ake her home. Milly told me about it long after the trouble
was over. She said she'd been hopin' that the bruise on her cheek
would be well before her father saw her, and she'd been puttin' cold
water and hot water and everything else she could think of on it to
draw the blood out, but somebody told the old man how bad things had
been goin' with Milly, and it wasn't two hours till he was there with
a two horse wagon to move Milly back home. Milly said Sam was sittin'
by the table with his head down on his arms and she was washin' up the
dinner dishes, and her face bound up in one o' Sam's handkerchiefs.
The old man come in, his hands and his lips tremblin', and says he,
'Daughter, put your things together as quick as you can, I've come to
take you back home.' Says he, 'I'm no advocate of married folks
separatin', but,' says he, 'when Sam took you from your father's house
he promised to be good and kind to you, but he's broke his promise,
and you've got no call to stay with him any longer.' And Milly said
before she could answer him, Sam raised up his head from the table and
says he, 'That's right! That's right! I'm not fit to be trusted with a
wife and children. Take Milly and the boys with you and leave me to go
to the dogs where I belong.' And Milly's father says, 'Well, Samuel,
I'm glad you think as I do, for that makes it easier for all of us.'
And then he turns to Milly and says he, 'Hurry up, daughter, and get
yourself ready to go back home with me. No child of mine shall live
with a drunken brute that lays violent hands on his wife and
children.'

"I reckon the old man thought he was sayin' exactly the right thing
and that Milly would thank him for takin' her part. But Milly said
when her father called Sam 'a drunken brute' she was so mad she lifted
her hand to strike him, and she run to Sam and put her arms around
him, and says she, 'Father, you're the only person in this world
that'd dare to say such a thing to me about Sam.' Says she, 'You can
take the children if you want to, for I am afraid that Sam'll do them
some harm, when he ain't himself, but as for me, my place,' says she,
'is right here with Sam. Drinkin' whiskey is bad enough,' says she,
'but it ain't the worst thing a man can do, and it's not what a man
does when he's drunk that makes a woman hate him and leave him, it's
what he does when he's sober. And you know,' says she, 'that when
Sam's himself there ain't a kinder, better husband anywhere, and