The talk with this man was worth it all to me.
The agricultural territory of the United States is naturally dry.

This is because the cross-roads church is the only communal institution, and the voice of the cross-roads pastor is for teetotalism.

The routine of the farm-hand, while by no means ideal in other respects, keeps him from craving drink as intensely as other toilers do.

A day's work in the open air fills his veins at nightfall with an opiate of weariness instead of a high-strung nervousness.

The strong men of the community are church elders, not through fanaticism, but by right of leadership.