The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner

herself. Instead she leaned back further in the seat and smiled into the misty sky. “Two,” she said, so softly that the front seat couldn’t hear.
    A long time later, when her hands were cold and her feet chilled and her lips bruised with Bo’s kisses, the buggy stopped and she saw the gable of Karl’s house. She had given up her attempt to keep count and hold him to the letter of her bargain. He might have kissed her a hundred or five hundred times.
    No one made a move. Eva, muffled against Jud, squealed once in a stage whisper. Murmured words and a giggle came back, then a breathless, hushed squeak. Bo kissed her again, and when he let her go she saw his teeth in the misty dark.
    â€œDon‘t!” Eva said from the front seat, and her shadow squirmed as if trying to get away.
    â€œWhy not?” Jud said, quite loud.
    â€œBecause you tickle.”
    â€œIsn’t anybody getting off here?” Jud said.
    â€œI hate to,” said Elsa, and did not move. She looked at Bo, tried to make out his eyes. She pecked him with a swift kiss, pressed him back when he started to rise and help her out. “I’ll just hop out and run,” she said, whispering close into his ear. “It was a beautiful day.” She pressed his hands, gathered her skirts, and jumped from the tire to the ground, half falling. When she popped up again she was right beside Jud, and caught his sudden movement. Eva huddled in her coat. She said goodnight to them and ran indoors.
    There was much to think about in bed, many excitements, the memory of Bo’s kisses, the eagerness and frankness of his admiration when he stopped laughing beside the automobile and said, “God, your eyes are blue!” He must like her, he must like her a lot. He wasn’t the sort of person to pretend anything, and everything that had happened all day had said as plainly as it could be said that he was in love with her. That was a delicious thing to sleep with, a thought that could be hugged. But there was the other thought, the troublesome one, and the complete clarity with which she had seen what she had seen gave her a minute of sacred solemnity. Where was she going, and what kind of people was she going with? Because there wasn’t any doubt: when she straightened up suddenly beside Jud after jumping from the buggy he had just been pulling his hand out from under Eva’s dress.

6
    â€œIt isn’t any of my business,” Karl said. “I just got this letter from Nels. Or maybe it is my business. I don’t know. I just thought I’d come and talk to you.”
    â€œWhat’s the matter, is he scared I’ll abduct his daughter?” Bo said.
    â€œI don’t know that he’s scared of anything special. He just wants to know who you are and what you intend to do. He’s pretty pious. I suppose he just wants to make sure of you.”
    â€œHow’d he ever hear about me in the first place?”
    â€œProbably she wrote home,” Karl said. A man going out of the poolhall slapped Karl on the back, and he turned around and grinned and nodded. “In a way I’m responsible for her,” he said to Bo. “Just how serious is this, anyway?”
    He watched Bo take out his knife and begin carefully paring his nails. The heavy-lidded eyes were somber and the dark face expressionless. Then he looked straight up at Karl. “Why, if you come down to that,” he said, “I guess it’s pretty serious.”
    â€œYou mean you’re going to marry her?”
    â€œI haven’t asked her,” Bo said.
    â€œBut you’re going to.”
    â€œI guess maybe I am,” Bo said, “if I ever get up the nerve.”
    â€œI can imagine how scared you are,” Karl said. “She thinks you’re a little tin god on wheels.”
    Bo lifted his eyes again, and Karl felt the glance like something heavy, like a pressure. “You sound as if she was making