She looked over the table.
“I suppose he’s hungry.”
“I don’t believe he’s eaten for several days, Nellie. Maybe longer.”
“He picked a fine time to come here to get filled up. I’m not going to pitch in and cook for him, either. Take him the rest of the eggs, here, bread and jam, there’s some custard left.”
“Never mind the bread and jam. Too much would make him sick.”
“Go feed him in the kitchen. I won’t have him in the dining-room. You should have put him out in the barn.”
He thought that Mink himself would probably have preferred a bed of clean hay, with mice and swallows for company. Ase went to the bedroom with the plate. The old man was too exhausted to know or care where he lay. His eyes were still closed. Ase spoke, and he stirred. He seemed more in coma than in sleep. Ase wonde
