Wives' Part in A Man's Hobby

Back to the sign which I mentioned seeing at the Boone show. As we all know, at a show one wanders around from one exhibit to another, making conversations, visiting, and getting information, as well as passing on some information now and then. As I walked up to this particular trio of engines, I noticed that two were running while one sat over to itself quite obviously in need of a great deal of TLC. Two lawn chairs close by. One chair was occupied by a man dressed in bib overalls, while the other seat was empty. A large cooler separated the two chairs, and a sign displayed next to the running engines read: 'My wife told if I ever came home again dragging an old rusty engine, she was going to leave. My, how I'm gonna miss that woman!' Teasingly, and to make conversation, pointing to the empty chair I said, 'Looks like she has already gone.' 'Yes,' he said, 'she left this morning all hostile when the man dropped that one off,' motioning to the dead engine there in the grass. 'She just dragged the cooler there off the truck, along with my tool box and the gas can, climbed in the cab and took off. I think I know where she went, though. She did the same thing once before. That time she went to her sister's up in Pennsylvania. I'd almost bet a silver dollar there's where she's headed for again. When she left the other time, she was gone for over a year. I finally called her by phone and told her that she could come home now if she wanted to because I didn't have a rusty engine on the place any more. I kinda' neglected to tell her that I had two more engines, which I had restored and painted since she left. They all shine like new! Not a flake of rust to be found! She didn't believe me and told me so, but said she would come home and see. When she arrived home, before she set foot in the house she went straight to the shop. She opened the door, took one glance around, slammed it shut, and lit into me something terrible. 'Hold on,' I said, 'there is not a single rusty engine in there.' She had to admit that I hadn't storied to her at all. I had told her that there wasn't a rusty engine on the place. She agreed and finally settled down and promised to stay. That's been four or five years ago now. I had never bought another engine since then. Everything had been going along fine. We have been attending shows and having lots of fun. I'll admit, though, I haven't bought any engines until yesterday. But when I saw that terrific bargain, I just couldn't pass it up. I don't know what I'm going to do though, this time, to get her home. I don't want to give up the engine, and I can't use the no rust story again. Do you have any suggestions?'