At the very end of this story, Dan Coffin has pulled off a very advantageous business deal. Of course, Rustumite nature celebrates with him:
"...for a while, only a while - he walked again like a young buccaneer. The wind outside had strengthened, a trumpet voice beneath heaven, and every autumn leaf was a banner flying in challenge." (p. 115)
The wind, of course, is mentioned first. It happens to have strengthened, not weakened. It sounds not only like a trumpet but also like one that is beneath heaven. Autumn leaves usually mean endings but here they are identified with banners flying triumphantly in the strengthened wind.
The following story, "To Promote The General Welfare," goes from High American autumn to lowland winter but many years later. The Constitutional Convention has been meeting so Rustumite society has certainly developed. Lowland transport has improved. Dan Coffin is white-haired and widowed. His eldest granddaughter, Teresa, and her husband, Leo Svoboda, have two children. Thus, there have been five generations since the series began.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And there would have been plenty of time between "A Fair Exchange" and "To Promote the General Welfare" for another story. To show us more of how the lowlands were becoming more important than the highland plateau of High America. Population growth, economic developments, and hence real political power, was shifting elsewhere. As was inevitable.
Ad astra! Sean
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