One evening Kate and Polly went to the front porch to rest until
bedtime and found a shining big new trunk sitting there, with
Kate's initials on the end, her name on the check tag, and a key
in the lock. They unbuckled the straps, turned the key, and
lifted the lid. That trunk contained underclothing, hose, shoes,
two hats, a travelling dress with half a dozen extra waists, and
an afternoon and an evening dress, all selected with especial
reference to Kate's colouring, and made one size larger than Nancy
Ellen wore, which fitted Kate perfectly. There were gloves, a
parasol, and a note which read: DEAR KATE: Here are some clothes. I am going to go North a week
after harvest. You can be spared then as well as not. Come on!
Let's run away and have one good time all by ourselves. It is my
treat from start to finish. The children can manage the farm
perfectly well. Any one of her cousins will stay with Polly, if
she will be lonely. Cut loose and come on, Kate. I am going. Of
course Robert couldn't be pried away from his precious patients;
we will have to go alone; but we do not care. We like it. Shall
we start about the tenth, on the night train, which will be
cooler? NANCY ELLEN.
"We shall!" said Kate emphatically, when she finished the note.
"I haven't cut loose and had a good time since I was married; not
for eighteen years. If the children are not big enough to take
care of themselves, they never will be. I can go as well as not."
She handed the note to Polly, while she shook out dresses and
gloated over the contents of the trunk.
"Of course you shall go!" shouted Polly as she finished the note,
but even as she said it she glanced obliquely up the road and
waved a hand behind her mother's back.
"Sure you shall go!" cried Adam, when he finished the note, and
sat beside the trunk seeing all the pretty things over again.
"You just bet you shall go. Polly and I can keep house, fine! We
don't need any cousins hanging around. I'll help Polly with her
work, and then we'll lock the house and she can come out with me.
Sure you go! We'll do all right." Then he glanced obliquely down
the road, where a slim little figure in white moved under the
cherry trees of the York front yard, aimlessly knocking croquet
balls here and there.
It was two weeks until time to go, but Kate began taking care of
herself at once, solely because she did not want Nancy Ellen to be
ashamed of her. She rolled her sleeves down to meet her gloves
and used a sunbonnet instead of a sunshade. She washed and
brushed her hair with care she had not used in years. By the time
the tenth of July came, she was in very presentable condition,
while the contents of the trunk did the remainder. As she was
getting ready to go, she said to Polly: "Now do your best while
I'm away, and I am sure I can arrange with Nancy Ellen about
school this winter. When I get back, the very first thing I shall
do will be to go to Hartley and buy some stuff to begin on your
clothes. You shall have as nice dresses as the other girls, too.
Nancy Ellen will know exactly what to get you."