'That is exactly the trouble; and Miss Esther, I can see, she doesn't know just what to do.'
'They ain't gittin' along well, Christopher?'
'Well, there is no doubt they ain't! I should say they was gettin' on uncommon bad. Don't seem as if they could any way pay up all their bills at once. They pay this man, and then run up a new score with some other man. Miss Esther, she tries all she knows; but there ain't no one to help her.'
'They git this house cheaper than they'd git any one in town, I guess.
They'd best stay where they be.'
'Yes, but you see, Miss Esther has to go and come every day now; she's teachin' in a school, that's what she is,' said Christopher, letting his voice drop as if he were speaking of some desecration. 'That's what she is; and so she has to be there regular, rain or shine makes no difference. An' if they was in town, you see, they wouldn't want the horse, nor me.'
'You don't cost 'em nothin'!' returned Mrs. Bounder.
'No; but they don't know that; and if they knowed it, you see, there'd be the devil to pay.'
'I wouldn't give myself bad names, ef I was you,' remarked Mrs. Bounder quietly. 'Christopher'—
'What then?'
'I'm jes' thinkin''—