"I've said my say! Your place is here! Here you stay!" answered
her mother.

"All right," said Kate, "I'll cross you off the docket of my
hopes, and try Father."

"Well, I warn you, you had better not! He has been nagged until
his patience is lost," said Mrs. Bates.

Kate closed her lips and started in search of her father. She
found him leaning on the pig pen watching pigs grow into money,
one of his most favoured occupations. He scowled at her, drawing
his huge frame to full height.

"I don't want to hear a word you have to say," he said. "You are
the youngest, and your place is in the kitchen helping your
mother. We have got the last installment to pay on Hiram's land
this summer. March back to the house and busy yourself with
something useful!"

Kate looked at him, from his big-boned, weather-beaten face, to
his heavy shoes, then turned without a word and went back toward
the house. She went around it to the cherry tree and with no
preliminaries said to her sister: "Nancy Ellen, I want you to
lend me enough money to fix my clothes a little and pay my way to
Normal this summer. I can pay it all back this winter. I'll pay
every cent with interest, before I spend any on anything else."

"Why, you must be crazy!" said Nancy Ellen.