“Those deeds are burned?” gasped Kate.  “All of them?  Are they all gone?”

“Every last one,” said Mrs. Bates.

“Well, if one is gone, thank God they all are,” said Kate.

Her mother turned swiftly and caught her arm.

“Say that again!” she cried eagerly.

“Maybe I’m wrong about it, but it’s what I think,” said Kate.  “If the boys are crazy over all of them being gone, they’d do murder if part had theirs, and the others had not.”

Mrs. Bates doubled over on Kate’s shoulder suddenly and struggled with an inward spasm.

“You poor thing,” said Kate.  “This is dreadful.  All of us know how you loved him, how you worked together.  Can you think of anything I can do?  Is there any special thing the matter?”

“I’m afraid!” whispered Mrs. Bates.  “Oh, Katie, I’m so afraid.  You know how set he was, you know how he worked himself and all of us —­ he had to know what he was doing, when he fought the fire till the shirt burned off him” —­ her voice dropped to a harsh whisper —­ “what do you s’pose he’s doing now?”

Any form of religious belief was a subject that never had been touched upon or talked of in the Bates family.  Money was their God, work their religion; Kate looked at her mother curiously.

“You mean you believe in after life?” she asked.

“Why, I suppose there must be something,” she said.

“I think so myself,” said Kate.  “I always have.  I think there is a God, and that Father is facing Him now, and finding out for the first time in his experience that he is very small potatoes, and what he planned and slaved for amounted to nothing, in the scheme of the universe.  I can’t imagine Father being subdued by anything on earth, but it appeals to me that he will cut a pathetic figure before the throne of an Almighty God.”

A slow grin twisted Mrs. Bates’ lips.

“Well, wherever he went,” she said, “I guess he found out pretty quick that he was some place at last where he couldn’t be boss.”

“I’m very sure he has,” said Kate, “and I am equally sure the discipline will be good for him.  But his sons!  His precious sons!  What are they doing?”

“Taking it according to their bent,” said Mrs. Bates.  “Adam is insane, Hiram is crying.”

“Have you had a lawyer?” asked Kate.

“What for?  We all know the law on this subject better than we know our a, b, c’s.”

“Did your deed for this place go, too?” asked Kate.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Bates, “but mine was recorded, none of the others were.  I get a third, and the rest will be cut up and divided, share and share alike, among all of you, equally.  I think it’s going to kill Adam and ruin Andrew.”

“It won’t do either.  But this is awful.  I can see how the boys feel, and really, Mother, this is no more fair to them than things always have been for the girls.  By the way, what are they doing?”