Adam could not remember when he ever had been so happy as he was driving home. He found his mother singing, his father in a genial mood, so he concluded that the greatest thing in the world to make a whole family happy was to do something kind for someone else. But he reflected that there would be far from a happy family at his grandfather's; and he was right. Grandmother Bates came in from her hoeing at eleven o'clock tired and hungry, expecting to find the wash dry and dinner almost ready. There was no wash and no odour of food. She went to the wood-shed and stared unbelievingly at the cold stove, the tubs of soaking clothes. She turned and went into the kitchen, where she saw no signs of Kate or of dinner, then she lifted up her voice and shouted: "Nancy Ellen!" Nancy Ellen came in a hurry. "Why, Mother, what is the matter?" she cried. "Matter, yourself!" exclaimed Mrs. Bates. "Look in the wash room! Why aren't the clothes on the line? Where is that good-for-nothing Kate?" Nancy Ellen went to the wash room and looked. She came back pale and amazed. "Maybe she is sick," she ventured. "She never has been; but she might be! Maybe she has lain down." "On Monday morning! And the wash not out! You simpleton!" cried Mrs. Bates. Nancy Ellen hurried upstairs and came back with bulging eyes. "Every scrap of her clothing is gone, and half of mine!" "She's gone to that fool Normal-thing! Where did she get the money?" cried Mrs. Bates. "I don't know!" said Nancy Ellen. "She asked me yesterday, but of course I told her that so long as you and Father decided she was not to go, I couldn't possibly lend her the money." "Did you look if she had taken it?" Nancy Ellen straightened. "Mother! I didn't need do that!" "You said she took your clothes," said Mrs. Bates. "I had hers this time last year. She'll bring back clothes." "Not here, she won't! Father will see that she never darkens these doors again. This is the first time in his life that a child of his has disobeyed him." "Except Adam, when he married Agatha; and he strutted like a fighting cock about that." "Well, he won't 'strut' about this, and you won't either, even if you are showing signs of standing up for her. Go at that wash, while I get dinner." Dinner was on the table when Adam Bates hung his hat on its hook and saw the note for him. He took it down and read: