His father had once said barbering was a good loose trade that enabled one to go freely about the world, but the boy had definitely eliminated this from the list of possible crafts, owing to unfortunate experiences with none other than Judge Penniman, for the judge cut his hair.  At spaced intervals through the year Winona would give the order and the judge would complainingly make his preparations.  The victim was taken to the woodshed and perched on a box which was set on a chair.  The judge swathed him with one of Mrs. Penniman’s aprons, crowding folds of it inside his neckband.  Then with stern orders to hold his head still the rite was consummated with a pair of shears commandeered from plain and fancy dressmaking.  Loath himself to begin the work, the judge always came to feel, as it progressed, a fussy pride in his artistry; a pride never in the least justified by results.  To Wilbur, after these ordeals, his own mirrored head was a strange and fearsome apparition, the ears appearing to have been too carelessly affixed and the scanty remainder of his hair left in furrows, with pallid scalp showing through.  And there were always hairs down his neck, despite the apron.  Barbering was not for him—­not when you could drive a bus to all trains, or even a dray.

There were also street encounters that summer with old Sharon Whipple, who called the boy Buck and jocularly asked him what he was doing to make a man of himself, and whom he would vote for at the next election.  One sunny morning, while Wilbur on River Street weighed the possible attractions of the livery-stable office against the immediate certainty of some pleasant hours with Rufus Paulding, off to the depot to get a load of express packages for people, Sharon in his sagging buggy pulled up to the curb before him and told him to jump in if he wanted a ride.  So he had jumped in without further debate.

Sharon’s plump figure was loosely clad in gray, and his whimsical eyes twinkled under a wide-brimmed hat of soft straw.  He paused to light a cigar after the boy was at his side—­the buggy continuing to sag as before—­then he pushed up the ends of his eyebrows with the blunt thumb, clicked to the long-striding roan, and they were off at a telling trot.  Out over West Hill they went, leaving a thick fog of summer dust in their wake, and on through cool woods to a ridge from which the valley opened, revealing a broad checker-board of ripening grain fields.

“Got to make three of my farms,” volunteered Sharon after a silent hour’s drive.

“Yes, sir,” said Wilbur, which seemed enough for them both until the first of the farms was reached.