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—[Breathing hard.] No reason? Can you stand there and say that to me, Andrew?

—[Hastily—seeing the gathering storm.] He doesn’t mean a word of it, James.

—[Making a gesture to her to keep silence.] Let me talk, Katey. [In a more kindly tone.] What’s come over you so sudden, Andy? You know’s well as I do that it wouldn’t be fair o’ you to run off at a moment’s notice right now when we’re up to our necks in hard work.

—[Avoiding his eyes.] Rob’ll hold his end up as soon as he learns.

—You know that ain’t so. Robert was never cut out for a farmer, and you was.

—You can easily get a man to do my work.

—[Restraining his anger with an effort.] It sounds strange to hear you, Andy, that I always thought had good sense, talkin’ crazy like that. And you don’t believe yourself one bit of what you’ve been sayin’—not ’less you’ve suddenly gone out of your mind. [Scornfully.] Get a man to take your place! Where’d I get him, tell me, with the shortage of farm labor hereabouts? And if I could get one, what int’rest d’you suppose he’d take beyond doin’ as little work as he could for the money I paid him? You ain’t been workin’ here for no hire, Andy, that you kin give me your notice to quit like you’ve done. The farm is your’n as well as mine. You’ve always worked on it with that understanding; and what you’re sayin’ you