Wendell Berry's short fiction has recently won new admirers with such collections as Watch With Me, Fidelity and The Wild Birds. We see his appreciation for the oral traditions of storytelling in these two new stories of the "Port William Membership" -- 'A Friend of Mine" follows Elton Penn as he works alone cutting tobacco, while the others house in nearby barn. Most of the story ts a meditation on work, its rhythm and strain. "The Inheritors" tells of an episode near the end of Wheeler Catlett's life when he enlists Danny Branch to accompany him to a cattle sale at the stockyards in Louisville. With considerable luck they survive the trip.