2018.04.25

Today is Wednesday.

Then other bluffs just like them stood up in front of the wagon. Faint wheel tracks went into a crack between those earthen walls. Pet and Patty climbed till the crack became a small grassy valley. And the valley widened out to the High Prairie once more. No road, not even the faintest trace of wheels or of a rider's passing, could be seen anywhere. That prairie looked as if no human eye had ever seen it before. Only the tall wild grass covered the endless empty land and a great empty sky arched over it. Far away the sun's edge touched the rim of the earth. The sun was enormous and it was throbbing and pulsing with light. All around the sky's edge ran a pale pink glow, and above the pink was yellow, and above that blue. Above the blue the sky was no color at all. Purple shadows were gathering over the land, and the wind was mourning. Pa stopped the mustangs. He and Ma got out of the wagon to make camp, and Mary and Laura climbed down to the ground, too. Laura begged Ma  if Jack had gone to heaven and he had been such a good dog that he could impossibly not go to heaven. Ma did not know what to answer, but Pa said yes. He told Laura that he could and God that didn't forget the sparrows wouldn't leave a good dog like Jack out in the cold. Laura felt only a little better. She was not happy. Pa did not whistle about his work as usual, and after a while he said that he didn't know what they would do in a wild country without a good watchdog.