"Mother has it hammered into me that it isn't polite to ask
questions," said John, "but I'd like to ask one."
"Go ahead," said Kate. "Ask fifty! What do I care?"
"How many boys are there in your family?"
"There are seven," said Kate, "and if you want to use them as a
basis for a land estimate add two hundred and fifty for the home
place. Sixteen hundred and fifty is what Father pays tax on,
besides the numerous mortgages and investments. He's the richest
man in the county we live in; at least he pays the most taxes."
Mother and son looked at each other in silence. They had been
thinking her so poor that she would be bewildered by what they had
to offer. But if two hundred acres of land were her desire, there
was a possibility that she was a women who was not asking either
ease or luxury of life, and would refuse it if it were proffered.
"I hope you will take me home with you, and let me see all that
land, and how it is handled," said John Jardine. "I don't own an
acre. I never even have thought of it, but there is no reason why
I, or any member of my family shouldn't have all the land they
want. Mother, do you feel a wild desire for two hundred acres of
land? Same kind of a desire that took you to come here?"
"No, I don't," said Mrs. Jardine. "All I know about land is that
I know it when I see it, and I know if I think it's pretty; but I
can see why Kate feels that she would like that amount for
herself, after having helped earn all those farms for her
brothers. If it's land she wants, I hope she speedily gets all
she desires in whatever location she wants it; and then I hope she
lets me come to visit her and watch her do as she likes with it."
"Surely," said Kate, "you are invited right now; as soon as I ever
get the land, I'll give you another invitation. And of course you
may go home with me, Mr. Jardine, and I'll show you each of what
Father calls 'those little parcels of land of mine.' But the one
he lives on we shall have to gaze at from afar, because I'm a
Prodigal Daughter. When I would leave home in spite of him for
the gay and riotous life of a school-marm, he ordered me to take
all my possessions with me, which I did in one small telescope. I
was not to enter his house again while he lived. I was glad to
go, he was glad to have me, while I don't think either of us has
changed our mind since. Teaching school isn't exactly gay, but
I'll fill my tummy with quite a lot of symbolical husks before
he'll kill the fatted calf for me. They'll be glad to see you at
my brother Adam's, and my sister, Nancy Ellen, would greatly enjoy
meeting you. Surely you may go home with me, if you'd like."