Smith: A Land Remembered

Tobias MacLvey has been the main character in A Land Remembered  to the point of me writing this blog post.  He is the grandfather of Sol MacLvey who is introduced in the first chapter, the father of Zech MacLvey and the husband to Emma. He is a very humble man who is a hard worker but for whatever reason he cant catch a break. But after an encounter with a group of Seminoles, that involved feeding, sheltering and protecting them for a night, his luck began to change. Even though it would be quite some time and a few hardships in the process, Tobias reencountered the same Indians, who taught him how to properly raise and herd cattle and gave him the proper horse and dogs which he couldn't afford on his own. Tobias generosity wasn't limited to the Indians as he encountered an African American named Skillit who has been wandering Florida all the way from Tallahassee and allowed him to live with his family in return for help with capturing and raising cows. When the opportunity comes for him to move over 800 cows out to west to get shipped to Cuba, for $16 a cow, Tobias rounds up his family, Skillit and hires two drifters who later prove their worth Bozo and Frog. After a long but successful trip, Tobias finally makes the hard earned money he has been waiting for years. But before he even thinks about himself  he makes sure to pay everyone handsomely, buy them gifts and feed them extremely well, he also decides to create his herding company and offers Bozo and Frog permanent work, along with paying Skillit more money than he could ever imagine.

To this point in the story I can tell that Tobias is a hard working man and is a very generous human being.  His relationship with the natural world is that he is a cow herder and he is moving cows all over Florida and into Cuba to be used for many different purposes such as their skin and for meat, the cows im assuming are not found in Cuba but with the high amount of cows being shipped they will soon be. His sense of place must be in the pastures herding cows as he makes this his full time commitment and the way he provides for his family, this is where he spends his time with his son which is clear in the story that he cares most about. I believe that  in the following chapters that his legacy, his work ethic, and his generosity is going to pass on to Zech who will continue on the tradition that Tobias  has started. I compare myself to Tobias as he seems to be very open minded as he welcomed in an African American to live with him and hire drifters who then became worthy companions. He also is a hard worker who even when things are not at its best will keep working to reach his goal.