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[Illustration: "MORTON FOUND TIME TO ANSWER ALL HER QUESTIONS."]


WHEAT AND HUCKLEBERRIES

Or

Dr. Northmore's Daughters

by

CHARLOTTE M. VAILE

Illustrated by Alice Barber Stevens







BOSTON AND CHICAGO
W. A. WILDE COMPANY

Copyright, 1899,
By W. A. Wilde Company.

_All rights reserved._

WHEAT AND HUCKLEBERRIES.




To J. F. V.

This Story

TOO SLIGHT TO BE AN OFFERING TO HIM, BUT WRITTEN
IN DEAR REMEMBRANCE OF HIS EARLY HOME
AND OF MINE

Is Lovingly Dedicated

C. M. V.




CONTENTS
    CHAPTER I--HARVEST AT THE FARM
    CHAPTER II--TALKING IT OVER
    CHAPTER III--BETWEEN TIMES
    CHAPTER IV--AT THE OLD PLACE
    CHAPTER V--AUNT KATHARINE SAXON
    CHAPTER VI--AUNT KATHARINE--CONTINUED
    CHAPTER VII--HUCKLEBERRYING
    CHAPTER VIII--A PAIR OF CALLS
    CHAPTER IX--A GLIMPSE FROM THE INSIDE
    CHAPTER X--SOME BITS OF POETRY
    CHAPTER XI--AN OUTING AND AN INVITATION
    CHAPTER XII--WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK
    CHAPTER XIII--INTO THE WEST AGAIN
    CHAPTER XIV--THE NABOB MAKES AN IMPRESSION
    CHAPTER XV--ESTHER GOES TO PRAYER-MEETING
    CHAPTER XVI--IN WHICH SEVERAL PEOPLE GET HOME




ILLUSTRATIONS.
    "Morton found time to answer all her questions"
    "He leaned on the gate when he had opened it for the girls"
    "She opened the door in person"
    "Tom and Kate watched them go"
    "'It has been delightful to see you in this lovely old home'"




CHAPTER I

HARVEST AT THE FARM


Just how Dr. Philip Northmore came to be the owner of a farm had never
been quite clear to his fellow-townsmen. That he had bought it--that
pretty stretch of upland five miles from Rushmore--in some settlement
with a friend, who owed him more money than he could ever pay, was the
open fact, but how the doctor had believed it to be a good investment
for himself was the question. The opportunity to pay interest on a
mortgage and make improvements on those charming acres at the expense of
his modest professional income was the main part of what he got out of
it. The doctor, as everybody knew, had no genius for making money.

However, he had never lamented his purchase. On the principle perhaps
which makes the child who draws most heavily on parental care the object
of dearest affection, this particular possession seemed to be the one on
which the good doctor prided himself most. Its fine location and natural
beauty were points on which he grew eloquent, and he sometimes referred
to its peaceful cultivation as the employment in which he hoped to spend
his own declining years, an expectation which it is safe to say none of
his acquaintances shared with him.

So much for Dr. Northmore's interest in the farm. It had a peculiar
interest for the feminine part of his household in the early days of
July, when wheat harvest had come and the threshing machine was abroad
in the land. It was too much to expect of Jake Erlock, the tenant at the
farm, who, since his wife's death had lived there alone, that he would
provide meals for the score of threshers who would bring the harvesting
appetite to the work of the great day. Clearly this fell to the
Northmores, and the doctor's wife had risen to the part with her own
characteristic energy. But for once, on the very eve of the threshing,
she found herself facing a sudden embarrassment. Relatives from a
distance had made their unexpected appearance as guests at her house,
and to leave them behind, or take them into the crowded doings at the
farm, seemed alike impossible. The prompt proposal of her daughters,
that they, with the combined wisdom of their seventeen and nineteen
years, should manage the harvest dinner, hardly seemed a plan to be
adopted, and would have found scant attention but for the unlooked-for
support it received from one of the neighbors.

"Now why don't you let 'em do it?" said Mrs. Elwell, who had happened in
at the doctor's an hour after the arrival of the guests. "You've got
everything planned out, of course, and there'll be lots of the neighbor
women in to help. There always is."

She caught the look of entreaty in the eyes of the girls and the doubt
in the eyes of their mother, and added, "Now I think of it, I could go
out there myself just as well as not. There isn't anything so very much
going on at our house to-morrow, and I'd be right glad to take a hand in
it. I'll risk it but what the girls and I can manage."

Manage! There was no question on that score. Mrs. Northmore's eyes grew
moist and she opened her lips to speak, but