Kate walked back to the highway, but instead of going on she
turned toward home. When she reached the gate she saw Nancy
Ellen, dressed her prettiest, sitting beneath a cherry tree
reading a book, in very plain view from the road. As Kate came up
the path: "Hello!" said Nancy Ellen. "Wasn't Adam at home?"
"I don't know," answered Kate. "I was not there."
"You weren't? Why, where were you?" asked Nancy Ellen.
"Oh, I just took a walk!" answered Kate.
"Right at dinner time on Sunday? Well, I'll be switched!" cried
Nancy Ellen.
"Pity you weren't oftener, when you most needed it," said Kate,
passing up the walk and entering the door. Her mother asked the
same questions so Kate answered them.
"Well, I am glad you came home," said Mrs. Bates. "There was no
use tagging to Adam with a sorry story, when your father said
flatly that you couldn't go."
"But I must go!" urged Kate. "I have as good a right to my chance
as the others. If you put your foot down and say so, Mother,
Father will let me go. Why shouldn't I have the same chance as
Nancy Ellen? Please Mother, let me go!"
"You stay right where you are. There is an awful summer's work
before us," said Mrs. Bates.
"There always is," answered Kate. "But now is just my chance
while you have Nancy Ellen here to help you."
"She has some special studying to do, and you very well know that
she has to attend the County Institute, and take the summer course
of training for teachers."
"So do I," said Kate, stubbornly. "You really will not help me,
Mother?"
"I've said my say! Your place is here! Here you stay!" answered
her mother.
"All right," said Kate, "I'll cross you off the docket of my
hopes, and try Father."
"Well, I warn you, you had better not! He has been nagged until
his patience is lost," said Mrs. Bates.
Kate closed her lips and started in search of her father. She
found him leaning on the pig pen watching pigs grow into money,
one of his most favoured occupations. He scowled at her, drawing
his huge frame to full height.
"I don't want to hear a word you have to say," he said. "You are
the youngest, and your place is in the kitchen helping your
mother. We have got the last installment to pay on Hiram's land
this summer. March back to the house and busy yourself with
something useful!"
Kate looked at him, from his big-boned, weather-beaten face, to
his heavy shoes, then turned without a word and went back toward
the house. She went around it to the cherry tree and with no
preliminaries said to her sister: "Nancy Ellen, I want you to
lend me enough money to fix my clothes a little and pay my way to
Normal this summer. I can pay it all back this winter. I'll pay
every cent with interest, before I spend any on anything else."