ndeared her to the
mother-heart so tragically that when she died at the age of two Theodora
rebelliously proclaimed that she wanted no other children! This blasphemy
shocked Nathaniel beyond measure, and when, a year later, twin girls were
born on Lonely Farm, he pointed out to his wife that no woman could fly
in the face of the Almighty with impunity and she must now see, in this
double disgrace of sex, her punishment.

Theodora was stricken; but the sad little sisters early escaped the
bondage of life, and the Glenns once again, childless and alone, viewed
the future superstitiously and with awe. Even Nathaniel, hope gone as to
a son, resignedly accepted the fate that seemed to pursue him. Then,
after five years, Priscilla was born, the lustiest and most demanding of
all the children.

"She seems," said Long Jean, the midwife, "to be made of the odds and
ends of all the others. She has the clear, dark skin of the first, the
blue eyes of the second, and the rusty coloured hair and queer features
of the twins."

Between Long Jean and Mary Terhune, midwives, a social rivalry existed.
On account of her Indian taint Long Jean was less sought in aristocratic
circles, but so great had been the need the night when Priscilla made her
appearance, that both women had been summoned, and Long Jean, arriving
first, and, her superior skill being well known, was accepted.

When she announced the birth and sex of the small stranger, Nathaniel,
smoking before the fire in the big, clean, bare, living-room, permitted
himself one reckless defiance:

"Not wanted!" Long Jean made the most of this.

"And his pretty wife at the point of death," she gossiped to Mrs. McAdam
of the White Fish Lodge; "and there is this to say about the child being
a girl: the lure of the States can't touch her, and Nathaniel may have
some one to turn to for care and what not when infirmity overtakes him.
Besides, the lass may be destined for the doing of big things; those
witchy brats often are."

"The lure don't get all the boys," muttered Mary McAdam, cautiously
thinking of her Sandy, aged five, and Tom, a bit older.

"All as amounts to much," Long Jean returned.

And in her heart of hearts Mary McAdam knew this to be true. The time
would come to her, as it had to all Kenmore mothers, when she would have
to acknowledge that by the power of the "lure" were her boys to be
tested.

But Priscilla at Lonely Farm showed a hardened disregard of her state.