“Yes, but it doesn’t matter.”
The covered barges carried articles for the village stores, except the tankers of tractor fuel. They were also classified as “covered” for convenience, to distinguish them from the “grassers” of hay and silage, though the latter were also covered.
Presently several men stepped off the engine and were replaced by men waiting on the road. A village lay across the stream here. The barges jolted as the tail was cut out, jolted again as the tug pushed its train against them. They saw the locomotive crew leap onto the tug’s deck.
“What does that mean?”
Janinda looked at the sun. It was not yet quite overhead, but the band of shadow on the canal was quite narrow. Rays of sunlight were becoming frequent, stabbing down between limbs.
“I suppose it means we’re half
