Page 14 (1/2)

"What’s the trouble? Is Patience already there?"

"No,another baby I called her at home and the vet told me where she was and then when I tracked her down, she told me to fetch you, that you’d sit with et there"

Oh, Patience! How could you do this? Even looking for work soundswith a woman in labor

"She’ll likely be back in Union County within an hour or two We need you bad, ma’am"

"Is this your wife’s first baby?"

"Yes and she’s not doing well Please co awful"

"Did you leave her alone?"

"Neighbor girl’s sitting with her now, but she don’t know nothin’ Just a kid Never saw nothin’ born before but a calf and a set of kittens"

I let out air in a long sigh My favorite things! Blood, goo, fear of so woe He’s disabled and I have no one to watch hiuess I can erous, is he?"

"You’ve heard about him?"

"Most of Union County has by now They say he’s not hi" I don’t stop to contradict another variation of Isaac’s story It’s as good an explanation as any, and though Blum wasn’t actually in the accident he becae of plans" I run back inside forto a delivery Hopefully, Patience will be there soon"

Maybe we’ll earn a dollar, I think Maybe Mr Markey is one of the few far well Who knows? I consider with optimism, maybe we’ll earn a whole fiver

The anxious father-to-be takes off in his truck, spitting gravel, and I follow in the Pontiac, trying to keep up

Dahlila

The Markey ho the Hope Valley and though his road, "Snake Hollow," sounds forbidding, the setting is beautiful The two-story brick dwelling, once painted white, looks out across the hills to the spruce, pine, and hemlock reen and cut short by the black-and-white cattle that graze there I’, when a scream cuts the fresh air

"Eeeeeeee! I can’t do this anyet in here! I can’t take it, I tell you!"