TRANSCRIPT

The New Arrival
A short story from 'Pioneer Tales and Other Human Stories'
By H.B. Adshead
Part 2

The year 1899 was the beginning of the wet years. Sleepy Creek was narrow in places and had small lakes, swimming holes here and there, but it's banks, like the banks of all creeks where there was deep soil, were perpendicular and crossing places had to be made or found where possible, and the trails led to these few crossing places. We didn't travel on the road allowances; we often did not know where the road allowances were. We followed the old high land trails across country. There was a crossing place below my sod shack where I could get to John Deans with a team when necessary.
There were no telephones, but nevertheless interesting local news, especially the coming of the stork anywhere, managed to get around somehow, and it became known that the stork was expected at the teacher's shack sometime in August, and offers of help from kind neighbors were not slow in coming, and among them friend John's wife across the creek.