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Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Summary

Roscoe's journey goes badly at once: a herd of wild pigs stampedes his horse Memphis within three hours of Fort Smith, and he spends the night sitting against a tree with a pistol in his hand. The next evening he rides into a clearing where a person he takes for a farmer turns out to be Louisa Brooks — a large, loud, twice-widowed woman pulling stumps with a mule team, who puts him straight to work with an ax. Over a supper of dry corn bread she proposes marriage on the spot, on a trial basis: he is quiet, skinny, and free of warts, and she has a feather mattress and a section of land. He refuses, sleeps outside in fear of Ed, her resident rattlesnake, and wakes at dawn to find her straddling him. Afterwards she pronounces him not hopeless but not feisty. He rides on out of obligation to July, half wanting to stay, and near tears without knowing which cause.

Analysis

A comic interlude that is also the novel's most cheerful account of frontier marriage — a woman proposing on frank grounds of utility. Placed to make Roscoe likeable and to offer him a real escape, immediately before the plot begins arranging his death.

Plates

Three hours out of Fort Smith, the wild pigs put Memphis into a runaway through the pines and Roscoe empties his pistol at the boar without hitting anything.
00 Three hours out of Fort Smith, the wild pigs put Memphis into a runaway through the pines and Roscoe empties his pistol at the boar without hitting anything.
That afternoon Memphis bogs to his knees at a little creek and Roscoe, on foot in the mud and short one boot, whips him out with a lariat rope.
01 That afternoon Memphis bogs to his knees at a little creek and Roscoe, on foot in the mud and short one boot, whips him out with a lariat rope.
His first camp, ten miles from town — the whole night sat with his back to a tree, pistol in his hand and rifle across his lap, listening to woods he cannot read.
02 His first camp, ten miles from town — the whole night sat with his back to a tree, pistol in his hand and rifle across his lap, listening to woods he cannot read.
At sundown the next day he rides into a clearing off the Army trail and finds a farmer in a floppy hat working a mule team against a half-lifted stump.
03 At sundown the next day he rides into a clearing off the Army trail and finds a farmer in a floppy hat working a mule team against a half-lifted stump.
The farmer takes off the floppy hat, turns out not to be a he, and asks whether he is going to get off and help or just set there looking dumb.
04 The farmer takes off the floppy hat, turns out not to be a he, and asks whether he is going to get off and help or just set there looking dumb.
Put to work with an ax he has not handled in years, Roscoe hacks at the tough roots and sweats worse than she does while Louisa pops the mules.
05 Put to work with an ax he has not handled in years, Roscoe hacks at the tough roots and sweats worse than she does while Louisa pops the mules.
A root slips out of the ground, uncurls and lashes him above the knees; he goes down flat on his back and lies there while the mules bring the stump out and Louisa never looks round.
06 A root slips out of the ground, uncurls and lashes him above the knees; he goes down flat on his back and lies there while the mules bring the stump out and Louisa never looks round.
Supper in the cabin — dry corn bread eaten out of the pan by coal-oil light, and Louisa proposing marriage across the table on a trial basis.
07 Supper in the cabin — dry corn bread eaten out of the pan by coal-oil light, and Louisa proposing marriage across the table on a trial basis.
He beds down out back in fear of Ed and wakes near sunup, too heavy with sleep to move, to find Louisa standing astraddle of him with her bare feet wet from the dewy grass.
08 He beds down out back in fear of Ed and wakes near sunup, too heavy with sleep to move, to find Louisa standing astraddle of him with her bare feet wet from the dewy grass.
He rides on west with a corner of his tarp hanging down over the horse's flank, waving to a woman already back at her stumps who does not see him, and near tears without knowing the cause.
09 He rides on west with a corner of his tarp hanging down over the horse's flank, waving to a woman already back at her stumps who does not see him, and near tears without knowing the cause.