A Tinker in Blue Anchor

After he left the old shack on the East Road near the swamp and set himself up as a lone tinker, he moved into a single room in a tall boarding house of many rooms. The owner of the house, Ida Crab-tree, told him he would have to get rid of the dog. Later she relented and let him keep Sparky near his horse and wagon in the stable. In winter when the nights were cold, Sparky was allowed to sleep under Leo Mack’s bed. Mrs. Crabtree was past middle age, hard of hearing, and the widow of Waldo Crabtree, a scrivener who had come into a small fortune before he died. She had good silver and china and old-fashioned but comfortable furniture. She kept an orderly house, but visitors were surprised to see goods that belonged in the pantry on the bookshelves of the living room. Beside the nicknacks, doodads, gimcracks, and a few old books were jars of jam and pickled apples. When times were lean the pantry items retreated to the kitchen. Mrs. Crabtree cared about her guests and was known to be a fair-minded woman. For the evening meal all the boarders ate at the same table and talked about the day’s events. Leo was not one to chat off the cuff, as we say, but always had something worthwhile to contribute. He talked about what was happening in the world at large, and one could see he spent lonely hours reading in his room. At Mrs. Crabtree’s table, instead of wasting his time in idle conversa-tion, he decided to become a broadcaster of news. He would carry the news of current events to isolated farmhouses whenever he vis-ited them as a tinker. The times were volatile and uncertain, and people needed to know what was going on. The South was in conflict with the North, and the dogs of war were beginning to bark. All the people in and around Blue Anchor were eager to know what would happen next and how it would affect their lives. Leo took it upon himself to keep them well informed while mending their pots. At the boarding house most of his fellow lodgers were Method-ists and given to drink but were seldom noisy or rowdy. Leo couldn’t abide noise and once gave notice to leave when a young man dis-turbed the whole house tooting a trombone late at night. The man claimed he had been offered a job with a well-known band and abso-lutely needed to practice to improve his playing. The boarders with their landlady presiding held a democratic meeting to decide whether he should stay or go. Even though the vote was a tie, Mrs. Crabtree turned him out the next day. It was better to require one person to go rather than have half of her guests depart. As it turned out, it was good he left her place and Blue Anchor and went up north. Years later we heard he was hired by the Philadelphia Philharmonic and given a favored seat among the horns.