“Pop ought to be getting home pretty soon. Summer, shoot, there were lots of rodeos going on, lots of places he could be all summer, but fall would be a really good time for him to come home.”

The reader gets the first hint that Pop is a negligent father: Tex and his older brother, Mason, are on their own. This frames the narrative that soon follows: the money has run out, because Pop has been on the rodeo circuit, and Tex’s horse, Negrito, must be sold. It is the beginning of the end of his carefree and innocent life.

“I wouldn’t mind Mason getting married, to tell the truth. At least that’d take his mind off college. That was all he thought about, college and how to get there. Unless Pop came home, I wasn’t too crazy about him going off to college and leaving me here by myself.”

A major motif that develops throughout the narrative is the notion of who stays in the small town and who leaves. If Mason gets married, it will tie him to Garyville—and thus to Tex. As the reader discovers, Tex will most likely be one who stays.

“I can’t stand being tied up. Even when I was a little kid, playing cowboys and horses, I couldn’t stand being tied up. It made me sick.”

Another character trait of Tex’s is his restlessness: like many classic literary depictions of young men, Tex yearns to be free from constraint. His horse, and his attachment to outdoor activities like hunting and fishing, represent his free-ranging spirit.