George’s Reo motorcar

George’s Reo motorcar is both a working vehicle and a recurring measure of George Burbank’s practical habits. It carries him on ranch and town business, requires his attention to keep it running, and stands in contrast to Phil Burbank’s refusal to own a car. Its appearances are modest, but they make transportation part of the ordinary labor and upkeep on which the Burbank operation depends.

Ownership and Contrast

George’s interest in cars differs from Phil’s. Phil, despite being half-owner of the valley’s biggest ranch and able to afford an automobile, desired none; he rode instead and treated elaborate cowboy equipment with similar disdain. George had once expressed a wish to buy a Pierce-Arrow, a preference Phil contemptuously dismissed. The passage does not say that George bought that car, but the later Reo is established as his vehicle. The contrast is not simply between two models: Phil rejects automobile ownership, while George’s Reo belongs to the practical world of travel and business.

Work on the Ranch

Keeping the Reo running is explicitly one of George’s responsibilities. His other duties include sitting at the head of the table, keeping the books, dealing with buyers, writing letters, and answering the telephone. The list places the car alongside the ranch’s records and communications: maintaining it is part of the work that enables George to manage the operation beyond the physical labor Phil oversees. The Reo is therefore not presented as a luxury or an emblem of display, but as equipment that must remain serviceable.

Winter Travel

On a February trip to a bank meeting in Herndon, George drives the old Reo with Rose Gordon Burbank beside him. The bright sun flashes off the car’s flat windshield, and the vehicle meanders through frozen ruts. When George exceeds twenty miles an hour, its Weed chains strike the road with a repeated clatter. He watches both the route and the Moto-Meter, whose red alcohol column remains below the Danger mark. The attention given to the gauge reflects the practical hazards of winter motoring: radiators in the area were liable to freeze and then boil over, and people tried different mixtures as coolant. The account gives the journey through specific limits, equipment, and precautions rather than treating the car as effortless transport.

Departure and Narrative Significance

In another brief scene, George starts the car and backs the old Reo out. Blue smoke emerges from the exhaust, turns gray, and then white; through the small oval rear window, the gray day appears pale as he drives down the road without looking back. The vehicle’s age and operation are conveyed through these concrete details, while the departure itself remains restrained. Across these scenes, the Reo connects George’s managerial work with the repeated demands of travel and maintenance. It also clarifies the difference between the brothers: where Phil’s identity is marked by refusing the automobile, George uses one as an ordinary, sometimes temperamental part of running the ranch.