“We’ll quit pretending.  I owe a little to the country that has made me what I am, and these new hardy wheats are going to play a big part in its development.  I want to see them tried on the poorest land.”

“That’s a good reason.  I believe it goes some way, but I hardly think it accounts for everything.”

His companion looked at him with fixed directness.

“Then, if you must be satisfied, you’re my neighbor; you have had blamed hard luck and I like the way you’re standing up to it.  If anybody’s on meaner soil than yours I want to see it.  Anyway, here’s the seed; take what you need, pay me back when you’re able.  Guess you’re not too proud to take a favor that’s gladly offered.”

“I’d be a most ungrateful brute if I refused,” George replied with feeling.

“That’s done with,” Grant said firmly; and soon afterward he and George returned to the other room.

After a while he went out with Edgar to look at a horse, and George turned to Flora.

“Your father has taken a big weight off my mind, and I’m afraid I hardly thanked him,” he said.

“Then it was a relief?” she asked, and it failed to strike him as curious that she seemed to know what he was alluding to.

“Yes,” he declared; “I feel ever so much more confident now that I can get that seed.  The fact that it was offered somehow encouraged me.”

“You never expected anything of the kind?  I’ve sometimes thought you’re apt to stand too much alone.  You don’t attach enough importance to your friends.”

“Perhaps not,” admitted George.  “I’ve been very wrong in this instance; but I suppose one naturally prefers to hide one’s difficulties.”

“I don’t think the feeling’s universal.  But you would, no doubt, be more inclined to help other people out of their troubles.”

George looked a little embarrassed, and she changed the subject with a laugh.

“Come and see us when you can find the time.  On the last occasion, you sent your partner over.”

“I’d made an appointment with an implement man when I got your father’s note.  Anyway, I should have fancied that Edgar would have made a pretty good substitute.”

“Mr. West is a favorite of ours; he’s amusing and excellent company, as far as he goes.”

Her tone conveyed a hint that Edgar had his limitations and he was not an altogether satisfactory exchange for his partner; but George laughed.

“He now and then goes farther than I would care to venture.”

Flora looked at him with faint amusement.

“Yes,” she said.  “That’s one of the differences between you; you’re not assertive.  It has struck me that you don’t always realize your value.”

“Would you like one to insist on it?”

“Oh,” she said, “there’s a happy medium; but I’m getting rather personal, and I hear the others coming.”

She drove away a little later, and when Flett had gone to bed George and Edgar sat talking a while beside the stove.