The following is an important internal dialogue from Buck Bannon, the main character in DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. At this point a third of the way through the book, Buck has settled into Aven and has experienced some success. His now owns Mr. Green's store, his parents, brothers and sisters  have moved into their new home in Dixie and he has a new bride, the daughter of his banker, and the newlyweds have their own home. This conversation Buck is having with himself summarizes the ambivalent feelings he has for the role he accepted when he decided to take "the first job somebody offers me, long as it ain't handling a tool.":

from Chapter 13, page 122-3:

Weather like this, part of Buck's mind would be with the farmer and himself as friends, working together to make the ground give up its goods; then another part of his mind would roll suddenly like a trout to a rain frog, and that part of his mind would whisper, "No crop, no pay." Unless you've got a note and then there're mules and tools and  sometimes land itself coming back for the feed and the seed, the side meat and the salt, the copper-toed shoes and the kettle that left the store. Then he'd pull away from that thought, and he'd say to himself that the ginning was done and the crop had been good, so what the hell if the frost never came to help out for next year. The hard money was there to shake loose the big stock of heavy coats and the bolts of fancy woolens that clogged the shelves of the store, Buck would try to convince himself that the storekeeper-furnisher took a chance and that big profits ought to come from big risks; then the thought would come to make him sweat, that whichever way the farmer moved, the storeman had him going and coming. That thought came now as he crossed the yard under the familiar chinaberry tree and he deliberately shook the guilty feeling away.