While on a monthly trip to the store for provisions, Mary picks up a brochure on beekeeping as she remembers Dick telling her how bee swarms pass over the farm. While leaving the store, a farmer jokes with Dick, whom he calls Jonah, about his luck with farming. Though Dick assures the man things are going well, Mary notes the sarcasm in the man’s tone, and her vision of Dick as a competent farmer begins to decline as she considers how other farmers view him and his bad luck. Dick’s facial expression is one of defeat, and one that infuriates Mary. After the encounter, Dick is tense, and when he hits a passing bicycle, he goes into a rage. Mary is embarrassed from the attention, and the couple heads back home.

Mary is unable to shake the derision in the farmer’s voice as he spoke to “Jonah” earlier. She had always believed that, though she did not like Dick as a husband, he was a competent farmer. It seems now that even that view was incorrect. Mary wonders about the veracity of this

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