so glad to be with her mother again,
to be of service, to hear a word of approval now and then. She must be
worthy of her mother's opinion, she thought, just as George stepped on
the porch, sat on the top step, leaned against a pillar, and said:
"Now go on, tell me all about it."

Kate thought intently a second. Instead of beginning with leaving
Friday morning: "I was at the Court House in Hartley this morning,"
she said.

"You needn't have done that," he scoffed. "I spent most of the day
there Monday. You bet folks shelled out the books when I told them who
I was, and what I was after. I must say you folks have some little
reason to be high and mighty. You sure have got the dough. No wonder
the old man hung on to his deeds himself. He wasn't so FAR from a
King, all right, all right."

"You mean you left your work Monday, and went to the Court House in
Hartley and told who you were, and spent the day nosing into my
father's affairs, before his SONS had done anything, or you had any
idea WHAT was to be done?" she demanded.

"Oh, you needn't get so high and mighty," he said. "I propose to know
just where I am, about this. I propose to have just what is coming to
me--to you, to the last penny, and no Bates man will manage the affair,
either."

Suddenly Kate leaned forward.

"I foresee that you've fixed yourself up for a big disappointment," she
said. "My mother and her eldest son will settle my father's estate;
and when it is settled I shall have exactly what the other girls have.
Then if I still think it is wise, I shall at once go to work building
the mill. Everything must be shaved to the last cent, must be done
with the closest economy, I MUST come out of this with enough left to
provide us a comfortable home."

"Do that from the first profits of the mill," he suggested.

"I'm no good at 'counting chickens before they're hatched,'" said Kate.
"Besides, the first profits from the mill, as you very well know, if
you would ever stop to think, must go to pay for logs to work on, and
there must always be a good balance for that purpose. No. I reserve
enough from my money to fix the home I want; but I shall wait to do it
until the mill is working, so I can give all my attention to it, while
you are out looking up timber."

"Of course I can do all of it perfectly well," he said. "And it's a
MAN'S business. You'll make me look like fifty cents if you get out
among men and go to doing a thing no woma