GEORGE GETS TO WORK It was an oppressive evening, after a day of unusual heat.

Edgar sat smoking outside the homestead.

He had been busy since six o'clock that morning, and he felt tired and downcast.

Massed thunder-clouds brooded over the silent prairie, wheat and grass had faded to dingy green and lifeless gray, and Edgar tried to persuade himself that his moodiness was the effect of the weather.

This was partly the case, but he was also suffering from homesickness and a shrinking from what was new and strange.
The wooden house had a dreary, dilapidated look; the weathered, neglected appearance of barns and stables was depressing.