Then he skinned rats, and watched the clock, because if Jimmy did not come by eleven, it meant he must drive to town and bring him home.

No wonder Jimmy chilled at the trapping when he kept his blood on fire with whiskey.

At half-past ten, Dannie, with scarcely half the rats finished, went out into the storm and hitched to the single buggy.

Then he tapped at Mary Malone's door, quite softly, so that he would not disturb her if she had gone to bed.
She was not sleeping, however, and the loneliness of her slight figure, as she stood with the lighted room behind her, struck Dannie forcibly, so that his voice trembled with pity as he said: "Mary, I've run out o' my curing compound juist in the midst of skinning the finest bunch o' rats we've taken frae the traps this winter.

I am going to drive to town fra some more before the stores close, and we will be back in less than an hour.