When the guvvermunt wants to pay depression-era farmer Eben Smith to plow his crops under, he has a different idea: take his goods to the city where he can barter them for wealth. But on the way, Eben and his trusty horse Lucy encounter an odd intersection of four roads, each with a people from a different disturbing future.
Then an oddity struck Eben. For the past few minutes that he had been on this intersection the sun had been at high noon! He put his tumb in his eye and peered at it accusingly and then because it was quite definitely the sun and obviously there, he shook his head and muttered:

“Never can tell what the goldurned guvvermunt is going to do next!”

Variants

(1)
  1. “The Crossroads” by L. Ron Hubbard, in Unknown, February 1941.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by L. Ron Hubbard