The Wheelwright and The Mountain Man

By John J. Law

The fires of a dream burned and stoked behind young Angus Faraday's eyes. He longed to be somewhere other than the four walls of his workplace. The anvil and the casting iron seemed to mock him silently whispering to his young ears that this would be the only life he would ever know. Such a possibility was not a terrible thing, mind you. Not for some men, however, young Angus Faraday could not accept such a fate. His spirit was bold, daring, and strong and he could not accept such a fate. Even if it seemed to be inevitable and set in stone.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.C. Hulsey Books
• Release date: Dec 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223577461

Book preview

One

The old mountain man comes to town

Angus Faraday was a wheeler as his father before him, and as his grandfather before. The Faradays were a family of wheelwrights and blacksmiths, men who pounded and fashioned iron. Men who built and restored weapons and practical items for other men to use. It had been a trade passed down through the generations.

For the longest time, building and fixing wagon wheels were all that Angus knew. He had been taught about the trade since he was a boy, and it seemed like his only world was the four corners of their workplace. Angus worked with his father and brothers, and while the others seemed quite content with their trade and lot in life, there was something noticeably different with Angus. Something more intense and idealistic.

The fires of a dream burned and stoked behind young Angus Faraday’s eyes. He longed to be somewhere other than the four walls of his workplace. The anvil and the casting iron seemed to mock him silently whispering to his young ears that this would be the only life he would ever know. Such a possibility was not a terrible thing, mind you. Not for some men, however, young Angus Faraday could not accept such a fate. His spirit was bold, daring, and strong and he could not accept such a fate. Even if it seemed to be inevitable and set in stone.

Put some effort behind them strokes, boy! That wheel isn’t going to carve itself!

It was Angus’s father Francis Faraday or Jay Faraday, as he liked to be called. No one really knew why he adopted the nickname of Jay. Even Angus himself found it strange that his father would adopt such a name, a name that was furthest from his given name. For Angus a lot of his father’s actions were quite strange, mysterious and even sometimes contradictory. In Jay, Angus saw a father that had raised him with an iron hand. He taught him everything he knew about how to fix and craft wheels, how to make casting irons, guns, and all sorts of metal works. He saw a very strong and firm man whose word was law. But he also found a man who seemed strangely devoted to his wife, and not in a good way. Strangely enough, Jay Faraday could be quite the terror when it came to crafting goods, but when his wife ordered him around, he sometimes seemed as meek as a kitten. There were times that his wife would often shout and bawl at Jay, and the elder Faraday would do nothing about it. It was odd behavior to say the least, and his five sons and one daughter did find it quite inexplicable. They never bothered to even try to figure it out.

Despite his submissive behavior towards his wife, Jay Faraday was still quite demanding as a wheelwright, and Angus heard him barking his orders.  He complied, albeit with a