farm for nothing, to
keep him satisfied and to insure getting his deed. All these years,
each man has paid his taxes, put thousands in improvements, in
rebuilding homes and barns, fertilizing, and developing his land. Each
one of these farms is worth nearly twice what it was the day it was
received. That the boys should lose all this is no cause for rejoicing
on the part of any true woman; as a fact, no true woman would allow
such a thing to happen--"

"Speak for yourself!" cried several of the girls at once.

"Now right here is where we come to a perfect understanding," said
Kate. "I did say that for myself, but in the main what I say, I say
for MOTHER. Now you will not one of you interrupt me again, or this
meeting closes, and each of you stands to lose more than two thousand
dollars, which is worth being civil for, for quite a while. No more of
that! I say any woman should be ashamed to take advantage of her
brother through an accident; and rob him of years of work and money he
was perfectly justified in thinking was his. I, for one, refuse to do
it, and I want and need money probably more than any of you. To tear
up these farms, to take more than half from the boys, is too much. On
the other hand, for the girls to help earn the land, to go with no
inheritance at all, is even more unfair. Now in order to arrive at a
compromise that will leave each boy his farm, and give each girl the
nearest possible to a fair amount, figuring in what the boys have spent
in taxes and work for Father, and what each girl has LOST by not having
her money to handle all these years, it is necessary to split the
difference between the time Adam, the eldest, has had his inheritance,
and Hiram, the youngest, came into possession, which by taking from and
adding to, gives a fair average of fifteen years. Now Mother proposes
if we will enter into an agreement this morning with no words and no
wrangling, to settle on this basis: she will relinquish her third of
all other land, and keep only this home farm. She even will allow the
fifty lying across the road to be sold and the money put into a general
fund for the share of the girls. She will turn into this fund all
money from notes and mortgages, and the sale of all stock, implements,
etc., here, except what she wants to keep for her use, and the sum of
three thousand dollars in cash, to provide against old age. This
releases quite a sum of money, and three hundred and fifty acr