A Daughter of the Land

Kate finished her school in the spring, then went for a visit with

Nancy Ellen and Robert, before George Holt returned. She was

thankful to leave Walden without having seen him, for she had

decided, without giving the matter much thought, that he was not

the man she wanted to marry. In her heart she regretted having

previously contracted for the Walden school another winter because

she felt certain that with the influence of Dr. Gray, she could

now secure a position in Hartley that would enable her either to

live with, or to be near, her sister. With this thought in mind,

she tried to make the acquaintance of teachers in the school who

lived in Hartley and she soon became rather intimate with one of

them.

It was while visiting with this teacher that Kate spoke of

attending Normal again in an effort to prepare herself still

better for the work of the coming year. Her new friend advised

against it. She said the course would be only the same thing over

again, with so little change or advancement, that the trip was not

worth the time and money it would cost. She proposed that Kate go

to Lake Chautauqua and take the teachers' course, where all spare

time could be put in attending lectures, and concerts, and

studying the recently devised methods of education. Kate went

from her to Nancy Ellen and Robert, determined at heart to go.

She was pleased when they strongly advised her to, and offered to

help her get ready. Aside from having paid Agatha, and for her

board, Kate had spent almost nothing on herself. She figured the

probable expenses of the trip for a month, what it would cost her

to live until school began again, if she were forced to go to

Walden, and then spent all her remaining funds on the prettiest

clothing she had ever owned. Each of the sisters knew how to buy

carefully; then the added advantage of being able to cut and make

their own clothes, made money go twice as far as where a

dressmaker had to be employed. When everything they had planned

was purchased, neatly made, and packed in a trunk, into which

Nancy Ellen slipped some of her prettiest belongings, Kate made a

trip to a milliner's shop to purchase her first real hat.

She had decided on a big, wide-brimmed Leghorn, far from cheap.

While she was trying the effect of flowers and ribbon on it, the

wily milliner slipped up and with the hat on Kate's golden crown,

looped in front a bow of wide black velvet ribbon and drooped over

the brim a long, exquisitely curling ostrich plume. Kate had one

good view of herself, before she turned her back on the

temptation.

"You look lovely in that," said the milliner. "Don't you like

it?"