Raymond's Afternoon Nap

In my previous post Cowboy’s First Love I ended the article saying that it wasn’t the first time that the Davenport brothers found mustang horses to be their first priority even over a brother in need. They found themselves in such a dilemma one day when John and Emma Davenport were headed into town for supplies.  The trip into town was a 15-mile journey in a “hack” buggy, and so the folks would be gone most of the day.  John lined up the boys and told them sternly, “now boys while I’m gone you take care not to go near that corral and mess with those horses.  Your ma and me will be back soon so you take care and watch the youngsters.” Some of the young cousins were visiting that day so the oldest brother Raymond I’m sure was told to be in charge and watch the place.  Well with that the folks loaded up and began bouncing and rattling down the old road headed for Sabinal to do their business.  Now you know that the dust had hardly settled and the clanking of that old wagon was hardly out of ear shot when the boys looked one at the other and then looked at that corral of newly corralled mustangs and just couldn’t say no to powerful temptation.

Now guess who was the very first one to follow his heart instead of his brains. Yep you guessed it. It was Raymond leading the charge to the corral. The boys got the saddle and hackamore harness, opened the old gate and slowly worked their way around to the first good lookin piece of horseflesh that looked like he could make a good romp. Now Raymond was the very first one on the bronco. The brothers helping hold the rope tied to the hackamore to try to head the horse from running somewhat until Raymond could cinch the saddle and slowly mount the steed. When Raymond was settled in and had a good grip he gave a quick nod to the boys. The brothers held the rope and tried to stay free of the kicking and twisting. That old horse started bucking and spinning and after a minute cut crossways and made a dash.  The boys all set down on the rope to keep him from getting into the timber and when they did that horse hit the end of the rope and turned a complete somersault head over heals sending Raymond airborne right over his head coming down hard with a dull thud.  The boys I’m sure were hootin and hollering and screaming with delight watching big brother Raymond get thrown from that horse so quick. They walked over with jeers and guffaws expecting to hear him tell them to hush and see if they could do one better but to there surprise Raymond was not talking.  Raymond was knocked out cold. They patted his face and called his name even threw water on him trying to get him to stir but nothing doing Raymond was out. 

Now what to do? All of their attempts to revive him were met with no success he was totally out cold.  The folks were still gone to town and wouldn’t be back till hours and there weren’t nobody around so what would you do? Well they each grabbed a leg and half carried and half drug old brother Raymond to the bedroom of the house.  They tried again to revive him but no dice he was sleeping like an angel.  Well nothing to do but just let him sleep.  The boys went right on back to that corral and continued the rodeo. They kept breaking broncos right on through the afternoon until they figured the folks were about due.  Finally they saw the old hack bearing John and Emma Davenport coming down the road.  They all ran up to meet them and conspicuously there was one boy missing. Where’s Raymond says John.  The boys all just kinda stammered a bit and looked down and finally one of the boys says.  “Well papa we think maybe Raymond has expired.” “Expired! says Emma”, as the boys just point to the house. John looks over at the corral and knew exactly what had happened. They all hurried over to the bedroom and found Raymond still sleeping like a baby. You never seen such excitement, John had the boys hurry and hitch a fresh team to the hack and off he and Emma went with Raymond headed for town. Just as they got there Raymond finally wakes up and shows signs that he was still with the earthbound living instead of the angels.  The doctor wastn’t there.  They decided nothing to do but bring him home. Well history doesn’t record what old John told those boys when he got home that day but I have it on good authority that saddle leather wasn’t the only leather those boys felt on their posteriors that day.