William Rosewood's Arc

Chapter 10 of 20

The lath was up, but the sky still showed through. William stood under the frame at dawn and felt the cold coming. The ground was hard. Frost had touched the grass white overnight. He needed thatch, and he needed it now. He had grain straw, but not enough cut and dried to cover a whole roof. He walked to the far edge of the yard where the big haystack sat, tall and round, packed tight from the summer's cutting. He stopped. This was winter feed. He had already lost half his stores to the rotten grain. If he pulled straw from the stack for the roof, the pigs would go hungry before spring. If he left it, his family would freeze under an open frame. He stood between the two and did not move. Tommy came out and stood beside him. He looked at the stack, then at the house. "That's the feed," he said. "You take it for the roof, the pigs starve." "I know," William said. Eddie came from the pig sty, brushing his hands on his shirt. He looked up at the frame and then at the stack. "The top's the roughest," he said. "Stems too coarse for the pigs anyway. They leave it in the trough." He climbed the stack and pulled a handful from the crown. He held it down. The straw was long and stiff and golden. "This part they won't eat. Use it up top and the pigs never miss it." William took the handful and bent it. Eddie was right. The coarse straw would shed water better than the soft. He looked at his son on top of the stack. He almost said the words. He did not. They worked the whole day. Eddie forked the coarse straw down from the crown. Tommy bundled it and tied each bundle with cord. William carried the bundles up the ladder. He laid the first row along the bottom edge, thick, butts down. He pressed it into the lath and tied it fast. Then the next row above, overlapping, the way rain would run. By afternoon the frame was half covered. The pigs came to the fence and squealed, but the trough still held their share. William did not touch the soft feed below. At dusk the last bundle went up. William tied it off and climbed down. He stood back and looked. The roof was whole. Straw ran from ridge to eave, thick and gold, shedding the light. No sky showed through. Cecily came out with the children. She looked up a long moment. "It'll be warm," she said. "It will," William said. Tommy stood by the stack. It was shorter now, its crown pulled bare. "We used the top," he said. "But the frost came harder than you thought. The pigs eat more when it's cold. There won't be enough to reach spring." He said it plain and stopped. William looked at the low stack. The roof was done. The feed was not enough.