"Yes."
"Then I must express my surprise that you have broken up our trail."
"It was necessary. I dislike blocking a trail, but you can go round by the road."
"You can see that it's soft and boggy in wet weather."
"Five minutes' extra ride will take you over gravel soil inside the Allenwood range."
"Do you expect us to waste five minutes whenever we come this way?"
"My time is valuable, and if I let your trail stand it would cost me a good deal of extra labor. I must have a straight unbroken run for my machines."
"So, sooner than throw an implement out of gear while you cross the trail, you take this course! Do you consider it neighborly?"
Harding smiled. He remembered that in Manitoba any help the nearest farmer could supply had been willingly given. At Allenwood, he had been left alone. That did not trouble him; but he thought of Hester, enduring many discomforts in her rude, board shack while women surrounded by luxury lived so near.
"I can't see any reason why I should be neighborly," he replied.