human
Jim, I began,
gpt
Forty-two,
human
More than twice as old as Ruby, aren't you? Old enough, really, to be her father. You love her, don't you--love her for herself--not yourself? You wouldn't let anything hurt her if you could help it. You were right when you said every bird has its mate. That's true, Jim, and the way it ought to be--but they mate with _this_ year's birds, not _last_ year's. When men get as old as you and I we forget these things sometimes, but they are true all the same.
gpt
I know it, he broke out,
human
I know it; you can't tell me nothin' about it. I thought it all over more'n a hundred times lately. I could bite my tongue off for sayin' what I did to her, and spilin' her visit, but it's done now and I can't help it, and I've got to stay here and bear it.
gpt
No, Jim, don't stay here. So long as she sees you around here she'll be unhappy, and you will be equally miserable. Go away from here; find work somewhere else.
human
When?
gpt
Now; right away; before she comes back at Christmas.
human
No, I can't do it, and I won't. Not till she graduates and gits her certificate. That'll be next June.
gpt
What's that got to do with it?
human
Got a good deal to do with it. If I should leave now jes's winter's comin' on I mightn't git another job, and she'd have to come home and her eddication be sp'ilt.
gpt
What would bring her home?
human
What would bring her home? he repeated, with some irritation.
gpt
Why they'd send her if the bills warn't paid--that's what Marm Marvin couldn't help her, and Jed wouldn't give her a cent. Them school-bills, you know, I've always paid out o' my wages--that's why Jed let her go. No; I'll stick it out here till she finishes, if it kills me. Baby-girl sha'n't miss nothin' through me.