fered enough and waited more 'n enough. Ban't months
nor weeks neither--'t is a long, long lifetime. You talk o' time
dragging! If you knawed--if you knawed! An' these devil-spinners allus
knotting an' twisting. I could do things--I could--things man never
dreamed. An' I will--for they 'm grawing and grawing, an' they'll burst
my skull if I let 'em bide in it. Months ago I've sat on a fence
unbeknawnst wheer men was shooting, an' whistled for death. So help me,
't is true. Me to do that! Theer 's a cur for 'e; an' yet ban't me
neither, but the spinners in my head. Death 's a party easily called,
mind you. A knife, or a pinch o' powder, or a drop o' deep water--they
'll bring un to your elbow in a moment. Awnly, if I done that, I'd go in
company. Nobody should bide to laugh. Them as would cry might cry, but
him as would laugh should come along o' me--he should, by God!"

"Will, Will! It isn't my Will talking so?"

"It be me, an' it ban't me. But I'm in earnest at last, an' speakin'
truth. The spinners knaw, an' they 'm right. I'm sick to sheer hate o'
my life; and you've helped to make me so--you and your faither likewise.
This thing doan't tear your heart out of you an' grind your nerves to
pulp as it should do if you was a true wife."

"Oh, my dear, my lovey, how can 'e say or think it? You knaw what it has
been to me."

"I knaw you've thought all wrong 'pon it when you've thought at all. An'
Miller, tu. You've prevailed wi' me to go on livin' a coward's life for
countless ages o' time--me--me--creepin' on the earth wi' my tail
between my legs an' knawin' I never set eyes on a man as ban't braver
than myself. An' him--Grimbal--laughing, like the devil he is, to think
on what my life must be!"

"I caan't be no quicker. The cheel's movin' an' bracin' itself up an'
makin' ready to come in the world, ban't it? I've told 'e so fifty
times. It's little longer to wait."

"It's no longer. It's nearer than sleep or food or drink. It's comin'
'fore the moon sets. 'T is that or the madhouse--nothin' else. If you'd
felt the fire as have been eatin' my thinking paarts o' late days you'd
knaw. Ban't no use your cryin', for 't isn't love of me makes you.
Rivers o' tears doan't turn me no more. I'm steel now--fust time for a
month--an' while I'm steel I'll act like steel an' strike like steel.
I've had shaky nights an' silly nights an' haunted nights, but my head
's clear for wance, an' I'll use it while 'tis."

"Not to do no