“All the same,” I reiterated, “the Bible says we gotta, and we have!” “Well, I’ll do it till I’m twenty-one,” assented Nathan, “’cause I can’t help myself. Then I’ll go to hell and roast, if it’s wicked—but I’ll stop lovin’ him and do as I honest please. Between the time I’m twenty-one and the time I go to hell, I’ll feel peaceful and satisfied for a while, anyhow.” I felt my friend was damning himself irrevocably, sinning against the Holy Ghost. I had to get away from those sulphur fumes, so I went back to poetry. “Howja know you can write poetry to make your livin’ at it? Have you tried?” “Yeah! Lots of times. It’s a cinch!” “You mean you’ve got some poems writ already?” “Sure, slathers of ’em.” “Where are they?” “Home—locked up so Pa won’t get ’em—along with Bernie’s letters.” “What’s your Ma think about you bein’ a poet?” “Oh, she don’t think nothin’, only what a hard time she has with Pa and that Edith will marry money.” “Ain’t you ever talked with her about it?” “I see myself!” “Thunder! Can’t you go to your Ma and talk about—things—when you wanna?” “No! ‘Stead o’ that, I have to listen to Ma’s troubles. And if I don’t happen to agree with her, she gets to twitchin’ all over her face and goes off to rock in the dark by herself. She tells me, ‘Oh, you’re growin’ up into a small-sized edition of your father!’ Damn her, too!” “But if you can’t talk with your Ma about things, and what you’re gonna be when you’re growed up, who can you talk ’em with?” “Don’t talk ’em with nobody—exceptin’ you sometimes. Keep ’em to myself. That’s why I wanner marry Bernie just as quick as I can. I gotta feelin’ way down inside that she’ll listen when she’s my wife, and help.” He spoke the word wife with difficulty. III “I have always understood my children perfectly,” declared Anna Forge years later, when the Forge domestic structure went down in wreckage, as it was bound to go down in wreckage. “Edith would have been all right if it hadn’t been for her brother’s example always before her. And Nathan, he took after his father—bigoted, stubborn, cold-blooded, hard-hearted, indifferent to those who have thanklessly tried to do their utmost to help him.”