A Daughter of the Land

"I know it," he said, "but I've never struck exactly the right

thing. This is what I could make a success of, and I would make a

good big one, you bet! Kate, I'll not go to town another night.

I'll stop all that." He drew the flask from his pocket and

smashed it against the closest tree. "And I'll stop all there

ever was of that, even to a glass of beer on a hot day; if you say

so, if you'll stand by me this once more, if I fail this time,

I'll never ask you again; honest, I won't."

"If I had money, I'd try it, keeping the building in my own name

and keeping the books myself; but I've none, and no way to get

any, as you know," she said. "I can see what could be done, but

I'm helpless."

"I'M NOT!" said George. "I've got it all worked out. You see I

was doing something useful with my head, if I wasn't always

plowing as fast as you thought I should. If you'll back me, if

you'll keep books, if you'll handle the money until she is paid

back, I know Aunt Ollie will sell enough of this land to build the

mill and buy the machinery. She could keep the house, and

orchard, and barn, and a big enough piece, say forty acres, to

live on and keep all of us in grub. She and Mother could move out

here -- she said the other day she was tired of town and getting

homesick -- and we could go to town to put the children in school,

and be on the job. I won't ever ask you and Mother to live

together again. Kate, will you go in with me? Will you talk to

Aunt Ollie? Will you let me show you, and explain, and prove to

you?"

"I won't be a party to anything that would even remotely threaten

to lose Aunt Ollie's money for her," she said.

"She's got nobody on earth but me. It's all mine in the end. Why

not let me have this wonderful chance with it? Kate, will you?"

he begged.

"I'll think about it," she conceded. "If I can study out a sure,

honourable way. I'll promise to think. Now go out there, and

hunt the last scrap of that glass; the children may cut their feet

in the morning."

Then Kate went in to bed. If she had looked from her window, she

might have seen George scratching matches and picking pieces of

glass from the grass. When he came to the bottom of the bottle

with upstanding, jagged edges, containing a few drops, he glanced

at her room, saw that she was undressing in the dark, and lifting

it, he poured the liquid on his tongue to the last drop that would

fall.