she was worth that he would live to regret it.
She said it wasn't natural, and when people undertook to
controvert--ain't that a peach? Bet there isn't a woman in ten miles
using that word except Ma--nature they always hurt themselves worse
than they hurt their victims. And I bet he does, too, and I, for one,
don't care. I hope he does get a good jolt, just to pay him up for
being so mean."

"Don't, Adam, don't!" cautioned Kate.

"I mean it!" cried the boy.

"I know you do. That's the awful thing about it," said Kate. "I am
afraid every girl he has feels the same way, and from what your father
said yesterday, even the sons he favours don't feel any too good toward
him."

"You just bet they don't! They are every one as sore as boiled owls.
Pa said so, and he knows, for they all talk it over every time they
meet. He said they didn't feel like men, they felt like a lot of
'spanked school-boys.'"

"They needn't worry," said Kate. "Every deed is made out. Father
reads them over whenever it rains. They'll all get their land when he
dies. It is only his way."

"Yes, and THIS is only his way, too, and it's a dern poor way," said
Adam. "Pa isn't going to do this way at all. Mother said he could go
and live on his land, and she'd stay home with Susan and me, if he
tried it. And when I am a man I am going to do just like Pa and Ma
because they are the rightest people I know, only I am not going to
save QUITE so close as Pa, and if I died for it, I never could converse
or dance like Ma."

"I should hope not!" said Kate, and then added hastily, "it's all right
for a lady, but it would seem rather sissy for a man, I believe."

"Yes, I guess it would, but it is language let me tell you, when Ma
cuts loose," said Adam.

"Hello, Nancy Ellen," said Kate as Adam stopped the buggy. "Put my
telescope in the back with the horse feed. Since you have it, I don't
need ask whether I am the Prodigal Daughter or not. I see clearly I
am."

Nancy Ellen was worried, until she was pale.

"Kate," she said, "I never have seen Father so angry in all my life. I
thought last night that in a day or two I could switch the school over
to Serena Woodruff, and go on with my plans, but Father said at
breakfast if the Bates name was to stand for anything approaching
honour, a Bates would teach that school this winter or he'd know the
reason why. And you know how easy it is to change him. Oh, Kate,
won't you see if that Walden t