“How’d you come to marry Pa, anyway? You and him’s so different.”

The nymph in Ma leaped to the surface and stayed there a moment, sparkling, laughing, dimpling. “Oh, I dunno. I kept running away and he kept running after. Like that.”

He looked up again quickly at that. “Yeh. That’s it. Fella don’t like to have no girl chasing him all the time. Say, he likes to do the chasing himself. Ain’t that the truth?”

“You tell ‘em!” agreed Ma. A great jovial laugh shook her. Heavy-footed now, but light of heart.

Suddenly: “I’m thinking of going to night school. Learn something. I don’t know nothing.”