ke to, a while back, before you lost your fun and your
spirit. When I first saw you on your father's farm out in Kansas, you
was as wild a little gypsy as I ever set eyes on. I said then to your
dad, "There's a filly that'll need a good breakin'." I never thought
I'd see you takin' up with these Gospel pedlers.

_Martha comes in from the hall and fusses about, dusting, etc. She
points in the direction of Mrs. Beeler's room._

MARTHA.

They're prayer-meetin' it again. And Mary lyin' there as if she saw the
pearly gates openin' before her eyes.

BEELER.

_Half to himself as he works._

Poor Mary!--Mary's a strange woman.

MARTHA.

_To Rhoda._

Your mother was the same way, Rhody. The whole Beardsley tribe, for
that matter. But Mary was the worst. It begun with Mary as soon as her
brother Seth got drowned.

BEELER.

_Looks up, angry._

None of that, Sis!

MARTHA.

I guess my tongue's my own.

BEELER.

No, it ain't. I won't have any more of that talk around me, do you
hear? I put my foot down a year ago.

MARTHA.

_Points to his foot derisively._

It's big enough and ugly enough, Heaven knows, but you can put it down
as hard as you like, it won't keep a man's sperrit in his grave--not
when he's a mind to come out!

BEELER.

_Astonished._

Martha Beeler!

MARTHA.

That's my name.

_She flounces out into the kitchen, covering her retreat with her
last speech._

BEELER.

_Looking after her._

My kingdom! Martha! I thought she had some horse sense left.

RHODA.

_Slowly, as the finishes with the lamp._

Uncle, it's hard to live side by side with Aunt Mary and not--

BEELER.

_In angry challenge._

And not what?

RHODA.

And not believe there's something more in these matters than "horse
sense" will account for.

BEELER.

_Hotly, as if a sort point has been touched upon._

There's nothing more than science will account for.

_He points to a shelf of books._

You can read it up any day you like. Read that book yonder, chapter
called Hallucinations. Pathological, that's what it is, pathological.

RHODA.

What does that mean?

_Beeler taps his forehead significantly._

Uncle, you know that's not true!

BEELER.

_Growls to himself._

Pathological, up and down.

_Rhoda replaces the lamp on the mantel._

_Martha opens the kitchen door and calls in._

MARTHA.

Here's Uncle Abe!

BEEL