sympathetic interest.

"Sho!" he said. "A young feller like you? now ain't that a pity?"

"I can't stand it any longer!" the lad cried, and his hands worked with
passion. "Nor yet I won't, I tell you. No man would. This ends it. We
was mismated from the first, and this is the last."

"Well!" said Calvin. "Ain't that a pity now? If it's so, it's so, and
mebbe a bill is the best thing. Awful homely, is she?"

The lad turned upon him, and his blue eyes flashed.

"Homely?" he said roughly. "What you talkin' about? she was Katie
Hazard."

"Nice name!" said Calvin. "Come from these parts?"

"I guess you don't!" retorted the lad, "or you wouldn't have to be told.
She was called the prettiest girl in the county when I married her, and
she hasn't got over it yet."

"You don't say!" said Calvin placidly. "Well, good looks is pleasant, I
always maintain; I'd full rather have a woman good-lookin' if other
things is 'cordin' to. I suppose likely she's a poor cook? A man has to
have his victuals, you know!"

"She's the best cook in the State!" said the young man doggedly. "I'd
back her riz bread or doughnuts or pies against any woman's from
Portland to 'Roostick."

"Quite a ways," said Calvin. "S'pose likely she's slack, hey? house
cluttered up? calicker wrapper and shoes down at the heel? that kind?"

The blue eyes flared at him. "I don't want none o' this kind o' talk!"
he said sharply. "Slack! I'd sooner eat off Katie's kitchen floor than
any other woman's parlor table that ever I see. You find me a speck o'
dust or a spot o' dirt round our house and I'll find you a blue hen."

"I see!" said Calvin. "Another fellow, is there?"

"No!" shouted the young man, and he turned savagely on Calvin. "I'd like
to know why you're sayin' this kind of thing, when you never see nor
heard of me nor my wife before."

"Well!" said Calvin comfortably. "I've been wonderin' ever since you got
in whether you was an ill-used man or a darned fool, and now I've found
out. Why, you loony, if you've got a wife like all that, why in Tunkett
are you goin' to get a bill?"

His voice rang out like a ship's trumpet. The lad shrunk down in his
seat, and his face grew dogged and set.

"We was mismated, I tell you!" he said. "She's got a temper!"

"Well, how about you?" asked Calvin. "You ain't got that red hair for
nothin', son."

"I know! I have one too," the lad admitted; "and each one stirs the
other up and makes it worse. It's no use, I t