A Daughter of the Land

"Possibly," laughed Kate, "but I wouldn't want to become a land

shark that way. Look down the road."

"Who is it?" asked Adam.

"Nancy Ellen, with my telescope," answered Kate. "I am to go, all

right."

"All right, then we will go," said the boy, angrily. "But it is a

blame shame and there is no sense to it, as good a girl as you

have been, and the way you have worked. Mother said at breakfast

there was neither sense nor justice in the way Grandpa always has

acted and she said she would wager all she was worth that he would

live to regret it. She said it wasn't natural, and when people

undertook to controvert -- ain't that a peach? Bet there isn't a

woman in ten miles using that word except Ma -- nature they always

hurt themselves worse than they hurt their victims. And I bet he

does, too, and I, for one, don't care. I hope he does get a good

jolt, just to pay him up for being so mean."

"Don't, Adam, don't!" cautioned Kate.

"I mean it!" cried the boy.

"I know you do. That's the awful thing about it," said Kate. "I

am afraid every girl he has feels the same way, and from what your

father said yesterday, even the sons he favours don't feel any too

good toward him."

"You just bet they don't! They are every one as sore as boiled

owls. Pa said so, and he knows, for they all talk it over every

time they meet. He said they didn't feel like men, they felt like

a lot of 'spanked school-boys.'"

"They needn't worry," said Kate. "Every deed is made out. Father

reads them over whenever it rains. They'll all get their land

when he dies. It is only his way."

"Yes, and THIS is only his way, too, and it's a dern poor way,"

said Adam. "Pa isn't going to do this way at all. Mother said he

could go and live on his land, and she'd stay home with Susan and

me, if he tried it. And when I am a man I am going to do just

like Pa and Ma because they are the rightest people I know, only I

am not going to save QUITE so close as Pa, and if I died for it, I

never could converse or dance like Ma."

"I should hope not!" said Kate, and then added hastily, "it's all

right for a lady, but it would seem rather sissy for a man, I

believe."

"Yes, I guess it would, but it is language let me tell you, when

Ma cuts loose," said Adam.

"Hello, Nancy Ellen," said Kate as Adam stopped the buggy. "Put

my telescope in the back with the horse feed. Since you have it,

I don't need ask whether I am the Prodigal Daughter or not. I see

clearly I am."