They hurried out to the team.
“Let me drive while you read your letter, Sherm.”
Sherm shook his head. “Read yours first–this will keep.”
“The idea–I wouldn’t be so piggy selfish.”
“Please, Jane, I’d rather get out of town before I tackle it.”
“Sherm, I wish I could—” She didn’t need to finish. Sherm understood.
“Read Carol’s first,” he said.
368She read it with a beaming face. Sherm was looking at her without seeing her. She started to tell him the contents of the letter, then suddenly stopped. She couldn’t rejoice over being asked to a hop when Sherm was in such trouble. Laying the letter in her lap, she took up Ernest’s. Sherm noticed the movement and, remembering, asked her what Carol had to say.
She handed him the letter. He read it through absently. The houses were thinning along the road. The prairie stretched ahead of them in solitary sweeps of tender green, dappled with flowers. Jane reached for the reins.
“Read your letter, Sherm.”