“Did you git anything to eat? That's what I want to know,” Amanda said, with her usual disregard of even the darkest of his moods.
It was as if he were going to make no response; but her eager hands were on the tow bag under his arm, and he sullenly answered in the affirmative.
“Smoked bacon.” She winked cheerfully at her sister. “I smell it. Sugar-cured in the bargain. Coffee, too, already parched an' ground. I'd know that a mile off if the wind wras in the right direction. I'm glad I put on the kettle.”
Jeff strode on heavily and deposited the bag at the door.
“We've all got to bunk in one room for to-night,” Amanda told him, as she untied the bag and began to take out the parcels. “There is no way fixed to keep the cow an' calf apart, an' she's got to graze or we can't have milk in the mornin', so I shut the calf up in the other room. It won't do no harm; it's clean and as gentle as a pet dog.”
“That's no way to do!” Jeff loweringly protested. “A thing like that would make us the laughin'-stock of the whole county. Besides, do you know that—” He seemed to hesitate, and then, as if he was thinking of something too unpleasant for discussion, he turned abruptly away. The two women saw him walk out to the well in the yard and stand still, his gaze on the village lights in the distance.
“What do you reckon is the matter with 'im?” Addie inquired, listlessly.
“Go to higher powers 'an me if you want to know,” Amanda retorted, as she proceeded to prepare supper. “Something shore has rubbed 'im the wrong way. He was out o' sorts when he left us, an' he's ready to kill somebody now.”
A few minutes later supper was on the table and Jeff was summoned. He entered the dimly lighted room, dropped his hat on a bed, and sat down at one end of the table. He was hungry, as the others well knew, and yet he ate with less apparent relish than usual. Amanda kept up an incessant flow of half-philosophical chatter with more or less comforting intent, but no part of it evoked comment from the head of the family.
Supper over, Jeff rose, reached for his hat, and was stalking out with bowed head at the low doorway, when Amanda suddenly uttered a little scream of astonishment.