It was ashen. We went on
smoking. 'He's a crazy Frenchman,' we said, and let it go. But my
brother was out in the barn and he corralled him going by.
"'I am going to die, Don,' he said. 'I was lying on the bed, looking
up at the rafters, and I saw the men come in and take the big white
board and make it into a coffin for me. I am going home, I want to be
with my folks.'
"Don came in scared stiff, and told us, and we said 'Pooh, pooh,' and
went on smoking. But about eleven o'clock a couple of fellows from
another ranch came over and said their boss had died that afternoon and
they could not find the right sized boards for the coffin. They wanted
a good straight one about six feet six by fourteen inches. We looked
in the barns and the sheds, and could not find what they wanted. Then
we went into the lean-to, where there were some loose boards in the
corner, but they wouldn't do.
"'Say,' said one of them, 'how about that white board up there in the
rafters? About right, huh?'
"We pulled it down, and it was just the size. They were tickled to get
it, for they hated to drive twelve miles to town through snowdrifts
over their heads.
"'That's the big white board that Baldy saw,' said Don suddenly.
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