“Dear Joe, you’ve come back to me and your babies!” And the tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I don’t need you to tell me that—­I got plenty sense enough to know when I’m home!” said Montgomery, not without bitterness.

“I mourned you like you was passed away, until your letter come!” said Nellie, and the memory of her sufferings set her sobbing afresh.

“Oh, great hell!” exclaimed Joe dejectedly.  “Why can’t you act cheerful?  What’s the good of takin’ on, anyhow—­I don’t like tombstone talk.”

“It was just the shock of seein’ you standin’ there in the door like I seen you so often!” said Nellie weakly.

“If that ain’t a woman for you, miserable because she’s happy.  Say, stop chokin’ me; I won’t stand for much more of this nonsense, you might know I don’t like these to-dos!”

“You don’t know what I’ve suffered, Joe!”

“That’s a woman for you every time—­always thinkin’ of herself!  To hear you talk any one would think I’d been to a church picnic; I look like I’d been to a picnic, don’t I?  Yes, I do—­like hell!”

“They said you would never come back to me,” moaned Nellie.

“Who said that?” asked Mr. Montgomery aggressively.

“Everybody—­the neighbors—­Shrimplin—­they all said it!”

“Ain’t I told you never to listen to gossip, and ain’t I always done what’s right?” interrogated the handy-man severely.

“Yes, always, Joe,” said Nellie.

“Then you might know’d I’d come back when I got plenty good and ready.  I fooled ’em all, and I’m here to stay—­that is if you keep your hands off me!”

“You mean it, Joe?” asked Nellie.

“What?  About your keepin’ your hands off me?  Yes, you bet I do!”

And Montgomery by a not ungentle effort released himself from his wife’s embrace.  This act so restored his self-respect that he grinned pleasantly at her.

“I don’t know when I been so happy, Joe—­it’s awful nice to have you back!” said Nellie, wiping her eyes on the corner of her apron.

“There’s some sense in your sayin’ that,” said the handy-man, shaking his head.  “You ought to feel happy.”

“You don’t ask after your children, Joe.—­”

“Don’t I?  Well, maybe you don’t give me no time to!” said Mr. Montgomery, but without any special enthusiasm, since the truth was that his interest in his numerous offspring was most casual.

“They’re all well, and the littlest, Tom—­the one you never seen—­has got his first tooth!” said Nellie.

Joe grunted at this information.

“He’ll have more by and by, won’t he?” he said.

“How you talk, of course he will!”

“He’d have a devil of a time chewin’ his food if he didn’t,” observed, the handy-man with a throaty chuckle.

“And, Joe, I got the twenty dollars you sent!”

“Is any of it left?” inquired Mr. Montgomery, with sudden interest.