Mr. Sewell as he cut at the roast beef lengthwise, being denied by
his wife a pantomimic prayer to be allowed to cut it crosswise,
tried to make talk with Barker about the weather at Willoughby
Pastures. It had been a very dry summer, and he asked if the fall
rains had filled up the springs. He said he really forgot whether it
was an apple year. He also said that he supposed they had dug all
their turnips by this time. He had meant to say potatoes when he
began, but he remembered that he had seen the farmers digging their
potatoes before he came back to town, and so he substituted turnips;
afterwards it seemed to him that dig was not just the word to use in
regard to the harvesting of turnips. He wished he had said, "got
your turnips in," but it appeared to make no difference to Barker,
who answered, "Yes, sir," and "No, sir," and "Yes, sir," and let
each subject drop with that.
III.
The silence grew so deep that the young Sewells talked together in
murmurs, and the clicking of the knives on the plates became
painful. Sewell kept himself from looking at Barker, whom he
nevertheless knew to be changing his knife and fork from one hand to
the other, as doubt after doubt took him as to their conventional
use, and to be getting very little good of his dinner in the process
of settling these questions.
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