Just as the
train started he thrust his hand inside, dropped his dollar on her lap,
and in a tense whisper commanded her: "Get yourself some gloves!"
Then he ran.

Kate picked up the dollar, while her eyes dimmed with tears.

"Why, the fine youngster!" she said. "The Jim-dandy fine youngster!"

Adam could not remember when he ever had been so happy as he was
driving home. He found his mother singing, his father in a genial
mood, so he concluded that the greatest thing in the world to make a
whole family happy was to do something kind for someone else. But he
reflected that there would be far from a happy family at his
grandfather's; and he was right. Grandmother Bates came in from her
hoeing at eleven o'clock tired and hungry, expecting to find the wash
dry and dinner almost ready. There was no wash and no odour of food.
She went to the wood-shed and stared unbelievingly at the cold stove,
the tubs of soaking clothes.

She turned and went into the kitchen, where she saw no signs of Kate or
of dinner, then she lifted up her voice and shouted: "Nancy Ellen!"

Nancy Ellen came in a hurry. "Why, Mother, what is the matter?" she
cried.

"Matter, yourself!" exclaimed Mrs. Bates. "Look in the wash room! Why
aren't the clothes on the line? Where is that good-for-nothing Kate?"

Nancy Ellen went to the wash room and looked. She came back pale and
amazed. "Maybe she is sick," she ventured. "She never has been; but
she might be! Maybe she has lain down."

"On Monday morning! And the wash not out! You simpleton!" cried Mrs.
Bates.

Nancy Ellen hurried upstairs and came back with bulging eyes.

"Every scrap of her clothing is gone, and half of mine!"

"She's gone to that fool Normal-thing! Where did she get the money?"
cried Mrs. Bates.

"I don't know!" said Nancy Ellen. "She asked me yesterday, but of
course I told her that so long as you and Father decided she was not to
go, I couldn't possibly lend her the money."

"Did you look if she had taken it?"

Nancy Ellen straightened. "Mother! I didn't need do that!"

"You said she took your clothes," said Mrs. Bates.

"I had hers this time last year. She'll bring back clothes."

"Not here, she won't! Father will see that she never darkens these
doors again. This is the first time in his life that a child of his
has disobeyed him."

"Except Adam, when he married Agatha; and he strutted like a fighting
cock about that."

"Well, he won't 'strut