The Village Blacksmith

The Village Blacksmith is a comic story written and drawn by Carl Barks. It features Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Gyro Gearloose, Little Helper, Scrooge McDuck, Daisy Duck, the Duckburg City Council, and Mayor Hogwilde, here referred to as "Mayor Hog". A statue of Stonewall Duck appears.
==Plot==
Donald Duck's latest gig is as the Duckburg blacksmith, running a village smithy under a chestnut tree. Business has been slow for him ever since he put the shoes on Mayor Hog's horse backwards. Determined to help, his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, convince Gyro Gearloose, Scrooge McDuck, and Daisy Duck to let Donald fix some of their metal belongings. Unfortunately, Donald fails here, too. He makes Gyro's water pump go in reverse, Daisy's music box sound like an adding machine, and Scrooge's adding machine play Hearts and Flowers.
Even after this triple failure, Donald gets a shot at redemption once again when Mayor Hog and the Duckburg City Council ask him to melt "Old Cannon Number One" into plowshares in honor of the 100 year anniversary since a battle fought by Stonewall Duck on Battlement Hill that brought peace to Duckburg. Donald expects the job will be easy, but he knows little of the dangers of Old Cannon Number One and the hassle it will cause him. Will he continue in his long string of failures, or will he manage to melt the cannon and redeem his reputation as a blacksmith for once and for all?
===References===
* Duckburg's mayor is here referred to as "Mayor Hog".
* Duckburg has a City Council that seems to consist of about five or so individuals.
* During the events of The Village Blacksmith, Duckburg celebrates, in the words of Mayor Hog, "100 years of peace". Apparently 100 years before the story, General Stonewall Duck had fought a battle on Battlement Hill "that saved Duckburg". According to Mayor Hog, a peace treaty was signed, bringing peace to Duckburg for the next century.
===Continuity===
* The concept of Donald as a blacksmith was previously used in the short film The Village Smithy (1942).
* The Duckburg City Council would reappear with an expanded role in William Van Horn's The Big Wind (2013).
==Behind the scenes==
The Village Blacksmith was written and drawn by Carl Barks. It was first published in August of 1960 in Walt Disney's Comics and Stores #239, though it had been completed earlier on January the 15th, 1960.
Its title is a reference to the 1840 poem of the same name by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Some of the narration is also taken from the poem, albeit altered slightly to better fit the story.
===Notes & References===
Category:Stories
Category:1960 stories
Category:Carl Barks stories
Category:Donald Duck stories
Category:Scrooge McDuck stories
Category:Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck stories
Category:Daisy Duck stories
Category:Mayor Hogwilde stories
Category:Gyro Gearloose stories
Category:Little Helper stories
Category:Stonewall Duck stories
Category:Comic Stories