"You bet!" Harky assured him.
"Well, I don't know as I have any real objections. Melinda's a mite young, but you're a mite young yourself to be huntin' a wife."
"Wife!" Harky gasped. "You think I been moonstruck?"
"You talk like you been," Mellie growled. "A man has to be 'fore he'll let himself in for all what can happen when he asks a woman to go coon huntin'. Who ya aim to take along outside o' Melinda an' Glory?"
"Me an' Duckfoot," Harky stated.
"But you ain't got no ideas 'bout Melinda?" Mellie pursued.
"You're darn' whistlin' right I got ideas!" Harky said. "I've had 'em ever since the night everything got smashed to bits!"
"I know," Mellie said gloomily.
"I can't even take no pleasure on account Pa can't make me fetch the corn in and husk it," Harky continued.
"I know," said Mellie, and he shrugged helplessly. "Many's the time I been tempted to leave mine out, but with fourteen wimmen folk, a body's got less chanst than you stand with your Pa."