When
she finished, her father had fed the horses and was standing
behind her.
"Hit's mighty good to have you back agin, little gal."
It was not often that he smiled or showed tenderness, much less
spoke it thus openly, and June was doubly glad that she had held
her tongue. Then she helped her step-mother get supper. The fire
scorched her face, that had grown unaccustomed to such heat, and
she burned one hand, but she did not let her step-mother see even
that. Again she noticed with aversion the heavy thick dishes and
the pewter spoons and the candle-grease on the oil-cloth, and she
put the dishes down and, while the old woman was out of the room,
attacked the spots viciously. Again she saw her father and Bub
ravenously gobbling their coarse food while she and her step-
mother served and waited, and she began to wonder. The women sat
at the table with the men over in the Gap--why not here? Then her
father went silently to his pipe and Bub to playing with the
kitten at the kitchen-door, while she and her mother ate with
never a word. Something began to stifle her, but she choked it
down. There were the dishes to be cleared away and washed, and the
pans and kettles to be cleaned.
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