"It will make a very difficult winter for you, Katherine," said
Agatha. "When Nancy Ellen becomes interested in dresses and
table linen and bedding she will want to sew all the time, and
leave the cooking and dishes for you as well as your schoolwork."
Kate turned toward Agatha in surprise. "But I won't be there! I
told you I had taken a school."
"You taken a school!" shouted Adam. "Why, didn't they tell you
that Father has signed up for the home school for you?"
"Good Heavens!" said Kate. "What will be to pay now?"
"Did you contract for another school?" cried Adam.
"I surely did," said Kate slowly. "I signed an agreement to teach
the village school in Walden. It's a brick building with a
janitor to sweep and watch fires, only a few blocks to walk, and
it pays twenty dollars a month more than the home school where you
can wade snow three miles, build your own fires, and freeze all
day in a little frame building at that. I teach the school I have
taken."
"And throw our school out of a teacher? Father could be sued, and
probably will be," said Adam. "And throw the housework Nancy
Ellen expected you to do on her," said Agatha, at the same time.
"I see," said Kate. "Well, if he is sued, he will have to settle.
He wouldn't help me a penny to go to school, I am of age, the debt
is my own, and I don't owe it to him. He's had all my work has
been worth all my life, and I've surely paid my way. I shall
teach the school I have signed for."
"You will get into a pretty kettle of fish!" said Adam.
"Agatha, will you sell me your telescope for what you paid for it,
and get yourself a new one the next time you go to Hartley? It is
only a few days until time to go to my school, it opens sooner
than in the country, and closes later. The term is four months
longer, so I earn that much more. I haven't gotten a telescope
yet. You can add it to my first payment."
"You may take it," said Agatha, "but hadn't you better reconsider,
Katherine? Things are progressing so nicely, and this will upset
everything for Nancy Ellen."
"That taking the home school will upset everything for me, doesn't
seem to count. It is late, late to find teachers, and I can be
held responsible if I break the contract I have made. Father can
stand the racket better than I can. When he wouldn't consent to
my going, he had no business to make plans for me. I had to make
my own plans and go in spite of him; he might have known I'd do
all in my power to get a school. Besides, I don't want the home
school, or the home work piled on me. My hands look like a human
being's for the first time in my life; then I need all my time
outside of school to study and map out lessons. I am going to try
for a room in the Hartley schools next year, or the next after
that, surely. They sha'n't change my plans and boss me, I am
going to be free to work, and study, and help myself, like other
teachers."