Now, even under the blandishments of Winona, he was none too certain that he would make a capable flour and feed merchant.

Wilbur himself, to whom the possibility was broached, proved all too certain that he would engage in no mercantile pursuit whatever; surely none in which he might be associated ever so remotely with Lyman Teaford, whom for no reason he had always viewed with profound dislike.

This incident closed almost before it opened.
Winona again approached Sharon Whipple in Wilbur's behalf.

But Sharon was not enough depressed by the circumstance that Wilbur's work was hard on clothes, or that tasks were chosen at random and irregularly toiled at.
"Let him alone," advised Sharon.

"Pretty soon he'll harden and settle.
Besides, he's getting his education.