The Corn Planting

Hatch is nearly seventy．He and his wife had a son，Will，who was a fellow always cheerful，bright，alert and a great favorite with all of us．

After high school，Will went to Chicago，where he became a student in the Art Institute．Another young fellow，Hal，from our town，was also a student at the University in Chicago．They got together and had a good many long talks．I got it from Hal that in Chicago，Will's straightforwardness made him popular with all the young fellows．

After Hal graduated，he came home and got a job．He used to go quite often to see Will's father and mother．The talk was always of Will．Hal said Will's parents were like two children wanting to know every little detail Hal could remember about their son's life in the big city．

It was a spring night when Hal got a wire．Will had been killed in a car accident．We went along to take the message to Hatch and his wife．Hal did knock and old Hatch came to the door．He blurt everything right into old Hatch's face．Old Hatch didn't say a word and stood there．The door went shut again with a bang．Suddenly，after a long time，the old man got a hand corn-planter and his wife got a bag of seed corn，and in the moonlight，that night，after they got that news，they were planting corn．They did a row across the field，and then at the end of each row they knelt side by side by the fence．The whole thing went on in silence．

It was the first time in my life I ever understand something about the connection between certain people and the earth-a kind of silent cry，down into the earth，of those two old people，putting corn down into the earth．It was as though they were putting death down into the ground that life might grow again．

21．What made Will popular in the Art Institute？___

A．His artistic talent．

B．His good character．

C．His family background．

D．His friendship with Hal．

22．According to paragraph 3，Will's parents___．