Hoggee by Anna Myers

to go on the boat,” said Howard. “It will make me sad to leave Laura’s lessons.”
    Old Cyrus shook his head. “It’s no matter,” he said. “A girl ain’t in need of book learning.”
    â€œShe wants to learn,” said Howard. “I know how she feels. I’d like more schooling myself.” He put out his hand to touch the man’s arm. “Is there any chance you might send Laura to school?”
    â€œNo,” said Cyrus, and he shook off Howard’s hand.“Don’t bring it up again. I won’t have you stirring the girl up with such nonsense.”
    â€œI won’t say anything,” said Howard. He looked down at the ground.
    When breakfast was over, Laura helped her mother and Gracie clear the table. Sarah disappeared as soon as the meal was finished. Howard spread the reader open and took out paper and pencil. They went over the word list from the day before, and he wrote sentences using some of the words for Laura to read. As they worked, he glanced often at the bedroom door. What, he wondered, did Sarah do in her spare time? When she was not working with her mother, what occupied her mind and her hands?
    The lesson was almost over when he looked up to see Sarah. She stood in the bedroom doorway, just as she had during other lessons. Howard took up the pencil and wrote a sentence for Laura. “She is sad,” he wrote.

7
JACK WINS, ALWAYS
    He carved the words in the moonlight. It was not a new idea. Howard had been aware of Jack’s winning as long as he could remember. Still, the words stung as he carved them, stung with a new sharpness. This contest had mattered so much more than the others.
    For a few days Howard and Jack had waited. Other boys also returned, ready to go back to work as hoggees. When Howard was not at Cyrus’s house eating or teaching Laura, he was practicing with the sling. “You’re getting good,” Jack would say. And he was improving.
    Howard lowered the sling he had started to twirl. “Well, then,” he said, “we may as well have the competition and get it over with.”
    Jack shook his head. “No, I want you to have a real chance of winning.”
    Howard threw up the sling again. It was always that way. Jack took no pleasure in beating him easily. Occasionally, Jack would even let Howard win, but Howard was not fooled. He knew that Jack feared he would get discouraged with no victories at all. Jack need not have worried. Howard could no more walk away from Jack’scompetitions than he could turn his back on water to drink.
    Once, last summer, Howard had actually won a race, and he knew from the look on Jack’s face that Jack had not given the success to him. For a few minutes Howard had been exhilarated, but the thrill did not last long. Jack insisted they race again immediately. Howard bent his legs in the starting position. You beat him once, he told himself over and over, but he knew he could never do it again. Jack, newly determined, reached the finish line well ahead.
    â€œWe’ll have to have the slingshot competition tomorrow,” Jack said one evening when Howard came back to the barn after his lesson with Laura. “We’re going to work tomorrow. Captain Travis was here while you were gone.”
    Howard stopped in the barn doorway. “It doesn’t seem warm enough. We’re going day after tomorrow?”
    â€œYes.” Jack sat up from his straw bed. “You and Bert Briscoe are hoggees on
The Blue Bird.”
    â€œWe’re on different boats!” Howard walked over and dropped down beside Jack.” Why’d he put us on different boats? He knows we’re brothers.”
    Jack held out his hand in a stop motion. “Whoa! I never said we’re on different boats. I said you and Bert are the hoggees on
The Blue Bird.”
He stopped and smiled big before going on. “I’m to be a bowman this year.” Jack punched