."

Hugh knew that his consideration of fertilizers was superfluous in a
country that was hardly past the sod-corn stage, but he longed to dignify
this work to John Hunter, since John would give his formative years here
and be unable to do other things if he ever made money enough to get away,
as he hoped. Hugh had had enough work in the agricultural department of an
eastern university before he had come to Kansas, to make it possible for
him to interest these men in the future development of their state. Doctor
Morgan, who had been rather unwilling that serious subjects should be
discussed in the sickroom, asked curiously one day:

"What the devil do you want to prate such nonsense as that to these folks
for? They won't need any kind of fertilizers in this country for twenty
years. You'd better be resting instead of shooting such useless stuff as
that at _them_."

"I want to talk farming to John Hunter as if it were a respectable
business to engage in, Doctor. I don't have to tell you how he views it."

"What in Sam Hill's the difference how he views it?" the doctor asked in
astonishment. "He's nothing but a cheap skate, and you can't make anything
else out of him."

Hugh Noland looked at the doctor and made no reply; he understood that the
unfortunate vision of John Hunter which Doctor Morgan had got would
prevent him from seeing the point he was trying to make, and so let the
matter drop, but he kept John with him evenings and worked along on his
own lines and with persistence. He wanted to feel right about his stay in
John's home, and one of the ways of doing it was to get close to John's
heart on important matters. He spoke of Jack as a future farmer, and when
John indignantly resented the implication and said that he expected his
son to be an educated man, Hugh replied:

"Why, of course you do, but an educated farmer is exactly the thing to
make of him. Look at the clean life you'd place him in."

And so the days ran on in the sick-chamber. If John was with Hugh,
Elizabeth busied herself about the house elsewhere, and John rarely saw
them together, unless there was medicine to administer, and then the girl
gave it without remark. A growing fear had taken possession of her lest
John should fly out at her in unpleasant fashion before Hugh. The
situation between the two had been made so much more acute by Hugh's
accidental reference to it when he had thought that she was crying about
him, that she was supersen