mother, shaking
her head at her.

"You didn't need to, Mother."

"Well, if it comes to that, Nora," said her sister, "I don't think you
need to, very much, either. You have only got to look at--"

"Halt!" cried Nora, springing to her feet. "But seriously, Mother dear,
I think we can weather this winter right enough. Our food supply is
practically visible. We have oats enough for man and beast, a couple of
pigs to kill, a steer also, not to speak of chickens and ducks. We shall
have some cattle to sell, and if our crops are good we ought to be able
to pay off those notes. Oh, why will Dad buy machinery?"

"My dear," said her mother with gentle reproach, "your father says
machinery is cheaper than men and we really cannot do without machines."

"That's all right, Mother. I'm not criticising father. He is a perfect
dear and I am awfully glad he has got that Inspectorship."

"Yes," replied her mother, "your father is suited to his new work and
likes it. And Larry will be finishing his college this year, I think.
And he has earned it too," continued the mother. "When I think of all
he has done and how generously he has turned his salary into the family
fund, and how often he has been disappointed--" Here her voice trembled
a little.

Nora dropped quickly to her knees, taking her mother in her arms. "Don't
we all know, Mother, what he has done? Shall I ever forget those first
two awful years, the winter mornings when he had to get up before
daylight to get the house warm, and that awful school. Every day he had
to face it, rain, sleet, or forty below. How often I have watched him
in the school, always so white and tired. But he never gave up. He just
would not give up. And when those big boys were unruly--I could have
killed those boys--he would always keep his temper and joke and jolly
them into good order. And all the time I knew how terribly his head was
aching. What are you sniffling about, Kate?"

"I think it was splendid, just splendid, Nora," cried Kathleen, swiftly
wiping away her tears. "But I can't help crying, it was all so terrible.
He never thought of himself, and year after year he gave up his money--"

"Hello!" cried a voice at the door. "Who gave up his money and to whom
and is there any more around?" His eye glanced around the group. "What's
up, people? Mummie, are these girls behaving badly? Let me catch them at
it!" The youth stood smiling down upon them. His years in the West had
done much for hi