"Why, Mother!" she cried. "Why, Mother!"
"Go fetch a chair and help me down," said Mrs. Bates, "this seat is getting tarnation hard."
Kate ran after a chair, and helped her mother to alight. Mrs. Bates promptly took the chair, on the sidewalk.
"Just drop the thills," she said. "Lead him back and slip on the halter. It's there with his feed."
Kate followed instructions, her heart beating wildly. Several times she ventured a quick glance at her mother. How she had aged! How lined and thin she was! But Oh, how blessed good it was to see her! Mrs. Bates arose and they walked into the house, where she looked keenly around, while her sharp eyes seemed to appraise everything as she sat down and removed her bonnet.
"Go fetch me a drink," she said, "and take the horse one and then I'll tell you why I came."
"I don't care why you came," said Kate, "but Oh, Mother, thank God you are here!"
"Now, now, don't get het up!" cautioned Mrs. Bates. "Water, I said."
Kate hurried to obey orders; then she sank on a chair and looked at her mother. Mrs. Bates wiped her face and settled in the chair comfortably.
"They's no use to waste words," she said. "Katie, you're the only one in the family that has any sense, and sometimes you ain't got enough so's you could notice it without a magnifyin' glass; but even so, you're ahead of the rest of them. Katie, I'm sick an' tired of the Neppleses and the Whistlers and being bossed by the whole endurin' Bates tribe; sick and tired of it, so I just came after you."