Page:Henry Ford's Own Story.djvu/100

 A RIDE IN THE RAIN

, almost hysterics, from the woman who for seven years had been the quiet, cheerful little wife, humming to herself while she did the house work it was more than startling, it was terrifying.

Ford realized then, probably for the first time, how much the making of the automobile had cost her.

He quieted her as well as he could, and promised that he would take her back to Greenfield. He would give up his job at the Edison plant and move to the farm to live, since she cared so much about it, he said. His work on the machine could wait.

He took her into the house and made her a cup of hot tea. When she was sitting comfortably warming her feet at the heating stove and sipping the tea, he said he would just run out and fasten the shed door for the night.

The machine was almost finished. A few more screws, a tightening of the leather belt, the placing of the steering lever, and it would be complete. He had spent four years of hard work, and harder thought, on its building—delayed first