Kennedy when the girl was looking, and kissed his hand at
'Cindy when her mother was not looking.
He looked forward every afternoon to these little exchanges of wit,
and was depressed when for any reason the womenfolks were
away. There were other places pleasanter than the Kennedy
farm-some of "the Dutchmen" had fine big brick houses and finer
and bigger barns, but their women were mostly homely and went
around barefooted and barelegged, with ugly blue dresses hanging
frayed and greasy round their lank ribs and big joints.
"Some way their big houses have a look like a stable when you get
close to 'em," Claude said to 'Cindy once. "Their women work so
much in the field they don't have any time to fix up-the way you
do. I don't believe in women workin' in the fields." He said this
looking 'Cindy in the face. "My wife needn't set her foot outdoors
'less she's a mind to."
"Oh, you can talk," replied the girl scornfully, "but you'd be like
the rest of 'em." But she was glad that she had on a clean collar and
apron-if it was ironing day.
What Claude would have said further 'Cindy could not divine, for
her mother called her away, as she generally did when she saw her
daughter lingering too long with the creamery man.
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