text: 6
  
  Grit and Paulie forgot about hunting and hurried home. They loaded the wagon with firewood, all the wagon would carry, and rode out and back to the Knudsens.
  
  As they were unloading it, Leif said, "I don't think we need all this help. It's not that we're not grateful, but we'll be fine."
  
  "Trust me, Leif, you need all the help you can get," Grit said. "Or you and your family will die this winter, and so will your mules. They can't be left outdoors, and what are you gonna feed them this winter? Tell me that!"
  
  "Well... I... I don't know," Leif said. "I thought they could paw away the snow and get to the grass underneath."
  
  "No, they can't," Grit said. "It'll be solid ice. You have no chance of even surviving. How much food have you got? Let me see it."
  
  "Okay, show him, Inga," Leif said.
  
  Grit went into the little sod shanty and saw a barrel of flour, maybe 50 tins of canned goods, some pork side meat, a small bag of cornmeal and some dried corn. When he removed the lid from the barrel of flour, he saw it was half empty.
  
  "Your family will consume all this food in two weeks, and then what're you gonna do?" Grit asked. "You need help or you won't make it. Don't you have relatives that you can count on?"
  
  "No," Leif said. "They're over in eastern Minnesota."
  
  "You should be hitching up your wagon and heading there right now before the first snow hits," Grit said. "By then it'll be too late."
  
  "No, by golly, we're stayin'," Leif said. "We'll tough it out. This is my land. We're grateful for the wood, but now you can leave us alone."
  
  Grit looked at Leif and said, "If I ride off and leave you on your own, you're gonna die, and so will your family."
  
  "No, we'll be fine," Leif said, "and so will the animals."
  
  Grit looked at Paulie and said, "Let's go, Paulie. Nothin' more we can do here." Turning back to Leif, Grit said, "When you're starvin' and freezin', I hope you're not too proud to come down and ask for help because we'll share what we have. Do it for your wife and daughter if not for your own self."
  
  Climbing onto the wagon seat, Grit lifted the reins and turned the wagon around. He and Paulie arrived back at the house just as it was getting dark. Paulie jumped off at the house to fix supper while Grit took care of the horses.
  
  As they were eating bowls of stew later, Grit asked, "How much money we still got?"
  
  "About six hundred dollars."
  
  "In the morning, we'll drive to Fort Sully and spend some of it on supplies. It's likely we'll be feeding the Knudsen family all winter."
  
  "But he said he didn't want any help," Paulie said.
  
  "You know, Paulie, sometimes it doesn't matter what people say. We know they'll need help, and we're the only ones to provide it. If we don't do that, they'll die, and I don't want that on my conscience. We can't let that woman and child suffer just because they're hooked up to a cantankerous man. And overall he's probably a good man. I don't want him to suffer either."