grey mule and a bay nearly four hands shorter — to the wagon for the drive into town.
Half a mile from camp, Augustus stops the team at Jake and Lorena's shabby camp, where Jake is digging a mesquite thorn out of a swollen thumb and the fryback has burned.
06 Half a mile from camp, Augustus stops the team at Jake and Lorena's shabby camp, where Jake is digging a mesquite thorn out of a swollen thumb and the fryback has burned.
In the dead-still empty town, Augustus pries his sign off the Hat Creek corral fence with a crowbar taken from the abandoned blacksmith shop, the roofless barn and the emptied house behind him.
07 In the dead-still empty town, Augustus pries his sign off the Hat Creek corral fence with a crowbar taken from the abandoned blacksmith shop, the roofless barn and the emptied house behind him.
In the empty Dry Bean, Xavier sits unshaven at a little table past consoling and asks Gus to tell Lorena that he will come if Jake is killed.
08 In the empty Dry Bean, Xavier sits unshaven at a little table past consoling and asks Gus to tell Lorena that he will come if Jake is killed.
Riding out past the widow Cole and her goats, Lippy weeps in the wagon seat and his last look at Lonesome Dove goes watery.
09 Riding out past the widow Cole and her goats, Lippy weeps in the wagon seat and his last look at Lonesome Dove goes watery.