Friday noon
She did not speak -- speech was impossible before that tableful of men -- but Bud went out feeling as though she had told him that her contempt for Lew was beyond words , and that his rheumatism brought no pity whatever . Wednesday passed , Thursday came , and still there was no chance to speak a word in private . The kitchen drudge was hedged about by open ears and curious eyes , and save at meal-time she was invisible to the men unless they glimpsed her for a moment in the kitchen door . Thursday brought a thunder storm with plenty of rain , and in the drizzle that held over until Friday noon Bud went out to an old calf shed which he had discovered in the edge of the pasture , and gathered his neckerchief full of mushrooms . Bud hated mushrooms , but he carried them to the machine shed and waited until he was sure that Honey was in the sitting room playing the piano -- and hitting what Bud called a blue note now and then -- and that Lew was in the bunk-house with the other men , and Dave and old Pop were in Pop 's shack . Then , and then only , Bud took long steps to the kitchen door , carrying his mushrooms as tenderly as though they were eggs for hatching . Marian was up to her dimpled elbows in bread dough when he went in .