The problem in the background of her consciousness was how to help him,
and she turned the conversation in that direction; but it was Martin who
came to the point first.

"I wonder if I can get some advice from you," he began, and received an
acquiescence of willingness that made his heart bound. "You remember the
other time I was here I said I couldn't talk about books an' things
because I didn't know how? Well, I've ben doin' a lot of thinkin' ever
since. I've ben to the library a whole lot, but most of the books I've
tackled have ben over my head. Mebbe I'd better begin at the beginnin'.
I ain't never had no advantages. I've worked pretty hard ever since I
was a kid, an' since I've ben to the library, lookin' with new eyes at
books--an' lookin' at new books, too--I've just about concluded that I
ain't ben reading the right kind. You know the books you find in cattle-
camps an' fo'c's'ls ain't the same you've got in this house, for
instance. Well, that's the sort of readin' matter I've ben accustomed
to. And yet--an' I ain't just makin' a brag of it--I've ben different
from the people I've herded with. Not that I'm any better than the
sailors an' cow-punchers I travelled with,--I was cow-punchin' for a
short time, you know,--but I always liked books, read everything I could
lay hands on, an'--well, I guess I think differently from most of 'em.

"Now, to come to what I'm drivin' at. I was never inside a house like
this. When I come a week ago, an' saw all this, an' you, an' your
mother, an' brothers, an' everything--well, I liked it. I'd heard about
such things an' read about such things in some of the books, an' when I
looked around at your house, why, the books come true. But the thing I'm
after is I liked it. I wanted it. I want it now. I want to breathe air
like you get in this house--air that is filled with books, and pictures,
and beautiful things, where people talk in low voices an' are clean, an'