Last Bus To Wisdom: A Novel

As they sit around the kip—the nighttime gathering of workers—a stranger arrives. Donal recognizes him as Harv, the jailbreaker who was Letty’s boyfriend. Harv announces he has come to cut hay, and the other men welcome him. Donal and Herman sit beside Harv and reintroduce themselves. When Donal comments on the rugged way Carl treated him as his prisoner, Harv says, “It’s just that you put a big badge on the little guy, his head swells along with it” (358). Soon, Mallory, a sheriff, arrives. He speaks to Highpockets and asks if there are any lawbreakers he needs to be aware of, looking around the circle. Highpockets says that Donal, Herman, and Harv have been with the group since they harvested apples in Washington. The sheriff leaves without incident.

The following morning, a man crashes into the camp and announces that he is hiring people to cut hay. He explains the different positions that he needs filled, and the workers express what they’re capable of doing. They quickly grab all the available jobs.

Donal tells Herman that they must get on this crew. Donal follows Jones, the ranch foreman, and reminds him that he needs a stacker to drive the horse teams. Donal says he is an excellent stacker and that Herman, his grandfather, can do many things. When Jones is doubtful, Donal says he will prove himself by hitching a team of horses as fast as anyone and if he cannot, he and Herman will walk all the way back to town from the farm. Jones hires them, and they climb onto his truck. Then Donal points out that he has seen Rags’s Diamond Buckle on the foreman’s hatband.

After Donal passes the harnessing test, he tells Jones that he knows the ranch belongs to Rags, explaining that he and Herman saw Rags win the Crow Fair saddle bronc competition. Jones introduces them to another handyman, Smiley, a former rodeo clown and an incredibly disagreeable person. Smiley wants to kill one of the milk cows.

Next Jones takes them to the bunkhouse, where they find places to put their bedrolls. He gives each of the workers a diamond buckle headband to identify the ranch they work for. Having said he is excellent at sharpening sickles, Herman turns to Donal and asks what a sickle is.

Suddenly aware that Herman has no idea how to do the job he has agreed to perform, Donal follows him to the work shed and pantomimes how to sharpen the teeth of the sickles that cut the hay. He stands behind Jones, acting out how Herman should pick up the long cutting tools. Herman imitates him so well that Jones is satisfied and walks away.

Over the next few days, Donal finds fulfillment that he never achieved at the Double W ranch. Herman begins to express doubts, worried that the work is too hard for Donal, and then becomes willing to fight Smiley, who continues to spout crude, sexual comments around the boy. Herman suggests that Donal leave him there and go back to his grandmother once she has recovered. As they discuss this, a car pulls up to the ranch house that Donal recognizes as belonging to Rags.

When Rags gets out of his car with a beautiful young woman beside him, Donal reminds him that he and Herman met him at the Crow Fair. Rags says he is glad that they work for him now. At Herman’s urging, Donal asks if he can borrow the phone to call his grandmother, who has just had a serious surgery. Rags gives his permission, and Donal calls Gram. She is recovering but still weak. When she asks to speak to Aunt Kate, Donal says she has gone to the grocery store.

When the first payday arrives, the workers get ready to cash their checks in town and celebrate. Coming out of the latrine, Smiley wears Donal’s moccasins. Immediately, Donal and Herman grab him and take the moccasins away. Several of the workers warn Smiley about the outcome of stealing things from other workers and imply that Herman carries a knife.

Everyone rides to town in the back of Jones’s pickup truck. At the Watering Hole bar, the men line up to cash their checks. The barmaid, Babs, hesitates to cash Donal’s check because of his age until Herman promises to give her enough business to make it worth her while. With his money, Donal goes to a nearby store to call his grandmother. Gram says she feels better and has acquired a job in Glasgow at the same establishment where Letty works. Gram wants the two of them to move to Glasgow and live there. Donal feels torn as he walks back to the watering hole, knowing his grandmother needs him but that he wants to live and work on the ranch.

Another group of migrant workers joins the Johnson family. Eventually the two groups make a wager about whether Herman can tell the names of six new beers after only tasting them once. As Donal watches closely to make sure the contest is fair, Herman demonstrates his ability to remember the name of a beer after a single sample. When he gets to the last drink, about to win the wager, he begins to gag. One of the opposing workers has spiked the drink with cough drops. A fight breaks out, and Jones arrives to take all the men back to the ranch, along with the money Herman won them.

At the Diamond Buckle, the Johnson family takes a vote and tells Herman he is welcome to join them when they move on to their next jobs. Highpockets says, “Snag is welcome to come along, too, if that’s in the cards” (427).

The next morning, as it rains, Jones tells the workers they are free except for one person, as they need a chore boy. He has fired Smiley and needs someone to milk Waltzing Matilda. Eventually, Herman accepts. With the help of Donal, he ties the cow’s tail to one leg so that she cannot kick them without pulling her own tail, making her docile enough to milk. As a result, Jones gives Herman the permanent job of chore boy.

By chance, Rags is in the barn and overhears Donal talking to Queen, the great work horse. He asks Donal about his quandary, and Donal explains that he is torn between Herman and his grandmother. When Rags asks why he wants to stay with Herman, Donal says, “Bad stuff happens to him when he’s on his own. And to me when I am, too. But when it’s both of us, we sort of think our way out of things” (439).

A sheriff’s car shows up with Carl and Mallory. They have come to arrest Harv for breaking out of jail. The workers come to Harv’s defense, saying he has worked among them for many months. When Herman and Donal try to persuade Carl to leave his brother alone, Carl accuses Rags of harboring a runaway. He threatens to arrest Harv, Herman, and Donal. The workers step into the shed and emerge with sharpened farm tools, ready to take on the sheriff. Harv offers to serve out the rest of his 45-day sentence if Carl leaves the others alone. Rags speaks up, saying that there are many witnesses who would point out that shooting an unarmed man would be murder or manslaughter. He persuades Carl to take Harv’s offer and leave.

As the workers disperse, Rags takes Donal and Herman to the ranch house and asks them to share their whole story. Listening carefully, he offers each of them a permanent position on the ranch and implies that he wants Gram to be the new ranch cook.