"Maybe that would be better," he said. "I didn't think of Milly.
I only thought I'd like to have been with you and Little Poll."
"I'm sure Milly will be joining very soon, and that she'll want
you with her," said Kate.
She was a very substantial woman, but for the remainder of that
day she felt that she was moving with winged feet. She sang, she
laughed, she was unspeakably happy. She kept saying over and
over: "And a little child shall lead them." Then she would catch
Little Poll, almost crushing her in her strong arms. It never
occurred to Kate that she had done an unprecedented thing. She
had done as her heart dictated. She did not know that she put the
minister into a most uncomfortable position, when he followed her
request to baptize her and the child. She had never thought of
probations, and examinations, and catechisms. She had read the
Bible, as was the custom, every morning before her school. In
that book, when a man wanted to follow Jesus, he followed; Jesus
accepted him; and that was all there was to it, with Kate.
The middle of the week Nancy Ellen came flying up the walk on
winged feet, herself. She carried photographs of several small
children, one of them a girl so like Little Poll that she might
have been the original of the picture.
"They just came," said Nancy Ellen rather breathlessly. "I was
wild for that little darling at once. I had Robert telegraph them
to hold her until we could get there. We're going to start on the
evening train and if her blood seems good, and her ancestors
respectable, and she looks like that picture, we're going to bring
her back with us. Oh, Kate, I can scarcely wait to get my fingers
on her. I'm hungry for a baby all of my own."
Kate studied the picture.
"She's charming!" she said. "Oh, Nancy Ellen, this world is
getting entirely too good to be true."
Nancy Ellen looked at Kate and smiled peculiarly.
"I knew you were crazy," she said, "but I never dreamed of you
going such lengths. Mrs. Whistler told Robert, when she called
him in about her side, Tuesday. I can't imagine a Bates joining
church."
"If that is joining church, it's the easiest thing in the world,"
said Kate. "We just loved doing it, didn't we, Little Poll? Adam
and Milly are going to come in soon, I'm almost sure. At least he
is willing. I don't know what it is that I am to do, but I
suppose they will give me my work soon."
"You bet they'll give you work soon, and enough," said Nancy
Ellen, laughing. "But you won't mind. You'll just put it
through, as you do things out here. Kate, you are making this
place look fine. I used to say I'd rather die than come back here
to live, but lately it has been growing so attractive, I've been
here about half my time, and wished I were the other half."