'What is flour made of?'

"It was the answer to that which made me shudder."

"What was it?" asked the proud grain.

"She said it was made of--wheat! I don't see the advantage of
being rich--"

"Was the cake rich?" asked the proud grain.

"Their mother said it was. She said, 'Don't eat it so fast--it is
very rich.'"

"Ah!" said the proud grain. "I should like to be rich. It must be very
fine to be rich. If I am ever made into cake, I mean to be so rich that
no one will dare to eat me at all."

"Ah?" said the learned grain. "I don't think those boys would be afraid
to eat you, however rich you were. They are not afraid of richness."

"They'd be afraid of me before they had done with me," said the proud
grain. "I am not a common grain of wheat. Wait until I am made into cake.
But gracious me! there doesn't seem much prospect of it while we are shut
up here. How dark and stuffy it is, and how we are crowded, and what a
stupid lot the other grains are! I'm tired of it, I must say."

"We are all in the same sack," said the learned grain, very quietly.

It was a good many days after that, that something happened. Quite early
in the morning, a man and a boy came into the granary, and moved the sack
of wheat from its place, wakening all the grains from their last nap.

"What is the matter?" said the proud grain. "Who is daring to
disturb us?"

"Hush!" whispered the learned grain, in the most solemn manner.
"Something is going to happen. Something like this happened to somebody
belonging to me long ago. I seem to remember it when I think very hard. I
seem to remember something about one of my family being sown."

"What is sown?" demanded the other grain.

"It is being thrown into the earth," began the learned grain.

Oh, what a passion the proud grain got into! "Into the earth?" she
shrieked out. "Into the common earth? The earth is nothing but dirt,
and I am _not_ a common grain of wheat. I won't be sown! I will _not_
be sown! How dare anyone sow me against my will! I would rather stay in
the sack."

But just as she was saying it, she was thrown out with the learned grain
and some others into another dark place, and carried off by the farmer,
in spite of her temper; for the farmer could not hear her voice at all,
and wouldn't have minded if he had, because he knew she was only a grain
of wheat, and ought to be sown, so that some good might come of her.

Well, she was carried out to a large field in the pouch