"I'm telling nothing," said Adam. "You can find out what is the
matter and go it with the rest of them, when you get there.
Mother said this morning she wished you were there, because you'd
be the only SANE one in the family, so I thought I'd bring you;
but I wish now I hadn't done it, for it stands to reason that you
will join the pack, and run as fast as the rest of the wolves."
"FROM a prairie fire, or TO a carcass?" asked Kate.
"I told you, you could find out when you got there. I'm not going
to have them saying I influenced you, or bribed you," he said.
"Do you really think that they think you could, Adam?" asked Kate,
wonderingly.
"I have said all I'm going to say," said Adam, and then he began
driving his horse inhumanely fast, for the heat was deep, slow,
and burning.
"Adam, is there any such hurry?" asked Kate. "You know you are
abusing your horse dreadfully."
Adam immediately jerked the horse with all his might, and slashed
the length of its body with two long stripes that rapidly raised
in high welts, so Kate saw that he was past reasoning with and
said no other word. She tried to think who would be at home, how
they would treat her, the Prodigal, who had not been there in
seven years; and suddenly it occurred to Kate that, if she had
known all she now knew in her youth, and had the same decision to
make again as when she knew nothing, she would have taken wing,
just as she had. She had made failures, she had hurt herself,
mind and body, but her honour, her self-respect were intact.
Suddenly she sat straight. She was glad that she had taken a
bath, worn a reasonably decent dress, and had a better one in the
back of the buggy. She would cut the Gordian knot with a
vengeance. She would not wait to see how they treated her, she
would treat them! As for Adam's state, there was only one surmise
she could make, and that seemed so incredible, she decided to wait
until her mother told her all about whatever the trouble was.
As they came in sight of the house, queer feelings took possession
of Kate. She struggled to think kindly of her father; she tried
to feel pangs of grief over his passing. She was too forthright
and had too good memory to succeed. Home had been so unbearable
that she had taken desperate measures to escape it, but as the
white house with its tree and shrub filled yard could be seen more
plainly, Kate suddenly was filled with the strongest possessive
feeling she ever had known. It was home. It was her home. Her
place was there, even as Adam had said. She felt a sudden
revulsion against herself that she had stayed away seven years;
she should have taken her chances and at least gone to see her
mother. She leaned from the buggy and watched for the first
glimpse of the tall, gaunt, dark woman, who had brought their big
brood into the world and stood squarely with her husband, against
every one of them, in each thing he proposed.