April 5, 1845, Saturday.

It was a surprisingly warm day for so early in the year, and Jim Tanner sat with Hannibal, Dan, Cherry, and old Josiah Ferguson at their favourite fishing spot. Their goal was to get enough sunnies and bass to make supper for the Johnstons, with Josiah and Jim invited. The fish were hungry and biting, and their bucket was filling up.

While they sat, Josiah entertained them with stories he heard from his daughter-in-law's relatives, who were visiting from Reynoldsville.

'Archie Campbell and his wife Mary Ann were going to visit the Kyles back in February. They hitched up their horse in a little jumper and drove about four miles over the Ceres road. They stayed overnight with their relations. During the night there was a heavy snow-fall. When they started home in the morning, the Kyles presented Mary Ann with a small crock of apple-butter. Mrs. Campbell put the apple-butter between her feet when she took her seat in the jumper. The road-track was covered with fresh snow, and Archie could not, of course, discern it. After driving some distance he struck a trot, the jumper went over a stump, and threw Archie and Mary Ann into the snow.'

'Ooh!' said Cherry. 'I'll bet that was a shock.'

Josiah chuckled. 'Archie scrambled up and cried, "Mary Ann, my dear, are you hurted?"'

'"My thigh is broken, my thigh is broken, Archie!" Archie rushed to help her. He ran his hand up her leg and shouted, "It's worse than that, it's worse than that, Mary Ann; your bowels is busted, your bowels is busted!" '

He laughed. 'And it was only apple-butter.'

Dan repeated, 'Your bowels is busted! Oh, law!'

'They'll tell that one for years to come,' predicted Jim.

'What are you chillum plannin' to do come spring?' asked Josiah.

'Plant crops,' said Dan. 'And court Mary Ann Knapp.'

Cherry laughed. 'Good luck with that! I ain't plannin' to marry.'

Jim looked at her, alarmed. 'Never? Don't you want your own house, and babies?'

Cherry shrugged. 'Not at the expense of a bad husband. At any rate, I'll be in no hurry. Husbands are too much trouble, and I don't aim to give up my freedom easily. Think about it: under the law, wives don't exist. The law says a couple are one person. And that one person is the man. Phooey.'

Hannibal laughed. 'You've got a point, sister. Better marry a man who'll let you have your way. Like Jim over here. He's the mildest-mannered fellow in Jefferson County.'

Jim blushed, and concentrated fiercely on his fishing line.

Hannibal went on, 'I'm goin' to Erie, Mr Ferguson, to learn more about ironwork. And Jim's headed downriver to the big city of Pittsburgh.'

'What do you hope to find in that smoky hell?' asked Josiah. 'It's better up here, where the air is clear and the rivers are cleaner.'

Jim answered, 'I'll find work and try to take music lessons. There are some good German music teachers there. Maybe even write songs and get 'em published someday. I'm hopin' maybe to meet that Stephen Foster fella.' And he sang them a few bars of 'Open Thy Lattice, Love'.

Josiah patted him on the back, which almost made him lose a fish. 'Good luck to you then! I'm sure you'll make a fine songwriter. Just stay out of that jail they have down there. Both of them Greens is down there now. Must be an awful place.' They fished in silence for awhile, pondering on events.

'Another strange thing happened over at the Presbyterian church. One Sunday morning, the people waitin' to start the prayer meeting heard beautiful music outside. "Must be some people comin'," they said.

'Then some people came in, and they asked them about the song they'd been singin'. "We weren't singing," they replied. "We thought you were: we heard beautiful music comin' from inside the church.'

'Hm,' said Jim. 'Did they ever figure it out?'

Josiah shook his head. 'It only got more bewilderin'. The very next week, a stranger visited the church. And he sang that song, the one they'd heard.'

Josiah went on, 'They thought it was maybe an omen of somethin' bad happenin'. But the winter passed, and nobody got sick.'

'Maybe it was just a blessin' from the Lord,' said Cherry, and they all agreed.

The fish fried up a treat, and made a feast with hoecake and sauerkraut to fight off spring sickness.

It was a good thing they'd gone that day: the next day, it snowed again. In Brookville, it paid to be philosophical about the weather.

Dmitri Gheorgheni