Part 6 (1/2)

His father had meant to send him to the state university. But Milt had been born to a talent for machinery. At twelve he had made a telephone that worked. At eighteen he was engineer in the tiny flour mill in Schoenstrom. At twenty-five, when Claire Boltwood chose to come tearing through his life in a Gomez-Dep, Milt was the owner, manager, bookkeeper, wrecking crew, ignition expert, thoroughly competent bill-collector, and all but one of the working force of the Red Trail Garage.

There were two factions in Schoenstrom: the retired farmers who said that German was a good enough language for anybody, and that taxes for schools and sidewalks were yes something crazy; and the group who stated that a pig-pen is a fine place, but only for pigs. To this second, revolutionary wing belonged a few of the first generation, most of the second, and all of the third; and its leader was Milt Daggett. He did not talk much, normally, but when he thought things ought to be done, he was as annoying as a machine-gun test in the lot next to a Quaker meeting.

If there had been a war, Milt would probably have been in it--rather casual, clearing his throat, reckoning and guessing that maybe his men might try going over and taking that hill ... then taking it. But all of this history concerns the year just before America spoke to Germany; and in this town buried among the cornfields and the wheat, men still thought more about the price of grain than about the souls of nations.

On the evening before Claire Boltwood left Minneapolis and adventured into democracy, Milt was in the garage. He wore union overalls that were tan where they were not grease-black; a faded blue cotton s.h.i.+rt; and the crown of a derby, with the rim not too neatly hacked off with a dull toad-stabber jack-knife.

Milt smiled at his a.s.sistant, Ben Sittka, and suggested, ”Well, _wie geht 's mit_ the work, eh? Like to stay and get the prof's flivver out, so he can have it in the morning?”

”You bet, boss.”

”Getting to be quite a mechanic, Ben.”

”I'll say so!”

”If you get stuck, come yank me out of the Old Home.”

”Aw rats, boss. I'll finish it. You beat it.” Ben grinned at Milt adoringly.

Milt stripped off his overalls and derby-crown, and washed his big, firm hands with gritty soft soap. He cleaned his nails with a file which he carried in his upper vest pocket in a red imitation morocco case which contained a comb, a mirror, an indelible pencil, and a note-book with the smudged pencil addresses of five girls in St. Cloud, and a memorandum about Rauskukle's car.

He put on a twisted brown tie, an old blue serge suit, and a hat which, being old and shabby, had become graceful. He ambled up the street. He couldn't have ambled more than three blocks and have remained on the street. Schoenstrom tended to leak off into jungles of tall corn.

Two men waved at him, and one demanded, ”Say, Milt, is whisky good for the toothache? What d' you think! The doc said it didn't do any good.

But then, gosh, he's only just out of college.”

”I guess he's right.”

”Is that a fact! Well, I'll keep off it then.”

Two stores farther on, a bulky farmer hailed, ”Say, Milt, should I get an ensilage cutter yet?”

”Yuh,” in the manner of a man who knows too much to be c.o.c.ksure about anything, ”I don't know but what I would, Julius.”

”I guess I vill then.”

Minnie Rauskukle, plump, hearty Minnie, heiress to the general store, gave evidence by bridling and straightening her pigeon-like body that she was aware of Milt behind her. He did not speak to her. He ducked into the door of the Old Home Poolroom and Restaurant.

Milt ranged up to the short lunch counter, in front of the pool table where two brick-necked farm youngsters were furiously slamming b.a.l.l.s and attacking cigarettes. Loose-jointedly Milt climbed a loose-jointed high stool and to the proprietor, Bill McGolwey, his best friend, he yawned, ”You might poison me with a hamburger and a slab of apple, Mac.”

”I'll just do that little thing. Look kind of grouchy tonight, Milt.”

”Too much excitement in this burg. Saw three people on the streets all simultaneously to-once.”

”What's been eatin' you lately?”

”Me? Nothing. Only I do get tired of this metropolis. One of these days I'm going to buck some bigger place.”

”Try Gopher Prairie maybe?” suggested Mac, through the hiss and steam of the frying hamburger sandwich.

”Rats. Too small.”

”Small? Why, there's darn near five thousand people there!”