' about this, and you won't either, even if you
are showing signs of standing up for her. Go at that wash, while I get
dinner."

Dinner was on the table when Adam Bates hung his hat on its hook and
saw the note for him. He took it down and read:

FATHER: I have gone to Normal. I borrowed the money of a woman who
was willing to trust me to pay it back as soon as I earned it. Not
Nancy Ellen, of course. She would not even loan me a pocket
handkerchief, though you remember I stayed at home six weeks last
summer to let her take what she wanted of mine. Mother: I think you
can get Sally Whistler to help you as cheaply as any one and that she
will do very well. Nancy Ellen: I have taken your second best hat and
a few of your things, but not half so many as I loaned you. I hope it
makes you mad enough to burst. I hope you get as mad and stay as mad
as I have been most of this year while you taught me things you didn't
know yourself; and I cooked and washed for you so you could wear fine
clothes and play the lady. KATE

Adam Bates read that note to himself, stretching every inch of his six
feet six, his face a dull red, his eyes glaring. Then he turned to his
wife and daughter.

"Is Kate gone? Without proper clothing and on borrowed money," he
demanded.

"I don't know," said Mrs. Bates. "I was hoeing potatoes all forenoon."

"Listen to this," he thundered. Then he slowly read the note aloud.
But someway the spoken words did not have the same effect as when he
read them mentally in the first shock of anger. When he heard his own
voice read off the line, "I hope it makes you mad enough to burst,"
there was a catch and a queer gurgle in his throat. Mrs. Bates gazed
at him anxiously. Was he so surprised and angry he was choking? Might
it be a stroke? It was! It was a master stroke. He got no farther
than "taught me things you didn't know yourself," when he lowered the
sheet, threw back his head and laughed as none of his family ever had
seen him laugh in his life; laughed and laughed until his frame was
shaken and the tears rolled. Finally he looked at the dazed Nancy
Ellen. "Get Sally Whistler, nothing!" he said. "You hustle your
stumps and do for your mother what Kate did while you were away last
summer. And if you have any common decency send your sister as many of
your best things as you had of hers, at least. Do you hear me?"

CHAPTER III

PEREGRINATIONS

"PEREGRINATIONS," laughed