Kate, turning to the window to hide her face.
"Oh, Agatha, you are a dear, but you are too funny! Even a Fourth of
July orator would not have used that word. I never heard it before in
all of my life outside spelling-school."

Then she looked at the dollar she was gripping and ceased to laugh.

"The dear lad," she whispered. "He did the whole thing. She was going
to let us 'fight it out'; I could tell by her back, and Adam wouldn't
have helped me a cent, quite as much because he didn't want to as
because Father wouldn't have liked it. Fancy the little chap knowing
he can wheedle his mother into anything, and exactly how to go about
it! I won't spend a penny on myself until she is paid, and then I'll
make her a present of something nice, just to let her and Nancy Ellen
see that I appreciate being helped to my chance, for I had reached that
point where I would have walked to school and worked in somebody's
kitchen, before I'd have missed my opportunity. I could have done it;
but this will be far pleasanter and give me a much better showing."

Then Kate began watching the people in the car with eager curiosity,
for she had been on a train only twice before in her life. She decided
that she was in a company of young people and some even of middle age,
going to Normal. She also noticed that most of them were looking at
her with probably the same interest she found in them. Then at one of
the stations a girl asked to sit with her and explained that she was
going to Normal, so Kate said she was also. The girl seemed to have
several acquaintances on the car, for she left her seat to speak with
them and when the train stopped at a very pleasant city and the car
began to empty itself, on the platform Kate was introduced by this girl
to several young women and men near her age. A party of four, going to
board close the school, with a woman they knew about, invited Kate to
go with them and because she was strange and shaken by her experiences
she agreed. All of them piled their luggage on a wagon to be
delivered, so Kate let hers go also. Then they walked down a long
shady street, and entered a dainty and comfortable residence, a place
that seemed to Kate to be the home of people of wealth. She was
assigned a room with another girl, such a pleasant girl; but a vague
uneasiness had begun to make itself felt, so before she unpacked she
went back to the sitting room and learned that the price of board was
eight dolla