Michael Malone - Weebly

selectman, might not be a possibility to challenge the
incumbent Republican congressman, who, they said,
was a sycophant with his hands in the pockets of local
business and his head in a golf bag; another possible
choice of theirs, John "Hawk" Haig, was written off by
the story of his tragic death on the same news program.
So the hero Cecil Hedgerow slept, his battle won.
For Dingley Falls stood. The Federalist houses were
not even seared. Around the town green the white brick
and gray slate buildings looked much as they had
looked last week, indeed last century, except for a fine
drizzle of soot that was far less than what fell in pollution
on most modern cities every day. Dingley Falls stood,
saved by the work of men like Cecil Hedgerow and by
four hours of torrential summer rain, but everywhere the
town was in a buzz of shock. For north of the highway,
geysers of smoke still steamed from the black
wasteland that yesterday had been forest and marsh
grass. Wild Oat Ridge was charred bare and looked to
one Catholic reporter like Golgotha. Hawk Haig's
house had burned. Live cinders blown by the wind had
caught the roof on fire. Nothing remained but the