answer me then, but Bennie D. laughed. He had a way of
laughin' that made other folks want to cry--or kill him. For choice I'd
have done the killin' first.

"'More nautical conversation, sister,' says he. 'He knows how fond you
are of that sort of thing.'

"You see, Emeline never did like to hear me talk sailor talk; it
reminded her too much that I used to be a sailor, I s'pose. And that
inventor knew she didn't like it, and so he rubbed it in every time I
made a slip. 'Twas just one of his little ways; he had a million of 'em.

"But I tried once more. 'Emeline,' I says, 'I'm home. Can't you speak to
me?'

"Then she looked at me. 'Yes, Seth,' says she, 'I see you are home.'

"'At last,' put in brother-in-law, '"There is no place like home"--when
the other places are shut up.' And he laughed again.

"'Stop, Bennie,' says Emeline, and he stopped. That was another of his
little ways--to do anything she asked him. Then she turned to me.

"'Seth,' she asks, 'where have you been?'

"'Oh, down street,' says I, casual. 'It's turrible warm out.'

"She never paid no attention to the weather signals. 'Where 'bouts down
street?' she wanted to know.

"'Oh, down to the store,' I says.

"'You go to the store a good deal, don't you,' says she. Bennie D.
chuckled, and then begged her pardon. That chuckle stirred my mad up.

"'I go where folks seem to be glad to see me,' I says. 'Where they treat
me as if I was somebody.'

"'So you was at the store the whole evenin'?' she asks.

"'Course I was,' says I. 'Where else would I be?'

"She looked at me hard, and her face sort of set. She didn't answer,
but took up the sewin' in her lap and went to work on it. I remember she
dropped it once, and Bennie D. jumped to pick it up for her, quick as a
wink. I set down in the rockin' chair and took the Gloucester paper. But
I didn't really read. The clock ticked and ticked, and 'twas so still
you could hear every stroke of the pendulum. Finally, I couldn't stand
it no longer.

"'What on earth is the matter?' I sings out. 'What have I done this
time? Don't you WANT me to go to the store? Is that it?'

"She put down her sewin'. 'Seth,' says she, quiet but awful cold, 'I
want you to go anywheres that you want to go. I never'll stand in your
way. But I want you tell the truth about it afterwards.'

"'The truth?' says I. 'Don't I always tell you the truth?'

"'No,' says she. 'You've lied to me tonight. You've been callin' on the
Chr