About this story
You are Fleda Ringgan, riding into town with your grandfather on a day when a hired agent's neglect catches up with the farm: broken fences, sheep straying into a neighbor's flock, a butternut crop carted off by the Shakers, and a landlord's lawyer who wants more cash than this year's harvest made. A letter from Aunt Lucy in Paris rides home unopened. Before it can be read, two young men arrive unannounced — your cousin Charlton Rossitur and his English friend Guy Carleton, out hunting and asking only for directions.
How it opens
Autumn waited beyond the gate while Grandfather Ringgan searched for hat, coat, and coins.
Grandfather RingganThe post office may have remembered us even if our cousins have not.
You climbed into the mud-marked green wagon and inspected the old mare's worn harness.
WatkinsMr. Didenhover used it last and can mend whatever trouble he made.
Grandfather RingganCarelessness becomes costly only after someone agrees to notice it.
Choose
The buckle is fixed, but this older break remains tied.
Let us inspect every strap before blaming the person who drove last.