Ed sipped his beer. He agreed with his mother, in a way. It was better that his father hadn’t seen South Burlington reduced to this rotten waste of collapsing crops. He wished only that his father had left him with enough capital not to have to go begging to people like Shearson Jones. He didn’t doubt for a moment that Shearson Jones would one day expect an equal favour in return.

‘I thought we were supposed to be celebrating,’ said Willard. ‘Here’s to the blight compensation fund, and everybody who donates to it.’

Ed smiled, and raised his tankard. ‘Here’s to South Burlington,’ he said. They drank, and then Willard opened a box and passed round his King Edward cigars.

‘Quiet now,’ said Dyson. ‘Here’s the news.’

The lead story was about renewed tension in the Middle East. Then there was a lengthy report about severe flooding in Colorado. After that, a film report of the president’s visit to a new sanitarium in upstate New York. Ed and Willard and Dyson glanced at each other and waited for what they thought was the most devastating news of the hour.

Eventually, it came. A wheat-ear symbol was superimposed on the screen behind news reporter John Magonick, with the headline ‘Kansas Wheat Crisis.’

‘This looks like being a disastrous year for wheat farmers in the Middle West. A mysterious blight has stricken crops in most parts of Kansas and North Dakota, in some cases ruining fifty to sixty per cent of a farm’s entire harvest. Fortunately, grain stocks are very high after last year’s excellent weather, and President Carter’s embargo on selling US wheat to the Russians has also helped to keep the silos topped up. So – Department of Agriculture experts are saying today that there is no immediate cause for public concern.

‘In Washington, Kansas Senator Shearson Jones has acted promptly in setting up an appeal fund for farmers who lose their wheat crops because of the blight, and has already been pledged three million dollars by agriculture-related industries. He hopes that Congress will vote his fund anything up to ten million dollars because of the “vicious, unprecedented, and unusual nature of the blight.”’