A Daughter of the Land

"Maybe that would be better," he said. "I didn't think of Milly.

I only thought I'd like to have been with you and Little Poll."

"I'm sure Milly will be joining very soon, and that she'll want

you with her," said Kate.

She was a very substantial woman, but for the remainder of that

day she felt that she was moving with winged feet. She sang, she

laughed, she was unspeakably happy. She kept saying over and

over: "And a little child shall lead them." Then she would catch

Little Poll, almost crushing her in her strong arms. It never

occurred to Kate that she had done an unprecedented thing. She

had done as her heart dictated. She did not know that she put the

minister into a most uncomfortable position, when he followed her

request to baptize her and the child. She had never thought of

probations, and examinations, and catechisms. She had read the

Bible, as was the custom, every morning before her school. In

that book, when a man wanted to follow Jesus, he followed; Jesus

accepted him; and that was all there was to it, with Kate.

The middle of the week Nancy Ellen came flying up the walk on

winged feet, herself. She carried photographs of several small

children, one of them a girl so like Little Poll that she might

have been the original of the picture.

"They just came," said Nancy Ellen rather breathlessly. "I was

wild for that little darling at once. I had Robert telegraph them

to hold her until we could get there. We're going to start on the

evening train and if her blood seems good, and her ancestors

respectable, and she looks like that picture, we're going to bring

her back with us. Oh, Kate, I can scarcely wait to get my fingers

on her. I'm hungry for a baby all of my own."

Kate studied the picture.

"She's charming!" she said. "Oh, Nancy Ellen, this world is

getting entirely too good to be true."

Nancy Ellen looked at Kate and smiled peculiarly.

"I knew you were crazy," she said, "but I never dreamed of you

going such lengths. Mrs. Whistler told Robert, when she called

him in about her side, Tuesday. I can't imagine a Bates joining

church."

"If that is joining church, it's the easiest thing in the world,"

said Kate. "We just loved doing it, didn't we, Little Poll? Adam

and Milly are going to come in soon, I'm almost sure. At least he

is willing. I don't know what it is that I am to do, but I

suppose they will give me my work soon."

"You bet they'll give you work soon, and enough," said Nancy

Ellen, laughing. "But you won't mind. You'll just put it

through, as you do things out here. Kate, you are making this

place look fine. I used to say I'd rather die than come back here

to live, but lately it has been growing so attractive, I've been

here about half my time, and wished I were the other half."