rse when she made a deed to you, and had it recorded, they told him.
All of us knew it for two years before she went after you. And the new
furniture was bought with your money, so it's yours; what was there to
have a meeting about?"

"Mother didn't understand that you children knew," said Kate.

"Sometimes I thought there were a lot of things Mother didn't
understand," said Nancy Ellen, "and sometimes I thought she understood
so much more than any of the rest of us, that all of us would have had
a big surprise if we could have seen her brain."

"Yes, I believe we would," said Kate. "Do you mind telling me how the
boys and girls feel about this?"

Nancy Ellen laughed shortly. "Well, the boys feel that you negotiated
such a fine settlement of Father's affairs for them, that they owe this
to you. The girls were pretty sore at first, and some of them are
nursing their wrath yet; but there wasn't a thing on earth they could
do. All of them were perfectly willing that you should have
something--after the fire--of course, most of them thought Mother went
too far."

"I think so myself," said Kate. "But she never came near me, or wrote
me, or sent me even one word, until the day she came after me. I had
nothing to do with it--"

"All of us know that, Kate," said Nancy Ellen. "You needn't worry.
We're all used to it, and we're all at the place where we have nothing
to say."

To escape grieving for her mother, Kate worked that summer as never
before. Adam was growing big enough and strong enough to be a real
help. He was interested in all they did, always after the reason, and
trying to think of a better way. Kate secured the best agricultural
paper for him and they read it nights together. They kept an account
book, and set down all they spent, and balanced against it all they
earned, putting the difference, which was often more than they hoped
for, in the bank.

So the years ran. As the children grew older, Polly discovered that
the nicest boy in school lived across the road half a mile north of
them; while Adam, after a real struggle in his loyal twin soul, aided
by the fact that Henry Peters usually had divided his apples with Polly
before Adam reached her, discovered that Milly York, across the road,
half a mile south, liked his apples best, and was as nice a girl as
Polly ever dared to be. In a dazed way, Kate learned these things from
their after-school and Sunday talk, saw that they nearly reached h