le year's trial crowded into four
short weeks.

At home things were not so fortunate. The young girl had come back from
Topeka with higher ideals of home life, of personal conduct, and of good
manners than she had ever had before. It was so good to have something
better, and Elizabeth hungered to pass along the transforming things she
had found; but when she tried to give the boys gentle hints about correct
ways of eating she was greeted with guffaws and sarcastic chuckles about
handling soup with a fork. Mrs. Farnshaw saw nothing but Susan Hornby's
interference, Mr. Farnshaw told her to attend to her own affairs until her
help was desired, and when the child was rebuffed and unable to hide her
disappointment and retired within herself, both parents resented the
evident and growing difference between her and themselves.

It was to escape from a home which was unendurable that Elizabeth
flat-footedly, and for the first time, refused to accede to her parents'
authority. When the matter of a spring term of school came up for
discussion she refused to teach the home school again, though Mr. Crane
had been so pleased with her work that he had offered it to her. When
asked if Jake Ransom was the objection she indignantly asserted to the
contrary.

"He was the best pupil I had," she said, "but I don't want to teach at
home, and I won't do it," and that was all she would say. She secured a
school ten miles north of her home; ten miles had been the nearest point
which she would consider.

The interest was at last paid, but when the summer groceries were paid for
there was no money left with which to go back to Topeka, and it was
necessary to teach a winter school. Elizabeth went to work anew to collect
funds for another year's schooling. Mr. Farnshaw sold himself short of
corn in the fall, however, and the young girl was expected to make up the
deficit. In the spring the interest was to be paid again, and so at the
end of a year and a half the situation was unchanged. The next year a
threshing machine was added to the family assets, and again the cry of
"help" went up, again Elizabeth's plans were sacrificed. The next year the
interest was doubled, and for four years Elizabeth Farnshaw worked against
insurmountable odds.

CHAPTER IV

A CULTURED MAN

When no remonstrance of hers availed to prevent the constant increase of
expenses, Elizabeth saw that her assistance, instead of helping the family
to get out of deb