WINGS TO FLY Celia Barker Lottridge Groundwood Books House of Anansi Press
For my aunts Lucile Barker Kane and Amandalee Barker Knoles with thanks for their stories about their young years near Provost Alberta
1 W H O A G I N G E R said Josie The sturdy bay pony halted in the dusty wagon track She was used to resting for a moment in this spot because Josie always stopped here to look across the fields at the silver house Even today when her brother Sam was far ahead of her in a tearing hurry to get to town she could take just a minute to admire it The silver house stood all alone on a small rise of ground It didn’t have even a chicken house to keep it company or a path to invite a traveler to its door Nothing around it moved except the prairie grass stirring gently in the hot wind Today it seemed to Josie that the house was just lightly settled on the earth like a big gray bird At any moment it might spread its wings and slowly fly away back to a place where such houses were common Of course the house was not really silver It was built of unpainted boards that had weathered to a soft silvery gray The house Josie lived in was built of weathered wood too but nails had been pounded into it snowballs thrown
