ANNA--[Scornfully.] Me? On a dirty coal barge! What d'you think I am? MARTHY--[Resentfully.] What d'yuh know about barges, huh? Bet yuh ain't never seen one. That's what comes of his bringing yuh up inland--away from the old devil sea--where yuh'd be safe--Gawd! [The irony of it strikes her sense of humor and she laughs hoarsely.] ANNA--[Angrily.] His bringing me up! Is that what he tells people! I like his nerve! He let them cousins of my Old Woman's keep me on their farm and work me to death like a dog. MARTHY--Well, he's got queer notions on some things. I've heard him say a farm was the best place for a kid. ANNA--Sure. That's what he'd always answer back--and a lot of crazy stuff about staying away from the sea--stuff I couldn't make head or tail to. I thought he must be nutty. MARTHY--He is on that one point. [Casually.] So yuh didn't fall for life on the farm, huh? ANNA--I should say not! The old man of the family, his wife, and four sons--I had to slave for all of 'em. I was only a poor relation, and they treated me worse than they dare treat a hired girl. [After a moment's hesitation--somberly.] It was one of the sons--the youngest--started me--when I was sixteen. After that, I hated 'em so I'd killed 'em all if I'd stayed. So I run away--to St. Paul. MARTHY--[Who has been listening sympathetically.] I've heard Old Chris talkin' about your bein' a nurse girl out there. Was that all a bluff yuh put up when yuh wrote him? ANNA--Not on your life, it wasn't. It was true for two years. I didn't go wrong all at one jump. Being a nurse girl was yust what finished me. Taking care of other people's kids, always listening to their bawling and crying, caged in, when you're only a kid yourself and want to go out and see things. At last I got the chance--to get into that house. And you bet your life I took it! [Defiantly.] And I ain't sorry neither. [After a pause--with bitter hatred.] It was all men's fault--the whole business. It was men on the farm ordering and beating me--and giving me the wrong start. Then when I was a nurse, it was men again hanging around, bothering me, trying to see what they could get. [She gives a hard laugh.] And now it's men all the time. Gawd, I hate 'em all, every mother's son of 'em! Don't you? MARTHY--Oh, I dunno. There's good ones and bad ones, kid. You've just had a run of bad luck with 'em, that's all. Your Old Man, now--old Chris--he's a good one. ANNA--[Sceptically.] He'll have to show me. MARTHY--Yuh kept right on writing him yuh was a nurse girl still, even after yuh was in the house, didn't yuh? ANNA--Sure. [Cynically.] Not that I think he'd care a darn. MARTHY--Yuh're all wrong about him, kid, [Earnestly.] I know Old Chris well for a long time. He's talked to me 'bout you lots o' times. He thinks the world o' you, honest he does. ANNA--Aw, quit the kiddin'!