e attended
it, and hoed the potatoes. For a change, everything went right. Mrs.
Bates was happier than she ever had been before, taking the greatest
interest in the children. They had lived for three years in such a
manner that they would never forget it. They were old enough to
appreciate what changes had come to them, and to be very keen about
their new home and life. Kate threw herself into the dream of her heart
with all the zest of her being. Always she had loved and wanted land.
Now she had it. She knew how to handle it. She could make it pay as
well as any Bates man, for she had man strength, and all her life she
had heard men discuss, and helped men apply man methods.

There was a strong strain of her father's spirit of driving in Kate's
blood; but her mother was so tired of it that whenever Kate had gone
just so far the older woman had merely to caution: "Now, now, Katie!"
to make Kate realized what she was doing and take a slower pace. All
of them were well, happy, and working hard; but they also played at
proper times, and in convenient places. Kate and her mother went with
the children when they fished in the meadow brook, or hunted wild
flowers in the woods for Polly's bed in the shade of the pear tree
beside the garden. There were flowers in the garden now, as well as
vegetables. There was no work done on Sunday. The children always
went to Sunday-school and the full term of the District School at Bates
Corners. They were respected, they were prosperous, they were finding
a joy in life they never before had known, while life had taught them
how to appreciate its good things as they achieved them.

The first Christmas Mrs. Bates and Kate made a Christmas tree from a
small savine in the dooryard that stood where Kate wanted to set a
flowering shrub she had found in the woods. Guided by the former year,
and with a few dollars they decided to spend, these women made a real
Christmas tree, with gifts and ornaments, over which Mrs. Bates was
much more excited than the children. Indeed, such is the perversity of
children that Kate's eyes widened and her mouth sagged when she heard
Adam say in a half-whisper to Polly: "This is mighty pretty, but gee,
Polly, there'll never be another tree as pretty as ours last year!"

While Polly answered: "I was just thinking about it, Adam. Wasn't it
the grandest thing?"

The next Christmas Mrs. Bates advanced to a tree that reached the
ceiling, with many c