KATY GAUMER

(p. 334)

"IT'S BEAUTIFUL UP HERE, ISN'T IT, KATY?"

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE CENTURY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY ELSIE SINGMASTER LEWARS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published February 1915

CONTENTS

• The Great News 1
• The Belsnickel 17
• The Great Man 32
• The Koehlers' Christmas Day 49
• Another Christmas Day 63
• The Millerstown School 88
• The Bee Cure 105
• William Koehler makes his Accusation for the Last Time 124
• Change 143
• Katy makes a Promise 153
• Katy finds a New Aim in Life 159
• Katy borrows so that she may lend 169
• Emptiness 192
• Katy plans her Life Once More 204
• An Old Way out of a New Trouble 219
• Bevy puts a Hex on Alvin 235
• Alvin does Penance and is shriven 254
• A Silver Chalice 267
• The Squire and David take a Journey by Night 281
• The Mystery deepens 300
• The Squire and David take a Journey by Day 306
• Katy is to be educated at Last 321

Note.—The first two chapters were published as a short story under the title of "The Belsnickel" in the Century Magazine for January, 1911.

KATY GAUMER

CHAPTER I
THE GREAT NEWS

Every Wednesday evening in winter Katy Gaumer went to the Millerstown post-office for her grandfather's "Welt Bote," the German paper which circulated among the Pennsylvania Germans of Millerstown. By six o'clock she and Grandfather Gaumer and Grandmother Gaumer had had supper; by half past six she had finished drying the dishes; by half past seven she had learned her lessons for the next day; and then, a scarlet shawl wrapped about her, a scarlet "nubia" on her head, scarlet mittens on her hands, Katy set forth into Millerstown's safe darkness.

Sometimes—oh, the thrill that closed her throat and ran up and down her spine and set her heart to throbbing and her eyes to dancing at sound of that closed door!—sometimes it rained and she pushed her way out into the storm as a viking might have pushed his boat from the shore into an unfriendly sea; sometimes it snowed and she lifted her hot face so that she might feel the light, cold flakes against her cheek; sometimes deep drifts lay already on the ground and she flung herself upon them or into them; sometimes she danced back to say a second good-bye so that she might enjoy her freedom once more; sometimes she stole round under the tall pine trees and knocked ponderously at the door, knowing perfectly well that her grandmother and grandfather would only smile at each other and not stir.

Sometimes she crossed the yard in snow to her knees to rap against the kitchen window of Bevy Schnepp, who kept house for Great-Uncle Gaumer, the squire. Bevy's real name was Maria Snyder, but Katy had renamed her for one of the mythical characters of whom Millerstown held foolish discourse, and the village had adopted the title. Bevy was little and thin and a powerful worker. She was cross with almost every one in the world, even with Katy whom she adored and spoiled. There was a tradition in Millerstown that she was once about to be married, but that at the ceremony her spirit rebelled. When the preacher asked her whether she would obey, she cried out aloud, "By my soul, no!" and