"THE WEIGHT OF A DOLLAREE AND OUT
OF DEBT DON'T FORGET THAT"
Nathan Hornby moved promptly over to the Hunter farm, and established
himself in Hugh's old room upstairs.
The farm work prospered under Elizabeth's management. She was fortunate
enough to trade a young heifer with a calf at her side for Silas's pony,
and because feed was scarce she sold most of the stock, keeping only such
as she desired to open farming with the next spring. The hogs were
marketed early, and the few steers left when the cattle had been taken to
Mitchell County were sold to the first buyer who offered a reasonable
figure for them; the cows which gave evidence of increase were kept and
the rest sold. Altogether money enough was raised to pay the note for the
team and all the outstanding indebtedness except the note for five hundred
dollars. The latter did not mature till May and could stand. The expense
of feeding discouraged the farmers and prices dropped steadily all
winter.
When April came the Johnson land was sold to a stranger, who came and
offered to buy the west eighty of Elizabeth's land. The five hundred would
be due the next month. The new neighbour coveted that eighty, and
Elizabeth decided that if she could get a price warranting its sale she
would sell, pay off the five hundred, and put the rest into calves while
they were cheap. She offered the land for thirty-five dollars an acre. It
was unheard of! No one had ever asked so much for land in that country,
but the man wanted to add that land to his farm, and after some bargaining
paid the price.
Frugal and cautious, Elizabeth paid the five hundred with the first check
she drew against the price of the land. That left two thousand for calves
and three hundred for running expenses. John had taken one horse out of
the new team when he went away, and Elizabeth decided not to buy another,
but to hire a horse in harvesting time. There were three full teams for
the plows, besides the horse which had been hurt in the runaway. It had
recovered and, though scarred and stiffened, could be used for ordinary
work. She took good care to have it hitched beside a solid, trusty mate
and treated gently to soothe its wild nature.
No word had come from John except when Doctor Morgan wrote him of the
appraisement of the land. Then a curt letter had been received saying that
whatever they did would be satisfactory to him and that when the deeds
came he would sign them. Not to be outdone, Elizabeth bought the portion
of land which did not have the house and buildings, agreeing to rent the
home eighty until such time as he should choose to sell it, and expressing
a desire, since Jack had been born there, to buy the home if John should
ever wish to part with it. To his suggestion that she use the home without
rent--in fact, an offer of it as his share of support of the
child--Elizabeth refused to listen.
"I'll rent it of him as I would of anybody, Doctor," she had replied, and
made out a note on the spot.
John had written that he was in the commission business in Chicago, and
did not say whether his mother was with him nor not. To Elizabeth he did
not write, but to Jack he sent loads of toys and a sled at Christmas
time.
Elizabeth had not attempted to communicate with John direct, but had
rented his share of the land from him through Doctor Morgan. The sale of
the west eighty gave her enough money to stock the place with every animal
it would hold. When the girl began to look about her for calves, she found
that because of the price of corn many farmers were selling their hogs at
a sacrifice. Hogs were quick money. She invested in such as were ready for
increase, and by harvest time there was a fine lot of pigs on the Hunter
farm. Every cow had been milked, and the calves raised by hand so as to
have the milk for the young pigs till the early corn could be gathered.
Milking was hard work, but Elizabeth Hunter's pride was up.
Elizabeth's pride had had some sore pricks. In spite of every effort to
avoid hearing the small talk regarding herself, Elizabeth had been obliged
to listen to such portions as dribbled through from her mother, and an
occasional remark from Sadie Hansen. Sadie Hansen's life was a reorganized
one, but there were small lapses, and from force of habit she repeated
things, though she was in the main about the kindest neighbour Elizabeth
had. With Mrs. Farnshaw the case was different. She was Elizabeth's
mother, and certain privileges must be accorded her because of the
relationship. When she chose to disapprove of the separation of her
daughter from her husband, the daughter was compelled to recognize her
right to protest, and often inadvertently to listen to the gossip which
her mother urged as reasons for her objections. Mrs. Farnshaw came often
and talked volubly. Elizabeth shielded herself as best she could from her
mother's prattlings, but had to endure many tearful complaints, for her
mother was suffering much loneliness and discomfort since her daughter's
marriage. Josiah Farnshaw did not forget, nor let his wife forget, the
disaffection of Elizabeth.
Once when Mrs. Farnshaw had gone beyond the mark where her daughter could
receive it in silence, urging that Elizabeth call her husband home and
submit herself to the matrimonial yoke, the girl turned upon her in
annoyance:
"You'd have me just where you are yourself, ma. You say pa mistreats
you--that's just what was coming to me. If I didn't have money enough that
was all my own to live on, my husband would be sneering at me and keeping
me in hot water all the time, exactly as pa sneers at you."
"But you're separated!" Mrs. Farnshaw cried.
"Yes," the girl said slowly, "and because we are separated I can go to
town if I like, I can go to church, I can go to see a neighbour, or my
mother, without hating to ask for a horse to drive or being told when to
come home, and when Jack is naughty I can talk to him without having
anybody set his little will against mine and make it harder to deal with
him. Oh, mother mine! Can't you see that I'm happier than you are?"
"But, you're livin' apart and--and folks is a talkin'!" the mother
exclaimed hopelessly.
"Let them talk. Their talk don't hurt me, and it shouldn't hurt you. They
don't talk before me."
"But they talk behind your back, Lizzie," Mrs. Farnshaw said with a wise
nod of the head.
"They talked about us when John was here, ma, and they always talk about
us; it doesn't matter much what they talk about; they wouldn't pay off the
mortgage, nor the interest, nor raise Jack right, nor give me a chance to
rest on washday. Some will say I was in the wrong, some that John was, and
they all said that I was stuck-up and wouldn't visit with them when it
wasn't so at all. They are looking to see _who_ was wrong; I have reasoned
out _what_ was wrong. It's principles, not personalities, that get people
into troubles that don't seem to have any way out. Oh! can't you see, ma,
that I'm free, and the women that talk about me are just where they've
always been. Free! and don't forget that I'm out of debt. That's more than
you've got by staying with your husband, and you haven't been able to keep
people from talking after all. Free, and out of debt! Don't forget it."
"Well, you wouldn't 'a' been free, either, if Mr. Noland hadn't 'a' left
you th' money," Mrs. Farnshaw replied.
Elizabeth dropped into a retrospective mood for a moment before she
answered, and then said slowly:
"I know that. God in Heaven, how well I know it! And do you know I think
about it every day--what could be done for the poor women on these hot
Kansas prairies if there were some way to see that every girl that loves a
man enough to marry him could have money enough to keep her if she
couldn't live under the work and children he crowds on her. I'm free,
because I have money enough all my own to live on. That's the weight of a
dollar. Don't forget that, you poor ma, who have never had a dollar except
what has been doled out to you by the man you married. The weight of a
dollar," Elizabeth added meditatively, "that's what it is!"
Mrs. Farnshaw, who had bought the groceries for her little family with the
butter and eggs, and whose sugar had sometimes been short because there
was a supply of Horse Shoe Plug to provide also, had no answer ready.