and if Kate Comstock raises a row I’ll tell her so, and see that the girl gets it.  You go to see Kate in the morning, and I’ll go with you.  Tell her you want Elnora’s pattern, that you are going to make her a dress, for helping us.  And sort of hint at a few more things.  If Kate balks, I’ll take a hand and settle her.  I’ll go to law for Elnora’s share of that land and sell enough to educate her.”

“Why, Wesley Sinton, you’re perfectly wild.”

“I’m not!  Did you ever stop to think that such cases are so frequent there have been laws made to provide for them?  I can bring it up in court and force Kate to educate Elnora, and board and clothe her till she’s of age, and then she can take her share.”

“Wesley, Kate would go crazy!”

“She’s crazy now.  The idea of any mother living with as sweet a girl as Elnora and letting her suffer till I find her crying like a funeral.  It makes me fighting mad.  All uncalled for.  Not a grain of sense in it.  I’ve offered and offered to oversee clearing her land and working her fields.  Let her sell a good tree, or a few acres.  Something is going to be done, right now.  Elnora’s been fairly happy up to this, but to spoil the school life she’s planned, is to ruin all her life.  I won’t have it!  If Elnora won’t take these things, so help me, I’ll tell her what she is worth, and loan her the money and she can pay me back when she comes of age.  I am going to have it out with Kate Comstock in the morning.  Here we are!  You open up what you got while I put away the horses, and then I’ll show you.”

When Wesley came from the barn Margaret had four pieces of crisp gingham, a pale blue, a pink, a gray with green stripes and a rich brown and blue plaid.  On each of them lay a yard and a half of wide ribbon to match.  There were handkerchiefs and a brown leather belt.  In her hands she held a wide-brimmed tan straw hat, having a high crown banded with velvet strips each of which fastened with a tiny gold buckle.

“It looks kind of bare now,” she explained.  “It had three quills on it here.”

“Did you have them taken off?” asked Wesley.

“Yes, I did.  The price was two and a half for the hat, and those things were a dollar and a half apiece.  I couldn’t pay that.”

“It does seem considerable,” admitted Wesley, “but will it look right without them?”

“No, it won’t!” said Margaret.  “It’s going to have quills on it.  Do you remember those beautiful peacock wing feathers that Phoebe Simms gave me?  Three of them go on just where those came off, and nobody will ever know the difference.  They match the hat to a moral, and they are just a little longer and richer than the ones that I had taken off.  I was wondering whether I better sew them on to-night while I remember how they set, or wait till morning.”

“Don’t risk it!” exclaimed Wesley anxiously.  “Don’t you risk it!  Sew them on right now!”

“Open your bundles, while I get the thread,” said Margaret.