The Unplowed Sky by Jeanne Williams Page A

fire.”
    â€œI’d of done it!”
    â€œYou’ll just have to pardon me all to blazes, but sleepy-headed as you are of a morning, I reckoned we’d better get it done tonight.” Garth turned on his heel. “Boiler should be drained out by now. I’ve got a lantern rigged.”
    â€œOh, for the love of mud!” Rory slung the towel at its hook. Halfway to the door, he paused, turned, shrugged, and laughed. “One of these days! But my brother’s right, drat his hide! Sorry I can’t finish wiping for you, Hallie. Be sure and remember to watch those stacks tomorrow!”
    His whistling floated back, a bit too nonchalant, perhaps. Shaft removed Smoky carefully from beneath his beard and put her in Jackie’s lap, depositing them both on the bench. He washed his hands outside and returned to take over the drying.
    â€œRory had that comin’, but I sure thought he was going to punch Garth in the nose. Trouble is, Garth can’t quit peerin’ over Rory’s shoulder, so Rory kind of expects him to do it, even if makes him madder’n a wet hen.”
    â€œIt was mean of Garth to call Rory down in front of us.”
    â€œJob had to be done, and I reckon Garth wants to get to bed.” Shaft slanted her a quizzical look. “Still, if you ask me, the boss is plumb, pure-dee jealous.”
    Hallie’s cheeks warmed but she scoffed. “Jealous? Jealous of what?”
    â€œI saw the way he watched you when we took out lunch and you wore that purty blue sunbonnet.”
    â€œAnytime I looked his direction, he was staring at the separator as if he couldn’t wait to get back to it!”
    â€œSure. But his eyes were glued to you till you started to turn your head. ’Course you have that effect on most of the boys.”
    â€œIt’s just their food they’re interested in,” Hallie demurred, though she knew better. All the crew flirted a little, each in his own style, except for married Rusty Wells, and painfully shy Mennonite-reared Henry Lowen. “Mightn’t it be better if Rory got a job with another thresherman?”
    â€œI get the drift that their mother didn’t want Rory to come to America, too. Garth talked her into it, pointin’ out all the better chances the boy would have. So I guess he feels bound to keep an eye on him, especially now both their parents are gone. Usually the lads get along, but this is the first time they both took a shine to the same young lady.”
    â€œIf Garth’s taken a shine to me, he’s got a funny way of showing it.” Hallie sniffed.
    â€œHe’s out of practice, and he’s fightin’ it,” said Shaft, setting the last kettle to be filled with picked-over beans that would soak all night. “All the same, I’ve been with Garth nigh onto five years. Seen quite a few women buzzin’ around, but he’s always dodged them like they were mosquitoes.”
    â€œHe won’t have to dodge me,” Hallie vowed. “Not that I wouldn’t like to sting him out of his notions about women!”
    â€œYou’ll sting him pretty deep when you learn to run the engine.”
    Hallie shuddered. “How did I ever get stuck with that?”
    â€œJust lucky,” Shaft chuckled. “Say, we better get Jack to bed before he falls off that bench.”
    We . How good it was to feel she had help with the child, others who cared. As she washed Jackie’s sleepy face and got him into his night shirt, she knew she was lucky, in spite of Garth’s hostility. Even if the Rafords had been nice, Jackie was much happier with the threshers—and so was she though tomorrow she’d have to get up on the platform of that smoke-belching terror or be disgraced.
    There was no way she would yield Garth that triumph. She would learn to run that beast. And she just hoped that someday that mulish, bullheaded man would have to be grateful that she