“Yup; well, I have. I came down here to get clear of everybody, women most of all. Now the one woman that—that—”
“That you 'specially wanted to get clear of—”
“No! No! that ain't the truth, and you know it. She set out to get clear of me—and I let her have her way, same as I done in everything else.”
“She didn't set out to get clear of you.”
“She did.”
“No, she didn't.”
“I say she did.”
Mrs. Bascom rose once more. “Seth Bascom,” she declared, “if all you wanted me to stay here for is to be one of a pair of katydids, hollerin' at each other, I'm goin'. I'm no bug; I'm a woman.”
“Emeline, you set down. You've hove out a whole lot of hints about my not bein' a man because I run away from your house. Do you think I'd have been more of a man if I'd stayed in it? Stayed there and been a yaller dog to be kicked out of one corner and into another by you and—and that brother-in-law of yours. That's all I was—a dog.”
“Humph! if a dog's the right breed—and big enough—it's his own fault if he's kicked twice.”