e 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."

"I can think of only one thing I'd like better," he sa