keep quiet, that when I had
something to say I'd say it."

Oscar looked very much mortified. "Jane," he said, "what's got into
you?"

"Well, it isn't your politeness, that's sure. Funny now, that Mrs.
Penelope and I both have nice manners while her husband and mine are
both pigs as far as their ways to us go. There isn't a more popular man
in the country than Oscar, but he keeps his popular ways all outside his
own home."

Oscar and Jim looked at each other and waited. They both realized that
the eruption was inevitable.

"Women are awful fools. Until I had running water put in against Oscar's
wishes I lugged as many as thirty buckets of water a day for thirty
years. I've carried water and I've chopped wood and I've had babies and
I've come at your bidding, Oscar, but now, I'm going to complain. And
it's not about my life either.

"I used to feel sorry for myself until I got to know Mrs. Pen. She has
_real_ trouble, but instead of getting peevish as I have over just
Oscar's selfishness, she's let it make her see the world instead of
herself. She has a sort of calm outlook on life. She has told me a dozen
times that she looks at life as a great game and trouble as one of the
hazards. That's golf talk. She says the only real sport to be got out of
the game is to play it according to rule. And she says marriage seems to
be one of the rules. Think of having the courage to talk that way about
marriage! She's better than a book."

Mrs. Ames chuckled reminiscently. Then stared out at the desert and her
lips moved in silence as if she found it hard to frame her next
sentence.

"We've talked a lot about the Project, she and I. At first I was like
Oscar, all for being afraid our ranch wasn't going to get as much and a
little more than anyone else's. Then after she kept talking about it,
all of a sudden I saw that I wasn't Jane Ames at all, drudging out my
life in the sand. I'm a human being, struggling along with other human
beings to make a living and _be happy_. And then I got the feeling that
I wanted to help to make this whole Project the finest place on earth
not only for myself but for everyone else.

"And then, just as I get started on something that's giving me my first
chance since I was married to mix with people and do some real big work
in the world, I find out that Oscar is getting all mixed up in deals
that'll ruin Mr. Manning and the whole Project as far as our owning it
goes."

"Jane!" shouted Oscar.