brother.

As usual, she had left her bed at four o'clock; for seven hours
she had cooked, washed dishes, made beds, swept, dusted, milked,
churned, following the usual routine of a big family in the
country. Then she had gone upstairs, dressed in clean gingham and
confronted her mother.

"I think I have done my share for to-day," she said. "Suppose you
call on our lady school-mistress for help with dinner. I'm going
to Adam's."

Mrs. Bates lifted her gaunt form to very close six feet of height,
looking narrowly at her daughter.

"Well, what the nation are you going to Adam's at this time a-
Sunday for?" she demanded.

"Oh, I have a curiosity to learn if there is one of the eighteen
members of this family who gives a cent what becomes of me!"
answered Kate, her eyes meeting and looking clearly into her
mother's.

"You are not letting yourself think he would 'give a cent' to send
you to that fool normal-thing, are you?"

"I am not! But it wasn't a 'fool thing' when Mary and Nancy Ellen,
and the older girls wanted to go. You even let Mary go to college
two years."