It was really more on my account than her'n, fer I got to kind o' feelin' that when the meat was tough or the pie wa'n't done on the bottom that I was 'sociated with it, an' gen'ally I wanted a place of my own.

But," he added, "I guess it was a mistake, fur 's she was concerned." "Why ?" said John, feeling that some show of interest was incumbent.
"I reckon," said David, "'t she kind o' missed the comp'ny an' the talk at table, an' the goin's on gen'ally, an' mebbe the work of runnin' the place--she was a great worker--an' it got to be some diff'rent, I s'pose, after a spell, settin' down to three meals a day with jest only me 'stid of a tableful, to say nothin' of the evenin's.

I was glad enough to have a place of my own, but at the same time I hadn't ben used to settin' 'round with nothin' pertic'ler to do or say, with somebody else that hadn't neither, an' I wa'n't then nor ain't now, fer that matter, any great hand fer readin'.

Then, too, we'd moved into a diff'rent part o' the town where my wife wa'n't acquainted.

Wa'al, anyway, fust things begun to drag some--she begun to have spells of not speakin', an' then she begun to git notions about me.