children came screaming with fright. In turning to warn them about
the glass, she stumbled on the top step, pitched forward headlong, then
lay still. The neighbours carried her back to her bed, called the
doctor, and then saved all the logs in the yard they could. The
following day, when the fire had burned itself out, the undertaker
hunted assiduously, but nothing could be found to justify a funeral.

CHAPTER XX

"FOR A GOOD GIRL"

FOR a week, Kate lay so dazed she did not care whether she lived or
died; then she slowly crept back to life, realizing that whether she
cared or not, she must live. She was too young, too strong, to quit
because she was soul sick; she had to go on. She had life to face for
herself and her children. She wondered dully about her people, but as
none of the neighbours who had taken care of her said anything
concerning them, she realized that they had not been there. At first
she was almost glad. They were forthright people. They would have had
something to say; they would have said it tersely and to the point.

Adam, 3d, had wound up her affairs speedily by selling the logs he had
bought for her to the Hartley mills, paying what she owed, and
depositing the remainder in the Hartley Bank to her credit; but that
remainder was less than one hundred dollars. That winter was a long,
dreadful nightmare to Kate. Had it not been for Aunt Ollie, they would
have been hungry some of the time; they were cold most of it. For
weeks Kate thought of sending for her mother, or going to her; then as
not even a line came from any of her family, she realized that they
resented her losing that much Bates money so bitterly that they wished
to have nothing to do with her. Often she sat for hours staring
straight before her, trying to straighten out the tangle she had made
of her life. As if she had not suffered enough in the reality of
living, she now lived over in day and night dreams, hour by hour, her
time with George Holt, and gained nothing thereby.

All winter Kate brooded, barely managing to keep alive, and the
children in school. As spring opened, she shook herself, arose, and
went to work. It was not planned, systematic, effective, Bates work.
Piecemeal she did anything she saw needed the doing. The children
helped to make garden and clean the yard. Then all of them went out to
Aunt Ollie's and made a contract to plant and raise potatoes and
vegetables on shares. They passed a negl