A Day No Pigs Would Die Read Online Free Page A

one of them bascballers from the other.”
    “Well,” I said, “if you put any stock in this book I read, it sure leads a body to believe that Ethan Allen wasn’t anyone at all. And that Abner Double-day did everything there was to be did. But that’s where I went sour on the history test that Miss Malcolm give us.”
    “You told your Ma and me you got the highest in that test. Were you falsing a witness, Rob?”
    “No, sir. I did get the highest mark. I got a ninety-nine. There was a hundred questions and I only missed one. It was something about which Vermonter
played
a key part in our history. The answer was somebody else. But since I read that book, I just put down the name of Abner Doubleday.”
    “’Stead of Ethan Allen.”
    “That’s right, Pa. How’d you know?”
    “Just a guess.”
    “Well, I took a guess too. And it sure was wrong. When Miss Malcolm handed the papers back, she was laughing.”
    “At what?”
    “At me and Abner Doubleday.”
    “Oh.”
    Solomon kept walking his circle, pulling the old corn cratch closer to the capstan post with every turn. The post was now fat with the twines of blackchain. That old ox sure could pull aplenty. He wound up that big chain just like you’d wind a kite string around a spool.
    “Papa, it sure is mirthful that somebody who knows history like Miss Malcolm knows it has never heard of a great man like Abner Doubleday. She even asked me who he was.”
    “I s’pose you thought it be your calling to tell her.”
    “Sure did. But one thing certain-of the two men, Miss Malcolm tends to favor Ethan Allen. Which one do you like, Papa?”
    “Can’t say honest that I take to either one.”
    “Miss Malcolm sure does. She says that seeing we live in a free country like Vermont, we all better be proud as pie over Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. That’s his baseball team.”
    “The pursuit of history sure has a foggy sound to it,” said Papa, watching the chain thicken round the capstan post. “Makes no sense to me.”
    “Well, it all makes clear to me. Except the part about Ethan and his baseball team. They won at Ticonderoga.”
    “I know of that.”
    “So does Miss Malcolm. I was getting poked in the back by Will Stoddard, so I didn’t rightly get the straight of it. But I do recall this much. In the middle of the night, old Ethan took his team crosslaketo Ticonderoga, and they stayed the night in a fort.”
    “Thanks be praised all the history I need’s in our Family Bible tucked away under the bed in the Bible Box. And in the Book of Shaker.”
    “I guess it’s history that calls us to move this here cratch for Pinky, eh Papa?”
    “It’s reason.”
    “A long time ago, somebody broke the Shaker Law and put up a cow and a pig together, and they had one walloping fight.”
    “Maybe so,” said Papa.
    “I wonder who won.”
    “A boar’s got a blessed mean mouth.”
    “I question who’d win if Ethan Allen met up with Abner Doubleday. I can conjur who Miss Malcolm would root for.”
    “Ethan Allen?”
    “That’s for certain. She says that ’cuz we’re all Vermonters, we have to be proud of our yesterday just like today.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    “I think it means to be proud to live in Vermont, and proud of Ethan Allen. As well as that other fellow she talks on, the one who lives in a white house.”
    “Lots of folks in Learning live in a white house.”
    “I think Miss Malcolm means Calvin Coolidge. We have to pride him too.”
    “Say we do. He’s our President.”
    “Miss Malcolm said she voted for Calvin Coolidge, which is why he’s a President. She says that every working soul in Vermont voted for him.”
    “Not all.”
    “Did you vote for Calvin Coolidge, Papa?”
    “No.”
    “Aren’t you a Republican? Just about everybody is in the whole town of Learning.”
    “No, I’m not a Republican. And I’m not no Democrat. I’m not nothing.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I’m not allowed to vote.”
    “Me