I liked him--guess everybody did--but the contract he was up against was too big for him.

Had his first crop frozen, and lost his nerve and judgment after that--the man who gets ahead here must have the grit to stand up against a few bad seasons.

Marston acted foolishly; wasted his money buying machines and teams he could have done without, and then let up when he saw it wouldn't pay him to use them right off; but that was part his wife's fault.

She drove him pretty hard--though, in some ways, I guess he needed it." George frowned.

Sylvia, he admitted, was ambitious, and she might have put a little pressure upon Marston now and then; but that she should have urged him on toward ruin in her eagerness to get rich was incredible.
"I think you must be mistaken about his wife," he remarked.
"Well," drawled the Canadian, "I'm not always right." Then a bell tolled outside, an official shouted the names of towns, and there was a sudden stir and murmur of voices in the great waiting-room.
Men seized their bags and bundles, women dragged sleepy children to their feet, and a crowd began to press about the outlet.
"Guess that's our train.