"First rate."
"But what's this joke they've got on you about bein' married?"
"That's what it is, Uncle Buckley, a joke."
"I told Jimmy and Lige that it was only a prank. I knowed you weren't goin' to throw yourself away on no one here, when the woods are full of 'em out our way that would like to have you. Don't dodge, Sammy. Stand right up to your fodder, for you know it's a fact. It made mother powerful mad. She took it that you wanted the gal, and the old man thought you wa'n't good enough. And she boiled. 'Why, he can start a church tune better than any person we ever had in the neighborhood,' she 'lowed. 'Not good enough, indeed!' And I dodged on off, sorter laughin' as I ducked behind the hen-house. And that reminds me, Sammy, that a varmint come the other night and toated off the likeliest rooster I had on the place. Mother woke me at night, and asked if that wa'n't a chicken squallin.' I told her that I had the plan of a new barn in my head, and that I couldn't let the squallin' of no sich thing as a chicken drive it out, and I went to sleep. But you ought to have seen the look she gave me the next mornin' when we found feathers scattered all over the yard. By the way, Sammy, where is the other man; the great lawyer that was your partner? Is he out at present?"
"Yes, Uncle Buckley, he's out at present, and for good. We have dissolved partnership."
"No!" said the old man, dropping his jaw. "Why, I thought you and him was together for keeps. And you don't really mean to tell me that you ain't, Sammy?"
"He has an office on the other side of the square, and I'm not in the law business," Lyman replied. "Warren and I are running this paper."
"When did you quit each other?" the old man asked, leaning forward and picking at his blanket leggings.
"Why, the day you were in here. You remember I left you here with him. When I came back he had decided to set aside the partnership."