The Wild Birds

"It's no use to want to make it on your own, because you can't. Oh, Glad Pettit, I reckon, would say you can, but Glad Pettit deals in a kind of property you can put in your pocket. Or he thinks he does. But when you quit living in the price and start living in the place, you're in a different line of succession."
Elton laughs. "The line of succession I'm in says you've got to make it on your own. I'm in the line of succession of root, hog, or die."
"That may have been the line of succession you were in, but it's not the one you're in now. The one you're in now is different."
"Well, how did I get in it?" Elton says almost in a sigh, as if longing to be out of it.
"The way you got in it, I guess, was by being chosen. The way you stay in it is by choice."
"And I got in because Mr. Beechum chose me."
"And Mary. He chose you and Mary. He thought you two were a good match, and that mattered to him. His own marriage, you know, was not good. Yes. You could say he chose you. But there's more to it. He chose you, we'd have to say too, because he'd been chosen. The line is long, and not straight."