On his days off, he takes Thea on outings to noteworthy places easily reached by horse and cart, especially the sand mountains. He wants to marry Thea, but dies in a train wreck before she is old enough. Joe Giddy: Ray's brakeman, who enjoyed the trip with Thea and her mother, but a few years later he failed to set out warning flares at the rear when the freight train was stopped to take on water, mistakenly trusting his ears to hear any train coming.