He rode up Prosperity, passing the narrow maze-like alleys of Bick Street that made up most of Johnny Town, on the right. Prosperity became less of a road and more of a rutted path as his horse, a darkly dabbled paint named Muha, began to climb up the winding trail. “Muha” meant “moon” in Mutt’s mother’s language. He sometimes wanted to name the horse Crazy, because he was the only animal that had never been spooked by Mutt. When he was a child, his mother’s people, the Shoshokos, were looked down on by the other Shoshoni tribes because they were too poor to have horses and had to dig in the dirt for their food. Once, Mutt and a few of the other young men of the village went out with a party of the older men in an attempt to steal horses from a bunch of arrogant Ute merchants who had passed through the village a few days earlier. The plan failed miserably when the horses screamed like frightened women at Mutt’s approach. The Ute were alerted to the attempted theft and nearly killed several members of the raiding party.
