--the one I laid the most
stress upon to start with--was that there should be no debts. I'm willing
that you should be free to select a team; it isn't that. Did you borrow
this money in the firm's name?"

"Yes-s-s. I didn't think you'd care about a little sum like that," John
said slowly. He was very uncomfortable. "I turned my personal note in on
the account book for the doctor's bill. You can see it on the book."

"I don't doubt at all but that you did, John. You're not called into
question, old boy, on any other matter than the one of debts, but You'll
never put this firm five cents in debt without coming to an instant
understanding. I came to this country to get well. I won't get well, but I
won't allow myself to get into anything that will run me down quicker with
worry. You knew it before you went in with me--and you agreed."

That was the final word John Hunter felt as he tied the skittish brute he
had just purchased in the stall beside the door, and turned to put the hay
down from the loft above. The sound of plunging feet and snorts of wild
terror when the hay fell into the manger turned his mind to the probable
truth of Hugh's opinion of the lately purchased horses.

"I wonder if the blamed brutes are going to be too maggoty for our use
after all," he thought. "It'd be just my luck. He was fair about it
though," John admitted reluctantly. "Oh, well, after all, he's worth
having around, and I'm going to do a deal better than I would if he hadn't
come along. Elizabeth was right--I did get in too deep." And with this
astonishing admission, John Hunter finished haying the horses and walked
slowly to the house, thinking about the new horses, and half prepared to
admit that he had made a mistake in buying them outright from a man who
was able to get away before they could be proven, but Elizabeth and Hugh
were already sitting by the table in the living room and he knew he was
wanted. He went to the bedroom to wash his hands--John could not form the
habit of washing in the kitchen as other farmers did--and as he washed,
meditated, and as he meditated he found himself ready to accept this
reproof from Hugh Noland, ready to live up to agreements if Hugh imposed
them, ready to listen to Hugh and love him. Something in Hugh Noland was
so fundamentally square that the principle of squareness took on a new
meaning to John Hunter.

"Here you are! You're the one that's insisted on these readings most, and
you're always l