“Who? why? and wherefore? At times you’re a regular bairn for asking questions, but when you’re wanted to talk you’re as silent as the tomb.
“Royce Pederstone has been here since the flood. He’s a good blacksmith, only he never finishes a job. If he is making a gate, he stops at the last rivet and Hanson has to drive it home. If he is shoeing a horse, he forgets a nail. If he is making a fish hook, he omits the barb. It is the same with his land deals; he buys land and, for the time being, forgets he owns it so far as selling again is concerned. Then he buys some more whenever he has the ready cash. It is all working for him,––so he says. He owns more earth than he has any idea of. He doesn’t know how much stock he has; doesn’t even knows what happens to his farm implements once he pays for them; in some cases doesn’t know if they have been delivered to him. Often he finds some of them when the snow goes away in the spring time. There are many things he doesn’t know; all the same it isn’t safe to take too many chances on what he passes up.”
“Then he has got too rich for blacksmithing?”
“Not he! Royce Pederstone is not that kind of a man, Phil. He is just too busy. He is going to be the next member of parliament from the Valley. Watch and see!
“The new election comes off in three months’ time. Last week the Association met to elect their representative. Some were for Barrington of Armstrong, others for Brenchfield the Mayor. They couldn’t agree. Royce Pederstone was chairman of the meeting. At midnight they were as far off a decision as ever. Someone proposed John Royce Pederstone, and it carried without a dissenting voice.
“He’s a cracking good man, is Pederstone, on the platform. He is straight, honest and more or less of a farmer. Ben Todd, the editor, is hand and glove with him, so he will have The Vernock and District Advertiser at his back.
“The old government is sure to be kicked out of office, if only to give the people a change; so, who is going to keep Royce Pederstone from being the Valley’s representative at Victoria, I should like to know?”
“And that’s why he’s stepping out of the blacksmith’s shop?” put in Phil.