`` Why should I ? '' retorted Josephine . `` Tell me that , Ida Sentner . '' `` Because it is high time you were married , '' said Mrs. Tom decisively . `` I do n't believe in women living single . And I do n't see what better you can do than take David Hartley . '' Josephine looked at her sister with the interested expression of a person who is trying to understand some mental attitude in another which is a standing puzzle to her . Ida 's evident wish to see her married always amused Josephine . Ida had married very young and for fifteen years her life had been one of drudgery and ill-health . Tom Sentner was a lazy , shiftless fellow . He neglected his family and was drunk half his time . Meadowby people said that he beat his wife when `` on the spree , '' but Josephine did not believe that , because she did not think that Ida could keep from telling her if it were so . Ida Sentner was not given to bearing her trials in silence . Had it not been for Josephine 's assistance , Tom Sentner 's family would have stood an excellent chance of starvation . Josephine practically kept them , and her generosity never failed or stinted . She fed and clothed her nephews and nieces , and all the gray socks whose destination puzzled David so much went to the Sentners . As for Josephine herself , she had a good farm , a comfortable house , a plump bank account , and was an independent , unworried woman . And yet , in the face of all this , Mrs. Tom Sentner could bewail the fact that Josephine had no husband to look out for her . Josephine shrugged her shoulders and gave up the conundrum , merely saying ironically , in reply to her sister 's remark : `` And go to live with Zillah Hartley ? '' `` You know very well you would n't have to do that .
Ever since John Hartley 's wife XXXXX the Creek died he 's been wanting Zillah to go and keep house for him , and if David got married Zillah 'd go quick .
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