“We not want de 'omesick some more, Clethera—eh? You t'ink de fools is all marry yet?”

Clethera laughed and raised her head from his arm, but not to look at him or box his ear. She looked through the open door at an oblong of little world, where the land was an amethyst strip betwixt lake and horizon. Across that beloved background she saw the future pass: hale, long years with Honoré; the piled up wood of winter fires; her own home; her children—the whole scheme of sweet and humble living.

“You t'ink, after all de folly we have see' in de family, Clethera, you can go de lenk—to get marry?”

“I go dat lenk for you, Honoré—but not for any huddur man.”