Its a small thing. Just one word, but since its sprinkled throughout the story, it was very distracting. . I'm guessing it must be some kind of Nebraska slang meaning temporary employee on a ranch. I probably would have called them "temps". I kept filling in representatives, reprobates, and republicans. None seemed to fit well. Let's see. How about Ranch Employee Pending? OK, I'll use that in my head through the rest of the book. Other than that annoyance, this is a nice sweet story. I wanted to smack Meg for being so insensitive to Tye's feelings. Apparently, she was very pretty, since he adored her regardless.