"I'm sorry."

"Do you think it's going to snow?"

The husband had lived so long and closely with his wife, that the
mechanism of their minds moved much like the two wall-clocks in
adjoining rooms of the house; which ticked and struck, year after
year, never quite together and never far apart. When David was
first with one and then with another, he was often obliged to
answer the same questions twice--sometimes thrice, since his mother
alone required two identical responses. He replied now with his
invariable and patient courtesy--yet scarcely patient, inasmuch as
this did not try him.

"What made you so late?"

David explained again.

"How much hemp did you break?"

"I didn't weigh it, father. Fifty or sixty pounds, perhaps."

"How many more shocks are there in the field?"

"Twelve or fifteen. I wish there were a hundred."

"I wish so, too," said David's mother, smiling plaintively at her
husband.