A Daughter of the Land

"There now, you have told me all about it," said Kate, stroking

the white forehead in an effort to produce drowsiness, "close your

eyes and go to sleep."

"I haven't even BEGUN to tell you," said the woman perversely.

"If I talked all night I couldn't tell you about John. How big he

is, and how brave he is, and how smart he is, and how he is the

equal of any business man in Chicago, and soon, if he keeps on, he

will be worth as much as some of them -- more than any one of his

age, who has had a lot of help instead of having his way to make

alone, and a sick old mother to support besides. No, I couldn't

tell you in a week half about John, and he didn't want me to come.

If I would come, then he wanted me to wait a few days until he

finished a deal so he could bring me, but the minute I thought of

it I was determined to come; you know how you get."

"I know how badly you want to do a thing you have set your heart

on," admitted Kate.

"I had gone places with Susette in perfect comfort. I think the

trouble was that she tried from the first to attract John. About

the time we started, he let her see plainly that all he wanted of

her was to take care of me; she was pretty and smart, so it made

her furious. She was pampered in everything, as no maid I ever

had before. John is young yet, and I think he is very handsome,

and he wouldn't pay any attention to her. You see when other boys

were going to school and getting acquainted with girls by

association, even when he was a little bit of a fellow in knee

breeches, I had to let him sell papers, and then he got into a

shop, and he invented a little thing, and then a bigger, and

bigger yet, and then he went into stocks and things, and he

doesn't know anything about girls, only about sick old women like

me. He never saw what Susette was up to. You do believe that I

wasn't ugly to her, don't you?"

"You COULDN'T be ugly if you tried," said Kate.

The woman suddenly began to sob again, this time slowly, as if her

forces were almost spent. She looked to Kate for the sympathy she

craved and for the first time really saw her closely.

"Why, you dear girl," she cried. "Your face is all tear stained.

You've been crying, yourself."

"Roaring in a pillow," admitted Kate.

"But my dear, forgive me! I was so upset with that dreadful

woman. Forgive me for not having seen that you, too, are in

trouble. Won't you please tell me?"