h belonged to
no church, but Elizabeth could turn the conversation of the church
members, among whom she mingled, from gossip to better things, and there
was not a quilting bee nor an aid society meeting in the country around to
which she was not invited, and which she did not raise to a higher
standard by her presence.

The snubs which the neighbour women were at first anxious to deliver fell
flat in the quiet unconsciousness with which they were met. Elizabeth felt
that much of the treatment she received was given in righteous
indignation, and pursued the policy when possible to do so of not seeing
it, and when it must be met to meet it with perfect good humour. She kept
her credit good among the men with whom she bartered for young stock, and
there began to creep in a better feeling for her within the first six
months after she assumed the care of the farm and the problematical
position of a "grass widow" in the neighborhood. Doctor Morgan, Hepsie,
Jake, and Luther were splendid assets in the race with public feeling, and
Silas saw his young neighbour's affairs straighten out with chuckles of
delight. He watched her manoeuvre with her business deals and saw the
cool-headedness of them with growing enthusiasm. He passed Nathan on his
way to the field one spring morning and noticed that Nathan was using a
seeder from the Hunter farm. It was bright with a coat of freshly dried
paint.

"That's what she borrowed my brushes for last week," he exclaimed to
Nathan. "Ever see anything like 'er?" he asked admiringly. "Takes care of
everything. Did you ever see th' likes of them hogs? She's made more money
sellin' that land an' buyin' of it back 'n most of us old heads 'll make
in five year. Everything she touches seems t' have a wad stuck under it
somewheres."

Elizabeth was more than merely successful in money matters; she was a
reorganized woman from the standpoint of health also. She was no more the
weary, harassed woman who had churned, baked, and cooked for shellers, and
had so nearly found an early grave. The satisfaction of working
unrestrained, of resting when nature and woman's constitution demanded,
and the whole matter of living without fear, had given her a sound and
healthy body and a mind broader and less liable to emotional bias. The
principle which she had demanded from her husband in their last
conversation she put into practice. Hepsie ruled the house very much as if
it were her own. Elizabeth knew from ex