Despite their different backgrounds, Emaline and Juanita had a great deal in common. They had both been through tragedies, they had seen much and forgotten little, they were trying to make the most of a hard life. They both loved to read, they took an interest in politics and the world. Like Emaline’s aunts, Juanita knew at least a little bit about a good many things. During her years with Dr. Hodgson, she had picked up smatterings of his Harvard education. She knew about medicine and books, she knew a great deal about the hidden chambers of the human heart. Gradually, Emaline began to confide in Juanita. With her, Emaline felt she could ask questions she could not ask of anyone else. She told Juanita about how Jake was after her all the time. Even her broken leg hadn’t eased his sexual demands. As soon as she was home from the hospital, he wanted her two or three times a day. “I was just wondering. Are all men the same way?”

“No, they are not. Dr. Hodgson, he would never touch me unless I did something to get his attention. He always had his mind on his work, nothing else. And he was a very shy man, too shy to demand things. He would crawl into bed at night and before I could get undressed, he was asleep. Sometimes I wished he would be a little more like your Jake. But we were working together for twelve years before we were married and he seemed never to think of lovemaking, so marriage did not change him in that way. Have you asked Jake not to be so ‘at you,’ as you say?”

“I’ve tried to tell him it’s too much for me. It gets to where it’s just another chore, like feeding the chickens or doing the washing up.”

“Then you have to be firm with him. Tell him it’s too much.”

“If I do, I’m afraid he’ll be off after someone else. You’ve seen what he’s like. Head always on a swivel, my friend Calla says.”

“I’m sorry, I do not know this expression.”

“It means he’s always looking at other women. You see the way he is with you. When you first came, it was like his tongue was on the floor all the time.”

“I have seen how he looks at me. But I see also that he loves you very much. He is very tender with you.”

“Not enough to be careful when he has me riding the harrow.”

“That is different. That was careless and stupid. He feels very bad about this, so perhaps it will not happen again.”

“It’s the way he is. He doesn’t see danger. When we first moved here, we were living in the basement house down the hill. I woke up one morning and he was jumping the motorcycle over the house.”