“Take the wings of Morning.”
Kate Bates followed the narrow footpath rounding the
corner of the small country church, as the old minister
raised his voice slowly and impressively to repeat
the command he had selected for his text. Fearing
that her head would be level with the windows, she
bent and walked swiftly past the church; but the words
went with her, iterating and reiterating themselves
in her brain. Once she paused to glance back
toward the church, wondering what the minister would
say in expounding that text. She had a fleeting
thought of slipping in, taking the back seat and listening
to the sermon. The remembrance that she had
not dressed for church deterred her; then her face
twisted grimly as she again turned to the path, for
it occurred to her that she had nothing else to wear
if she had started to attend church instead of going
to see her 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.”
“Mary had exceptional ability,” said Mrs.
Bates.
“I wonder how she convinced you of it.
None of the rest of us can discover it,” said
Kate.
“What you need is a good strapping, Miss.”
“I know it; but considering the facts that I
am larger than you, and was eighteen in September,
I shouldn’t advise you to attempt it.
What is the difference whether I was born in ’62
or ’42? Give me the chance you gave Mary,
and I’ll prove to you that I can do anything
she has done, without having ‘exceptional ability!’”
“The difference is that I am past sixty now.
I was stout as an ox when Mary wanted to go to school.
It is your duty and your job to stay here and do
this work.”
“To pay for having been born last? Not
a bit more than if I had been born first. Any
girl in the family owes you as much for life as I
do; it is up to the others to pay back in service,
after they are of age, if it is to me. I have
done my share. If Father were not the richest
farmer in the county, and one of the richest men,
it would be different. He can afford to hire
help for you, quite as well as he can for himself.”
