This--this is a very hard place for a woman." "It ain't so easy fer a man! But I couldn't have done no other way, could I ?" She made no answer.

"Are there many other women in this valley, Mr.
Gage ?" she asked after a time.

"Who are they?
What are they like ?" "Five, in twenty-two miles between my place and town, ma'am," he answered, "when they're home.

The nearedest one to us is about couple miles, unless you cut through the fields." "Who is she?
What is she like ?" "That is Mis' Davidson, our school ma'am-- She's the only woman I seen a'most all last summer, unlessen onct in a while a woman would come out with some fishing party in a automobile.

Most of them crosses up above on the bridge and comes down the other side of the creek from us.
Seems to me sometimes women has always been just acrosst the creek from me, ma'am.