Suddenly the Captain looks at me, and asks:
“Well, have you lost your tongue?”
“'Twas Nils,” I answer then. “Something gone wrong, it looks like; he's taken the horses out.”
“Well, and what then?”
“Nay, I was only thinking....”
But there I stopped. Devil take it, was I to stand there playing the hypocrite? Here was my chance to put in a word for Nils; the next round he would have to manage alone.
“It's the spring season now,” I said, “and there's green showing already where we're done. But there's a deal more to do yet, and we....”
“Well, and what then—what then?”
“There's two and a half acres here, and Nils with hard on three acres of corn land; perhaps Captain might give it another thought.”
At that the Captain swung on his heel and left me without a word.