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ometimes two people who interact only fleetingly have a more lasting impact on each other‟s lives than those with whom they associate regularly. Happenstance may yield unexpectedly significant interactions. In True Grit, the story of Mattie Ross seeking to avenge her father‟s murder hinges on just such happenstance. When fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross comes to town to settle her father‟s affairs after his murder, she comes not only to resell his newly-purchased horses but also to seek the revenge she considers her mother too weak and her siblings too young to pursue. As an idealist who drives a hard bargain, she settles her father‟s affairs in her financial favor and seeks out U.S. Marshal Reuben “Rooster” Cogburn after the local sheriff informs her that Cogburn is the “meanest” of her three choices of marshal to help her track Tom Chaney, her father‟s murderer, in the Choctaw Nation. To that end, Mattie offers Cogburn a significant reward for his aid even as she notes he will likely