"
"Have you told him --?" asked Nancy Ellen.
"Not the details, but the essentials. He knows that I can't go
home. It came up one day in talking about land. I guess they had
thought before, that my people were poor as church mice. I
happened to mention how much land I had helped earn for my
brothers, and they seemed so interested I finished the job. Well,
after they had heard about the Land King, it made a noticeable
difference in their treatment of me. Not that they weren't always
fine, but it made, I scarcely know how to put it, it was so
intangible -- but it was a difference, an added respect. You bet
money is a power! I can see why Father hangs on to those deeds,
when I get out in the world. They are his compensation for his
years of hard work, the material evidence that he has succeeded in
what he undertook. He'd show them to John Jardine with the same
feeling John showed me improved car couplers, brakes, and air
cushions. They stand for successes that win the deference of men.
Out in the little bit of world I've seen, I notice that men fight,
bleed, and die for even a tiny fraction of deference.
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