"Gawd, Jimmie! I don't know, except what she says. I just feel like I couldn't stand her not bringing him to-night—like—like I couldn't stand it, Jimmie."
"Lay easy there, ma."
"They're young, I guess, and gotta have life; but I lay here with it in front of me all night, long after she gets home and is sleepin' here next to me as light as a daisy. She's so little and pretty, Jimmie."
"I wanna get my glims on him—"
"What, Jimmie?"
"I wanna see him."
"Me, too, Jimmie. I wouldn't care much about anything else if I could see him once; and if he is big and strong like your father was—"
"That gang don't come big and strong. They got big heads and little necks."
"The kind of fellow that would know how to treat you when you got stubborn, and would put his hand on your shoulder and not try to drive you. If he was a man like that, Jimmie, the kind you and Essie needs, I—I'd stop fightin'; I'd fold my hands and say to God: 'Ready! Ready right this minute!'"
"Ready for what, ma?"