highest taxes. His progress was watched even at Somerville. He was buying a tractor. Hilmer, Nawosad, and Shilloe were fencing his new section. Abe, Bill Crane, and Nicoll had all they could do to get his seed into the ground: he seeded eight hundred acres.
Nicoll was sent to sound him as to his willingness to ârunâ for a seat on the council. Having long played with the idea, Abe did not decline; but he refused to canvass the ward. âElect meif you want to,â he said. âIâll act. But I wonât go around and beg for votes. If you think I can do something for you, itâs up to you. I wonât stir a finger.â He pleaded the urgency of his work; but it was known to be pride which prompted his refusal to do the usual thing. This gave a few men from Britannia District the material to work against him. âGive Spalding power,â they said, âand heâll rule you with an iron rod.â
Among those, on the other hand, who were most active in the interest of Abeâs election was Blaine. As soon as the roads were dry, he straddled his bicycle every Saturday to go to town. His huge head with the long beard floated over the handle bar, trembling on a slender, corded neck; he did not go fast; but he pedalled along as though automatically.
Thus he passed the cottage which the Topp brothers were building in the centre of their long holdingâa neat little thing twenty feet square, perched on a high foundation, with a porch in front. And next Hilmerâs shack where old Mrs. Grappentin followed his progress from a window or through the open door. âThere he goes,â she would say in German, âto win votes for the duke and lord!â This name had stuck.
He would spend all day in town, talking to the farmers from the east half of the ward; he knew everybody who was not a new-comer to the prairie: years ago, he had taught in Britannia District.
One day, when Abe and Bill were disking the new breaking, such as there was of it, the rattling noise of a motor car running with exhausts wide open caught Abeâs ear. He was facing north and nearing the line of the Hudsonâs Bay section; and soon he saw a curious vehicle lumbering over the prairie from the north-east: it was that once familiar sight of an ancient Ford car of the first vintage, covered in all sorts of places with tarnished brass. It jolted and tilted and tossedalong, with an ever-increasing bellowing noise at which the horses pricked their ears; for, level as the prairie looked, it was by no means as smooth as it appeared to the eye. Everything about this car shook and rattled; the cloth of the top dangled behind in strips like a bunch of streamers; the fenders were suspended with binder-twine.
The car came to a stop in front of Abeâs horses which were prancing with fright. The driver alighted, vaulting briskly over the door without opening it; and he came at once to where Abe was sitting perched on his harrow. Small and clad in grey overalls, the man looked more like a schoolboy than an adult of forty years. His face was freckled; his eyes grey-blue; his hair reddish. Abe recognized the Yankee who had been âsnooping aboutâ in the district before Nicollâs time.
âHello, Spalding,â he greeted Abe informally and in a business-like way. âRunning for councillor, I hear. Remember me? Wheeldon, in case youâve forgotten. From Destouches, Iowa. Iâve filed on the north-west quarter of eleven.â He pointed over his shoulder towards Stanleyâs place. âIâm thinking of moving out next spring. Provided you and I can come to terms.â This on a rising note.
âCome to terms?ââdistantly; these two had disliked each other at sight.
âI want road work for two men and two teams for three months, at current rates. Iâm willing to pay the usual rake-off.â
âI am not a councillor yet,â Abe said, stiffening.
Wheeldon
Kelly Gendron
Rosemary Sutcliff
Miklos Nyiszli
Anne Rice
Lilith Saintcrow
Ben Coes
David Maurer
Nancy Krulik
Bronwyn Scott
Aaron Kennedy