“Well, nothing goes on guess-work.  I’ll hear him say it, myself,” said Kate.

She climbed from the buggy.  Nancy Ellen caught her arm.

“Don’t go in there!  Don’t you go there,” she cried.  “He’ll throw the first thing he can pick up at you.  Mother says he hasn’t been asleep all night.”

“Pooh!” said Kate.  “How childish!  I want to hear him say that, and he’ll scarcely kill me.”

She walked swiftly to the side door.

“Father,” she said, “Nancy Ellen is afraid she will lose Robert Gray if she has to put off her marriage for months —­”

Kate stepped back quickly as a chair crashed against the door facing.  She again came into view and continued —­ “so she asked me if I would get out of my school and come back if I could” —­ Kate dodged another chair; when she appeared again —­ “To save the furniture, of which we have none too much, I’ll just step inside,” she said.  When her father started toward her, she started around the dining table, talking as fast as she could, he lunging after her like a furious bull.  “She asked me to come back and teach the school —­ to keep her from putting off her wedding —­ because she is afraid to —­ If I can break my contract there —­ may I come back and help her out here?”

The pace was going more swiftly each round, it was punctuated at that instant by a heavy meat platter aimed at Kate’s head.  She saw it picked up and swayed so it missed.

“I guess that is answer enough for me,” she panted, racing on.  “A lovely father you are —­ no wonder your daughters are dishonest through fear of you —­ no wonder your wife has no mind of her own —­ no wonder your sons hate you and wish you would die —­ so they could have their deeds and be like men —­ instead of ’spanked school-boys’ as they feel now —­ no wonder the whole posse of us hate you.”

Directly opposite the door Kate caught the table and drew it with her to bar the opening.  As it crashed against the casing half the dishes flew to the floor in a heap.  When Adam Bates pulled it from his path he stepped in a dish of fried potatoes and fell heavily.  Kate reached the road, climbed in the buggy, and said the Nancy Ellen:  “You’d better hide!  Cut a bundle of stuff and send it to me by Adam and I’ll sew my fingers to the bone for you every night.  Now drive like sin, Adam!”

As Adam Bates came lurching down the walk in fury the buggy dashed past and Kate had not even time to turn her head to see what happened.

“Take the first turn,” she said to Adam.  “I’ve done an awful thing.”

“What did you do?” cried the boy.

“Asked him as nicely as I could; but he threw a chair at me.  Something funny happened to me, and I wasn’t afraid of him at all.  I dodged it, and finished what I was saying, and another chair came, so the two Bates went at it.”

“Oh, Kate, what did you do?” cried Adam.

“Went inside and ran around the dining table while I told him what all his sons and daughters think of him.  ‘Spanked school-boys’ and all —­”