Lily's Story by Don Gutteridge

it was, served us well enough, but
a new one has been made necessary by certain irregularities discovered in the
original.”
    “ They had, after all, only
the, ah, crudest of instruments and the Indians, we are told, ah,
pulled up the markers as fast as they could be laid.”
    “ Done, I’m assured, in all
innocence.”
    “ This ain’t my land,
then?”
    “ Dear sir, please, uh,
please –”
    “– don’t leap to such dire
conclusions. We’re here on a mission of mercy, as it were. To be
blunt, and to allay any apprehension on your part, let me say
straightway that I have been authorized by the duly elected council
of Lambton County to inform you that several small errors were
made, back in ’43, in the lot alignments along this particular
strip of Moore Township.”
    “ Very small errors, I
assure you.”
    Papa’s chair emitted a sudden groan.
    “ Infinitesimal.”
    “ Tell me the
truth.”
    After a pause, Smoothie said: “Your property
is too far east, sir. That is why the road out there runs so far
from your cabin-line. Your farm should front almost on the
road.”
    “ Five yards from it
accordin’ to the, ah, lawful survey.”
    “ But that still leaves more
than thirty yards –”
    “ Thirty-three to be
precise. Ninety-nine feet, three inches.”
    “ More than half my East
Field!”
    “ That’s
correct.”
    “ What does this
mean?”
    “ Calm yourself,
sir.”
    “ In technical terms it
means that you do not own a half of your East Field. And,
correspondingly, you own a hundred feet of land to the west
–”
    “ Covered in
bush!”
    “ There’s no need for, uh,
that sort of tone.”
    “ Donald is right. You’ll
have every opportunity to buy that improved field. No plans exist
for a second line of farms behind this in the immediate future.
We’re movin’ south with the new road, and the crossroad will
continue from Millar’s farm to the east.”
    “ I’d say you have four –
even five – years to buy that field.”
    “ What with?” Papa’s
question went unanswered.
    There was a long silence broken only by the
pouring of a single glass of whiskey.
    “ There is, I’m afraid, one
more point to be made.”
    “ A very wee one,” Kinky
said.
    “ But pertinent. Accordin’
to your contract you were to make a specific number of improvements
within ten years, excludin’ your first winter here.”
    “ Very reasonable demands,
I’m told.”
    “ I’ve met them, every one
of ’em.”
    “ In a sense,
yes.”
    “ A moral sense, you might
say.”
    “ But with the technical
loss of your East Field, you have, uh, technically –” Smoothie’s
smoothness began to fail him.
    “ You’ll need, sir, to clear
another ten acres.”
    “ But not by fall. That’s
why we’ve been sent here. The council is quite willin’ to accept
either solution: the immediate purchase of the cleared field
–”
    “ On reasonable terms you
may, uh, be certain.”
    “ Or the clearing of ten
acres by a year from September.”
    “ No one wants to see you
lose this farm or be cheated of the, uh, fruits of your labour. All
of us are here to build a better country than the one we’ve known,
in a spirit of, uh, co-operation.”
    “ And love and harmony, free
from prejudice.”
    “ And
republicanism.”
    “ I ain’t got the cash. You
know that. So does MacLachlan. I’d need cash to get help to clear a
new field. I owe everybody in the district – time and dollars. I
got no sons, you know. I got no wife.”
    Papa drank. “I’m no
goddam squatter ,
you know!”
    The Scotch gentlemen’s fancy clothes brushed
restlessly against the coarse deal of the chairs.
    “ Perhaps the Lord will help
you, sir.”
    “ God damn the
Lord!”
    Gasps, scraping of chairs, rustle of coats,
quick double-steps to the doorway.
    A little distantly and in a quiet voice that
came from a different, darker part of the soul, Smoothie said: “We
both know where you can get cash, anytime you want it. Your comings
an’ doings