Part 8 (1/2)

”Elias, you can take a long running jump into the nearest duck pond.”

Without looking back and without entering the store, he turned and strode through the darkness toward his house. A man who turned his back on the land almost turned his back on G.o.d too. But one who risked everything his family had was not a man at all. Joe entered the house.

Emma was sewing at the table and she looked up, and concern flooded her eyes.

”Was there n.o.body at the store?”

”I didn't go. I met Elias.”

Emma waited expectantly. For a short s.p.a.ce Joe strode up and down the floor. Then he turned to face her.

”Elias offered to carry us another year. All he wants is a mortgage on everything that isn't already mortgaged to him.”

Emma gaped, and Joe said quickly, ”I told him to--I told him no.”

She half rose out of her chair. ”Joe, maybe you should have--”

”No!” he interrupted almost fiercely. ”I won't do it! We're in debt as far as we're ever going to be! Some things will remain ours!”

There was a short silence while both pursued their own thoughts. Emma turned a worried face to him.

”Do you think you can make another crop?”

Joe looked at Emma and then he looked beyond her. Outside the night was black, but in his mind's eye he could clearly see the ravaged fields. In his muscles he could feel the ache of the plowing and the planting of the new crop. In the pit of his stomach he could already feel the pain and rage that he would feel if the new crop should be destroyed by frost.

Emma waited, and then she got to her feet with an anxious haste. ”Pete Domley will pay for the seed, Joe. Barbara and I can help with the planting.”

Now suddenly he didn't want to comfort her any more, nor to bolster up her hopes about the new crop. This was a time for facing facts.

”Emma,” he said, and his lips felt dry and tight with the effort to control himself. ”Emma, there's free land for the taking in the west.”

She drew back as though she had been slapped. ”That's a dream, Joe. A bright dream.”

”It's not a dream,” he said. ”It's real land, and real people are going out there to live on it.”

She clasped her hands in front of her, and he saw that they were trembling. Yet he made no move to go to her.

”We can't do it,” she said. ”Don't you see we can't do it? We've got six children to think about.”

”Other people are doing it with children,” he said doggedly.

”You can't make me do it!” she said wildly. ”I'm not going to leave this house--not ever. We'll make out somehow. If need be, Pete Domley will take you on for a year--he owes you that after what happened.”

The mighty storm that had been brewing in him broke now, and he lashed out at her. ”I'm not going to be a hired man again, do you hear! I finished with that, and I'm not going back to it!”

His voice, harsh and loud, shattered Emma's self-control. She had always known that Joe could be angry, but never before had his anger been directed against herself. She went white, swayed for a moment, and then went unsteadily to the window. She stood clinging to the sill, staring out into the blackness.

He watched her in silence. Then he went to her, turned her around and made her look at him.