"Well, there's going to be one! I meant to come back ten days ago, but something happened and I decided to start work this fall, not wait for spring, so I stayed on. There was sickness at a settlement back in the woods. Many people almost died, some of them did, because they couldn't get a doctor and proper care. It's criminal to put women and children in such a hole; there's got to be a road connecting those places with—help! A man is a brute to take a woman with him under such conditions. What he wants goes! He never thinks of her part."
"But, Tom, maybe she, the woman, wants to go."
"He ought not to let her, he knows."
"But if she just will go, what then, Tom?"
"It doesn't make it right for him, he knows."
"But it might be worse to stay back, Tom. A woman might choose to go."
"But she doesn't know; he does."
"But she may want to know, and be willing to pay."
"Donelle, you're a crazy little know-nothing."
Tom looked down and laughed. He was wondrously happy. "Always wanting to pay for what isn't worth it."