usual and do his feeding and milking; he could clean
the stables, haul wood on Saturday and Sunday, if he must, for the
Bates family looked on Sunday more as a day of rest for the horses and
physical man than as one of religious observances. They always worked
if there was anything to be gained by it. Six months being the term,
he would be free by the first of May; surely the money would be an
attraction, while Nancy Ellen could coach him on any new methods she
had learned at Normal. Kate sprang to her feet, ran across the street,
and entering the hall, hurried to her room. She found Mrs. Holt there
in the act of closing her closet door. Kate looked at her with
astonished eyes.

"I was just telling my son," Mrs. Holt said rather breathlessly, "that
I would take a peep and see if I had forgot to put your extra covers on
the shelf."

Kate threw her book on the bed and walked to the table. She had
experienced her share of battle for the day. "No children to rummage,"
passed through her brain. It was the final week of hot, dry August
weather, while a point had been made of calling her attention to the
extra cover when the room had been shown her. She might have said these
things, but why say them? The shamed face of the woman convicted her
of "rummaging," as she had termed it. Without a word Kate sat down
beside the table, drew her writing material before her, and began
addressing an envelope to her brother Hiram. Mrs. Holt left the room,
disliking Kate more than if she had said what the woman knew she
thought.

Kate wrote briefly, convincingly, covering every objection and every
advantage she could conceive, and then she added the strongest plea she
could make. What Hiram would do, she had no idea. As with all Bates
men, land was his God, but it required money to improve it. He would
feel timid about making a first attempt to teach after he was married
and a father of a child, but Nancy Ellen's marriage would furnish
plausible excuse; all of the family had done their school work as
perfectly as all work they undertook; he could teach if he wanted to;
would he want to? If he did, at least, she would be sure of the
continued friendship of her sister and Robert Gray. Suddenly Kate
understood what that meant to her as she had not realized before. She
was making long strides toward understanding herself, which is the most
important feature of any life.

She sent a line of pleading to her sister-in-law, a w