"You thought I was a bad lot. You don't know I'm not one now."
Helen's eyes filled with tears. She turned away quickly. "I'll get you your bread," she said.
"You are a silly, aren't you?" said the boy as she disappeared.
Before long she came back with half a loaf in one hand, and something in the other which she kept behind her back.
"Thanks," said the boy, taking the bit of loaf. "What else have you got there?"
"It's something better than bread," said Helen slowly.
"Well, let's have a look at it."
She took her hand from behind her, and offered him seven ears of wheat. They were heavy with grain, and bowed on their ripe stems.
"Is this what you call better than bread?" he asked.
"It is better."