Review: Is a boy who works on his father's farm a cowboy? Sort of...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 25, 2014
The opening chapter strikes the note: something pretty bad is going to happen. The title helps with that, as well. Then the story unfolds, a simple country story set out West, back in the days of the horse and cart. The young boys in this one-horse town await the arrival of the new school teacher, expecting a beautiful young woman. No-one destined to any of them: a teacher has to be unmarried and "pure". Then comes the first surprise.Johnny is the nicest of all the boys, exceedingly bashful, well-brought up by honest parents who keep a pretty strict eye on him. This is a place and time when women "have babies and wash (their husband's dirty work clothes)" and when a young lad sets eyes on a girl, this is the kind of life he expects to offer her. But is that what the girls want?I felt that Roderus really got under the skin of these young lads, and told the story as they would have felt it.