Page:Scarlet Sister Mary (1928).pdf/236

 Mary sighed and murmured that it was a pity for a nice useful man like himself to be worried and fretted. But some women are silly like children, and get spoiled to death if you pet them or treat them anyways soft and easy.

"You got sense, Si May-e, sense like a man." Andrew looked at her with brightening eyes, and his hands tightened their grip on the hammer's handle.

Andrew was a good housekeeper. The shop was crammed with wagon wheels in need of spokes or rims, but they stood in neat rows, one against the other.

The solid block which held the anvil had a band around its middle where punches and cold chisels and other tools stood in the pockets, where his hands could reach them without trouble or waste of time. The oak shavings were free of smut. But, Lord, the shop had an evil smell—the breath of that smoky black coal constantly. To stand near the forge was a terrible thing when Andrew turned the handle of the bellows and fanned the black coals red. If cedar smoke could cause miscarriage, what would this coal smoke do?

"Great Gawd, Cun Andrew, how-come you don' burn hickory or ash or some kind o sweet-smellin wood like you used to? How can you