sprang up and ran to her while Robert Gray followed.

"You'll have to talk to me on the road," said Kate. "I am forbidden
the house which also means the grounds, I suppose."

She walked across the road, set the telescope on the grass under a big
elm tree, and sat down beside it.

"I find I am rather tired," she said. "Will you share the sofa with
me?"

Nancy Ellen lifted her pink skirt and sat beside Kate. Robert Gray
stood looking down at them.

"What in the world is the matter?" asked Nancy Ellen.

"You know, of course, that Father signed a contract for me to teach the
home school this winter," explained Kate. "Well, I am of age, and he
had no authority from me, so his contract isn't legal. None of you
would lift a finger to help me get away to Normal, how was I to know
that you would take any interest in finding me a school while I was
gone? I thought it was all up to me, so I applied for the school in
Walden, got it, and signed the contract to teach it. It is a better
school, at higher wages. I thought you would teach here--I can't break
my contract. Father is furious and has ordered me out of the house.
So there you are, or rather here I am."

"Well, it isn't much of a joke," said Nancy Ellen, thinking intently.

What she might have said had they been alone, Kate always wondered.
What she did say while her betrothed looked at her with indignant eyes
was possibly another matter. It proved to be merely: "Oh, Kate, I am
so sorry!"

"So am I," said Kate. "If I had known what your plans were, of course
I should gladly have helped you out. If only you had written me and
told me."

"I wanted to surprise you," said Nancy Ellen.

"You have," said Kate. "Enough to last a lifetime. I don't see how
you figured. You knew how late it was. You knew it would be nip and
tuck if I got a school at all."

"Of course we did! We thought you couldn't possibly get one, this
late, so we fixed up the scheme to let you have my school, and let me
sew on my linen this winter. We thought you would be as pleased as we
were."

"I am too sorry for words," said Kate. "If I had known your plan, I
would have followed it, even though I gave up a better school at a
higher salary. But I didn't know. I thought I had to paddle my own
canoe, so I made my own plans. Now I must live up to them, because my
contract is legal, while Father's is not. I would have taught the
school for you, in the circumstances, but since