narrow. I know in reason it must seem mighty little and pindlin' down
here to you, after what you've seen out in the big road, and I ain't
goin' to say a word. But if you can sort it round somehow in the mix-up
so I can get a few thousand dollars quittin' money out of it--jest
enough to keep your mammy and me from gettin' hongry what few years
we've got to eat, I'd be mighty proud."

"Oh," said Tom, still unmoved, as it seemed, "we can do better than
that, if you want to pull out. But I made sure you'd rather stay in and
hold your job. I've a notion you'd find 'retiring' pretty hard work
after so many years spent in the furnace yard."

"You're right about that, son; I sure would," agreed Caleb. Then he went
back to the main proposition. "What-all makes you restless, Buddy? Is it
because Chiawassee and the pipe-makin' ain't big enough for you?"

Tom answered promptly and without apparent reserve.

"The job's big enough, but I don't want to stay here and yoke up with
the Farleys; they'd ruin me in a year."

"Get the better of you in the business--is that what you're aimin' to
say?"

"Not exactly. I'm still brash enough to believe I could hold my own on
that score. But--oh, well; you know what we found out last summer about
their business methods. I can do business that way, too; as a matter of
fact, I did do a good bit more of it last year than you knew anything
about. But I'm out of it now, and I mean to stay out."

A longer interval of silence followed, and at the end of it another
query.

"Is that all that's the matter, Buddy?"

"No--it isn't," hesitantly. "I'm seventeen other kinds of a fool, too,
pappy."

"Reckon ye couldn't make out to onload the whole of it on to a pair o'
right old shoulders, could ye, son Tom?" was the gentle invitation.

"I don't know why I shouldn't tell you. I'm foolish about Ardea; been
that way ever since she used to wear frocks and I used to run barefoot.
I don't believe I could stand it to stay here and be her husband's
business partner."

Caleb was shrouding himself in tobacco smoke and nodding complete
intelligence.

"How did you ever come to let her get away from you, son?" he asked.

"That's a large question--too big for me to answer, I'm afraid. I always
knew we were meant for each other, and I guess I took too much for
granted. Then Vint Farley came along, and I helped his case by pitching
into him every time she gave me a chance. Naturally, she leaned the
other way