One of Ours
Book III: Sunrise on the Prairie
Chapter VII
One stormy morning Claude was driving the big wagon to town to get a load of
lumber. The roads were beginning to thaw out, and the country was black and
dirty looking. Here and there on the dark mud, grey snow crusts lingered,
perforated like honeycomb, with wet weedstalks sticking up through them. As the
wagon creaked over the high ground just above Frankfort, Claude noticed a
brilliant new flag flying from the schoolhouse cupola. He had never seen the
flag before when it meant anything but the Fourth of July, or a political rally.
Today it was as if he saw it for the first time; no bands, no noise, no orators;
a spot of restless colour against the sodden March sky.
He turned out of his way in order to pass the High School, drew up his team,
and waited a few minutes until the noon bell rang. The older boys and girls came
out first, with a flurry of raincoats and umbrellas. Presently he saw Gladys
Farmer, in a yellow "slicker" and an oilskin hat, and waved to her. She came up
to the wagon.
"I like your decoration," he said, glancing toward the cupola.
"It's a silk one the Senior boys bought with their athletic money. I advised
them not to run it up in this rain, but the class president told me they bought
that flag for storms."
"Get in, and I'll take you home."
She took his extended hand, put her foot on the hub of the wheel, and climbed
to the seat beside him. He clucked to his team.
"So your High School boys are feeling war-like these days?"
"Very. What do you think?"
"I think they'll have a chance to express their feelings."
"Do you, Claude? It seems awfully unreal."
"Nothing else seems very real, either. I'm going to haul out a load of
lumber, but I never expect to drive a nail in it. These things don't matter now.
There is only one thing we ought to do, and only one thing that matters; we all
know it."
"You feel it's coming nearer every day?"
"Every day."
Gladys made no reply. She only looked at him gravely with her calm, generous
brown eyes. They stopped before the low house where the windows were full of
flowers. She took his hand and swung herself to the ground, holding it for a
moment while she said good-bye. Claude drove back to the lumber yard. In a place
like Frankfort, a boy whose wife was in China could hardly go to see Gladys
without causing gossip.