SCOTT. Seems to me it’s a pretty slick place right now.
MAYO. (_shaking his head_) It’s too small. We need more land to make it amount to much, and we ain’t got the capital to buy it. (ANDREW _enters from the kitchen. His hat is on, and he carries a lighted lantern in his hand. He goes to the door in the rear leading out_).
ANDREW. (_opens the door and pauses_) Anything else you can think of to be done, Pa?
MAYO. No, nothin’ I know of. (ANDREW _goes out, shutting the door_).
MRS. MAYO. (_after a pause_) What’s come over Andy tonight, I wonder? He acts so strange.
MAYO. He does seem sort o’ glum and out of sorts. It’s ’count o’ Robert leavin’, I s’pose. (_To_ SCOTT) Dick, you wouldn’t believe how them boys o’ mine sticks together. They ain’t like most brothers. They’ve been thick as thieves all their lives, with nary a quarrel I kin remember.
SCOTT. No need to tell me that. I can see how they take to each other.
MRS. MAYO. (_pursuing her train of thought_) Did you notice, James, how queer everyone was at supper? Robert seemed stirred up about something; and Ruth was so flustered and giggly; and Andy sat there dumb, looking as if he’d lost his best friend; and all of them only nibbled at their food.
MAYO. Guess they was all thinkin’ about tomorrow, same as us.
MRS. MAYO. (_shaking her head_) No. I’m afraid somethin’s happened--somethin’ else.
MAYO. (_after a pause--frowning_) I hope her and Andy ain’t had a serious fallin’-out. I always sorter hoped they’d hitch up together sooner or later. What d’you say, Dick? Don’t you think them two’d pair up well?
SCOTT. (_nodding his head approvingly_) A sweet, wholesome couple they’d make.
MAYO. It’d be a good thing for Andy in more ways than one. I ain’t what you’d call calculatin’ generally, and I b’lieve in lettin’ young folks run their affairs to suit themselves; but there’s advantages for both o’ them in this match you can’t overlook in reason. The Atkins farm is right next to ourn. Jined together they’d make a jim-dandy of a place, with plenty o’ room to work in. And bein’ a widder with only a daughter, and laid up all the time to boot, Mrs. Atkins can’t do nothin’ with the place as it ought to be done. She needs a man, a first-class farmer, to take hold o’ things; and Andy’s just the one.