"Now I've got a
few words to say, and then I'll turn this over to a younger head an'
one better at figures than mine. I've said my say as to Pa, yesterday.
Now I'll say THIS, for myself. I got my start, minding Pa, and
agreeing with him, young; but you needn't any of you throw it in my
teeth now, that I did. There is only ONE woman among you, and no MAN
who ever disobeyed him. Katie stood up to him once, and got seven
years from home to punish her and me. He wasn't RIGHT then, and I knew
it, as I'd often known it before, and pretty often since; but no woman
God ever made could have lived with Adam Bates as his wife and
contraried him. I didn't mind him any quicker or any oftener than the
rest of you; keep that pretty clear in your heads, and don't one of you
dare open your mouth again to tell me, as you did Saturday, what I
SHOULD a-done, and what I SHOULDN'T. I've had the law of this
explained to me; you all know it for that matter. By the law, I get
this place and one third of all the other land and money. I don't know
just what money there is at the bank or in notes and mortgages, but a
sixteenth of it after my third is taken out ain't going to make or
break any of you. I've told Katie what I'm willing to do on my part
and she will explain it, and then tell you about a plan she has fixed
up. As for me, you can take it or leave it. If you take it, well and
good; if you don't, the law will be set in motion to-day, and it will
take its course to the end. It all depends on YOU.

"Now two things more. At the start, what Pa wanted to do seemed to me
right, and I agreed with him and worked with him. But when my girls
began to grow up and I saw how they felt, and how they struggled and
worked, and how the women you boys married went ahead of my own girls,
and had finer homes, an' carriages, and easier times, I got pretty sick
of it, and I told Pa so more'n once. He just raved whenever I did, an'
he always carried his keys in his pocket. I never touched his chest
key in my life, till I handed him his deed box Friday afternoon. But I
agree with my girls. It's fair and right, since things have come out
as they have, that they should have their shares. I would, too.

"The other thing is just this: I'm tired to death of the whole
business. I want peace and rest and I want it quick. Friday and
Saturday I was so scared and so knocked out I s'pose I'd 'a' took it if
one of the sucking babies had riz up and