Free Ribbons of Steel by Carol Henry

on the lookout. I’ll pick up more ammunition for the rifles so they’ll be ready.”
    Seth climbed back up on the wagon and gripped the reins, ready to leave. He prayed the train got through in time. He needed those accounts to help get them through the coming winter months in case his father ended up out of work. Once the strike hit, they’d have a hard time making ends meet without his father’s pay. He was in charge and had to make sure the family didn’t starve.
    “How’s Miss Catherine doing?” Amos stopped him before he got under motion. “She gonna be able to manage on her own with her ma gone?”
    Seth liked talking to Amos, but this morning the man was in too talkative a mood.
    “Catherine’s doing just fine,” Seth assured him. “She’s a good shot, too, even though she’s more of a bookworm. Target practices with Timothy and Michael on occasion.”
    She might be doing well now, but with their mother out west, they wouldn’t have the canned goods their ma usually put up come harvest. Catherine wouldn’t have the time to do all the work by herself.
    “She still aiming to become one of them fancy school-marms?”
    “Yep. Planning on taking her exams this summer if all goes well.”
    With Catherine trying to manage baby Sarah and the house, Seth didn’t know when she would have time to study for exams. He’d have the boys help with the vegetable garden. Perhaps they could sell some of the extra produce at the markets in Candor.
    He’d talk to Catherine to see what she thought.
    “Well, you give her our best. If’en she needs anything, you have her give my missus a holler.”
    “Thanks. I will.”
    Amos’ wife often visited his mother in the afternoons. Perhaps she would consider helping Catherine instead of sitting at the kitchen table sipping tea the entire time she visited.
    Seth waved to Amos, turned the wagon around, and headed out.
    After miles of traveling, Seth turned his team onto Mill Street along the Catatonk Creek next to Locey’s mill, then down Main Street. Doc Wooster staggered down his front steps. The man was getting on in years. Or he was addicted to his own vials of snake oil. Still, he was the only doctor around for miles.
    Seth’s team clopped along on the dry roadway kicking up dust. He slowed the pair so dirt wouldn’t blow against the people walking along the street.
    “How’s your mother, young man?” Doc Wooster called out. “She get off okay?”
    The doctor was a short, squatty old man. Dressed in a black topcoat and a large black hat added a dash of stature and respect to his position, as did his black, bushy eyebrows and long beard speckled with white. Seth wasn’t fooled for a minute. He nodded and waved, then drove on, making sure the horses didn’t draw too close to the boardwalks where other horses were secured.
    Homes at this end of town housed the more wealthy founding fathers and leaders of the community. Seth wasn’t envious of the big, statuesque homes, some with pillars, some more modest but still large and imposing. Large maple trees lined both sides of the wide dirt road. Seth waved to the residents who were out and about. He turned and headed toward Weston’s hay barn next to the tracks.
    Dillard Moore arrived as Seth rounded the bend. He skirted around Dillard’s rig and positioned his own team next to the loading platform.
    “Hey, Seth, how’s it going? Didn’t see you at the agriculture meeting the other day. Things okay up on the hill?”
    “Been busy with family, so couldn’t make the meeting. But the farming end of things is going good. Just took three more cans of goat’s milk to the station heading to Ithaca and New York City. I appreciate the advice you gave me about the herd.”
    Seth jumped down from the wagon, sauntered over to Dillard, and shook hands. For a young man, Dillard had a firm grip and a likable smile. His red hair matched his freckle-dotted face. Raised on his family’s farm, he had been a big help to Seth