By the same token, Simson’s naïve belief that the snow will soon clear proves as infectious as Oakhurst’s ‘calm’. Oakhurst knows that Uncle Billy stole the mules and deserted them, but he is canny enough to know that feeding Simson and Piney a more hopeful lie will be more judicious than telling them the unpalatable truth. At the same time, both of their ‘lies’ help to sustain the group when they become snowed in.
