Free Patrick Henry and the Frigate’s Keel: And Other Stories of a Young Nation by Howard Fast Page B

time?”
    â€œLooking for lizards,” Pa snapped.
    â€œI was talking with Elmer Green,” Jenny said. “I like him.”
    Well, it was then and there that Pa made up his mind to stump for the election.
    Pa put off the stumping until just two or three days before the election. That was because Ma put her foot down and said that he’d look like an awful fool, going around and asking friends to vote for him.
    â€œMaybe they’re friends,” Pa said, “but there’s that lawyer-man with six feet of lawbooks, and folks are already saying that what they’ve had six years now ain’t American law, but English law. Matt Stevens, he’s put it around everywhere that there’s a heap more law comes out of six feet of books than out of one book.”
    â€œAnd maybe they’re right,” Ma pointed out.
    â€œWhat! By all that’s mighty, my own wife’s against me!”
    â€œI ain’t against you,” Ma said calmly. “Only, one thing you got to remember—that for every case you tried there was a plaintiff and a defendant, and if you gave the case to the defendant, then the plaintiff went away stamping mad. And the other way round.”
    â€œA woman I been married and bedded with twenty-two years come June,” Pa muttered.
    â€œWell, it seems to me you ought to be satisfied with - twelve years of lawgiving,” Ma said.
    Pa didn’t speak to Ma about the election again, but I could see that he had taken what she said awful hard. Instead of going out to stump raring mad, he put it off from day to day. And all the while the lawman was stumping up and down the river. Twice, he came to the house to see Pa, but the only one he saw was Jenny. The first time, Pa went out to the stable and fed the stock two hours straight; the second time, he sat up in my attic room until I gave him word to come down. He sure was doubting what he might do to that lawman if they ever met.
    And then, two or three days before election, Pa made up his mind to go out and stump. By that time I was the only one around the place who had any truck with him, he was so eaten up and burning about the lawman.
    â€œJess,” he said, “saddle up the filly and the big white. We’re going to take this election in hand.”
    When I had the horses ready I went into the house. Ma’s lips were tight and she wasn’t speaking. She was putting together a bag of food for Pa to take with him.
    â€œAfter all, I been judging this district twelve years,” Pa said.
    â€œAnd long enough.… Jess, you catch cold and I’ll tan your hide good and lasting.… Don’t know why you need the boy with you, anyway,” she said to Pa.
    â€œDon’t know that I got anyone else,” Pa snapped.
    The first place we went was to the Joneses’ farm, up the creek. Pa and Lancy Jones, they came out to this country together, fifteen years back.
    Lancy was rooting stumps in a patch he was clearing when Pa hailed him. Lancy walked over and said, “’Evening, Squire.”
    â€œâ€™Evening, Lancy,” Pa said.
    â€œGood weather,” Lancy said.
    â€œMy well went dry,” Pa told him. “Couldn’t figure it nohow.”
    â€œPlenty of rain,” Lancy said.
    â€œCrop weather,” Pa agreed.
    â€œI already seen a well to go dry just out of pure contrariness,” Lancy Jones said.
    â€œNo telling at all.”
    â€œBut that was a fine well.”
    â€œMighty nice well,” Pa said. “Twenty foot deep.”
    â€œGoing hunting?” Lancy asked Pa.
    Pa hesitated, glanced at me, and then tugged at his beard. “Deer,” Pa said.
    â€œI seen deer sign over at Lasting Hollow.”
    â€œCome on, Jess,” Pa said. “Good day, Lancy.”
    â€œGood day.”
    When we were out of sight of Lancy’s place I said to Pa, “That was a mighty queer way to stump for votes.”
    â€œThat’s the