He was mighty fond of his family. Besides, the job gave
him more time with the wife and kids than the average man gets. When he
was at home, he was at home three months on end at times. That's better
than the ordinary man. A man in a city, for example, leaves home early
and gets home late, and then he's too grouchy what with the close air
and one thing and another to find the children anything but an infernal
nuisance. Now a man away from his home for a long spell on end really
enjoys the company when he does get home, and they enjoy his company,
too. Then, too, he does not get to messing into the affairs of the
family. He's not the Lord Almighty and Supreme Court Judge all the time.
Besides that, the wife and children get a kind of independence.
"Now this being so, Somerfield was what he was. He had ideas about
religion. He was full of the notion that things are arranged so that if
you live up to a certain code, you'll get a reward. 'Do right, and
you'll come out right,' was one of his sayings. 'The wages of sin is
death,' was another. Point out to him that virtue got paid in the same
coin, and he'd argue. No use. In a way he was like a man who wouldn't
walk under a ladder or spill salt. You know.
"Naturally, for him things were awkward at the Tlinga village.
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