A man named Smith stops at the end of a bridge on a main road to fish. He sees a farmer sitting there with a puppy. Smith and the farmer start talking as Smith fishes. Smith asks if the puppy is for sale, and the farmer says that he would not sell it for any price, and that it keeps him company because he lives by himself. He points out his house, which is on a tall hill down the road. Smith remarks that farmers do not usually live alone, and the farmer explains that his wife left him two years ago when she ran off with another man. The farmer insists that he does not care about his wife and the other man, and that his wife was hard to get along with and he does not miss her. He says that after their child stopped nursing, his wife would stay away for days at a time, and she spent all of his money on clothes. He thought the child would change her, but it did not. Smith asks what happened to the child, and the farmer reveals that it died. He somewhat blames his wife for not being there to look after the child, because he went out to feed the horses and the child fell against the stove. The farmer says that he does not want to see his wife and the man, even though somebody told him that they had come up the road that day. The farmer muses that maybe she wants a divorce or does not know the child is dead and wants it, but he insists that he does not care. Smith asks if the farmer is waiting to see them pass, but the farmer insists that he is not and that he comes there every Sunday. Smith asks if the farmer knew the man who his wife had left with, and the farmer says that he found out when he found one of the man's letters to his wife. The farmer then followed them when his wife snuck out, and when he saw them fooling around in the man's car, he beat the man up and knocked his head through the windshield. Smith decides to wait to see what will happen when the wife and man pass by on the road. Soon, they see a Ford slowly coming down the road. The man is yelling at the farmer's wife in the car. The wife and man get out of the car, and the wife greets her husband the farmer as Charlie. Smith understands why the men fought over her, and he sees her as desirable. The man says he is returning the wife to Charlie and he does not want her anymore. The woman curses at him. The woman begs the farmer to take her back, while the other man sneaks back to the car and quickly drives away. The wife says that it is good that the man is gone, and she keeps begging the farmer to take her back. The farmer is nervous, and he begins sprinting back up the hill to his house with his dog at his heels. The woman walks over to where Smith is and she begins to cry. At first Smith feels contempt for her, but soon he begins to feel bad and tries to comfort her. The woman says that she guesses she will have to walk to town to take a train to Rochester where her sister lives. Smith says he will drive her, and he wants to leave quickly even though she coyly says he should wait till he is done fishing. Smith says that a happily married man is not safe alone with her, but she says again that they should stay to fish. Smith relents, but asks if she will be late for the train. She replies that it does not matter much, because she has no railroad fare. Smith takes out his wallet, and sees that he has enough for a ticket to Rochester.