o, who knows what notion a kid will take into his head?
They was playin' right there on a pile of pole-wood 'Gene's brought in
from the woods and ain't got sawed up into stove-lengths yet. I didn't
want to take no chances; maybe they wouldn't ha' moved quick enough when
their papa yelled to them. No, ma'am, I made 'em come in, and here
they'll stay. Nelly, she's out there, walkin' round and round watchin'
'Gene. She's awfully set up havin' it come down. 'Gene he's told her
he'll give her the money from the lumber in it. There'll be a sight of
boards, too. It's the biggest pine in the valley."

Marise went to the window and looked at the scene, penetrated by the
strangeness of the difference between its outer and inner aspect: 'Gene,
his faded blue overalls tucked into his plowman's heavy cow-hide boots,
his shirt open over his great throat and chest, his long corded arms
rising and falling with the steady effortless rhythm of the master
woodsman. Nelly, in one of her immaculate blue ginghams, a white apron
over it, a white frilled shade-hat on her head, her smartly shod small
feet, treading the ground with that inimitable light step of hers,
circling slowly about, looking at 'Gene as he worked, looking up at the
crown of the tree, high, so insolently high above her head, soon to be
brought low by a wish from her heart, soon to be turned into money for
her to spend.

"I came over to talk to 'Gene and Nelly about some business," Marise
said, over her shoulder, to Mrs. Powers, not able to take her eyes from
the trio in the drama out there, "but I'd better wait till the tree is
down before I speak to them."

"'Twon't be long now. 'Gene's been at it quite a while, and he's
stavin' away like all possessed. Seems as if, now he's started in, he
couldn't get it over with quick enough to suit him. He acted awful queer
about it, I thought."

She left her ironing and, looking over her shoulder at the children,
came closer to where Marise stood. Then she stepped back and shut the
door to the pantry. "Mis' Crittenden," she said in an anxious troubled
voice, "'Gene ain't right these days. He acts to me like he's comin'
down with a sick spell, or something. He ain't _right_. Today Nelly told
me she woke up in the night last night and 'Gene wasn't there. She
hollered to him, and he didn't answer. It scared her like everything,
and she scrambled out of bed and lighted the lamp, and she said she
'most fainted away, when she see 'Gene,