A Daughter of the Land

"I'm telling nothing," said Adam. "You can find out what is the

matter and go it with the rest of them, when you get there.

Mother said this morning she wished you were there, because you'd

be the only SANE one in the family, so I thought I'd bring you;

but I wish now I hadn't done it, for it stands to reason that you

will join the pack, and run as fast as the rest of the wolves."

"FROM a prairie fire, or TO a carcass?" asked Kate.

"I told you, you could find out when you got there. I'm not going

to have them saying I influenced you, or bribed you," he said.

"Do you really think that they think you could, Adam?" asked Kate,

wonderingly.

"I have said all I'm going to say," said Adam, and then he began

driving his horse inhumanely fast, for the heat was deep, slow,

and burning.

"Adam, is there any such hurry?" asked Kate. "You know you are

abusing your horse dreadfully."

Adam immediately jerked the horse with all his might, and slashed

the length of its body with two long stripes that rapidly raised

in high welts, so Kate saw that he was past reasoning with and

said no other word. She tried to think who would be at home, how

they would treat her, the Prodigal, who had not been there in

seven years; and suddenly it occurred to Kate that, if she had

known all she now knew in her youth, and had the same decision to

make again as when she knew nothing, she would have taken wing,

just as she had. She had made failures, she had hurt herself,

mind and body, but her honour, her self-respect were intact.

Suddenly she sat straight. She was glad that she had taken a

bath, worn a reasonably decent dress, and had a better one in the

back of the buggy. She would cut the Gordian knot with a

vengeance. She would not wait to see how they treated her, she

would treat them! As for Adam's state, there was only one surmise

she could make, and that seemed so incredible, she decided to wait

until her mother told her all about whatever the trouble was.

As they came in sight of the house, queer feelings took possession

of Kate. She struggled to think kindly of her father; she tried

to feel pangs of grief over his passing. She was too forthright

and had too good memory to succeed. Home had been so unbearable

that she had taken desperate measures to escape it, but as the

white house with its tree and shrub filled yard could be seen more

plainly, Kate suddenly was filled with the strongest possessive

feeling she ever had known. It was home. It was her home. Her

place was there, even as Adam had said. She felt a sudden

revulsion against herself that she had stayed away seven years;

she should have taken her chances and at least gone to see her

mother. She leaned from the buggy and watched for the first

glimpse of the tall, gaunt, dark woman, who had brought their big

brood into the world and stood squarely with her husband, against

every one of them, in each thing he proposed.