Read the excerpt from the land, part 1. i loved my daddy. i loved my brothers too. but in the end it was mitchell thomas and i who were most like brothers, with a bond that couldn't be broken. the two of us came into mississippi together by way of east texas, and that was when we were still boys, long after we had come to our understanding of each other. seeing that we were a long way from our georgia home and both of us being strangers here in mississippi, the two of us depended on each other and became as family. but it wasn't always that way. based on this excerpt, which is a reasonable assumption about mitchell and paul’s relationship? they were close friends from the moment they met. they pretended to be friends, but don’t like each other. they had significant conflict before they became friends. they only became friends because they were both lonely.