"No one had any news of him, and, as I told you before, I didn't expect any." "Why don't you say right out you didn't WANT any ?" said the old man, sneeringly.

"Much you inquired! No; I orter hev gone myself, and I would if I was master here, instead of me and your mother bein' the dust of the yearth beneath your feet." The young girl entered the house, followed by the old man, passing an old woman seated by the window, who seemed to be nursing her resentment and a large Bible which she held clasped against her shawled bosom at the same moment.

Going to the wall, she hung up her large hat and slightly shook the red dust from her skirts as she continued her explanation, in the same deep voice, with a certain monotony of logic and possibly of purpose and practice also.
"You and mother know as well as I do, father, that Stephen is no more to be depended upon than the wind that blows.

It's three years since he has been promising to come, and even getting money to come, and yet he has never showed his face, though he has been a dozen times within five miles of this house.

He doesn't come because he doesn't want to come.