"Are they out with the inspector now?" asked Marsh.
"Yes. He came out from Prentice this morning early."
"This will be a bad job for Frank."
"Yes, but he hasn't got the mouths to feed that we have. I can't think what's to become of us. He can hire out again."
Nora's face flushed.
"I—I wonder why he hasn't told me anything about it. I asked him, only this morning, what was troubling him. I was sure there was something, but he said not," she said sadly.
"Oh, I guess he's always been in the habit of keeping his troubles to himself, and you haven't taught him different yet."
Nora was about to make a sharp retort, but realizing that her good neighbor was half beside herself with anxiety and nervousness, she said nothing. A fact which the unobservant Eddie noted with approval.
"Well," he said as cheerfully as he could, "you must hope for the best, Mrs. Sharp."
"Sid says we've only got it in one place. But perhaps he's only saying it, so as I shouldn't worry. But you know what them inspectors are; they don't lose nothin' by it. It don't matter to them if you starve all winter!"