t that would cost a couple of
dollars, anyhow, everything was so dear now. Oh well, 'Gene would let
her buy it. 'Gene would let her do most anything.

She thought with pity of her sisters, mill-hands in West Adams still, or
married to mill-hands, men who got drunk on the sly and didn't work
regular, and wanted a full half of all they made for themselves. 'Gene
and his mother were always scolding about the money they could have had
if they'd kept that wood-land on the mountain. They'd ought to ha' been
really poor the way she had been, so's you didn't know where the next
meal was coming from, or how the rent was going to be paid. She had been
awfully lucky to get 'Gene, who let her decide how much money ought to
be spent on the children's clothes and hers, and never said a thing, or
scolded or bothered. He was kind of _funny_, 'Gene was, always so sober
and solemn, and it was a _sort_ of bother to have him so crazy about her
still. That had been all right when they were engaged, and first
married. She had liked it all right then, although it always seemed sort
of foolish to her. But men _were_ that way! Only now, when there were
three children and another one coming, and the house to be kept nice,
and the work done up right, and the farmwork and everything going so
good, and so much on her mind, why, it seemed as though they'd ought to
have other things to think about beside kissings and huggings. Not that
'Gene didn't do his share of the work. He was a fine farmer, as good as
anybody in the valley. But he never could settle down, and be
comfortable and quiet with her, like it was natural for old married
folks to do. If she went by him, close, so her arm touched him, why
then, if nobody was there he'd grab at her and kiss her and rumple her
hair, and set her all back in her work. With all she had to do and think
of, and she did her work as good as anybody if she did say it who
shouldn't, she had her day planned before she turned her feet out of bed
in the morning. And she liked to have things go the way she planned
them. She _liked_ 'Gene all right, only she had her work to get done.

She churned meditatively, looking off towards the mountain where the
Eagle Rocks heaved themselves up stiff and straight and high. 'Gene's
mother came to the door, asked if the butter was coming all right,
looked at her, and said, "My! Nelly, you get better looking every day
you live," and went back to her bread-baking.

Nelly went on wit