ou're to have, and what I'll pay you, and how much
work you'll have to do, and if you take charge of the farm, and how we
share up?"

Kate laughed: "Mother," she said, "I have been going to school here,
with the Master of Life for a teacher; and I've learned so many things
that really count, that I know now NONE of the things you mention are
essential. You may keep the answers to all those questions; I don't
care a cent about any of them. If you want me, and want the children,
all those things will settle themselves as we come to them. I didn't
use to understand you; but we got well enough acquainted at Father's
funeral, and I do, now. Whatever you do will be fair, just, and right.
I'll obey you, as I shall expect Adam and Polly to."

"Well, for lands sakes, Katie," said Mrs. Bates. "Life must a-been
weltin' it to you good and proper. I never expected to see you as meek
as Moses. That Holt man wasn't big enough to beat you, was he?"

"The ways in which he 'beat' me no Bates would understand. I had eight
years of them, and I don't understand them yet; but I am so cooked with
them, that I shall be wild with joy if you truly mean for me to pack up
and come home with you for awhile."

"Oh, Lordy, Katie!" said Mrs. Bates. "This whipped out,
take-anything-anyway style ain't becomin' to a big, fine, upstanding
woman like you. Hold up your head, child! Hold up your head, and say
what you want, an' how you want it!"

"Honestly, Mother, I don't want a thing on earth but to go home with
you and do as you say for the next ten years," said Kate.

"Stiffen up!" cried Mrs. Bates. "Stiffen up!" "Don't be no broken
reed, Katie! I don't want you dependin' on ME; I came to see if you
would let ME lean on YOU the rest of the way. I wa'n't figuring that
there was anything on this earth that could get you down; so's I was
calculatin' you'd be the very one to hold me up. Since you seem to be
feeling unaccountably weak in the knees, let's see if we can brace them
a little. Livin' with Pa so long must kind of given me a tendency
toward nussin' a deed. I've got one here I had executed two years ago,
and I was a coming with it along about now, when 'a little bird tole
me' to come to-day, so here I am. Take that, Katie."

Mrs. Bates pulled a long sealed envelope from the front of her dress
and tossed it in Kate's lap.

"Mother, what is this?" asked Kate in a hushed voice.

"Well, if you'd rather use your ears than your