"
Winston laughed, and held up a lean brown hand. "All I ever had until
less than a year ago, I earned with that. I'll be ready for you."
He went out with Alfreton, and noticed that the lad ate little at
lunch. When the meal was over, he glanced at him with a smile through
the cigar smoke.
"I think it would do you good to take me into your confidence," he said.
"Well," said Alfreton, "it would be a relief to talk, and I feel I
could trust you. Still, it's only fair to tell you I didn't at the
beginning. I was an opinionated ass, you see."
Winston laughed. "I don't mind in the least, and we have most of us
felt that way."
"Well," said the lad, "I was a little short of funds, and proud of
myself, and when everybody seemed certain that wheat was going down
forever, I thought I saw my chance of making a little. Now I've more
wheat than I care to think of to deliver, the market's against me. If
it stiffens any further, it will break me; and that's not all, you see.
Things have gone tolerably badly with the folks at home, and I fancy it
took a good deal of what should have been the girls' portion to start
me at Silverdale."
"Then," said Winston, "it's no use trying to show you how foolish
you've been. That is the usual thing, and it's easy; but what the man
in the hole wants to know is the means of getting out again."
Alfreton smiled ruefully. "I'm tolerably far in. I could just cover
at to-day's prices if I pledged my crop, but it would leave me nothing
to go on with, and the next advance would swamp the farm.
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