An emphatic murmur of approval ran among the boys, Mary and Nancy
Ellen stoutly declared that they did.
"Oh, no, you don't!" said Kate. "If God made any woman of you so
that she feels right and clean in her conscience about this deal,
he made her WRONG, and that is a thing that has not yet been
proven of God. As I see it, here is the boys' side: from
childhood they were told, bribed, and urged to miss holidays, work
all week, and often on Sunday, to push and slave on the promise of
this land at twenty-one. They all got the land and money to stock
it and build homes. They were told it was theirs, required to pay
the taxes on it, and also to labour at any time and without wages
for Father. Not one of the boys but has done several hundred
dollars' worth of work on Father's farm for nothing, to keep him
satisfied and to insure getting his deed. All these years, each
man has paid his taxes, put thousands in improvements, in
rebuilding homes and barns, fertilizing, and developing his land.
Each one of these farms is worth nearly twice what it was the day
it was received. That the boys should lose all this is no cause
for rejoicing on the part of any true woman; as a fact, no true
woman would allow such a thing to happen -- "
"Speak for yourself!" cried several of the girls at once.
"Now right here is where we come to a perfect understanding," said
Kate. "I did say that for myself, but in the main what I say, I
say for MOTHER. Now you will not one of you interrupt me again,
or this meeting closes, and each of you stands to lose more than
two thousand dollars, which is worth being civil for, for quite a
while. No more of that! I say any woman should be ashamed to
take advantage of her brother through an accident; and rob him of
years of work and money he was perfectly justified in thinking was
his. I, for one, refuse to do it, and I want and need money
probably more than any of you. To tear up these farms, to take
more than half from the boys, is too much. On the other hand, for
the girls to help earn the land, to go with no inheritance at all,
is even more unfair. Now in order to arrive at a compromise that
will leave each boy his farm, and give each girl the nearest
possible to a fair amount, figuring in what the boys have spent in
taxes and work for Father, and what each girl has LOST by not
having her money to handle all these years, it is necessary to
split the difference between the time Adam, the eldest, has had
his inheritance, and Hiram, the youngest, came into possession,
which by taking from and adding to, gives a fair average of
fifteen years. Now Mother proposes if we will enter into an
agreement this morning with no words and no wrangling, to settle
on this basis: she will relinquish her third of all other land,
and keep only this home farm. She even will allow the fifty lying
across the road to be sold and the money put into a general fund
for the share of the girls. She will turn into this fund all
money from notes and mortgages, and the sale of all stock,
implements, etc., here, except what she wants to keep for her use,
and the sum of three thousand dollars in cash, to provide against
old age. This releases quite a sum of money, and three hundred
and fifty acres of land, which she gives to the boys to start this
fund as her recompense for their work and loss through a scheme in
which she had a share in the start. She does this only on the
understanding that the boys form a pool, and in some way take from
what they have saved, sell timber or cattle, or borrow enough
money to add to this sufficient to pay to each girl six thousand
dollars in cash, in three months. Now get out your pencils and
figure. Start with the original number of acres at fifty dollars
an acre which is what it cost Father on an average. Balance
against each other what the boys have lost in tax and work, and
the girls have lost in not having their money to handle, and cross
it off. Then figure, not on a basis of what the boys have made
this land worth, but on what it cost Father's estate to buy, build
on, and stock each farm. Strike the fifteen-year average on
prices and profits. Figure that the girls get all their money
practically immediately, to pay for the time they have been out of
it; while each boy assumes an equal share of the indebtedness
required to finish out the six thousand, after Mother has turned
in what she is willing to, if this is settled HERE AND NOW."