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Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Summary

Po Campo reads Augustus's spit and tells him he will have no more wives — the sky is his wife. Five starving Wichitas ask Call for a beef and he gives them a crippled steer, recognising their old one-eyed leader, who once fed the Rangers buffalo. Camped apart with Lorena beneath the Blue Mounds, Augustus lets her sleep late and holds her while she wakes; she offers him a free poke, frightened that if he no longer wants her he will leave her in some town, and he gently declines and tells her to take her time. Then a brown cloud comes with a sound he cannot place: grasshoppers, millions of them, blotting out the ground. They shelter in the tent while insects cover every inch of canvas. The herd runs; Newt rides blind through the swarm and afterwards finds himself alone with sixty cattle and no idea where north is. Five young Indians herd him back to the outfit, laughing at how lost he was.

Analysis

Two Indian encounters bracket the chapter, both harmless — starving Wichitas, then boys laughing at a lost cowhand — and between them Call gives away a beef. The grasshopper cloud supplies the disaster instead. The novel keeps insisting the danger is never where the men are looking.

Plates

Augustus spits on the chuck wagon boards and Po Campo bends over the expectoration to read his matrimonial fortune.
00 Augustus spits on the chuck wagon boards and Po Campo bends over the expectoration to read his matrimonial fortune.
Told that the sky is his wife, Augustus looks up at a cloudless sky while the shoat rears against the wagon to see the hatchlings.
01 Told that the sky is his wife, Augustus looks up at a cloudless sky while the shoat rears against the wagon to see the hatchlings.
The five starving Wichitas cut the crippled steer out of the drag, and their one-eyed old leader raises his hand to Call, who returns the gesture.
02 The five starving Wichitas cut the crippled steer out of the drag, and their one-eyed old leader raises his hand to Call, who returns the gesture.
Call and Augustus draw rein fifty yards short of Lorena's tent at dusk and look north to the Blue Mounds.
03 Call and Augustus draw rein fifty yards short of Lorena's tent at dusk and look north to the Blue Mounds.
At dawn Augustus sits alone on his saddle blanket in the wet grass while Dish Boggett swings the point of the herd as close to the tent as he dares.
04 At dawn Augustus sits alone on his saddle blanket in the wet grass while Dish Boggett swings the point of the herd as close to the tent as he dares.
Lorena, crying against Augustus's chest on the saddle blanket, offers him a free poke and he gently tells her to take her time.
05 Lorena, crying against Augustus's chest on the saddle blanket, offers him a free poke and he gently tells her to take her time.
The grasshopper cloud comes down on the camp; Augustus stands hauling on the lead ropes of the terrified horses while Lorena runs for the tent.
06 The grasshopper cloud comes down on the camp; Augustus stands hauling on the lead ropes of the terrified horses while Lorena runs for the tent.
Inside the tent, the canvas black with insects, Lorena clings to Augustus with her eyes shut while he holds the two lead ropes.
07 Inside the tent, the canvas black with insects, Lorena clings to Augustus with her eyes shut while he holds the two lead ropes.
The cloud reaches the outfit on the open plain; Dish races back to Call and Deets, who sit their horses and watch it come.
08 The cloud reaches the outfit on the open plain; Dish races back to Call and Deets, who sit their horses and watch it come.
Over the low ridge the herd comes into sight, and Newt understands that the five young Indians crowded round him are laughing because he did not know which way his own cattle were.
09 Over the low ridge the herd comes into sight, and Newt understands that the five young Indians crowded round him are laughing because he did not know which way his own cattle were.