KATE’S PRIVATE PUPIL

At first Kate merely sat in a pleasant place and allowed her nerves to settle, after the short nap she had enjoyed in the rocking chair.  It was such a novel experience for her to sit idle, that despite the attractions of growing things, running water, and singing birds, she soon veered to thoughts of what she would be doing if she were at home, and that brought her to the fact that she was forbidden her father’s house; so if she might not go there, she was homeless.  As she had known her father for nearly nineteen years, for she had a birth anniversary coming in a few days, she felt positive that he never would voluntarily see her again, while with his constitution, he would live for years.  She might as well face the fact that she was homeless; and prepare to pay her way all the year round.  She wondered why she felt so forlorn and what made the dull ache in her throat.

She remembered telling Nancy Ellen before going away to Normal that she wished her father would drive her from home.  Now that was accomplished.  She was away from home, in a place where there was not one familiar face, object, or plan of life, but she did not wish for it at all.  She devoutly wished that she were back at home even if she were preparing supper, in order that Nancy Ellen might hem towels.  She wondered what they were saying:  her mind was crystal clear as to what they were doing.  She wondered if Nancy Ellen would send Adam, 3d, with a parcel of cut-out sewing for her to work on.  She resolved to sew quickly and with stitches of machine-like evenness, if it came.  She wondered if Nancy Ellen would be compelled to put off her wedding and teach the home school in order that it might be taught by a Bates, as her father had demanded.  She wondered if Nancy Ellen was forced to this uncongenial task, whether it would sour the wonderful sweetness developed by her courtship, and make her so provoked that she would not write or have anything to do with her.  They were nearly the same age; they had shared rooms, and, until recently, beds, and whatever life brought them; now Kate lifted her head and ran her hand against her throat to ease the ache gathering there more intensely every minute.  With eyes that did not see, she sat staring at the sheer walls of the ravine as it ran toward the east, where the water came tumbling and leaping down over stones and shale bed.  When at last she arose she had learned one lesson, not in the History she carried.  No matter what its disadvantages are, having a home of any kind is vastly preferable to having none.  And the casualness of people so driven by the demands of living and money making that they do not take time even to be slightly courteous and kind, no matter how objectionable it may be, still that, even that, is better than their active displeasure.  So she sat brooding and going over and over the summer, arguing her side of the case, honestly trying to see theirs, until she was mentally exhausted and still had accomplished nothing further than arriving at the conclusion that if Nancy Ellen was forced to postpone her wedding she would turn against her and influence Robert Gray in the same feeling.