"Wait a minute.

What's your rush?
Hold on!" I halted reluctantly.
"Fishing again, I see," he observed, as he reached my side.

"Any luck ?" "Fair," I told him.
"What pond ?" "Seabury's." "Go alone ?" "Yes." That I had not been alone since was no business of his.
"Humph! You ain't exactly what a fellow'd call talkative this afternoon, seems to me.

Anything wrong ?" "No." "Tuckered out ?" "I guess so." "Well, so am I, but I ain't had your fun getting that way.

Small and I have been at it night and day getting things in shape so he could leave.
He's gone.