"Really? No, I didn't know. You never said anything about it. Cane-sugar?"

"Yes." Bob watched Van curiously.

"That's odd."

"Why?"

"Oh, because my father is in the sugar business too. Don't you
recall my telling your father so? Yes, my dad makes beet sugar."

"Then that's how my father happened to know your father!" exclaimed
Bob quickly. "I suppose they're business friends. I've been
wondering why Father kept watching you. Probably he sees in you some
resemblance to your father. Do you look like him?"

"I hardly know. Some people think I do. My mother says so," was
Van's indifferent response. "But say, tell me more about sugar.
You'd think with my father right in the business I'd know something
about it; but I don't. Do they get sugar from anything beside beets,
and sugar-cane, and maple sap?"

"Oh, my, yes. There's sugar in ever so many other things: in grapes,
and milk, and the date palm, and in maize; but it is from the beet
and cane that the most sugar can be extracted."

Van nodded.

"You're quite a lecturer, Bobbie," he said. "Wait until I get back