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Book Club: Discuss/find out about a Classic Tale Set in Wyoming: The Virginian
Front-Ranger:
Shall we move on to Chapter Seven then?? I trust you all have had the chance to catch up by now. Chapter Seven "Through Two Snows" is short and is one of those transition chapters that Wister puts in every so often, but it also gives new depth to TV's character. As I mentioned before, TV writes to Tenderfoot, the narrator, who is down in south Wyoming, and offers to take him hunting as a way to help him regain his health after being sick. "'You will be well if you give over city life and take a hunt with me about August or say September for then the elk will be out of the velvett.'"
I would certainly jump to answer such an invitation and TF did too. I did not miss the fact that, unlike Jack and Ennis, this couple did get to have their August together. Not only is it wonderful weather in Wyoming (if a storm doesn't come in from the Pacific) at that time but the elk are reaching their full size, "out of the velvet" as TV says, which means that their antlers have grown to full size preparing them for the rutting season. When the antlers first appear, they are covered with a protective membrane called velvet, which they shed as the antlers grow and harden. There is hardly anything else that grows as fast as antlers do, and so over the years elk and deer antler has been used as an aphrodisiac or male sexual aid, and countless deer and elk have been slaughtered just for their antlers alone. But I digress.
TV has encountered some difficulties on Judge Henry's ranch. It seems he ended up doing both his job and another's (probably Steve's) and so to remedy the situation, he decided to take a break from working at the ranch, theorizing that Judge Henry would soon discover that he was doing the work of two men. As Chapter Eight "The Sincere Spinster" starts, TV is back in good graces at the ranch and the schoolhouse in Bear Creek is complete and ready for a schoolteacher.
Front-Ranger:
Here is a photo of James Drury as The Virginian.
Now we are ready for "Enter the Woman" namely the schoolmistress, who is now on her way to Wyoming. Discussion of Chapter Eight invited!!
Front-Ranger:
I'm not goin to have much to say about chapters 8-11 so if any of you other readers want to chime in, feel free. I know some of you have been reading the book on your holiday time off.
Another thing I'll be discussing is the colorful expressions in this book. Let me know some of your favorites!!
Front-Ranger:
Chapter 8 introduces us to Miss Mary Stark Wood who is destined to become the schoolmistress at Bear Creek. In Chapter 9, she makes the arduous journey to Wyoming, which ends dramatically. A drunk stage driver strands the stage with her in it in a riverbed during a storm, and suddenly a tall rider appears and takes her up on his horse, depositing her gently on the riverbank. She clings to him, so shocked that she forgets her manners and neglects to thank him. Picture time, don't you think??
Front-Ranger:
Very soon we'll be meeting a new character: a friend of the Virginian's named Scipio. And, speaking of colorful sayings, here is what he has to say one time when he misses a train by just a few minutes (he says this to the disappearing caboose):
--- Quote ---"Just because yu' ride through this country on a rail, do yu' claim yu' can find your way around? I could take yu' out ten yards in the brush and lose yu' in ten seconds, you spangle-roofed hobo! Leave me behind? you recent blanket-mortgage yearlin'! You plush-lined, nickel-plated, whisstlin wash room, d' yu' figure I can't go east as soon as west? Or I'll stay right here if it suits me, yu' dude-inhabited hot-box! Why, yu' coon-bossed face-towel--"
--- End quote ---
Yee-haw, this is my 3800th post!!!
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