human
Aren't you at all surprised to see me, Clara Vavrika?
gpt
No; I was expecting to see you. Mother Ericson telephoned Olaf last night that you were here.
human
Telephoned? That must have been while Eric and I were out walking. Isn't she enterprising? Lift this screen, won't you?
gpt
You didn't think you were going to get ahead of your mother, did you?
human
Oh, I do sometimes. You see, I'm ahead of her now. I'm supposed to be in Anders' wheat-field. But, as we were leaving, Mother ran her car into a soft place beside the road and sank up to the hubs. While they were going for horses to pull her out, I cut away behind the stacks and escaped.
gpt
You've got them guessing already. I don't know what your mother said to Olaf over the telephone, but he came back looking as if he'd seen a ghost, and he didn't go to bed until a dreadful hour--ten o'clock, I should think. He sat out on the porch in the dark like a graven image. It had been one of his talkative days, too.
human
Anders and Otto and Peter looked as if they had seen ghosts, too, over in the threshing-field. What's the matter with them all?
gpt
Well, for one thing, they've always been afraid you have the other will.
human
The other will?
gpt
Yes. A later one. They knew your father made another, but they never knew what he did with it. They almost tore the old house to pieces looking for it. They always suspected that he carried on a clandestine correspondence with you, for the one thing he would do was to get his own mail himself. So they thought he might have sent the new will to you for safekeeping. The old one, leaving everything to your mother, was made long before you went away, and it's understood among them that it cuts you out--that she will leave all the property to the others. Your father made the second will to prevent that. I've been hoping you had it. It would be such fun to spring it on them.
human
Come, now, you're malicious.
gpt
No, I'm not. But I'd like something to happen to stir them all up, just for once. There never was such a family for having nothing ever happen to them but dinner and threshing. I'd almost be willing to die, just to have a funeral. _You_ wouldn't stand it for three weeks.
human
I wouldn't? My dear young lady, how do you know what I can stand? _You_ wouldn't wait to find out.
gpt
I didn't believe you would ever come back--
human
Eric believed I would, and he was only a baby when I went away. However, all's well that ends well, and I haven't come back to be a skeleton at the feast. We mustn't quarrel. Mother will be here with a search-warrant pretty soon. He swung round and faced her, thrusting his hands into his coat pockets.
gpt
Come, you ought to be glad to see me, if you want something to happen. I'm something, even without a will. We can have a little fun, can't we? I think we can!
human
I think we can!