Joe left and walked to Jake Favors' dingy office. The stock dealer rose to meet him.
"Wonder if I can borrow boards to make a table and benches?" Joe asked.
"Sure," Jake Favors agreed. "If chairs would do as well as benches, I have some."
"They'll be fine."
"Don't you be wasting your time with them, though. I want you to work on mules." He bellowed, "Sam!"
The biggest, slowest-moving colored man Joe had ever seen shuffled into the office. When he smiled, gleaming white teeth flashed in an enormous mouth. He rolled friendly eyes at Joe.
"Sam," Jake Favors directed, "make a table for this gentleman's family and take some chairs down. If they want anything else, you get it. All right?"
There was a long pause and Sam said, "Shu-ah." For a moment Joe was torn. He'd wanted to build Emma that table with his own hands. Then he realized that time was a precious thing for all of them, and he'd do best to leave it in Sam's hands.
Sam ambled off toward a lumber pile and Jake Favors turned to Joe. "You want a free hand, huh?"
"Yup."