Hoggee by Anna Myers Page A

Laura cheering for Jack, just as she had cheered for him, and the sound made him angry.
    That night in the barn, Howard waited until he was certain the others boys were asleep. Taking his board, he slipped through the small opening he had deliberatelyleft in the barn door. Pushing the heavy door open would have caused too much noise. Howard did not want company.
    The moon was full and bright. He climbed the slight hill to the spot where the girls had stood watching the contest. Settling himself on the grass, he took his knife from his pocket, then sat soaking in the scene. Tomorrow he would leave the spot where he had survived the winter. Before him was the barn that now seemed like home. He turned his head and shoulders to look at Cyrus’s house, where the family slept, the others as silent now as Sarah.
    He wanted to write about it all on his board, but he knew he had neither time nor space to carve the full story of his winter.
    He sat for a long time on the hill remembering his friendship with the girls, the supper with Jack at Cyrus’s house, and the sling competition. When the dampness of the early spring night began to chill his bones, he took his knife and carved the familiar words about Jack winning.

8
THERE IS A BOOK FOR SARAH
    It did not take Howard long on the canal to make the magnificent discovery, and he carved the words with excitement. That next morning after the contest all seven boys had been up before dawn. “It’s back to work for us,” Howard told Molly, and he brushed her before he put the bright, new blue harness on her. Bert took care of Molly’s working partner, Lillie. Just before daylight the boys fastened the two mules together. “Gee up!” Howard called when they were out of the barn, even though he knew the mules would turn right without his direction.
    Howard’s team was first to leave the barn, but the other boys and mules were right behind them. Jack, as befitting his new position, had gone down to the dock early. Just as the sun became visible, Howard saw the boats.
    Captain Travis was there to board
The Red Bird
and to see his other two boats off for the first trip of the season. Captain Wall, a man for whom Howard had never worked, would be in charge of
The Blue Bird
this season. The boats were lined up along the dock. Their blue, red, and yellow colors had been repainted. “They’re prettyain’t they?” said Bert, and Howard agreed. “I hope I can work up, same as Jack done,” said Bert. “It would be a grand thing to be a captain under Captain Travis.”
    Howard grunted. He knew that they were lucky to work for Captain Travis, who, unlike some of the captains, made sure his mules and his boys were well fed and not pushed too far. Mules were changed at stations every ten miles. Boys worked six hours on and six hours off. It was hard work, but some boys and mules were pushed harder, worked until they grew lame or fell on the path. Still, Howard didn’t want to work forever on the canal.
    â€œHoisting the tow! Look sharp!” Jack called from the boat. Howard and Bert hurried to get the rope and fasten it securely to the doubletree, the bar to which the mules’ harnesses had been connected.
    Jack was a crew member now, and he wore a blue jacket and a blue cap with a bill. As bowman, his job was to keep the towrope clear of debris on the canal, check it always for strain, and to fasten it when the boat docked or went into a lock.
    Howard looked at his brother in uniform. He would not be sleeping in the back hall now, where the hoggees’ bunks folded down from the wall outside the crew’s small room. The bowman, helmsman, and cook slept in a tiny room unless the cook happened to be a woman, who would then sleep in her kitchen.
    â€œAll right if I take the first call?” asked Bert.
    Howard nodded. “Guess I’ll say good-bye to Molly.” He went to the mule and patted her shoulder.