For a week, Kate lay so dazed she did not care whether she lived
or died; then she slowly crept back to life, realizing that
whether she cared or not, she must live. She was too young, too
strong, to quit because she was soul sick; she had to go on. She
had life to face for herself and her children. She wondered dully
about her people, but as none of the neighbours who had taken care
of her said anything concerning them, she realized that they had
not been there. At first she was almost glad. They were
forthright people. They would have had something to say; they
would have said it tersely and to the point.
Adam, 3d, had wound up her affairs speedily by selling the logs he
had bought for her to the Hartley mills, paying what she owed, and
depositing the remainder in the Hartley Bank to her credit; but
that remainder was less than one hundred dollars. That winter was
a long, dreadful nightmare to Kate. Had it not been for Aunt
Ollie, they would have been hungry some of the time; they were
cold most of it. For weeks Kate thought of sending for her
mother, or going to her; then as not even a line came from any of
her family, she realized that they resented her losing that much
Bates money so bitterly that they wished to have nothing to do
with her. Often she sat for hours staring straight before her,
trying to straighten out the tangle she had made of her life. As
if she had not suffered enough in the reality of living, she now
lived over in day and night dreams, hour by hour, her time with
George Holt, and gained nothing thereby.
All winter Kate brooded, barely managing to keep alive, and the
children in school. As spring opened, she shook herself, arose,
and went to work. It was not planned, systematic, effective,
Bates work. Piecemeal she did anything she saw needed the doing.
The children helped to make garden and clean the yard. Then all
of them went out to Aunt Ollie's and made a contract to plant and
raise potatoes and vegetables on shares. They passed a neglected
garden on the way, and learning that the woman of the house was
ill, Kate stopped and offered to tend it for enough cords of
windfall wood to pay her a fair price, this to be delivered in
mid-summer.
With food and fire assured, Kate ripped up some of George's
clothing, washed, pressed, turned, and made Adam warm clothes for
school. She even achieved a dress for Polly by making a front and
back from a pair of her father's trouser legs, and setting in side
pieces, a yoke and sleeves from one of her old skirts. George's
underclothing she cut down for both of the children; then drew
another check for taxes and second-hand books. While she was in
Hartley in the fall paying taxes, she stopped at a dry goods store
for thread, and heard a customer asking for knitted mittens, which
were not in stock. After he had gone, she arranged with the
merchant for a supply of yarn which she carried home and began to
knit into mittens such as had been called for. She used every
minute of leisure during the day, she worked hours into the night,
and soon small sums began coming her way. When she had a supply of
teamster's heavy mittens, she began on fancy coloured ones for
babies and children, sometimes crocheting, sometimes using
needles. Soon she started both children on the rougher work with
her. They were glad to help for they had a lively remembrance of
one winter of cold and hunger, with no Christmas. That there were
many things she might have done that would have made more money
with less exertion Kate never seemed to realize. She did the
obvious thing. Her brain power seemed to be on a level with that
of Adam and Polly.