Little Willy, Grandfather, and Searchlight mean a lot to each other. Some examples are :
- Toward the beginning of the story when Grandfather was sick and they ran out of medicine Little Willy went to get more medicine even though it was bedtime
- At Harvest, Searchlight pulled because they didn’t have a horse and they didn’t have enough money to rent one
- In the big race, Grandfather was on the porch to watch Little Willy and Searchlight – if they won the prize was $500 just enough to pay the taxes