The only way
she could imagine herself enduring it at all was to think of the
promised farm, and when she began to think of that on Jardine terms,
she saw that it would mean to sit down and tell someone else what she
wanted done. There would be no battle to fight. Her mind kept harking
back to the day when she had said to John that she hoped there would be
a lake on the land she owned, and he had answered casually: "If there
isn't a lake, make one!" Kate thought that over repeatedly. "Make
one!" Make a lake? It would have seemed no more magical to her if he
had said, "Make a cloud," "Make a star," or "Make a rainbow." "What on
earth would I do with myself, with my time, with my life?" pondered
Kate.

She said "Good-bye" to Mrs. Jardine and Jennie Weeks, and started home
with John, still pondering. When the train pulled into Hartley, Nancy
Ellen and Robert were on the platform to meet them. From that time,
Kate was on solid ground. She was reckoning in terms she could
comprehend. All her former assurance and energy came back to her. She
almost wished the visit were over, and that she were on the way to
Walton to clean the school-house. She was eager to roll her sleeves
and beat a tub of soapy clothes to foam, and boil them snowy white.
She had a desire she could scarcely control to sweep, and dust, and
cook. She had been out of the environment she thought she disliked and
found when she returned to it after a wider change than she could have
imagined, that she did not dislike it at all. It was her element, her
work, what she knew. She could attempt it with sure foot, capable
hand, and certain knowledge.

Sunday morning she said to Nancy Ellen as they washed the breakfast
dishes, while the men smoked on the veranda: "Nancy Ellen, I don't
believe I was ever cut out for a rich woman! If I have got a chance, I
wish YOU had it, and I had THIS. This just suits my style to a T."

"Tell me about it," said Nancy Ellen.

Kate told all she could remember.

"You don't mean to say you didn't LIKE it?" cried Nancy Ellen.

"I didn't say anything," said Kate, "but if I were saying exactly what
I feel, you'd know I despise it all."

"Why, Kate Barnes!" cried the horrified Nancy Ellen, "Whatever do you
mean?"

"I haven't thought enough to put it to you clearly," said Kate, "but
someway the city repels me. Facilities for manufacturing something
start a city. It begins with the men who do the work, and the me