remain at home to do the housework, for no compensation other than
her board and such clothes as she always had worn, her mother
wholly in accord with him, and marvel of all, Nancy Ellen quite
enthusiastic on the subject.

Her father always had driven himself and his family like slaves,
while her mother had ably seconded his efforts. Money from the
sale of chickens, turkeys, butter, eggs, and garden truck that
other women of the neighbourhood used for extra clothing for
themselves and their daughters and to prettify their homes, Mrs.
Bates handed to her husband to increase the amount necessary to
purchase the two hundred acres of land for each son when he came
of age. The youngest son had farmed his land with comfortable
profit and started a bank account, while his parents and two
sisters were still saving and working to finish the last payment.
Kate thought with bitterness that if this final payment had been
made possibly there would have been money to spare for her; but
with that thought came the knowledge that her father had numerous
investments on which he could have realized and made the payments
had he not preferred that they should be a burden on his family.

"Take the wings of morning," repeated Kate, with all the emphasis
the old minister had used. "Hummm! I wonder what kind of wings.
Those of a peewee would scarcely do for me; I'd need the wings of
an eagle to get me anywhere, and anyway it wasn't the wings of a
bird I was to take, it was the wings of morning. I wonder what
the wings of morning are, and how I go about taking them. God
knows where my wings come in; by the ache in my feet I seem to
have walked, mostly. Oh, what ARE the wings of morning?"