An' when them spells was on, what
she didn't take out o' me she did out o' the house--diggin' an'
scrubbin', takin' up carpits, layin' down carpits, shiftin' the
furniture, eatin' one day in the kitchin an' another in the settin'
room, an' sleepin' most anywhere. She wa'n't real well after a while,
an' the wuss she seemed to feel, the fiercer she was fer scrubbin' an'
diggin' an' upsettin' things in gen'ral, an' bom-by she got so she
couldn't keep a hired girl in the house more 'n a day or two at a time.
She either wouldn't have 'em, or they wouldn't stay, an' more 'n half
the time we was without one. This can't int'rist you much, can it?" said
Mr. Harum, turning to his companion.

"On the contrary," replied John, "it interests me very much. I was
thinking," he added, "that probably the state of your wife's health had
a good deal to do with her actions and views of things, but it must have
been pretty hard on you all the same."

"Wa'al, yes," said David, "I guess that's so. Her health wa'n't jest
right, an' she showed it in her looks. I noticed that she'd pined an'
pindled some, but I thought the' was some natural criss-crossedniss
mixed up into it too. But I tried to make allow'nces an' the best o'
things, an' git along 's well 's I could; but things kind o' got wuss
an' wuss. I told ye that she begun to have notions about me, an' 't
ain't hardly nec'sary to say what shape they took, an' after a while,
mebbe a year 'n a half, she got so 't she wa'n't satisfied to know where
I was _nights_--she wanted to know where I was _daytimes_. Kind o'
makes me laugh now," he observed, "it seems so redic'lous; but it wa'n't
no laughin' matter then. If I looked out o' winder she'd hint it up to
me that I was watchin' some woman. She grudged me even to look at a
picture paper; an' one day when we happened to be walkin' together she
showed feelin' about one o' them wooden Injun women outside a cigar
store."

"Oh, come now, Mr. Harum," said John, laughing.

"Wa'al," said David with a short laugh, "mebbe I did stretch that a
little; but 's I told ye, she wanted to know where I was daytimes well
's nights, an' ev'ry once 'n a while she'd turn up at my bus'nis place,
an' if I wa'n't there she'd set an' wait fer me, an' I'd either have to
go home with her or have it out in the office. I don't mean to say that
all the sort of thing I'm tellin' ye of kep' up all the time. It kind o'
run in streaks; but the streaks kep' comin' oftener an