human
You've made me cry nearly a quart since morning, she went on, with assumed severity,
gpt
Do you see those birds?
human
Yes, what of it?
gpt
Well, they're married, aren't they?
human
I hope they are, laughed Harlan,
gpt
Who's bringing the straw and feathers for the nest?
human
Both, apparently,
gpt
Why isn't she rocking herself on a bough, and keeping her nails nice, and fixing her feathers in the latest style, or perhaps going off to some fool bird club while he builds the nest by himself?
human
Don't know.
gpt
Nor anybody else, she continued, with much satisfaction.
human
Now, if she happened to have two hundred and twelve feathers, of the proper size and shape to go into that nest, do you suppose he'd refuse to touch them, and make her cry because she brought them to him?
gpt
Probably he wouldn't,
human
Do you suppose, she queried,
gpt
Indeed he doesn't!
human
And still, he's letting her help him.
gpt
But----
human
Now, listen, Harlan. We've got a house, with more than enough furniture to make it comfortable, though it's not the kind of furniture either of us particularly like. Instead of buying a typewriter, we'll rent one for three or four dollars a month until we have enough money to buy one. And I'm going to have a cow and some chickens and a garden, and I'm going to sell milk and butter and cream and fresh eggs and vegetables and chickens and fruit to the sanitarium, and----
gpt
The sanitarium people must have plenty of those things.
human
But not the kind I'm going to raise, nor put up as I'm going to put it up, and we'll be raising most of our own living besides. You can write when you feel like it, and be helping me when you don't feel like it, and before we know it, we'll be rich. Oh, Harlan, I feel like Eve all alone in the Garden with Adam!
gpt
Well,
human
Won't it be lovely, she cried ecstatically,
gpt
I guess not, interrupted Harlan, firmly.
human
If you're going to do that sort of thing, you'll have people to do the work when I can't help you. The idea of my wife driving a vegetable cart!
gpt
All right, answered Dorothy, submissively, wise enough to let small points settle themselves and have her own way in things that really mattered.
human
I've not forgotten that I promised to obey you.