Getting more Lumber from Uncle Buddy
How it’s good to have your aunt on your side when you don’t seem to live up to your uncle’s expectations
In Volume One: Into the Garden, Nate’s UncleBuddy and Aunt Grace were introduced. Nate works most afternoons at Uncle Buddy’s Lumber and Millworks Shop. Uncle Buddy has very strong beliefs about how a teenage boy should be in order to grow up into a proper young man. Nate seldom meets his uncle’s expectations. Aunt Gracie has confidence in her nephew and believes there is more than one way to be a good, normal young man. (Later, Pearl will show him that there is more than one way to be a good, normal chicken.)
“The only free lumber I have is in this pile right here,” said The Uncle.
Nate bent over and examined several of the boards. If they had not been warped across their grain, they had been bowed along their grain.
“Buddy,” a voice called from the door of the millworks office, “Are you here? I brought your lunch.”
The Uncle’s face blushed as if he had been caught doing wrong. The Aunt went down the steps and towards them.
“I can’t support any more of this chicken foolishness of yours,” said The Uncle hurriedly. “You can have as many of these as you can cart away and find a use for. Anything else you will have to buy, just like anyone else who works here. But I will give you the employee discount just like any other employee and will deduct it from your wages.”
Nate found two long boards that seemed to have almost identical bows when placed side-by-side. He stood up and held out his hand to shake on their deal. “You’ve got yourself a deal,” he said with a smile.
“And so what are my two favorite men up to?” asked The Aunt who had just crossed over to the sheds where the lumber was stored.
“Uncle Buddy is helping me with lumber to build a bigger home for all six of the chickens.”
“Including the two new ones you adopted?” asked The Aunt. “How nice! I’ve always thought six was the ideal number of hens. On a good day, you’ll have half a dozen eggs. It’s too bad that the city won’t let you sell those eggs. But you can barter them.”
“What does barter mean, Aunt Grace?”
“Bartering is what people did long ago, especially when they had no money. They would trade what they had for something they needed or wanted. It would be like me saying, ‘Nate, I will give you my best, straight lumber if you give me one of your delicious, fresh eggs,’ and then we would trade, fair and square.”
“No, no, no!” said The Uncle. “Boards are worth much than eggs.”
“Only when someone has a full stomach and isn’t hungry,” said The Aunt. “But we aren’t going to argue about it, are we? Nate, your uncle and I will barter with you one board for every half dozen eggs.”
“But how is he going to learn anything that way?” asked The Uncle. “That’s not how the world works any longer.”
Nate looked towards the shed with the sign “Top Grade Lumber” and then at his aunt and uncle. “Thank you, Aunt Grace, but we already made a deal, Uncle Buddy and I. We even shook on it. I can’t back out of our deal to accept a different deal. That is something you both taught me when I first started working here.”
“Well, if Nate earns his own boards,” said The Aunt, “then he can do whatever he wants with them. Now you fellows come along and get some lunch.”
Nate walked with them back to the Millworks office, but his mind was likely not on eating lunch. He must have been imagining all he would build since he had The Aunt’s blessing to create whatever he wanted for his chickens—even if The Uncle thought it was not what a good, normal young man should build.
Soon Nate would watch as Pearl taught everyone there is more than one way to be a good, normal chicken.
Special Note: Near the end of Volume One: Into the Garden, Pearl had told Nate that she wanted to be a comedian and put on her own comedy shows. He promised to make a stage for her to do that. Here in Volume Two: Over the Chimney, in her comedy show, Pearl will tell everyone “There is more than one kind of dancing in Paris! So maybe there is more than one way of being a good, normal chicken!”
Until next time…
Thank you for reading along with us. Lately I’ve been thinking about our old My Life With Gracie illustrations and stories from back when I started blogging about my chickens on WordPress. Those are now archived and no longer viewable, but I’ve been thinking about making them accessible again but outside of WordPress.
If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please use the comment section or email them directly to John.Spiers@yahoo.com. We are always appreciative of your thoughts and feelings, ideas and suggestions.
Thank you for reading!
John, Gracie, Bessie, Blanche, Pearl, Emily, and Amelia
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