A Daughter of the Land

As the time drew nearer she became sickeningly anxious about a

school. What if she failed in securing one? What if she could

not pay back Agatha's money? What if she had taken "the wings of

morning," and fallen in her flight? In desperation she went to

the Superintendent of the Normal and told him her trouble. He

wrote her a fine letter of recommendation and she sent it to one

of the men from whom she had not heard, the director of a school

in the village of Walden, seven miles east of Hartley, being

seventeen miles from her home, thus seeming to Kate a desirable

location, also she knew the village to be pretty and the school

one that paid well. Then she finished her work the best she

could, and disappointed and anxious, entered the train for home.

When the engine whistled at the bridge outside Hartley Kate arose,

lifted her telescope from the rack overhead, and made her way to

the door, so that she was the first person to leave the car when

it stopped. As she stepped to the platform she had a distinct

shock, for her father reached for the telescope, while his

greeting and his face were decidedly friendly, for him. As they

walked down the street Kate was trying wildly to think of the best

thing to say when he asked if she had a school. But he did not

ask. Then she saw in the pocket of his light summer coat a packet

of letters folded inside a newspaper, and there was one long,

official-looking envelope that stood above the others far enough

that she could see "Miss K --" of the address. Instantly she

decided that it was her answer from the School Director of Walden

and she was tremblingly eager to see it. She thought an instant

and then asked: "Have you been to the post office?"

"Yes, I got the mail," he answered.

"Will you please see if there are any letters for me?" she asked.

"When we get home," he said. "I am in a hurry now. Here's a list

of things Ma wants, and don't be all day about getting them."

Kate's lips closed to a thin line and her eyes began to grow steel

coloured and big. She dragged back a step and looked at the

loosely swaying pocket again. She thought intently a second. As

they passed several people on the walk she stepped back of her

father and gently raised the letter enough to see that the address

was to her. Instantly she lifted it from the others, slipped it

up her dress sleeve, and again took her place beside her father

until they reached the store where her mother did her shopping.

Then he waited outside while Kate hurried in, and ripping open the

letter, found a contract ready for her to sign for the Walden

school. The salary was twenty dollars a month more than Nancy

Ellen had received for their country school the previous winter

and the term four months longer.