I'm not sure but what you're right. But I'll
do exactly as I please with the rest of my land, boys."

"The rest of your land!" cried Lou, growing more excited every
minute. "Didn't all the land come out of the homestead? It was
bought with money borrowed on the homestead, and Oscar and me worked
ourselves to the bone paying interest on it."

"Yes, you paid the interest. But when you married we made a division
of the land, and you were satisfied. I've made more on my farms
since I've been alone than when we all worked together."

"Everything you've made has come out of the original land that us
boys worked for, hasn't it? The farms and all that comes out of
them belongs to us as a family."

Alexandra waved her hand impatiently. "Come now, Lou. Stick to
the facts. You are talking nonsense. Go to the county clerk and
ask him who owns my land, and whether my titles are good."

Lou turned to his brother. "This is what comes of letting a woman
meddle in business," he said bitterly. "We ought to have taken
things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things,
and we humored her. We thought you had good sense, Alexandra. We
never thought you'd do anything foolish."

Alexandra rapped impatiently on her desk with her knuckles.
"Listen, Lou. Don't talk wild. You say you ought to have taken
things into your own hands years ago. I suppose you mean before
you left home. But how could you take hold of what wasn't there?
I've got most of what I have now since we divided the property;
I've built it up myself, and it has nothing to do with you."

Oscar spoke up solemnly. "The property of a family really belongs
to the men of the family, no matter about the title. If anything
goes wrong, it's the men that are held responsible."

"Yes, of course," Lou broke in. "Everybody knows that. Oscar and
me have always been easy-going and we've never made any fuss. We
were willing you should hold the land and have the good of it, but
you got no right to part with any of it. We worked in the fields
to pay for the first land you bought, and whatever's come out of
it has got to be kept in the family."

Oscar reinforced his brother, his mind fixed on the one point he
could see. "The property of a family belongs to the men of the
family, because they are held responsible, and because they do the
work."

Alexandra looked from one to the other, her eyes full of indignation.
She had been impatient before, but now she was beginning to f