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time it is, and Hiram will tell him, and then Bowser will say, yes, let us go and get them.”
    â€œThis pretense about Bowser talking. Do you think Hiram really thinks he does or is the whole thing just make-believe?”
    â€œI don’t honestly know,” I said. “Probably, Hiram thinks so, but what difference does it make? It’s funny with animals. They have personalities and you can set up routines with them. When Bowser is out digging at a woodchuck hole, I go out to get him and drag him out of the hole, caked with mud and dirt and about worn out. Even so, he doesn’t want to go home. He is committed to that woodchuck. But I grab him by the tail and say, ‘Git for home, Bowser,’ and he goes, trotting ahead of me. But I’ve got to grab him by the tail and I have to say the words. Otherwise, he’d never go home with me. I couldn’t coax him home and I couldn’t chase him home. But when I go through that silly business, he always heads for home.”
    She laughed. “You and Bowser! Both of you are crazy.”
    â€œOf course we are. You can’t live with a dog for years …”
    â€œAnd chickens. I remember I did see some about. Have you pigs and horses and …”
    â€œNo. Chickens are all. Eggs to eat and an occasional fryer. I considered buying a cow, but a cow is too much bother.”
    â€œAsa, I want to talk business with you. You said you didn’t want the university horning in—I think is the way you put it—on this dig of yours. What would you think of me horning in?”
    I had a forkful of salad halfway to my mouth and now I put it down. There was something in the way she said it that was almost a warning. I don’t know what it was, but all at once, I was a little scared.
    â€œHorn in?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
    â€œLet me share your work with you.”
    â€œWhat a silly thing to ask,” I said. “Of course you can share it with me. Haven’t I already shared my discovery with you, telling you about it?”
    â€œBut that wasn’t what I was talking about. I wasn’t asking for the sharing as a gift. I meant a partnership. You don’t want to go back to teaching. You want to keep on with the dig and I think you should. You are onto something important and it shouldn’t be interrupted. If I could help a little so you wouldn’t have to leave …”
    â€œNo,” I said harshly. “Don’t go any further. No, I wouldn’t have it. You’re offering to finance me and I won’t have it.”
    â€œYou make it sound so terrible,” she said. “As if I had proposed something horrible. I’m not trying to take you over, Asa. It isn’t that. I have faith in you, is all, and it’s a shame that you have to …”
    â€œIt’s big business offering to bail out the underprivileged,” I said angrily. “Damn it, Rila, I will not be patronized.”
    â€œI’m sorry, then, that I mentioned it. I had hoped you’d understand.”
    â€œGoddamn it, why did you have to mention it? You should know me better than that. It all was going so fine and now …”
    â€œAsa, remember the last time. The horrible fight we had. It ruined twenty years for us. Let us not let that happen again.”
    â€œFight? I don’t remember any fight.”
    â€œI was the one who was angry that time. You had gone off with a couple of the men and got plastered, neglecting me. You tried to explain, you tried to say you were sorry, but I wouldn’t listen. It was the last day at the dig or the next to the last day and I never had the time to get over being angry. We can’t let something like that happen now. At least, I don’t want it to. How about you?”
    â€œNo,” I said, “neither do I want that to happen. But I can’t take money from you. No matter how well off you are, how little you would miss