Blue Shadows Farm: A Novel

41. Abe Farming—May 1901

May 1901 The spring sun bore down on Abe Starkweather’s back as he guided the team of Percherons across the newly plowed field where he would plant corn in a few days. A meadowlark sitting on a fence post sang its spring song, its yellow breast reflecting the sunshine of the morning. Bluebirds, with their brilliant blue backs and orange breasts, flew about, and the occasional thirteen-stripped gopher sunned itself on the rock piles that Abe’s father had made as he removed the ever-present stones from the fields. A red-tailed hawk made big circles in the sky as it caught the thermals of the sunwarmed soil, its call a loud-pitched “kree, kree.” A red fox resting on a hill looked down on the plowed field with interest. But Abe neither saw nor heard any of this. He rode on the seat of a disk harrow that bounced along on the rough plowed surface, occasionally hitting a stone, which made a sharp sound, like a hammer pounding on a piece of steel. And he hated every minute of it. Abe had turned twenty-five in February; he still lived with his parents, Silas and Sophia, working this miserable farm that his father had homesteaded. The land was stony, sandy, and hilly—three 240 41 Abe Farming 241 Abe Farming—May 1901 characteristics that would turn even the most dedicated farmer against the place. He figured his father also hated farming, although the two didn’t talk about it. They didn’t talk about much of anything . He and his father simply didn’t get along; they never did. About the only words the man spoke to his son concerned work he wanted Abe to do. He had paid little attention to the lad when he was growing up. Silas had seldom attended any of Abe’s school events, except when Sophia insisted that he go along, such as when the school held the annual Christmas programs and the end-ofschool -year picnics. Abe couldn’t wait to leave the home farm, but he didn’t know how he could do it. He had no money, and though he could read and write and figure well, he had had many disciplinary problems as a student. More than once his mother had been summoned to the school to talk with his various teachers over the years. Abe seemed to have been born with a chip on his shoulder, so fighting became common for him at school. And bullying young kids had also been one of his shortcomings. All of this showed up as black marks in the “Deportment” column on his report cards. Without the careful intervention of his mother, Abe would not have fared as well as he had in school—in fact, on more than one occasion , the teacher had threatened simply to kick him out once and for all. “It would be good riddance,” Miss Emerson had said in disgust to Sophia at one of their several meetings. Sophia promised Miss Emerson that Abe would behave himself in the future, which he did for a couple weeks before returning to his old behavior. As Abe worked his way across the sandy field, he gave the horses occasional slaps on their rumps with the leather lines when he thought they weren’t pulling hard enough or walking straight. Silas had warned Abe more than once about striking the horses, but the boy didn’t listen. Why should he listen to his father now, after all these years, when he felt ignored by him? Besides, these were merely horses and not very good ones either. If they had more money they could afford better horses, could afford better everything, including a better house than the house they lived in. They still lived in a log cabin, the same one that Silas and his neighbors built back in 1866. When Abe got to the end of the field, he jerked on the lines to turn the team and started back in the direction from which he had just come. Every time he worked in these little five-acre fields he cussed his father for making them so small. What a nuisance to keep turning and watching out so the team and the implement they pulled didn’t run into one of the fences that surrounded each field! For Abe, farmwork was mindless activity, with...