A Daughter of the Land

Kate sat very still, holding this letter in her hand, when John

Jardine came up and sat beside her. She looked at him closely.

He was quite as good looking as his mother thought him, in a

brawny masculine way; but Kate was not seeking the last word in

mental or physical refinement. She was rather brawny herself, and

perfectly aware of the fact. She wanted intensely to learn all

she could, she disliked the idea that any woman should have more

stored in her head than she, but she had no time to study minute

social graces and customs. She wanted to be kind, to be polite,

but she told Mrs. Jardine flatly the "she didn't give a flip about

being overly nice," which was the exact truth. That required

subtleties beyond Kate's depth, for she was at times alarmingly

casual. So she held her letter and thought about John Jardine.

As she thought, she decided that she did not know whether she was

in love with him or not; she thought she was. She liked being

with him, she liked all he did for her, she would miss him if he

went away, she would be proud to be his wife, but she did wish

that he were interested in land, instead of inventions and stocks

and bonds. Stocks and bonds were almost as evanescent as rainbows

to Kate. Land was something she could understand and handle.

Maybe she could interest him in land; if she could, that would be

ideal. What a place his wealth would buy and fit up. She

wondered as she studied John Jardine, what was in his head; if he

truly intended to ask her to be his wife, and since reading Nancy

Ellen's letter, when? She should let the Trustee know if she were

not going to teach the school again; but someway, she rather

wanted to teach the school. When she started anything she did not

know how to stop until she finished. She had so much she wanted

to teach her pupils the coming winter.

Suddenly John asked: "Kate, if you could have anything you

wanted, what would you have?"

"Two hundred acres of land," she said.

"How easy!" laughed John, rising to find a seat for his mother who

was approaching them. "What do you think of that, Mother? A girl

who wants two hundred acres of land more than anything else in the

world."

"What is better?" asked Mrs. Jardine.

"I never heard you say anything about land before."

"Certainly not," said his mother, "and I'm not saying anything

about it now, for myself; but I can see why it means so much to

Kate, why it's her natural element."

"Well, I can't," he said. "I meet many men in business who

started on land, and most of them were mighty glad to get away

from it. What's the attraction?"