While they were in high school, he and Charles Ray went deer hunting that fall before he went into the Army. They played their Friday night game before taking off for the hill country up north of Llano.

Pitching a tent and some camping supplies in Jim's old pickup, they hunted until sundown Sunday. He remembered the Texas hills being red and golden with sumac and oak. Down along the creeks, cottonwood turned a dull shade of yellow. Up higher on the hillsides the darker colors blended in with the grays and reds of the cliffs.

It was way after midnight before the two got into a place Charles Ray's daddy leased for the hunting season. After building a bonfire to check for rattlers and copperheads, they pitched tent and bedded down.

It was one of those hunts when most things went wrong. They did not bring any timepieces. Alone, ten miles from any other people, both tried to keep track of the time by letting water drip out of a jug. It did not work.

They sneaked through tall grass to a small oat patch they planned to hunt. It was one of those fall nights when the temperature huddled ten degrees above freezing, but it was still miserable to the boys from a part of Texas where it had not frosted that year.

They went stalking quietly through dry little bluestem and grama grass in a darkness that ate in on the mind like black paint. Jim led the way until he flushed a covey of whirring quail. Charles Ray took the lead afterwards. "After all, Jim, it's my father's lease."

"You are welcome to it, cowboy," Jim muttered. "Thought I was on rattlesnakes for sure."

"From the looks of the sky, I'd say it is about three‑thirty, Jim."

"We're going to freeze our balls off before daybreak."

"Realize that. Last time I will depend on you packing," Charles Ray muttered patiently. He was a diplomat in training to take over his father's job.

"Why don't you have your wristwatch, rich boy?" Jim rubbed in his companion's exalted position in life. Charles Ray was son of the president of Crawfordsville's only bank.

"Must have left it on top of my locker when I took a shower."

"Guess we better be quiet, or we will scare away every deer in the county," Jim warned.

"You are right." Afterwards they did not say another word until they shot their first deer at sunrise.

Both huddled in one blanket while they froze waiting for daylight to come.