But that made no more than a passing impression upon her. She was
thinking, as she removed her hat and gloves, of what queer angles come
now and then to the human mind. She wondered why she should be
sufficiently interested in her brother's hired men to drive off a
compelling attack of the blues in consideration of them as men.
Nevertheless, she found herself unable to view them as she had viewed,
say, the clerks in her father's office.
She began to brush her hair and to wonder what sort of food would be
served for supper.
CHAPTER IV
A FORETASTE OF THINGS TO COME
Half an hour later she sat down with her brother at one end of a table
that was but a long bench covered with oilcloth. Chairs there were none.
A narrow movable bench on each side of the fixed table furnished seating
capacity for twenty men, provided none objected to an occasional nudging
from his neighbor's elbow. The dishes, different from any she had ever
eaten from, were of enormously thick porcelain, dead white, variously
chipped and cracked with fine seams. But the food, if plain, was of
excellent quality, tastily cooked. She discovered herself with an
appetite wholly independent of silver and cut glass and linen. The tin
spoons and steel knives and forks harrowed her aesthetic sense without
impairing her ability to satisfy hunger.
They had the dining room to themselves. Through a single shiplap
partition rose a rumble of masculine talk, where the logging crew loafed
in their bunkhouse.
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