"No; a week, 'Gene. Thet's what the letter said."
"Aw, what you givin' us! Him to git $15 a week? Why, goldern it, I'm only gittin' $18 a month, an' I've allus been counted a better hand'n him. Who said that was in the letter?" Jealousy was getting the better of 'Gene.
"Charlie Spangler heerd Justine Van read it right out loud, an' he's a powerful quick-witted boy. He gen'rally hears things right."
"He's the cussedest little liar in Clay township," snarled 'Gene.
"You know better'n that, 'Gene Crawley. You're jest mad 'cause Jed's doin' well, thet's what you air, and you know it," cried she.
"Mad? What fer?" exclaimed he, trying to recover his temper for the first time in his life.
"'Cause you're jealous an' 'cause he's got her, thet's what fer," she said, conscious that she was stirring his violent nature to the boiling point. But to her surprise—and to his own, for that matter—he gulped and laughed coarsely.
"Well, he's welcome to her, ain't he?" he asked. "Who's got a better right?"
"Thet ain't the way you talked a year ago," she said meaningly.
"You know too dern much," he said and walked away, leaving behind a thoroughly dissatisfied woman. But Mrs. Hardesty did not know how deeply she had cut nor how he raged inwardly as he hurried homeward through the night.