Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1)

by Larry McMurtry

By the time the shade had reached the river, Augustus would have mellowed with the evening and be ready for some intelligent conversation, which usually involved talking to himself.

“A man that sleeps all night wastes too much of life,” he often said. “As I see it the days was made for looking and the nights for sport.”

When he could hear sizzling grease in one ear and the sound of Pea Eye pissing in the other, Augustus knew that the peace of the morning was over once again.

“It’s just that it’s fearsome for a man to have a woman start thinking right in front of him. It always leads to trouble.”

“I’m sure partial to the evening,” Augustus said. “The evening and the morning. If we just didn’t have to have the rest of the dern day I’d be a lot happier.”

You would want to move just as my sourdough got right at its prime.”

“You don’t get excited about nothing,” Call said. “Not unless it’s biscuits or whores.

“You men are a worthless race. You’re good for a bounce now and then, and that’s about it.

suppose you ain’t rusty, though,” Call said. “My main skills are talking and cooking biscuits,” Augustus said. “And getting drunk on the porch. I’ve probably slipped a little on the biscuits in the last few days, and I’ve lost the porch, but I can still talk with the best of them.” “Or the worst,” Call said.

“The cook’s got a donkey, only he don’t ride it,” Pea Eye remarked. “He says it ain’t civilized to ride animals.” “Why, the man’s a philosopher,” Augustus said. “That’s right—I just hired him to talk to you,” Call said. “It would free the rest of us so maybe we could work.”

“Well, life’s a twisting stream,” Augustus said.

“Don’t be trying to give back pain for pain,” he said. “You can’t get even measures in business like this.

“If you can’t squirt your squirt in twenty minutes, you need a doctor, not a whore,” she said.

“I think you should all go to the barber and forget these whores,” he added. “They will just take your money, and what will you get for it?” “Something nice,” Needle said. “A haircut will last you a month, but what you get from the whores will only last a moment,” Po remarked. “Unless she gives you something you don’t want.”

“It don’t do to scorn W. F. Call,”

“Woodrow don’t mention nothing he can keep from mentioning. You couldn’t call him a mentioner.”