The mail moves slowly in these parts, if it moves at all. Gossip flies faster, but is less reliable. Even so, accounting for things which may have been told with exaggeration, this is what I’ve gathered.*** To begin with, people are killing coyotes. People always look to kill them, I know. To cattle men and farmers they are a nuisance, so they’re regularly shot on sight. But great round-ups are being orchestrated to purge the territories of the canine blight. It’s a wasteful, needless thing. I understand why the effort is being undertaken, but it can’t help. The poor dogs. They say that Christ sees even the sparrow fall from its tree, so perhaps then He also watches these dogs of the wilderness during this time of persecution.*** The first victims were all women. I wonder why that is? Wouldn’t the male members of the congregation prove a greater threat to Jack and his newfound accomplice? Or—and this is a terrible thought indeed—perhaps the men were attacked too, and permitted to survive.
