The clergyman read the service in the most perfunctory way.

Then James Wilson, the Secretary of Agriculture, spoke formally of Dr.Knapp as a faithful servant of the Department who always did well what he was told to do, commending his life in an altogether commonplace fashion.

By that time my heart was pretty hot.

No one seemed to divine that in the coffin before them was the body of a really great man, one who had hit upon a fruitful idea in American agriculture--an idea that was destined to cover the nation and enrich rural life immeasurably." Page was so moved by this lack of appreciation, so full of sorrow at the loss of one of his dearest friends, that, when he rose to speak, his appraisment took on a certain indignation.

Their dead associate, Page declared, would outrank the generals and the politicians who received the world's plaudits, for he had devoted his life to a really great purpose; his inspiration had been the love of the common people, his faith, his sympathy had all been expended in an effort to brighten the life of the too frequently neglected masses.