Willa Cather

One of Ours Willa Cather

Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed."Ralph, Ralph, get awake! Come down and help me wash the car.""What for?""Why, aren't we going to the circus today?""Car's all right. Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut outthe light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows. Claude rose and dressed, -a simple operation which took very little time. He crept down two flightsof stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb. He wentthrough the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with runningwater. Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with adark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved. Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, andbegan to plaster down his wet hair. Old Mahailey herself came in from the yard, with her apron full of corn-cobs to start a fire in thekitchen stove. She smiled at him in the foolish fond way she often had with him when they werealone."What air you gittin' up for a-ready, boy? You goin' to the circus before breakfast? Don't you makeno noise, else you'll have 'em all down here before I git my fire a-goin'.""All right, Mahailey." Claude caught up his cap and ran out of doors, down the hillside toward thebarn. The sun popped up over the edge of the prairie like a broad, smiling face; the light pouredacross the close-cropped August pastures and the hilly, timbered windings of Lovely Creek, a clearlittle stream with a sand bottom, that curled and twisted playfully about through the south section ofthe big Wheeler ranch. It was a fine day to go to the circus at Frankfort, a fine day to do anything;the sort of day that must, somehow, turn out well. Claude backed the little Ford car out of its shed, ran it up to the horse-tank, and began to throwwater on the mud-crusted wheels and windshield. While he was at work the two hired men, Dan andJerry, came shambling down the hill to feed the stock. Jerry was grumbling and swearing aboutsomething, but Claude wrung out his wet rags and, beyond a nod, paid no attention to th