p. We set out in front of the house and
Minna told me she was all in; and how she'd ever got through the season
she didn't know.

She went on to speak of little children. Fire in her voice? Murder!
According to Minna, children had ought to be put in cages soon as they
can walk and kept there till they are grown; fed through the bars and
shot down if they break out. That's what twelve years' enforced contact
with 'em had done to Minna's finer instincts. She said absolutely nothing
in the world could be so repugnant to her as a roomful of the little
animals writing on slates with squeaky pencils. She said other things
about 'em that done her no credit.

And while I listened painfully who should be riding up but Homer Gale!

"Here," I says to Minna; "here's a man you'll be a joyous treat to; just
let him come in and listen to your song a while. Begin at the beginning
and say it all slow, and let Homer have some happy moments."

So I introduced the two, and after a few formalities was got over I had
Minna telling in a heartfelt manner what teaching a public school was
like, and what a tortured life she led among creatures that should never
be treated as human. Homer listened with glistening eyes that got quite
moist at the last. Minna went on to say that children's mothers was
almost as bad, raging in to pick a fuss with her every time a child had
been disciplined for some piece of deviltry. She said mothers give her
pretty near as much trouble as the kids themselves.

It was a joyous and painful narrative to Homer. He said why didn't Minna
take up something else? And Minna said she was going to. She'd been
working two summers in Judge Ballard's office, down to Red Gap, and was
going to again this summer, soon as she regained a little vitality; and
she hoped now she'd have a steady job there and never have to go back to
the old life of degradation. Homer sympathized warmly; his heart had
really been touched. He hoped she'd rise out of the depths to something
tolerable; and then he told her about Bert's five horrible children that
drove him out into the brush--and so forth.

I listened in a while; and then I says to Homer ain't it nice for him to
meet someone else that thinks as he does on this great vital topic, Minna
seeming to find young ones as repulsive as Mrs. Judson Tolliver? And how
about that lady anyway? And how is his affair coming on? I never dreamed
of starting anything. I was being friendly.

Homer gets