Part Two - The Soul of Nelly Powers

And then it was so nice to be fore-handed and get the churning out of
the way before noon. She would have time this afternoon after the dishes
were done, to sit right down with that sprigged calico dress for little
Addie. She could get the seams all run up on the machine before
supper-time, and have the hand-work, buttonholes and finishing, for
pick-up work for odd minutes. She just loved to sit and sew, in a room
all nice and picked up, and know the house-work was done.

That would be a real pretty dress, she thought, with the pink sprigs
and the pink feather-stitching in mercerized cotton she was going to put
on it. Addie would look sweet in it. And if it was washed careful and
dried in the shade it wouldn't fade so much. It was a good bright pink
to start with. Only Addie ought to have a new hat to wear with it. A
white straw with pink flowers on it. But that would cost a couple of
dollars, anyhow, everything was so dear now. Oh well, 'Gene would let
her buy it. 'Gene would let her do most anything.

She thought with pity of her sisters, mill-hands in West Adams still, or
married to mill-hands, men who got drunk on the sly and didn't work
regular, and wanted a full half of all they made for themselves. 'Gene
and his mother were always scolding about the money they could have had
if they'd kept that wood-land on the mountain. They'd ought to ha' been
really poor the way she had been, so's you didn't know where the next
meal was coming from, or how the rent was going to be paid. She had been
awfully lucky to get 'Gene, who let her decide how much money ought to
be spent on the children's clothes and hers, and never said a thing, or
scolded or bothered. He was kind of funny, 'Gene was, always so sober
and solemn, and it was a sort of bother to have him so crazy about her
still. That had been all right when they were engaged, and first
married. She had liked it all right then, although it always seemed sort
of foolish to her. But men were that way! Only now, when there were
three children and another one coming, and the house to be kept nice,
and the work done up right, and the farmwork and everything going so
good, and so much on her mind, why, it seemed as though they'd ought to
have other things to think about beside kissings and huggings. Not that
'Gene didn't do his share of the work. He was a fine farmer, as good as
anybody in the valley. But he never could settle down, and be
comfortable and quiet with her, like it was natural for old married
folks to do. If she went by him, close, so her arm touched him, why
then, if nobody was there he'd grab at her and kiss her and rumple her
hair, and set her all back in her work. With all she had to do and think
of, and she did her work as good as anybody if she did say it who
shouldn't, she had her day planned before she turned her feet out of bed
in the morning. And she liked to have things go the way she planned
them. She liked 'Gene all right, only she had her work to get done.