The girl was clever and had tone; he wanted her to find life smooth and taste pleasure her mother had not enjoyed.

The latter had helped him in a hard fight when dollars were very scarce, and died, worn out, just before the tide turned.

Since then he had schemed and sweated to make her child's future safe.
Now he thought he had done so, but it had been a struggle, and he knew he had held on too long.

Keeping store in a wheat-growing district was not a simple matter of selling groceries; one was in reality a banker.
Bills were not often paid until the crop was harvested, farmers began without much money, and one must know whom to trust.

Indeed, one often financed a hustler who had no capital, and kept an honest man who had lost a crop on his feet; but the risk was great, and one felt the strain when there was rust and autumn frost.
One bright afternoon Keller stood on the sidewalk in front of the store.
He was not old, but his hair was gray and his face was pinched.