Located on a
tract of land near the Drieborg Farm was a good sized pond. Some would call it
a lake. During the hot summer members of the nearby families would use it to
cool off with a swim, or maybe use poles and hooks to catch fish.
Michael
Drieborg and his teenaged friends, Willie Turbush and Ethan Schock, would meet
there to fish and talk whenever they could get away from farm chores and
weren’t in school.
Today, they
were seeking relief from harvesting corn on their parents’ farms. Every farm in
the Lowell, Michigan area grew that crop and it was time for the fall harvest.
School was closed so the boys and girls could help out at home. By Friday noon
most of the fields had been cleared and the corn cribs were full.
So their
parents had given the boys the afternoon off. The three boys headed to the
pond. In late October, it was too chilly to swim but still perfect for fishing.
Willie and Ethan were already sitting on the bank with their fishing lines in
the water.
“What do you
think is keeping Drieborg?” Willie wondered.
“Who knows?”
Ethan responded. “His papa is a tough one if you ask me. He probably had one
more chore for Mike.”
It wasn’t
long before they heard someone coming through the woods that surrounded the
pond. It was the missing teenager of their group, Michael Drieborg.
“Good thing
you weren’t trying to sneak up on us, Drieborg. I could hear you coming a mile
away,” Willie said, making fun of his friend.
Ethan joined
in the fun. “All that noise you were making, no wonder we haven’t gotten any
bites. The fish could hear you tramping through the woods, for sure.”
“That’s very
funny, you two,” Michael responded. “How many times have we fished here this
year? And, how many keepers have either of you caught? I’ll tell you how many.
I can count them on the fingers of one had, that’s how many. So, don’t give me
that guff about noise.”
Mike nudged
Willie. “Move over, Turbush. Give me some room here.”
“What are
you using for bait today, Ethan?”
“What else,
worms of course,”
“I brought
along some stale bread my momma was going to give the pigs. Want to try some of
that for bait?”
“Who ever
heard of using bread”” Willie exclaimed. “Fish in this pond are partial to
worms. You can keep your state bread.”
“All right,
you two,” Michael said. “Tell you what. Whoever catches the most keepers gets
all the fish to take home. It will be my bread against your worms. How about
it; is it a bet?”
“No contest,
Drieborg. Kiss your catch goodbye. Right, Ethan?”
The boys
were silent for a while. Each one was hoping to be the first to catch a keeper.
“Hey, you
guys,” Willie suddenly asked. “Are you two going to join up when the war
starts?”
“What war?”
Drieborg asked.
“You must
have been absent from school when Clingman told us about the war, Mike.”
“Will you
tell me what war you’re talking about?”
“He said he
has been getting letters from relatives down south saying that if Lincoln is
elected, a whole bunch of the cotton states will leave the Union. Then there
will be a war.”
Michael
still had questions. “Did he say why there would be a war?”
“He didn’t
get into that much except that his relatives figured Lincoln would try to stop
those states from leaving the Union by using force; that’s why he said there
would be a war.”
“I’d join up
in a minute,” Ethan said. “Anything to get off the farm; sides, it would be
great fun.”
“You could
get killed, Schock,” Mike warned him.
:Are you
scared, Mike?” Willie taunted.
“Maybe I
am,” Mike snapped back. “Just seems to me that war means battles and battles
mean killing. I don’t see much fun in that. Besides, why does anyone care if the
Slave States leave the Union?”
Schock
answered. “Now that you mention it, Mike. I don’t rightly know.”
Willie
added, “Must be pretty important though if our teacher, Mr. Clingman says
there’ll be a war. He’s a pretty smart guy.”
“Hey! I got
a bite,” Willie shouted pulling up on his pole. Sure enough, he had. The boys
saw a good-sized fish break the surface of the pond attached to his line by a
hook.
“How about
that Drieborg?” he bragged. “My worm did the trick.”
Ethan
laughed, too. ‘Want to use some of my worms, Mike?”
“I don‘t see
you catching any keepers, Ethan,” Mike answered.
Then the
boys settled down to some serious fishing.
Ethan Schock
was the first to break the silence.
“Hey, Mike.
How’d you like it when you were with Louise in the barn?”
“that’s sort
of private, don’t you think?”
Wilie
laughed out loud. “Crying out loud, Drieborg, don’t be so touchy. Ethan and I
have been with Louise, too. In fact, every one of the boys at school older than
you twelve year old brother Jacob has been to the barn with Louise. And it’s
never a secret either. ‘Cause afterwards, Louise brags about it to all the
girls at school. I’m sure she told your sisters. My sister knows about you
spending some time with Louise.
“Oh my
gosh,” Mike exclaimed. “If either of my sisters ever tells my parents, I’m in
real trouble.”
Willie had
two older sisters at home. “If I know sisters, Mike; and oh, yes, do I know
sisters. They’ll wait for just the right moment to tell your parents how evil
their little son is. They might do it to get even for something you said or
because you wouldn’t do something they asked of you. Or maybe its jus that time
of the month when girls seem most irritable. Just you wait, Mike. But you can
count on it. One of them will tell.”
Mike fell
back on the grass. “You sure know how to ruin a guy’s afternoon, Willie,” Mike
groaned. What happened to you when your father found out?”
“Out in our
barn, he took a strap to me. All the while he was whipping me he told my how
stupid I had been. Believe me, outside the classroom, I haven’t been within a
mile of Louise or her barn since; and I won’t be wither.”
“What an
afternoon this has turned out to me,” Mike said. “The fish are ignoring my
state bread bait. Ethan tells me our country will be at war soon and Willie
tells me I’m probably going to get a whipping from my father for going to the
barn with Louise. Thanks a lot, you two.”
Willie
wasn’t finished funnin’ with his friend. “It could be worse, Mike.”
“How could
it be worse?”
“There could
be a war and you joined the army.”
“I suppose
that could be worse,” Mike agreed.
Ethan jumped
into the kidding around and said, “There’s something a lot worse than that.”
“What could
be worse than going off to fight a war?” Willie asked.
“Louise
saying one of us is the father of her child. That’s what.”
“Oh my
gosh,” Mike exclaimed in alarm. “She could do that, couldn’t she?”
No one spoke
after that. Mike even ignored the fish pulling at the bait on his hook.
