"No; I won't have to, but I guess I'll keep on just the same, Jim." "Keep on? What for?" "Well, I rather like it." "But you don't need to--" "I like being my own boss," she said. "I've done a lot o' figuring, Jim, these last three years, and it's kind o' broadened me, I hope. I can't go back where I was. I'm a better woman than I was before, and I hope and believe that I'm better able to be a real mother to my children." Jim looked up at the moon filling the warm, moist air with a transfiguring light that fell in a luminous mist on the distant hills. "I know one thing, Nellie; I'm a better man than I was before, and it's all owin' to you." His voice trembled a little, and the sympathetic tears came into her eyes. She didn't speak at once--she couldn't. At last she stopped him by a touch on the arm. "Jim, I want a partner in my store. Let us begin again, right here. I can't say that I'll ever feel just as I did once--I don't know as it's right to. I looked up to you too much. I expected too much of you, too. Let's begin again, as equal partners." She held out her hand, as one man to another. He took it wonderingly. "All right, Nell; I'll do it." Then, as he put his arm around her, she held up her lips to be kissed. "And we'll be happy again--happy as we deserve, I s'pose," she said, with a smile and a sigh. "It's almost like getting married again, Nell--for me." As they walked off up the sidewalk in the soft moonlight, their arms were interlocked. They loitered like a couple of lovers. The End. Transcriber's Notes Welcome to Project Gutenberg's edition of Main-Travelled Roads by Hamlin Garland. Garland produced several versions of this book during his life. The first was released in 1891, containing six short stories: A Branch Road, Up the Coolly, Among the Corn-Rows, The Return of a Private, Under the Lion's Paw, and Mrs. Ripley's Trip. In 1899, MacMillan released a new version of the book with three additions: The Creamery Man, A Day's Pleasure, and Uncle Ethan Ripley. The 1920 edition of the book added two more short stories: God's Ravens and A "Good Fellow's" Wife. The 1930 edition added The Fireplace and featured illustrations by Garland's wife. The 1930 edition of Main-Travelled Roads is not in the public domain. The last version of the book in the public domain is the 1922 Border Edition, a reprint of the 1920 edition with a foreward written by the author. We used the 1922 Border Edition of the book for this transcription. A scanned version of this book is available on Hathitrust courtesy of The University of Michigan.