^z^^.^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) k // ^/ ^ ^>% lA IX) 1.25 ^ U£ mil 2.0 1^ 1^ V] yl / Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 iV L17 <^ '% V ^ \ '^\ ^v Ua CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historicai IVMicroreproductions / institut Canadian de microreproductions historlques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D D n D D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommag^e Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicui6e I I Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque I I Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur □ Coioured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de coulour (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other materiel/ Relid avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interirr margin/ Lareliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int6rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes lore d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 fiim^es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl6mentalres; L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m6thode normale de filmage sont indiquAs ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages/ • D D This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est fiimd au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endornmag^es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolordes, tachet6es ou piqu6es Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Showthrough/ Transparence I I Quality of print varies/ Quality inigaie de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du matdriel suppi^mentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 fiim^es d nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. The tot The pos oft film Ori( beg the sior oth( first sior or il The shal TIN whi< Mar difft enti begi righ' reqt metl 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X y 12X 16X 23X 24X 28X 32X lire details ues du : modifier ger une filmage f i6es The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanlts to the generosity of: MacOdrum Library Carleton University The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page witF- a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol ^^- (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. L'exemplaire film* fut reprodult grAce d la g4n6rositA ds: IMaoOdrum Library Carlaton University Les imvf^es suivantes ont 6tA reproduitas avec le plus grand soin. compte tenu de la condition et de la n«ttftt6 de l'exemplaire filmA. et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimAe sont filmte en commen9ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmis en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une ampreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". re Maps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s A des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reprodult en un seui clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite. et de haut en ban. en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. y errata id to nt ne pelure, ipon d n 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 TH 3 THE '^UNKNOWN" LIBRARY the4iaking OF MARY. ps - / BY JEAN FORSYTH ....' \ NEW YORK THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. 31 East lyxH St. (Union Square) CnrvRir.HT, i^')S, BY THE CASSELL PUBLISHINO CO. All ri;:hts reserved. TH« MERSHON COMPANY PRB9S, RAHWAY, N. J. PROLOGUE. STURDY northeast wind was rattling the doors and windows of a deserted farmhouse in Western Michigan. The building was not old, meas- ured by years, but it had never been painted or repaired, and its wooden face, prematurely lined with weather stains, looked as if it had borne the wear and tear of centuries. The windows, like lid- less eyes, stared vacantly at the flat stubble ftelds and the few spindling trees, a dreary apology for an orchard. There were plenty of shingles off the roof to allow VIM PH( )!.()( ;UF-. the inquisitiv^e rain-drops to follow one another through the rafters, and thence to the floor of the room below, where the darkness was creeping out of the corners to take possession. The house had been but recently vacated, for there was still a " slab " smoldering on the hearth of the wide fireplace in the outer kitchen, and something that looked almost human, wrapped in a ragged bedquilt, was lying much too near it for safety. A friendly gust of wind came down the chim- ney, bringing back the smoke, and drawing a faint cough from the bundle. Another gust and another cough, and then a sneeze which burst open the quilt, to dis- close an ill-clad little girl, six or seven years old. She gazed about with drowsy blue eyes till terror of the dark- ness made her drav/ the tattered comforter over her head again, and crouching nearer to the smolder- PROLOGUE. IX ing log, she tried to warm her fingers and toes. More wind down the chimney made more smoke, and sent the child cough- ing back from the fireplace. She was wide awake now, and stood listening. Sounds there were, indeed, but not one that could be associated with any living thing in the house. She felt her way around the walls to where the candle used to be, but it was gone. There was no furniture to stumble over, and when she came to the side of the wall in the inner room from which the stairway crept up, she mounted it on her hands and knees, trembling, partly with cold, partly with fear at the noise made by the flapping of the sole of one of her old shoes. There was a step missing at the turn of the stairs, but the child knew where the vacancy was, and pulling her- self over it, she reached the land- ing, felt all around the walls there, and made the circuit of the three I'ROI.OCIL'E. small rooms in the same fashion. Tlicy were entirely empty. Cautiously the girl stole down the broken stairs and back to her former place by the smoking slab, where she curled herself up into the old quilt again, as into a mother's arms, and spoke aloud, though there was none to listen but the obstreperous wind : " Anyhow she won't be here to lick me no more ! " That thought seemed to compensate for dark- ness and loneliness. The voices of wind and rain were apparently more kindly than the human tones to which she had been accustomed, and soothed by their stormy lull- aby, the little maid fell asleep. The sunshine poured freely into the forsaken house next morning, drying up the damp floors, and turning to gold the scrap of yellow hair that showed through a hole in the old quilt. Presently the small girl shook the covering away from her and PROLOGUE. XI stood up, to yawn and stretch herself out of tlie stiffness from a night spent on the hard floor. She was not a pretty child, unless naturally curling fair hair, that would be fairer when it was washed, could make her so. The long, thin legs that came below her torn dress made her too tall for her age, and what might have been a passable mouth was spoiled by the departure of two of the front " baby " teeth and the tardy arrival of the later contingent. Part of the day the child seemed satisfied with her new- found liberty. Having discovered a stale crust or two in a cupboard, she wanted no more, for her diet had never been luxurious. Into every corner of the house she intruded her small freckled nose, pulling down from shelves all sorts of odds and ends that had been left behind as worthless at the flitting. There was an old straw bonnet Xll PROLOGUE. 11 III with a pair of dirty strings, and therewith the damsel elected to adorn the tousled head, which evidenced but slight acq'iaintance with comb or brush. She could not find any feminine garments to please her fancy, but there was a boy's jacket, out at elbows and ragged round the edges, which she proudly donned, and as a finishing touch she popped her long slim legs, old shoes and all, into a worn-out pair of man's top- boots that reached to her knees. " I just wish Mawm Mason had lef* a lookin'-glass behin*, so's I could see how I look. My! wouldn't she whack me if she seen me with this bonnet on ! " The child smiled broadly as she continued her confidential dress to the other valueless things left behind. " I allays knowed she warn't my own mother, an* I'm glad Pete nor Matty aint my own brother nor sister neither. I'd like him to see me in his jacket! " II PROLOG UK. xiii She pulled the coat across her narrow little chest to where it met in the days when there were buttons on it, and marched up and down the room, making as much noise as possible with the big boots. This killing of time was all very Iwell while the daylight lasted and |thc sun warmed up the frosty November air, but when the [darkness began to assert itself once more the small waif did not [feel so contented. " There aint no use goin* over [to Mis* Morgan's. She don't want me no more'n Mis' Mason did. I guess I'll sleep upstairs to-night with some o' them things [over me. I'll be warm anyhow." In the middle of the front bed- room she heaped up all the dt^bris I and crawled beneath ^t. A fan- [tastic pile it seemed to the moon when he looked in after the rain |had stopped, the childish head iresting on the cover of an old XIV PROLOGUE. bandbox at one side and a pair of man's boots sticking out at the other. The last scrap of bread was finished next day, and the two potatoes picked up in the yard proved uneatable without the softening influence of fire, so there was nothing for it but Mrs. Morgan's. After sunset, when the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy bank of clouds in the west gave warning of a snow- storm, the little girl, still wearing the old bonnet, boy's jacket, and man's boots, left the only home she could remember, and made her v/ay slowly over the hard rough fields and snake fences to the next farmhouse. Mrs. Morgan was running in from the barn with a shawl over her head. "Good sakes alive! Mary Mason ! I hardly knowed you. What you got on ? I thought you was one o' them scarecrows PROLOGUE. XV iut o* the fall wheat. Mis' Mason loved to Californy three days igo. Didn't she take you with ier ? *' No, mawm." " So it 'pears. Wal, she hadn't iny call to, I s'pose. You aint lone o' hers." By this time they were in the :itchen of the farmhouse, Mrs. ^lorgan rubbing her hands above [he stove, and Mary Mason also renturing near, stretching out her [hin arms to the heat, for the Adopted jacket was somewhat Ihort in the sleeves. ** What's that mark on yer Tist ? " " Bruise— but it don't hurt low." "Who done it?" " Ma— Mis* Mason. I've lots 'orse'n that on me," said the [mall girl with some vanity. "There, now! I jest knew Ihat Mis' Mason was a hard case, [hough my man would never hear II XVI PROLOGUE. What 3'ou going to do ?" to It. now? " I dunno." The accent im- plied that to be a matter of small moment. " I don't s'pose we can turn you out to-night. There's room in the attic for you to sleep, but don't you go near one o' my girls' beds with that head o' yourn." As a hostess, Mrs. Morgan was a slight improvement upon Mrs. Mason. She never took stick or strap to the foundling, and if she occasionally gave her a cuff on the ear it was never strong enough to knock the girl down. But the Morgan children bullied Mary Mason, the Morgan father grumbled at an extra mouth to feed, and when she had been about a monih in the house the mistress of it told her she must move on. " There's an old dress of EUie's you can have, an' a pair of Sue's cast-off boots, and Tom's old cap." PROLOGUE. XVll " Where am I to go, mawm ?" '' You jest go on from one farm- louse to another, till you find a [lace where they'll keep you all rinter. it's comin* on to Christ- las, an' people won't be hard on [e. Tell 'em you aint got no )iks;' The forlorn little pilgrim took |p her march down the snow- )vered road. Tl to pre bcc cor Bu sm chi lar^ hoi I Th THE MAKING OF MARY. CHAPTER I. [Y wife is a theosophist. This fact may account j&vyy ft ^*^^ ^^^ numerous eccen- tricities or be simply one of them. I incline to the latter opinion, because she preferred the unbeaten to the beaten track, both in walk and conversation, long before Modern Buddhism was ever heard of in the small Western town of whose chief newspaper (circulation largest in Michigan) I have the honor to be editor and proprietor. How such a hot-house plant as Theosophy ever took root in the THE MAKING OF MARY. swamps and sands of the Wolver- ine State may seem surprising at the first glance, but let the second rest upon our environment — the absence of mountain or swift-flow- ing river, the presence of fever and ague and half-burnt pine woods — and it will be seen that this Eastern lore with its embar- rassment of symbols supplies a long-felt want to starving imagi- nation. We of the West are for- ever reaching beyond our grasp, have intelligence and perception, but lack the culture necessary for discrimination, and therefore the romantic souls among us who rise above the rampant materialism of the majority go to the other extreme, and hail with enthusiasm the new-old religion. " It's better to believe too much than too little, but you thcoso- phists swallow an awful lot," I say to Belle when she tries to con- vert me. I am well aware that many of husiasm THF MAKING OF MARY. 3 my fellow-citizens consider me a ^ubject for commiseration because I have lived for twenty years with so erratic a house-mate, for I have not deemed it necessary to ex- plain to them that without the stimulus of her enlivening spirit, without the element of surprise constantly contributed by my wife's love of variety, the daily life, and therefore the daily paper, of their favorite editor would par- take of that flatness which is the predominant characteristic of this western part of tht; State of Michigan. Our four sons and two daugh- ters enjoy their mother fully as much as I do, for is she not the most fascinating romancer they ever knew ? Now that they are all of an age to be attending school and looking out for them- selves, after the manner of inde- pendent young Americans, they require from her nothing but sympathy, for their grandmother 4 THE MAKING OF MARY. sews their buttons on. Grand- ma ! — Ay, there's the rub. I have no hesitation in owning that I am Scotch by birth. My mother left her native land to make her home with us entirely too late in life to allow Western ideas regarding Sabbath observ- ance, the rearing of children, or the amount of respect due to the opinion of elders, to become in- grafted upon Scottish prejudice concerning these matters. Mrs. Gemmell Senior has, how- ever, the national peculiarity of judging "blood thicker than water," and whatever her convic- tions may be concerning the methods of Mrs. Gemmell Junior, she restricts the expression of them to our family circle — in fact, I may say, to myself. She gener- ally seizes me when I lie at my ease on the well-worn lounge in our sitting room, more properly dubbed the " nursery," for it is Liberty Hall for the youngsters. ii I THF, MAKING OF MARV 5 Two rooms have been knocked into one to accommodate their dolls* houses, bookshelves, toys, and printing machines. Belle had the whole side torn out of the house to build an open fire-place, on purpose to b"rn slabs, over which the children roast pop-corn to their hearts' content. " A body wad think," said my mother one cold night five or six years ago, when I lay on the sofa, trying to send my weariness off in smoke, " A body wad think there had been nae cherritable wark dune in the toon ava, till they theossiphies set aboot it. If yer provost and baillies lookit efter things as they ocht, there wad be a dacent puirs-house for the idig- nant folk, an' a wheen daft leddies like Eesabel needna gang roun* speirin* at yon infeedels for their siller tae build a hoose o' refuse." " There is a county poorhouse, mother, but it doesn't happen to be located in this city, and they THE MAKING OF MARY. won't take in anybody there that hasn't been a resident of the county for a certain time." " Aweel ! there's plenty o* kirks, though ye never darken the door o* ane. Do they no' leuk efter their ain puir folk? " " Yes ; but after nobody else's. This House of Refuge is to be non-sectarian, non-religious, humanitarian, in the broadest sense of the term. Ah ! There's Belle now," and I gave a sigh of relief as I heard my wife's latch- key in the front door. She came in with an out-of- door breeze, her dark face glow- ing from the wintry wind, flakes of newly fallen snow resting like diamonds upon her prematurely white hair, and her brown eyes sparkling with the animation of twenty summers rather than of forty-two. " Children all gone to bed ? That's right ! Don't go, mother ! I'm sure you'll like to hear about THF. MAKING OF MARY. the House of Refuge. We've got it fixed at last ! Those rich old lumbermen that won't give a cent to a church, or any charity connected with one, have gone to the bottom of their pockets this time. Fancy Peter Wood, Dave — five hundred dollars ! And Jeff He.iderson, five hun- dred. I have the list in my bag. Like to see it?" *' No' the nicht, thenk ye," said my mother stiffly, but I added : " Hand it over to me, and I'll put it in to-morrow's ElIw. That's what they want." ** Nothing of the kind, you old cynic ! I shan't tell you another thing about it." But still she went on : " We've taken the old Laurence house on the corner of Garfield Avenue and Pine Street, and it's to be fitted up to accommodate any sort of refu- gees." " Irrespective of race, creed. 8 THE MAKING OF MARY. sex, or color," I whispered par- enthetically. •' No one is ever to be turned from the door without a good square meal, and there's to be a back, outside stair erected, up which a tramp can go at any hour of the night, and find a nice clean bed awaiting him — locked away from the rest of the house, of course." ** Oh, why ? " I innocently in- quired. " Surely you have enough faith in your brother man to believe that he would not commit any breach of hospi- tality ? " "/ have," replied Belle, squeez- ing my recumbent form further against the back of the sofa, upon which she had seated herself. " But remember we are not all theosophists on the Board." In the words of the historic witness against Mrs. Muldoon, ** That's the way the row began ! " Belle was elected Treasurer of THE MAKING OF MARY. the House of Refu^je, but as she knows nothing of figures, I had to keep the books of chat unique institution, and was therefore enabled to form a practical esti- mate of its workings. I shall not attempt a descrip- tion of the numerous " cases " in which my advice, if not my pocketbook, was freely drawn upon, but shall leave them, along with the description of the many antecedent fads of my beloved better half, to some his- torian of longer wind, and shall content myself with recounting the particular " case " — and at- tachments — which most nearly affected our family life and hap- piness. " This is what I call solid com- fort," said Belle to me one even- ing late in September, as we sat in the parlor in a couple of deep, springy armchairs, fronting a huge grate fire, that would be banished lO THE MAKING OF MARY. ii by the lighting of the furnace. '• Children all in school again, your mother off on a long visit, and plenty of new books on the table." I looked up from one of the aforesaid new books. " Just wait ! The season's busi- ness hasn't begun in the Refuge yet." " Everything is in good shape for it, though. We've had enough donations of groceries and vege- tables to keep us going almost all winter. We've lots of wood for the furnace, and Mack and Hardy have given us some second-hand furniture and " The electric door bell sent out a long, imperative summons. *' Who can that be, Dave, at this time of night? None of the boys locked out ? " ** No ; they all went up to bed a while ago." Belle rose and walked to the door. I pulled the tidy from my :': ■! i I THE MAKING OF MARY. II chair-back over my bald head to protect me from the draught, but that did not prevent me from hearing what went on. " Are you Mrs. Gemmell ? " This from a female voice, breath- less with excitement. '' I am." " Then you are one of the trustees of the House of Refuge?" gasped another feminine speaker. " Yes. Won't you come in ? " " No, thank you. We've just come to tell you about this young girl who has run to us for protec- tion." ''We're school-teachers, mawm." " She's in my class, and she hasn't a friend in the city and knew nowhere else to go." Then followed some hysterical whispers, which roused my curi- osity so much that I went to the door and peeped over the shoulder of my tall wife. The two plain, business-like young women were evidently much distressed, but 12 THE MAKING OF MARY. ! I] \\ il ii between them was a fair-haired sHp of a girl of fifteen or sixteen, the least disturbed of the group. The three older women might have been talking in a foreign tongue, or of someone else, so un- concerned did she appear, present danger being over. ** How did she happen to be with these people?" Belle was asking as I came forward. " The wife of this brute of a man told us that she was nurse- maid with the Ferguson Family Concert Company, but they dropped her here in Lake City without a friend or a cent." " She took her in to help sell fruit and ice cream evenings, and she let her go to school through the day." At this juncture the subject under discussion broke into a beaming smile, showing all her fine teeth. Her cheek dimpled and reddened, and her blue eyes, full of fun, looked straight into THE MAKING OF MARY. 13 mine. I became suddenly aware that I had forgotten to remove the tidy, and retired in confusion, tut heard Belle's conclusion of the interview : " Just wait a second till I give you a line to the matron of the House of Refuge. You can leave the girl there till we see what can be done for her. She'll be per- fectly safe, and had better keep on going to school as usual." A week afterward I asked my wife what had become of her latest protig^e. " You mean Mary Mason ? She's in the refuge yet, attending school, and we've settled that man's ice-cream saloon." "How?" " Boycotted him. We can't reach him any other way." " That's rather hard on his wife, who seems to be a decent sort of party." '* The innocent often appear to 14 THE MAKING OF MARY. it ''I! Ill suffer with and for the guilty, but if you understood the law of Karma you would know that all the evil that befalls us is really the result of some wrongdoing of our own in a previous incarnation. Mary Mason herself is an in- stance." " What's the matter with her ? " " Poor girl ! She's been knocked from pillar to post all her days. She hasn't an idea who her parents are, and there isn't a creature in the world she has any claim upon. She must have gone very far astray last time to have been brought into the world again with such dis- advantages." " It appears to me she has a great many advantages — lovely blue eyes, good teeth, the fashion- able golden shade of hair, and the prettiest complexion I've seen for many a day." " Don't be provoking, Dave ! The poor little thing has the THE MAKING OF MARY. 15 marks of some of her beatings on her yet. The Ferguson family were the first who ever treated her decently, or paid her any wages." " Why did they drop her ? " " One of our Committee took it upon herself to write and ask them. They replied that the girl was of perfectly good character, so far as they knew, but she fell so ridiculously in love with Frank Ferguson, their eldest son, that she was making a nuisance of herself, and so they had to let her go." I laughed. " There are generally two sides to that kind of story." "At the meeting of the trustees to-morrow it is to be decided what's to be done with her, because she says she doesn't want to go to school any more. She's never had much of a chance before to learn anything, and she's in a class with little bits of girls, and she doesn't like it — says she'd rather go to work to earn her own living." i6 THE MAKING OF MARY. Belle came home from that meeting with her face ablaze with righteous wrath. Her hands trembled so much over the tea- cups at our evening meal th?t even sixteen year old Watty, our eldest son, remarked it. " What's the matter with mamma? Her trolley's off." I knew there was trouble in the wind, so I fortified myself with a good supper and read my paper at the same time, to leave myself free for what was to follow. The children study their lessons in the back end of the nursery, and I therefore forbore to take up my usual position upon the sofa, but withdrew to the parlor with my pipe. Presently my wife followed me, nearly walking over the furniture in her excitement. " Go on. Belle ; out with it ! " ** You will listen, will you, seri- ously ? " " Certainly, mawm. I never i :, THE MAKING OF MARY. 17 had any sort of an objection to your making a scavenger barrel of me, so go ahead." " Oh, these benevolent women, Dave ! Any one of the malone is as good-hearted as can be, but lump them together on a com- mittee, and they're as cold and cruel and grasping as the meanest business man you could name!" " More so ! " said I, approv- ingly, and for once Isabel did not resent the disparagement of her sex. " The question arose, what was to be done about Mary Mason, and every one of them, David — every one of them, with young daughters of their own growing up at home, voted to let that girl go round this town selling a book." " Was that what she wanted to do herself?" " Yes ; but think of them let- ting her do it ! You know as well as I do what sort of a city this is, i8 THE MAKING OF MARY. and whether it's safe for a lovely girl like that to go to men's offices, trying with her pretty looks and ways to wheedle them into subscribing for Stanley's ' Darkest Africa.* Oh, I was wild! I said to Mrs ^obinson: * How would you lik' your Lulu to do it ? * * The cases are very different,* said she ; * my daughter has no need to earn her living.* * Mrs. Constable,* said I, * if your grandchild were left alone in the world, what would you think of the charity of any body of women who allowed her to go from under their protection to make her liv- ing in this way?' 'I don't see the connection,' said she ; * Mary Mason's been fighting the world since she was seven years old, and just because she happens to have a pretty face, you seem to think she should be put in a glass case and never do anything for her- self.' ** " She had you there, Belle," y. L lovely ) men's pretty le them tanley's I was binson : ur Lulu ire very laughter r living.' ' if your ? in the think of ' women m under her liv- on't see * Mary e world old, and to have o think ass case or her- Belle," THE MAKING OF MARY. 19 said I, pulling her down to the arm of my big easy-chair. " Let the girl alone ; she'll come out all right. She's too good-looking for a nurse or a housemaid, and she doesn't know enough arithmetic to be a shop girl. I don't see what else she can do." " That's just what the ladies calmly decided," said my wife, walking the floor again. " They seemed to think that a little busi- ness training would just be the making of Mary. Oh, these Christians!" "You see, my dear," said I, " committees are not supposed to have any conscience. They have the income of the Refuge in trust for the contributors, and they have no right to keep on support- ing a girl who is willing to work for herself. How she proposes to do it is none of their business." " That's just what it is — their business ; their business to see that she doesn't meet the very 20 THE MAKING OF MARY. I! ri ' f ,i iiiiii mi I ! ' fate we've saved her from once already. Oh ! there's no getting these narrow-minded, orthodox, bigoted people to see more than one side of a question." " Take care you don't become dogmatic on your own side," said I, rising tO knock the ashes out of my pipe. "If it's the law of Karma that's responsible for her having been left to shift for her- self at so early an age, it's the same law that's after her now, and I wouldn't interfere with its oper- ations, if I were you." *' You don't in the least under- stand what you are talking about," and Belle sailed from the room to settle a noisy dispute in the nursery. .«• CHAPTER II. HROUGH that winter I caught occasionally a glimpse of Mary Mason on the street, but as I had not the pleasure of her acquaintance, I did not stop to ask her how she was getting on. My wife told me, however, that she lived in a room over a store down town, and took her meals out, and that she was suc- ceeding very well with her sub- scription list. " The girl is all right, if only the gossips would let her alone. Some of them assert that she had a child in the Refuge, and though the ladies on our committee in- dignantly deny that, they shake 99 THE MAKING OF MARY. ijiip|j|i III mil their heads, and say of course they don't know anything about her now." " It's the only excitement a lot of these women have," said I. " They wouldn't read a French novel for the world, and some of thern wouldn't be seen in a theater, so they have to satisfy their morbid craving for sensa- tionalism by hearing and repeat- ing all sorts of unsavory tales — and they do it in the name of charity ! They're very sorry that there is so much wickedness in the world, but since it is there, they enjoy the investigation of details, and it doesn't matter very much whether they're doing any good or •"ot." ** There aren't any details to in- vestigate, so far as Mary Mason is concerned. I took pains to make sure of that, when I heard that a big hulk of a machinist, who rooms on the same flat, was telling lies about her, just because Iff THE MAKING OF MARY. 23 she refused to have anything to say to him." When I was leaving the Echo office at noon one day I saw Hen- derson's handsome black span, with the wreck of a sleigh behind them, come down the street at a full gallop, and I was just debat- ing with myself whether my duty as a citizen, which called me to attempt to stop the brutes, was stronger than my duty to my wife and family, which bade me stay where I was, when a young lady jumped the snow ridge at the edge of the sidewalk and flung herself at the bit of the nearest horse. The powerful animal swung her right off her feet, but he was checked for an instant, and in that instant a young man seized the mate on the other side ; the team was stopped and surrounded by a crowd di- rectly. Then I saw it was Mary Mason who was the heroine of the drama. She withdrew from the 24 THE MAKING OF MARY. ill ! f i i throng, straightened her flat hat above her rosy face, and walked off with her habitual indifferent air. " She's got good grit, that girl," said I to myself, but I thought no more about her till I came heme on a certain evening in March, and found her comfortably ensconced on one side of our nursery fire, while my mother from the other side cast suspicious glances at her over her spectacles. " Miss Mason," had supper with us, and then I retired to my big leather- covered spring rocker in the parlor to await developments. That chair needs to be approached with deference, for it has a pre- cocious trick of either tilting in the air the feet of any unwary occupant, ot of tipping him out on the floor. I know its disposi- tion, can preserve my proper bal- ance, and have never been flung either forward or backward — ex- cept once each way. ''"lip ■':ii RY. flat hat 1 walked [different lat girl," Dught no le heme irch, and isconced >ery fire, he other inces at " Miss [ us, and leather- in the )pments. )roached s a pre- ilting in unwary him out disposi- Dper bal- m flung ard — ex- THE MAKING OF MARY. 25 Presently Belle followed me, '* loaded up," as the boys say. " It seems as if I was never to get free from the responsibility of that child." "What's up now ? " " Down town to-day I met the chief of police " " Great chum of yours ! " " Yes, indeed. We've had con- siderable conversation at different times about some of my cases. To-day he said, * You're interested in that young girl, Mary Mason, aint you, Mrs. Gemmell ? * ' Yes,' said I, though my heart sank, and I didn't see why he couldn't have addressed any other one of the committee ; * anything wrongwith her?' * Not yet,' said he; 'but there will be pretty soon if some- body doesn't look after her. There's a scheme on foot to take her off to Chicago — to sell a book — so they say.' ' Good gracious ! Nobody would dare ! ' ' Wouldn't they, though ? ' said he. ' There's 26 THE MAKING OF MARY. lilllill !l!i;! m ! I lliii 1 1 ii! a well-known drummer in this town at the bottom of it. He's aware the girl has no friends, and in Chicago she don't even know a soul. It's too bad, for I've had my eye on the young woman all winter, and she's kept perfectly straight.* ** You may think, Dave, that I ought to be hardened to horrors by this time, but I became fairly dazed as the chief of police went on to say, * I can't move in the matter. We never can touch these things until the mischief is done ; but if you like to make inquiries, you'll find out that I've been tell- ing you the truth.* " When he left me, I turned to come home, not knowing what to do, but going round the first corner, didn't I run right into Mary Mason herself ! I hadn't laid eyes on her for a couple of months. * How d'ye do, Mrs. Gemmell ? ' she said, for I stopped and stared at her as if she'd been THE MAKING OF MARV, 27 a white crow. * What about "Darkest Africa?"' I found breath to ask, though it was Darkest Chicago I had in my mind. * I've done with that now,' she said ; * did very well, too.' ' And what are you going to do next ? ' * I dunno. Whatever turns up. I've got an offer to go to Chicago to sell a book there.' I caught her by the arm as if I'd been the chief of police. * Mary, will you please go to my house and wait there for me till I come ? ' * Oh, yes, mawm, if you want me to,* and off she went, asking no questions. ** Well, Dave, I've put in four hours of amateur detective work this afternoon, and I feel as if I needed a moral bath. I found out it was all true, as the chief of police had said. There was a plot to ruin the girl, and I don't think the author of it will forget his interview with me in a hurry." "What good will that do the m''^ hi : ii!; !i i !; iili ' hi ' 23 THE MAKING OF MARY. young woman ? There are plenty more of his kind in the world, and with her inherited tendencies I suppose it's only a question of time — how soon she goes to the bad." " David Gemmel ! " It is worth while making a caustic speech occasionally to see Isabel rise to he full height. Her brown eyes positively emit sparks, and her gray hair, which she wears waved and parted, gives her an air of distinction that would not be out of place upon an avenging spirit. " I came home ail tired out," she went on, sinking into the chair beside mine, " and looking through the nursery window, there sat Mary Mason with our little Chrissie on her knee. The two faces in the firelight looked so much alike that my heart gave a great thump, and I vowed that girl should never be set adrift again. This is the second time THE MAKING OF MARY. 29 she has been cast upon my shore, and I must see to her." So Mary Mason dropped into our family circle without anybody having very much to say in the matter — except my mother! '* Wha's yon 'at Eesabell's ta'en up \vi' the noo?" *' Her name's Mason," said I ; " Mary Mason." ** I h'ard yer wife was thinkin' o* keepin' a hoosemaid, but I didna expeck tae see her pap her- sel' doon at the table wi' the fem'ly." " She's not a housemaid. She's just staying with us for a while." " Ye'd think Eesabell micht hae eneugh adae wi' her ain, 'thoot takin' in ony strangers." " But Mary is to help with the housework, in return for her board and clothes." " Let her wear a kep an' apron, then, an' eat wi' Marg'et." " Margaret might object," and I laughed at the probable dismay 30 THE MAKING OF MARY. of our stalwart, rough-and-ready five-foot-tenner, should this lady- fied blonde permanently invade her domain. " Hoo lang's she gaun to st*y ?" "Tnat's more than I can tell you." When Mary had been a week in the house, it became apparent that something must be done with her. " She's bound she'll not go back to the public school, Dave, and yet she cannot read or write. Do you think we can afford to send her to boarding-school — to a convent, for instance, where she'd be well looked after, and allow- ances made for her backward- Belle and I were out driving together. It was the first spring- like evening we had had, and I was trying Jim Atwood's new mare on Maple Avenue, which had been newly block-paved. So engrossed was I in watching her THE MAKING OF MARY. 31 paces I did not reply to my wife at once, and she continued : " You were going to get me a horse and a victoria this spring, but I'm wilHng to give them up to send Mary to school." '* Please yourself, my dear. You would be the one to use the turnout. I'm content to borrow from my friends. Isn't she a beauty?" Belle came out of space to answ^er me. " Yes, just now ; but she'll not be when she's old. Her features are not good at all ; her 'ore- head's too narrow, and her nose too broad. Were it not for her lovely hair and complexion, she'd have nothing to brag about but a pair of very ordinary blue eyes." "Who? The mare?" " Don't be stupid, Dave, and do attend to what I am saying. I hardly ever have a chance to speak to you, goodness knows ! " " You get the editorial ear 32 THE MAKING OF MARY. oftener and longer than anybody else." " Lend it to me now, then. Don't you think a convent would be the best place for Mary ?" ** Perhaps — as there are no theosophical educational institu- tions that we know about." '' Mary isn't far enough oi^ for theosophist yet. She'll have to come back many times before she is. The Roman Catholic Church is on her plane this incarnation." " It does seem to catch the masses, that's a fact, whereas your theosophy doesn't appear to be practicable for uneducated people nor for children." " I don't agree with you there." " Then why were you so anxious to send Watty to a church school to finish his education, and why are you on the lookout already for a boarding-school for the two girls where they w^ill have the best of Christian influences ? What is your object in being THE MAKING OF MARY. 33 SO particular that the younger boys are regular in their attend- ance at our surpliced choir?" " It gives them a good idea of music — but that is not the point just now. Can we afford to send Mary Mason to a convent, or can we not ?" *' Choose between h^^ and the buggy mare * suitabl lor a lady to drive,' " said I ; but in reality it was my mother who settled the question. When we came home that evening she was sitting by the fireside, " Nursin* her wrath to keep it warm." "Ye maun either pit yon hizzy oot the hoose, or I'll hitta gang." " What's the matter now, mother?" " I teirt her to brush the boys* bits tae be ready for the schule in the mornin*. They were thrang wi' their lessons an' she wasna daein' a han's turn." 34 THE MAKING OF MARY. "And what did she say?" ** S'y ! I wush ye'd seen the leuk she gi'ed me!" *' The boys can brush their ain bits," said she ; " I'm no* their servant." I laughed. ** It's well seen she hasn't been brought up in Scotland, or she would know it was the bounden duty of the girls in the house to wait on the boys." " An' a hantle better it is than to see the laddies aye rinnin* efter the lasses, tendin' them han' an* fut as they dae here. When a man comes hame efter his d'y's wark, he should be let sit on his sate, an' hae a' things dune for him." " David," said Belle, sinking to a footstool at my feet with a dramatic gesture, " you shall never button my boots again ! But seriously," she continued, as mother withdrew in high dudgeon to her sanctum upstairs, " I don't THi: MAKINO OF MARY. 35 think Mary should be expected to brush the boys' boots. We didn't engage her as servant, and even if we had, there isn't a hired girl in this part of the country that wouldn't make a fuss if she had to brush the boots of the man of the house, not to mention the boys. We'll have to pack Mary off somewhere, if only to keep the peace." So Mary was sent to a convent, and at the end of three months came back for her holidays to our summer cottage at Interlaken. Being so near the big lake does not agree with my mother, and she rarely spends more than a week with us there, but during July and August visits my mar- ried sister in town. The coast was clear for Belle and me to de- cide what progress had been made in the making o^ Mary, and we fancied we discovered a good deal. " What have they done to you, those nuns, to tone you down so 36 THK MAKING OF MARY. quickly, Mary?** I asked, as she sat beside me, swinging in a low rocker, and looking so pretty that I was quite proud of her as an ornament to our front veranda. " I dunno," she said, ** unless it was the exercise for sitting pet- fectly still on a row of chairs. A nun goes behind us and drops a big book or something, and any girl that jumps gets a bad mark." "Capital!"! cried; "no won- der you have learned repose of manner." Thus encouraged, the girl con- tinued: "Then we have little parties and receptions, and we have to converse with the nuns and with each other, and anybody that mentions one of* the three D's gets a bad mark." "The three D's?" " Yes, sir — Dress, Disease, and Domestics." " Hear this, Belle," I said, laugh- ing, as my wife took the rocking THE MAKINC; OK MARY. 37 chair on the other side of me ; *' fancy any collection of women being oblij^ccl to steer clear of the three D's ! " '• Voii should ask Mary about her studies," was the severe reply. ** We were much pleased with your letters." " Yes, mawni ; Sister Stella was always very good about that ; helped me with the big words, and often wrote the whole thing out for me. Sometimes I had to copy it tr o or three times before I could please her." Belle hastily changed the sub- ject. " Let Mr. Gemmell hear that piece you recited to me this morning." I am no judge of elocution, but the general effect of the young girl standing there in the arch of the veranda, a clematis-wreathed post on either side, and her face, with its delicate coloring, turned toward the golden twilight, was pleasing in the extreme. ; i^«i -^t0m I rmmmm I 38 THE MAKING OF MARY, " She'll maybe be famous some day," said Belle, when Mary had discreetly retired. " She is far quicker at learning verses off by heart than she is at reading them." " Still, to be a successful elocu- tionist nowadays one has to be thoroughly well educated, and Mary is too late in beginning." "You can't tell. She's got the appearance, and that 3 half the battle." ** With us, perhaps ; but re- member, we are not capable crit- ics, even though one of us is a Theosophist." " Laugh as you like, Dave. Theosophy satisfies me, because it explains some things in my own nature that I never could un- derstand before." ** It may be that you are too soon satisfied. That's the way with all new movements — one story is good till another is told. Your great-granddaughter will THE MAKING OF MARY. 39 smile at the credulity of your ideas on this very subject." " She can smile, and so can you. We don't pretend to know every- thing ; we only hope that we are on the right road to learn. I, for one, am thankful to think that there are wiser heads than mine puzzling over the problem of our psychic powers. I've always taken impressions from inanimate objects, and it has bothered me. Now I find my sensations analyzed and classified under the head of Psychometry, and it is a comfort to know that other people besides myself can discern an aurUy and are foolishly wise enough to trust the impressions they receive in that way." " But if I were you, I don't think I'd make a parlor entertain- ment out of the gift, — if it is a gift, — as I heard you did at the Wades' the other night." " Who told you ? What have you heard ?" i If « ■' -ijrrf^ Mi: miJMiill I I ! I 9 ' ' ., 40 THE MAKING OF MARY. " Newspaper men hear every- thing. You asked Mr. Saxon to hold his handkerchief pressed tightly in his hand for a few minutes, and then to give it to you. You shut your eyes as you held it, and received the impres- sion of his * aura,' or the atmos- phere which surrounds him, or whatever you like to call it, and then the company asked you questions, and you gave him a great old character. He didn't like it a bit, nor did his wife, nor his mother-in-law. You'll make enemies for yourself if you don't watch out." " It was wrong of me to exer- cise my powers just to gratify idle curiosity. No good Theosophist would approve of it." ** Say, rather, * no sensible per- son would.* The Theosophists haven't a monopoly of common sense. To me they appear slightly deficient in that article. THE MAKING OF MARY. 41 but I dare say they make up for it in uncommon sense." ** You speak more wisely than you know," said Belle solemnly. ** If I hadn't taken in some of the Brotherhood ideas I wonder where that pretty, innocent, young girl would have been by this time. Would you like me to go back and be as I was in the old days, a rank materialist, caring for nothing but dress, dancing, and having a good time ? You know you wouldn't, David. You know as well as I do that Theosophy has been the making of me, and through me it shall be the making of Mary too." 3 H t 1 \m 4 m CHAPTER III. O the Scotchman or Englishman, with Loch Katrine or Windermere in his fond memory's eye, it is not surprising that the great lakes of America seem howling wildernesses of wa- ter, for the shores are mostly low and unpicturesque. There is no changing tide to give variety, no strong smell of seaweed nor salt breeze to brace the wearied nerves, but the wearied nerves are braced nevertheless. The sand is soft and clean to extend one's length upon, and the waves for- ever rolling up at one's feet are soothing in their monotony. There is no fear of the encroach- THE MAKING OF MARY. 43 man or th Loch idermere lemory's urp rising America ss of wa- )stly low re is no riety, no nor salt wearied irves are e sand is id one's ives for- feet are )notony. ncroach- ment of the water, no fear of its leaving a bare mud-flat for nearly a mile ; and the unlimited ex- panse of blue which meets the horizon satisfies the eye, which cares not if the land on the other side be hundreds or thousands of miles away, so long as it be out of sight. Two young people one evening in July seemed to find Lake Michigan perfectly satisfactory in every respect. The girl sat on a log of driftwood, poking holes in the sand with the pointed toes of her shoes, much too fine for the purpose, while the young man stretched at her feet looked at her instead of the sunset they had come to admire. I could not help thinking what a pretty pic- ture they made, as I strolled along the shore with my pipe, to get cooled off after a very hot day in town. The family were all at Inter- laken, but Margaret was left in 9 i 4] i If^ 44 THE MAKING OF MARY. M ifiii '' ';Sii ll Lake City to keep the grass watered, and to give me my mid- day dinner. I am unable to de- cide which occupation she consid- ered the more important. It is not easy to get grass to grow with us, and anyone who can display a reasonably green patch in July and August gives evidence of con- siderable perseverance in the matter of lawn sprinkling. I told Margaret she would be ready to enter the Fire Brigade next winter, she was getting to be such an ex- pert with the hose. But to return to the shore of Michigan. The pair of lovers interested me so much that I gradually edged nearer to them. The spe- cies seldom objects to the proxim- ity of a stout little man with a prosaic pipe in his mouth and a pair of light blue eyes, handi- capped by spectacles, that seem always to be looking for a sail on the horizon. In fact, I never attract any attention anywhere, THE MAKING OF MARY. 45 unless my wife is along, and the^' I am only too proud and happy to shine in her l .flection. So I sat down on a piece of stump, worn white and smooth like a skeleton before being cast up by the waves ; but when the two caught sight of me, the man sprang up and came toward me, holding out his hand, while the girl sauntered off in the other direction, and I saw that she was Mary Mason. " Hello, Link ? " said I to the young fellow. " Didn't know you were down here." " I'm at the hotel for a week or two. I've just been making the acquaintance of your adopted daughter." "My what?" " You have adopted her, haven't you?" *' Don't know that I have — hadn't considered the matter at all." " She's a sweet girl, and a i r. /Ml ..', m » 1 46 THE MAKING OF MARY. beauty too. Anyone would be proud to own her." ** You'd better let Dolly Martin hear you say that." Abraham Lincoln Todd straight- ened himself up in the most inde- pendent bachelor style. ** She can look after me when we're married, but in the mean- time I'm a free man." He is considered very handsome, tall and dark, a good business man too, and Belle had quite approved of the engagement between him and Dolly Martin, who, though not a pretty girl, was strong and sensible, and the daughter of one of her oldest friends. Lincoln must be taking advan- tage of his intimacy with our family to flirt with Mary Mason. Interlaken is not a fashionable resort. Even the hotel is a homely abode, which the guests seem to run themselves, though they generally prefer to live out- doors and go inside only for meals THE MAKING OF MARY. 47 and beds. Once in a while, on a chilly evening, the young people get up a dance, and some of us older folks are dragged into it too. Scotchmen love to dance, and I am no exception. I am not up to waltzing or any of the new- fangled round dances, but give me a Highland schottische, or a square dance, when there is an in- ventive genius to call off the figures and prescribe plenty of variety. There was no profes- sional caller-off at Interlaken, but Lincoln Todd did duty for one as he danced. When he tired of it, and led off into a round of waltzes, ripples, jerseys, bon tons, rush polkas, and goodness knows what besides, I remained as a wall- flower. The reason that I sat there was that I could not take my eyes off Mary Mason. Where she learned to dance I know not, but dance she did, with a grace and abandon that made every other girl in the 4S THE MAKING OF MARY. I I 'I 1' t room a clod-hopper. Lincoln Todd was quite infatuated with her. Ours is one of the dozen or so of cottages that radiate from the big hotel. Most of the cottagers take dinner and supper at the hotel, being, like ourselves, in a servantless condition. Belle said she could get along perfectly well without Margaret, when she had Mary Mason to help her with the housework, and, indeed, there was not much to be done. The four bedrooms open into one central room that we call the sitting- room, but it is only in wet weather it justifies the name, for, as a rule, we sit in rockers or swing in ham- mocks on the broad veranda that runs round three sides of the house. The cottage, lie so close together that a good jumper can easily spring from one veranda to the next, and the lady propri- etors gossip across, and the men too when they come down from THE MAKINC; OF MARY. 49 business every evening, or from Saturday till Monday. My lot is generally the shorter allowance, and one Sunday afternoon I lay in my favorite hammock on the north side of the veranda, sleep- ing the sleep of the brain-tired editor, till voices roused me. " Mary, where did you get that new tennis racket ? " " Mr. Todd gc^ve it to me." " Haven't I toid yci distinctly that you were not even to take candy from Mr. Todd?" " He gives things to you and Chrissie." *• That's a very different matter. Chrissie is a child, and he is an old friend of the family." " I can't help it if he likes to give me presents." " You can help taking them, especially from an engaged man." " I don't care if he is engaged. He says he don't care anything at all about Miss Martin. He only went after her for her money. i ml If II ^[!: !i;.i ^ so THE MAKING OF MARY. 1 !!*' He likes me best, and he says he'll never marry her." " Mary ! I should think you'd know better than to make your- self so cheap. You give Mr. Todd back that racket right away, and tell him Mrs. Gemmell said you were not to keep it, and the next time he brings you down flowers or chocolates you do the same." If I had not known the sex and the approximate age of Mary, I should have thought it was a small boy in a temper who stamped off the veranda. The next Saturday night the full moon was assisted in her duties by a large bonfire down on our beach. The Adamless Eden, having received its " week-end " male contingent, was stimulated to a corn-roasting. The green ears, stuck on the ends of long sticks, were held by girls and men over the fire till roasted, and then passed on to a row of matrons, disguised in large aprons, who TMF, MAKINf. oK MARV. SI salted and buttered them ready for eating. Ifyou kiunv anything that tastes sweeter than a freshly roasted and buttered ear of Indian corn, your experience is broader than mine. Using my eyes habitually in the way of business, I could not avoid noticing that Lincoln Todd was not collecting his share of driftwood for keeping up the fire, nor did I see Mary Mason's pretty face in the garland of beauties bending with eager interest over the poles bayoneted with cobs of corn. It may have been fear of spoiling her complexion that kept her at one side whispering with Link, but it served them both right that Dolly Martin should choose that very moment for her stage entrance. She and her irother joined the group of butterers, and I noticed that Mrs. Martin returned Belle's cordial greeting rather stiffly. Then Miss Dolly calmly walked over to i 3 i i 111^ hlllini' i>.- i il i f»l)l 52 THE MAKING OF MARY. the pair sitting; apart, having evi- dently recognized the back of Lincoln's blazer. She pretended to stumble over one of his feet. " Oh, excuse me ! " said she ; and when Link sprang up, Mary Mason had the pleasure of witness- ing the warmest sort of a meet- ing between the engaged lovers. They sallied off in the moonlight, his arm around her waist. No one but me noticed the young girl slipping down on the sand, and laying her head on the log on which she had been sitting, and even I pretended not to see that her handkerchief was in action. "Hello, Mary!" said I, "I'll match you skipping stones. Look at this ! " With that I sent a beautiful flat one skimming along with nearly a dozen hops in the brilliant track of the moon on the water. She did not pay any attention to me at first, and I kept skipping away, \RY. aving evi- : back of pretended liis feet, said she ; up, Mary of witness- ff a meet- ^ed lovers. Tioonlight, ;t. (ticed the vvn on the :ad on the sen sitting, not to see f was in d I, "I'll es. Look autiful flat ;h nearly a iant track ater. She :ion to me ping away, THE MAKING OF MARY. 53 just as if I did not see her mop- ping her eyes. By-and-by a stroke worthy of myself sent a pebble spinning through the ripples, and Mary's ready laugh rang out beside me. Within twenty minutes of Dolly Martin's appearance on the scene, " Mamie " was the center of the corn-roasters, and the gayest of the gay. Belle told me she kept on that line of conduct during the whole week that Miss Martin and her mother stayed at the hotel. " It seemed to me that Dolly took a special pleasure in parading her happiness before poor Mary, but Mary never showed the white feather." " There's the making of a fine woman in her." '* That may be," said my wife. " But this last week she has been extremely wearing on me. Hav- ing no particular man on the string, she has followed me about like a spaniel, wanted to know 3 i ml I •I 4 ■Illi ,i,L 54 THr. MAKING OF MARY. what Vm reading, and has begun a book the minute I'm through with it." " I've seen her carrying * The Coming Race' about with her lately, but I notice that the book- mark always stays in the same place." Mary became fond of solitary rambles back in the pine woods, intersected by plank walks that made promenading possible. People liked to wander through there in the evenings, when the camp-lights in the hollows lent a mysterious charm, and on up to the big Knight Templar's Build- ing, erected on the highest point of the sandy bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Every night that prominent structure blazed with electric lights, and sometimes a band played on the veranda; but the only visitors were cot- tagers and guests from the hotel, who went up there to walk about and enjoy the prospect. THE MAKING OF MARY. 55 Our city editor often surprises me with the depth and breadth of his local information. For ex- ample, I opened the Echo one day to be made aware that '' Miss Mamie Gemmell " had outstripped all the lady bicyclists in town by making the distance between Lake City and Interlaken in forty-seven minutes. It was also remarked that she was one of the most graceful lady riders on the road. I wonder how many generations a man must be removed from Scotland before he becomes cal- lous to the disposition of the family name. I own that I squirmed inwardly, but with out- ward corriposure asked Belle where Mary got the " bike." " Watty's old one. He taught Mary to ride it, and then made her a present of it, for he's set his heart on a new wheel." "' Confoundedly generous of him!" " I'm glad you look at it that 5 i t '"'11 m 1 1 1 ii ! ! f Mm nil iili ■0 ilijiliiiillf 11^ : t i' I. I h' ni 56 THE MAKING OF MARY. way. It is so seldom that he does give up anything for any- body, I thought he ought to be e^^'^ouraged, and I said he should have a new bicycle with pneu- matic tires and all the latest im- provements at Christmas, if you did not see fit to give it to him sooner." In August I took my annual day's fishing, which has come' to be rather a joke in the house, because, in spite of my elaborate preparations the night before, and the unheard-of hour at which I rise in the morning, I have never been known to catch anything worth bringing home. This time my companion was a journalist from Chicago, an ardent young fellow, who could not keep from " shop " even when off on his holidays, and who had started a small weekly paper in which were to be recorded the doings of a certain congress holding a sum- mer session in our grove. THE MAKING OF MARY. 57 We rowed up the little lake on the edge of the lily-pads, fishing both sides of it, but caught nothing except a sunfish or two. Then we lit our pipes and talked. " What an extremely clever young lady that adopted daughter of yours is. I heard only the other day that she is not your own." ''Indeed!" '* Yes, sir. No one would be- lieve it to talk to her, but she's got a surprisingly bright mind for one so young. She can't be more than seventeen, but her descrip- tions are good enough for one of the best magazines, and she has evidently thought a lot i all the leading topics of the day. Why, she's up in Hypnotism, Evolu- tion, Theosophy— everything ! " " Bless my soul ! How did you find all that out?" Thereupon he fished from his pocket a couple of his tiresome little publications. i i •SI : it r 'lit' i 1 58 THE MAKING OF MARY. " I asked her to write some- thing for our paper, that's how I know. Want to see ? " I do not set up to be a literary critic, bi.t I guess I know my own wife's style of composition when I encounter it. During the two years that we were engaged she lived in Detroit and I in Indiana, and I missed her letters so much after we were married that to this day she is in the habit of letting me read those she writes to other people. I was not going to give her away to that newspaper man, though, for the name '* Mary Gemmell " stared me in the face from the end of each article ; but I remonstrated with Belle when I reached home. ** How could I help it, Dave ? There was the girl teasing me to write something for her because this fellow had asked her to do it. She said I could scribble down something just as easy as not, and then she could copy it for him. THE MAKING OF MARY. 59 Copy it! She took hours to do it, and I considered she deserved all the praise she got for the articles." '' I wouldn't do it again, if I were you. It sets the girl sailing under false colors." "Poor Mary! Her one little accomplishment has been of no use to her since that professional elocutionist came to the hotel, and I hated to see her cast altogether into the shade, especially while Dolly Martin was here." Still there came another produc- tion from the pen of Miss Mary Gemmell. "Really, Belle," said I, "this is carrying the joke too far." " Don't you worry about it. Some of the old cats at the hotel began to suspect that Mary hadn't v/ritten those things, and accused me to my face of doing it myself, so I had to write an account of the picnic up the little lake, be- cause they all know I wasn't there at all ! " 1 'II ■ii Jin mil 60 THE MAKING OF MARY. " Let this be the last, then." " It shall, I assure you, for I am much displeased with Mary. Since Mrs. Martin and Dolly left, she's been going it just as hard as ever with Lincoln Todd. If you walk up to the Knight Templar's Building I'll warrant you'll find them there promenading this very minute." " No, I won't, because I passed them just a little while ago as I came through the woods, sitting on a secluded bench, his arm round her waist and her head on his shoulder." " Didn't they see you ? " ** I dare say, but I never let on I saw them. What's the use ? I can't be expected to leave the Echo to my subs, and come down here to play special policeman to Mary Mason. I should have thought Todd was more of a gentleman." " So should I, but I've spoken to him, quarreled with him THE MAKING OF MARY. 6l indeed, so that he doesn't come near the house, but I know that he and Mary meet just the same. Thank Heaven ! he will be married soon." *' Have you told Mary that ? " ** Yes ; but she laughs and shrugs her shoulders ; evidently thinks she knows more about Lincoln Todd's intentions ♦•^'an I do." In the last week of Augi >i Mi, Todd went off for a few days *' on business," and then there came a dreadful morning when uic an- nouncement of his marriage to Dolly Martin appeared in the Ec/io. Mary would not believe her ears. She took the paper down to the beach, and spelled out the notice word by word. Then she lay down on the sand and bawled, kicking and squealing like a year- old infant when Belle appealed to her self-respect. " I could have spanked her i t i I I » THE MAKINti OF MARV. 89 me. back that the boys should cat what was set before them, asking no questions. *• That's the w'y ycr faither wai> brocht up. If he didna finish his parritch in the mornin', they were warmed up for him again at nicht. Ye tak' but a spinfu' 'at ye could hardly ca* parritch, for they're jist puzhioned wi' sugar." Mary was not naturally fond of children, and, having entered our family full-grown, she found it hard to put up with the freaks of our six, there being no foundation of sisterly love upon which to build toleration. Belle's housekeeping had always been lavish. She ordered her groceries wholesale, and when they were done never inquired what had become of them. " I decline to go into details — life is too short ! I don't know where my patience ends and my laziness begins, but I'd rather be cheated than lock things up, or try to keep track of what Mar- 3, 1 9 H - ■ 90 THE MAKING OF MARY. ft m.$^ w t0' garet wastes. She's not an ideal * general,' but it's only one in a hundred that would stand the children pottering about in the kitchen so much." After the time-worn custom of new brooms, Mary made a bold attempt to record each item of expenditure, and ordered what she wanted from day to day ; but there was no calculating the appetites of four growing boys, especially when, as Mary affirmed, they sometimes over-ate them- selves just to spite her. *' We're living from hand to mouth, /^pa," they would say, when an unwonted scarcity oc- curred. Truth to tell, I began to sym- pathize with my revolting sons when I brought an old friend home with me to dinner one day, and went to announce the fact to our " housekeeper." " I just wish that Bob Mansell would quit coming here so much THE MAKING OF MARY 91 OC- when he's not expected. There's only enough pudding fcr our- selves." •' Mary," said I sternly, " Mr. Mansell's been coming to this house before you were here, and he'll keep on coming after you're gone, if you're not careful." It was the first time I had ever spoken sharply to her, and I flattered myself that I had done some good, though she held her head high and left the room. Belle came to the conclusion that the housekeeping scheme did not work smoothly, and she re- sumed the reins of government. Mary was still supposed to do the work of a second maid, but it was evident that her heart was not in it. " What does Mary want now ? " I asked my wife when she took her usual seat beside me, as I lay on the sofa with my pipe. " She thmks she'd like to go to the Boston School of Oratory to uw i ii ■■!■ i Mi II !! Mi II i 92 THE MAKING OF MARY. prepare herself to be a public reader." " Is it necessary that she should be before the public in on;, way or another?" " She doesn't seem to be much of a success in private life." ** In that respect she's no worse than half the girls in town. None of them dote on housework." " But, considering that this girl has no earthly claim on us, you'd think she might be different." " Don't be angry, Belle, at my saying so, but you've only your- self to thank for that. You've been most anxious that Mary should be just like one of our- selves — should not feel that she was accepting charity, and you've succeeded only too well. The girl takes everything you do for her as her right, and asks for more.' " Well, what about Boston ? " " I think it would be arrant folly to send her there. How do - ^ s9 m ■6 ■m THE MAKING OF MARY. 93 we know she has any more talent for elocution than for mus c ? " " She has the desire to learn. I suppose that's a sign of the ability." " She has an intense desire for admiration, that's about the size of it. To be the center of all eyes, giving a recitation in a draw- ing room, pleases her down to the ground, but it doesn't follow that she would be a success profes- sionally." " I dare say we've spent about as much on her education as you care to do ju?t now." " We have indeed ! " My wife and I are much in de- mand at all the social functions of our town, and, though I accom- pany her under protest, I confess that, once the affair is in full swing, I enjoy as much as any- body a hand at " Pedro " or a dance. The houses of our city are mostly wooden and mostly new. "1 ill 94 THE MAKING OF MARY. IJII Mk for an annual conflagration keeps building brisk. Hardwood floors and mantels are the order of the day, and if some of our lumber- men and their wives have not a command of English grammar in keeping with their horses, their sealskins, and their diamonds, they have a heartier than an English welcome — except, of course, for guests of such questionable ante- cedents as our Mary. Mrs. David Gemmell is a bright and witty woman, though I say it, who should not. But why should I not? She did not inherit her wits from me. Mrs. David Gem- mell let the leading ladies of the town understand that unless Mary was invited to everything that was going on, we stayed away our- selves. Lake City society could not proceed without Isabel, so the " white elephant " was received in her train, and truly she did us credit in company, if nowhere else. She was always stylishly •^ THE MAKINC; OF MARY. 95 It was our- :ould the lived Id us here shly dressed, and her dancing was a joy forever. We did not marvel when Will Axworthy, the most eligible young man about, took it into his head to introduce the german to our benighted citizens, that he chose Mary for his partner to lead it with him. She had pri- vate lessons from himself, as well as from the dancing master, and proud and happy were Belle and I to sit at the side of the ballroom and watch her going through the figures and bestowing her favors with all the grace and dignity of one of the four hundred. " She shall go to Boston to- morrow, if she wants to," said I, but this time Belle demurred. " I think she seems likely to have a good time here this winter, and we may as well let her have her fling." The prophecy was fulfilled. In spite of the supreme jealousy of the other girls, who could not say mean enough things about her, ^» «^ i ? "t Ml I.S'J 96 THE MAKING OF MARY. Mti 11 iJj'r i' S Mary became quite the rage with the young men. One Sunday afternoon Will Axworthy called. He is short and broad, has reddish hair and a chronic blush hardly to be looked for in the Ward McAllister of Lake City. Too nervously did he plant himself in my frisky spring rocker, and therefore involuntarily did he present the soles of his boots to the assembled family, while his head bumped the wall, to the huge delight of our boys! Undaunted by that inauspicious beginning, he came again the next Sunday, smoked my best cigars, and talked lumber, the one sub- ject upon which he is posted, for he was the manager of a mill here. He stayed to supper that even- ing and went with Mary to church afterward. Then he called for her with a cutter the first bright day, and took her sleigh riding. The embryo wrinkle left Belle's fore- head. THE MAKING OF MARY. 97 ;e with I Will short * and a looked ter of did he spring ntarily of his family, e wall, boys ! Dicious e next cigars, i sub- id, for here, even- ihurch rher day, The fore- " Do you really think he means anything?" said she. ** Don't be too sanguine about it. Nowadays, young men pay a girl a great deal of attention with nothing in their heads but a good time." ** Still, Axworthy's no boy. He's thirty if he's a day, and he has a good salary, and can afford to marry whenever the mood takes him." " Let us hope and pray that it may take him soon ! " " Amen ! " said Belle solemnly. The daily friction with her proUg^e was becoming too much for the good-natured patience even of my better half. Acting upon generous impulses is all very fine, but they need to be backed up by a large amount of endurance and tolerance if the results are to be successfully dealt with. From my vantage-ground on the nursery sofa, behind my screen of newspaper, I frequently hear 1 \ 4' ! » m em I'M r M n 98 THE MAKING OF MARY. more than is suspected by the family. ** Mary, you're not going to the rink to-night ! " in Belle's most imploring tone. " Yes, mawm, I am. Lend me your wrench, Watty." " Mary, I positively forbid you to go to the rink ! " '* Well, I do think that's just too mean for anything. Every girl in town goes." ** Every girl in town doesn't skate with barber, or bandsman, or anybody who comes along, as you do." " Watty's been telling ! " '* Watty hasn't been telling ! " broke in our eldest son in indig- nant protest, which he further emphasized by going out and banging the door after him. " And, Mary," Belle continued, " are you engaged to Mr Ax- worthy ? " " No ! " sullenly. " Then if I were you I wouldn't ■ If^M.' •I • THK MAKING OF MARV. 99 lued, Ax- dn't let him kiss mc when he r.ays * Good-night ' at the door after bringing you home from a party." " You're old-fashioned. All the girls do it ! " " No lady would permit a man to take such a liberty. You're spoiling your chances with Mr. Axworthy, I can tell you. I never knew a man yet that vvould bind himself to a girl when he could have all the privileges of an engaged man, and none of the responsibilities." " I don't care anything at all about him. I don't want to marry him. He's just giving me a good time." A good time he undoubtedly did give her throughout the win- ter. To the smartest balls and parties he was her escort, and she always wore thfe roses he never neglected tc send. Every Sun- day about dusk he would come round to our house, and, martyrs to a good cause, Isabel, mother, 'MM 'J \ lit m m I'll Cii ltd. 'I ^ i ■ §\ IS lOO THE MAKING OF MARY. and I vacated the cozy parlor with its easy chairs and blazing fire for the nursery — always uproarious with children on that day. * I wonder what those two find to talk about," speculated Belle. " Mary has no conversation at all, and Axworthy hasn't much more." *' Perhaps he takes it out in looking at her. By the way, Belle, when are you going to appear in the new dress I gave you that fifty dollars to buy ? I am quite tired of the mauve tea gown." My wife glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Grandma was out of hearing. " The truth is, Dave, I thought I must wait to see how much of it I had left after getting Mary rigged up for the Robinsons* dance. She goes out so often that she needs a dhange of even- ing dress." " Did she ask for it ? " " Not directly, but she remarked that she didn't see what I wanted i THE MAKINc; OF MARY. 101 )r with fire for )arious 70 find Belle. at all, more." out in , Belle, •ear in Li that quite 1." r her that ought ch of Mary insons* often even- arked anted with a new black silk, that I had plenty of clothes, and that when she was my age she didn't think she'd bother about what she had to wear." I sprang up from the sofa, prepared to shove Mary out of the house, neck and crop, but Belle's outburst of lau hter calmed me. " Her cheek is so great that it passes from the ridiculous to the sublime ! " " Why do you stand it. Belle ? You wouldn't from anybody else." " I can't very well go back on her at this stage, and send her about her business. She's shrewd enough to know that." " People would laugh ; that's so ! " Besides, if she marries Ax- worthy, she'll be our social equal here in this town, and it must never be in her power to say that we did not treat her well." ** What is the prospect with Axworthy?" 1 I lit t * . 102 THK MAKINC. OK MARY. M 1! MP " Good, T think. He is thoroughly kind to her, and he has given me plenty of liints about the state of his affections, hopes by another winter that Mary will have somebody else to look after her, and so on. He is always most particular in seeing that she is well wrapped up, and that is highly necessary, for she is extremely careless about how she goes out. In spite of a certain amount of physical dash, she isn't a bit strong ; has no staying power." "It won't be much fun for Axworthy to be saddled with a delicate wife." " Well, I guess he needs some discipline, just as much as I do. I've had my share out of Miss Mary for the last three years, and I am quite willing to let some- body else have a turn. He walks into this thing Avith his eyes open. He knows her history." " But docs he know her dispo- sition?" ■';«■: I'ri. THE MAKING OF MARY. 103 for " Let him find that out — if he can. Most mothers don't think it necessary to tell their daughters' suitors how the girls get on with them in the house." ** You say she has no constitu- tion. Supposing he does marry her, how about the possible chil- dren ? What have they done that they should have Mary for a mother?" ** That's exactly the right way to put it — what have they done ? We don't know, but they must have gone far astray last time, if they are given such a bad start this incarnation." Will Axworthy left town in the spring. Lumber was done in our part of Michigan and he had to follow it further south. He and Mary corresponded, for I caught Belle in the act of correcting one of her letters. ** Do you think that's quite fair to Axworthy? If they become engaged, the first unedited letter .J r ' ill ■' S&r J k; ■■',■ 104 THE MAKING OF MARY. he gets from Mary will be con- siderable of a surprise to him." " Don't you bother your old head, Dave ! I'm running this thing ! He's arranging to meet us in Chicago, and hopes to have the pleasure of showing Mary the Columbian Exhibition. Some- thing is sure to happen while we're there ! " 1^ (?.-( »»• 4 "*^^ i con- ir old I this meet > have ry the Some- while CHAPTER VI. LL winter we had been talking about the Fair, reading up about the Fair, making plans for the Fair ; and Belle de- clared that even if she never saw the Fair she would be glad it had been, on account of the amount of preparatory information she had laid up. We did get off at last in the end of June, the whole of us, in- cluding Mary, of course — my first experience of traveling in her company. We went to Chicago by boat, — a night's crossing, — and a rare time I had securing berths for the family in the overcrowded propeller. I was thankful for an If ' •'•tiifci t It I r • •id m 1 06 Th MAKING OF MARY. n< 1 i? i\)i, E») H* v\ C«v,t -It I f. ^iit 4* •'■' * ] ! ! [ •' extension," a sort of shell run out between two staterooms and partitioned off by curtains and poles. The boys had to sleep on sofas, floor, anywhere, which to them war> but the beginning of the fun. The first of my Herculean labors at an end, I was enjoying my smoke aft in the cool of the evening, when Belle came back to me, her brow drawn up into what I had begun to call the " Mary wrinkle." " David, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to that girl. She's sitting up in the bow there flirting with one of the waiters, and though I've sent Watty twice after her, she won't stir.'* As majestically as my five feet four would permit, I moved to the front of the boat. " Mary, Mrs. Gemmell wants you right away." She took time to exchange a laughing farewell with the good- Y. THE MAKING OF MARY. 107 lel! run ms and ins and leep on bich to ling of rculean n joying . of the back to o what '' Mary 11 have sitting g with though er her, /e feet to the wants mge a good- looking waiter, and explained to me en route : " That's Bill Moreland. I knew him quite well in Lake City. I've met him at balls." In the morning before we reached Chicago, she managed to get in a long confabulation with another waiter, whom I am sure she had never met in Lake City, nor anywhere else. '' See here, Mary ! If this is the way you're going to behave, you go straight back to Lake City on that boat, and don't see one bit of the Fair." Her manners were mended till we were actually in Jackson Park, but then : "She's a philanthropist. Belle, a lover of mankind — Columbian Guard, Gospel Charioteer, Turk in the bazaar. The creed or the color doesn't matter so long as he calls himself a man." I am afraid I was cross, for it did not take one day to realize 1J 4: 'UP' ■•If 4 • 'ill io8 THE MAKING OF MARY. i \ir i'' what an undertaking it was going to be to keep track of my family, who had never before seemed too numerous. Daily at lo A. M., in the Michigan Building, did I hand over to Will Axworthy the most troublesome of the lot, and daily did I wish he would keep her for better or worse. On the Fourth of July can- nonading began at daybreak, and for once I sympathized in my mother's objection to the license accorded to young Americans. They set off firecrackers, not by the bunch but by the bushel ; kerosene and dynamite were their ambrosia and nectar. What with fighting for lunch in overcrowded restaurants, and then retaliating by 'Stealing chairs out of the same, hunting through the various booths in the Midway to collect my three younger sons when it was time to send them home, and rescuing my two little girls from an over-supply of ice cream sodas RY. as going y family, imed too A. M., in d I hand :he most nd daily 3 her for Lily can- eak, and in my '■ license lericans. not by bushel ; ;re their lat with ;rowded aliating e same, various collect vhen it ne, and Is from (I sodas THE MAKING OF MARY. 109 and chocolate drops, I did not specially enjoy the glorious Fourth. Toward evening there was not a foot of Fair ground undeco- rpted by a banana skin, a crust of bread, or a flying paper. Belle considered the signs " Keep off the Grass" quite superfluous, and pulling one up by the roots she sat down on it, thereby keeping th'i letter, if not the spirit of the law. " Now, Dave," said she, " the family are all safe off the grounds, and you can go and get a gondola to come and take us for a sail be- fore dark. Everybody is moving toward the lake front to wait for the fireworks, and the lagoons are not so crowded as they were. Let's pretend we're on our honey- moon." So seldom does Belle wax senti- mental over me, I hailed her prop- osition with outward indifference but inward joy. Securing a gon- 1 "Vim ■•■0 $\ '' "If j iHll I ^•<4\\\ Hi m^' Ik i 1 1. no THE MAKING OF MARY. dola to ourselves, in it we were gently swayed through canal and under bridge in the mystical even- ing light. The distant rumble of a train on the Intramural, or a quack from a sleepy duck among the rushes, alone broke the cillness. "This is where I belong ! " ex- claimed Belle. " I've seen before those Eastern-looking towers and minarets, with the sunset glow on the cloud masses behind them. Look ! there's a Turk and a Hin- doo crossing the bridge. This is the region, this the soil, the clime. I always knew I wasn't meant for Western America." " You must have been very naughty /as^ time to have been raised in Michigan this trip. Still this is only Chicago ! " " It's not Chicago ! It's the world ! Listen to that now — the music of the spheres ! " We approached another gon- dola that had withdrawn itself iat-sL THF- MAKING OF MARY. I I I from the center of the channel close in to a small island. The man at the stern was doing noth- ing very picturesquely, but the man at the bow, a swarthy Vene- tian, was pouring out his soul in an aria from " Cavalleria Rusticana." His voice might not have passed muster at Covent Garden, but in the unique stage setting, which included a group of eager listeners on abridge behind him, one could forgive a break on a high note or two. The singer threw himself into the spirit of the composition, cast his eyes upward with hand on his heart, and bent them to earth again for the approval of his pas- sengers. There were but two, a young man and a young lady, and to the latter was the hero in costume directing his amorous glances. " There's romance for you ! " said I to Belle, who is notoriously on the lookout for it. I directed 1) ■yfi VA f Hi •'•Hi up . if ■'■'ii' ijil 1*411 v 112 THE MAKING OF MARY. our gondolier to draw nearer to his enamoured compatriot. My wife replied uneasily : ** I don't know the man, or boy, for that's all he is, but if that isn't Mary's hat " "Mary! Phew! What's be- come ^Axworthy?" As we approached the comfort- able-looking pair, Mary bowed to us smilingly, and called the atten- tion of her companion to her " father and mother " — darn her impudence ! The boat ride was spoiled for Belle and me, our white elephant having arisen to haunt us once more. We landed and walked over to the lake front, where the whole slope was packed with people waiting for the fireworks to begin. Someone started to sing " Way Down upon the Swanee Rib- ber," and everybody joined in. ** Nearer, my God, to Thee " was also most impressive from the ih THK MAKING OF MARY. "3 sarer to ot. My , or boy, hat isn't at's be- comfort- owed to le atten- to her arn her )iled for elephant us once walked lere the with reworks "Way e Rib- ned in. e " was Dm the vast impromptu chorus. In the foreground Lake Michigan lay darkly expectant, with a large black cloud upon its horizon, though the stars shone overhead. A half-circle of boats extended from the long Exhibition Wharf on the right, round to the war- ship Illinois on the left, and from the latter a search light, an omni- present eye, swept the crowd with rapidly veering glance, till it con- centrated its gaze on the dark balloon which rose so mysteriously from the water. Suddenly from this balloon was suspended the Stars and Stripes in colored lights. The crowd cheered like mad, the boats whistled, and sent up rockets galore. On went the programme. Bombs tested the strength of our wearied ear-drums, fiery snakes sizzled through the air, big wheels spurted brilliant marvels, and along the very edge of the lake, to the great discomfort of the front ii ■3 i .ti|{ %■ ■nf ■■'■%* 4 I Hi 114 THE MAKINC; OK MARY. 11 M ' .,' w^- i rows of the stalls, a line of com- bustibles behaved like gigantic footlights on a spree. "David, who do you suppose that was with Mary?" I had been up in the air with George Washington, surrounded by '* First in War, First in Peace, etc.," in letters of fire, and I was unwillingly recalled to earth. " Haven't the remotest idea. Hope she hasn't given Axworthy the slip." ** I'm only hoping that he has not given her the slip. I'd never have brought her to the Fair if he hadn't agreed to look after her." At that moment there was a surging of the mighty crowd, caused by a band of college students pushmg their way through, shoulder to shoulder, singing one of their rousing ditties. Some people who had been stand- ing on their hired rolling chairs had narrow escapes from being flung upon the shoulders of those THK MAKINC; OF MARY. 1*5 in front. Some did not escape — Mary for instance, who landed between us as if shot from a cata- pult. ** I knew I was going to fall, so I just jumped to where I seen you two," said she, with her customary calmness, and then she turned to assure her escort of the gondola, who was anxiously elbowing his way to her, that she was entirely unhurt. Blushing prettily, she intro- duced the lad as "Mr. Tom Axworthy — cousin of the Mr. Ax- worthy you know." Mr. Tom talked to Mrs. Gem- mell with the ease and assurance of ninety rather than nineteen, while I exchanged a few words aside with the maiden : "Where is the Mr. Axworthy that we know? ** " He had some business to do in town to-night, so he left me in charge of this cousin of his — just a lovely fellow! " T) I M Hi I m n ii6 THF. MAKING OK MARY. »l;i;!- »!'/-■ • ' t.l kfy Mil ,«' f 1 f ■lit "Humph! Introduced you to any more of his relations?" •' Oh, yes — an uncle ; quite an old bachelor, but lovely too ! " " And I suppose you've been round with the uncle as well." *' Not very much. lie was to have taken me up in the bal- loon yesterday, but the cyclone burst it." "We're going home now, and I think yOu'd better say * Good- night ' to Mr. Tom Axworthy and come with us." After waiting two hours and a half for standing room on a sub- urban train, we reached the hotel at an early hour on July the 5th, dusty, smoke-stained, and powder- scented, like veterans from a field of battle. That was not by any means the last of Mr. Tom Axworthy. During the remainder of our stay in Chicago it was he quite as fre- quently as his more mature and eligible cousin who exchanged a |M: r. THE MAKINfi OF MARY. 117 you to uite an o! 'e been ell." was to :he bal- cyclone IV, and I * Good- rthy and rs and a n a sub- e hotel he 5th, Dowder- n a field means :worthy. our stay as fre- ure and anged a lingering farewell with Mary at the ladies* entrance to our hotel, and a great fear arose in the heart of Belle that the young woman was fooling away her time with this impecunious boy, instead of making the most of her oppor- tunities to come to a satisfactory understanding with his cousin. Every morning did she gaze pathetically into my face, saying : " I do hope Axworthy will pro- pose to-day ! " and once she added : " I cannot face another winter in the same house with that girl and your mother. Grandma has taken it into her head that Mary is my pet lamb, the idol of my heart, for whom she, and you too, have been set aside. She doesn't see that it worries me half to death to have Mary tagging round after me the whole time, and overrunning the house with her beaux. Neither of our own girls is old enough yet, thank ail I at. :t:1'; 1 Mm 1N» I III Hi .4"" ••^ : .., I r linijiiii ■I'',. ► IM. it8 THK MAKING OF MARY. goodness, to consider herself my companion and equal, to wear my gloves, my boots, my best hair- pins, and to use my favorite per- fume ; to come and plant herself down beside me whenever I'm talking confidentially to anyone, to be determined to have her finger into every pie, to know what I'm reading or thinking about. She'll insist on knowing my dreams next ! " " Perhaps you mesmerize her." ** If I did, I'd make her keep away from me ! I could stand it all better if I thought she really cared a straw for me, but I have the feeling that she re- gards me merely as a basis for supplies." " We can only trust, then, that the basis may be speedily trans- ferred to Axworthy ! " On our return from the World's Fair, the family stopped off at Interlaken, but I had to go on into town to the £c/io ofifice. To THE MAKING OF MARY. 119 If my ar my hair- e per- lerself r I'm iyone, e her know inking owing : her." - keep stand she e, but le re- s for I, that trans- ''orld's off at zo on To my surprise, Mary joined me at my solitary dinner at the " House of the Seven Gables," where Mar- garet, as usual, was in charge, and she remained there for the rest of the week. "Where's Mary?" was Belle's greeting, when I joined her on Saturday. '* She's in town." ** Why didn't you bring her out with you ? " '* Didn't know you wanted her. She said she'd like to stay in Lake City over Sunday, to take the Communion." " Take the Communion indeed ! She wants to be left there alone with Margaret, so that she'll have a chance to flirt with every man in town. I thought you had more sense, David." 1 pulled my soft felt hat further over my diminished head. " Did she get any letters ?" ' One or two." '* Wretch ! I told her to come •»•'•! m 1- ti:i< 1 ri 1! 1 Hi w '• rk U |!i ! *-4w. r 'Hill I ''l Nil., 11 I I20 THE MAKING OF MARY. out here with you to-night for certain." Monday morning, mother, who had been spending the summer with my married sister in Lake City, came out to stay for a week with us at Interlaken. She could hardly wait till the youngsters were out of hearing to pour her story into my ears. I had to take back to town the train by which she had come out, but she made the most of her time. " There's been great doin*s in yer hoose in yer absence. Mar- g'et *s been tellin* yer sister's serv- ant a* aboot Mary's luv affairs. Mary tell't her 'at Eesabelle bade her write Willum Axworthy an* spier his intentions; that if she didna, Mrs. Davvit said she'd d'it hersel'. An* a' the time she's cor- respondin' wi' a yunger ane, an Axworthy tae, 'at she tells Mar- g'et she likes a hape better. Yer sister's sair affronted to think o' THE MAKING OF MARY. 121 the w'y the fem'ly name's bein* cairted thro' the mire." Belle came out on the veranda, her broad hat in her hand, ready to walk down to the train with me. " So Axworthy didn't propose at the Fair ? " said I, when we were out of earshot of the cottage. " No ; and I think it's a crying shame, too, after the way he ap- propriated the girl all last winter, and in Chicago too." "A great relief to you ! Well, I guess the whole town knows by this time that you made Mary write and ask his intentions." " This is too much ! Has your mother- " " Mary's been making a con- fidante of Margaret, that's all. That inestimable domestic is so much one of ourselves, it was hard for the unsophisticated mind to know exactly where to draw the 1' >» me. " I hope she has drawn the line -A mm m ll'll IIIIH^IJ II PJ' .1 Miiiii,; 122 THE MAKING OF MARY. at showing Margaret his reply. I haven't seen tha: myself." " What can you expect it to be ? If he had wanted to marry the girl there was nothing to prevent him asking her, and if he did not, no letter of yours would make him want to." " She wrote it herself, and all she said was that she would like to know definitely how she stood with him. I did nothing but cor- rect the spelling." " Better if you had written in your own name, and without her knowledge. No daughter of the house would ever have been put in such a position. So far as I can judge, Mary and Mr. Will Axworthy are quits. If he has had a good time in her society, she has had an equally good time in his, and he does not enjoy her letters so much as he did her pro- pinquity." " He's a cold-hearted, coward- ly " THE MAKING OF MARY. 123 -ply- I t to be ? rry the prevent iid not, I make and all lid like * stood Dut cor- itten in Dut her of the en put ar as I ir. Will he has lociety, )d time joy her er pro- "Tut! tut! my dear!" By this time we were on the platform, and the engine was backing its one car down to re- ceive me and the other unhappy toilers compelled to go away and leave that sapphire-blue lake be- hind. " Don't you think, Isabel, that it's about time you quit trying to play Providence and gave God a chance ? " " Dave ! you're blasphemous ! " " No, I'm not. I only wish to remark that in your schemes for the welfare of one particular person, you are apt to overlook the comfort and happiness of everyone else concerned. That's the worst of not being omniscient. You're only an amateur sort of a deity after all." " Send that girl out here by the very next train." And I obeyed. •JM ■i;"l oward- CHAPTER VII. \t^\ *l* ftostii »•* . iillll ■.'.1$ *• t# I':. fer MiMi NOTHER week of night work, and then the sun- niest of Sundays on the shore of old Lake Michigan. I noticed that Mary was in deep disgrace with my wife, who would hardly speak to her, and I judged therefore that Mr. Will Axworthy had not been brought to time. I am not a venturesome boat- man, and generally confine my aquatic outings to the smaller lake, but that Saturday night there was not a breath of wind, and the water was placidity personified, so I drifted in my small skiff through the channel that connects the smaller with the larger body of ip THE MAKING OF MARY. 125 f night be sun- lys on ■ Lake in deep ' would judged worthy me. ) boat- tie my erlake, jre was id the fied, so 1 rough ts the )dy of water. On the sandy point jutting out at the mouth, upon an old stump, sat a solitary maiden, the picture of woe. *' Hello, Mary ! " said I, ignor- ing the tears ; " want to go for a boat ride ? " " I don't care if I do," she replied, seating herself in the stern, which I turned toward her. Silently I pulled out into the big lake, where the copper-colored sun going down in a haze near the horizon bade us beware of a hot day on the morrow. Out of the lake to the ri h l'»D '^4111 mi:, .iilf I m w% 126 THE MAKING OF MARY. Flaker on the tablets of my mind, I could truthfully assent to that remark. "Still, it may be just the mak- ing of you in the long run." " I'm not breakin' my heart over Will Axworthy ; didn't care noth- ing 'tall 'bout him, on'y I'd got used havin* him round, and I'd have married h m if he asked me. I think a sight more of his cousin." " The boy we saw at the Fair ? " " Yes. He's written me a lovely letter. Would you mind reading it aloud to me ? Some of the big words I couldn't make out, and neither could Margaret. I wrote him all myself ! " Never before had it fallen to my lot to play father confessor to a lady in love difificulties, but the editorial mind is equal to any emergency, so I let my oars slide and adjusted my re^d ng-glasses to peruse Mary's precious epistle. When I had read on to the y mind, to that le mak- • art over re noth- rd got and I'd ked me. of his t Fair ? " ; a lovely reading the big out, and 1 wrote n to my sor to a but the to any ars slide ■glasses epistle. to the I THE MAKlNfl OF MARY. 127 signature. ** Your devoted lover 'Torn,'" Mary's face was radiant. " Aint he smart ? You know lie was at the Fair, reporting for a newspaper." " That explains his glibness. Don't have anything to do with him, Mary. He's just trying to draw you on. The burnt 6.og should (' ad the fire." " But he admires me, don't he?" " He says so, but he is much more anxious that you should admire him. Why, it's part of his business to keep his hand in by being in love, or rather by having some silly little fool of a girl in love with him. You'll just get left again if you encourage this young scamp." April showers once more. "I think the best thing I can do is to jump overboard here into Lake Michigan. It don't seem to me I'm wanted anywheres." " That might do very well, but 128 THK MAKING OF MARY. MMli) '!#'■ ,: t ^>M you're too good a swimmer to drown easily, and you'd catch on to my boat and upset me. I can't swim a stroke, and there'd be five — six young Gemmells and a widow and a mother cast upon the world. No, we'll have to think of something better than that." Mary's laughter was always quick on the heels of her tears. "What do you think I'm good for, anyhow ? " " I can testify that you're not a success as a housekeeper." " Nor a nursemaid." " And as a lady's companion you're not all that could be de- sired, even if there were a demand for the article in West Michigan." " As a gentleman's companion I am all right," and the girl showed her perfect teeth in a smile. ** It's no joking matter, Mary. You're not very happy in our house, and things will be worse for you next winter, with no Will nmer to :atch on I can't ere'd be Is and a upon the think of at. always tears, 'm good 're not a impanion be de- demand chigan.** mpanion the girl th in a THE MAKING OK MARV 129 r, Mary, in our fce worse no Will Axworthy coming to sec you, and no engagement to him in prospect. What do you think yourself that you're fit for — putting reciting and cornet phiying out of the question ? " The young lady rested her chin on the palm of her hand and composed her face into a bewitch- ing expression of profound medi- tation. ** I can't teach, and I can't sew, and I can't cook. I couldn't bear sitting still all day at a type- writer, and there's no room in the telephone office. You know quite well that there aint a thing for girls like me to do but to get married. That's why God made us pretty, so's we'd have a good chance." " Don't be flippant, miss. How do you think you'd like to be an hospital nurse ? " " I dunno ; I wouldn't mind trying. I'm generally good to folks — when they're sick — and I 'M' .ll(< 130 THK MAKINT, OF MARY. •I '^m aitit a bit scared of dirty nor of dead ones. I laid out an old woman that died in the Refuge." " You're not particularly thin- skinned, that's a fact ; but it's the educational qualification I'd be afraid of. There's some sort of an examination to be passed before you can get into any of these Training Schools nowadays. I'll write for some forms of appli- cation, and we'll see. If once you were able to support your- self, you'd think very differently about marrying anybody that turned up, just for the sake of a home. Ours mayn't be much of a one for you, but marry to get out of it, and you'll perhaps find yourself out of the frying-pan into the fire." " I think it would be just lovely to be a nurse ! There was one came down from Chicago when Mrs. Wade was sick, and the uni- form was awfully pretty. I'm sure it would suit me." THK MAKING OF MARY. 131 nor of in old fuge. r thin- t's the ['d be 5ort of passed iny of ^adays. appli- ' once your- erently / that :e of a luch of to get ps find an into lovely las one when he uni- I'm *' It would be very becoming, I haven't any doubt of that ; and when it's all settled that you are going to an hospital you can write in reply to Will Axworthy's last letter." " He wanted me to keep on writing to him just the same ; said he'd like always to be good friends with me." " I wouldn't write him but once again, and do it all by yourself. Just say that the reason you wrote the other letter, asking how you stood with him, was that you had been thinking of leaving us altogether, but before taking the decided step of entering an hos- pital, you had thought it only fair to him to give him the chance to object, if he really had the objections he had led you to take for granted." We heard a shouting and a blowing of tin horns upon the beach at this juncture. I took the oars and pulled in, seeing 132 THE MAKING OF MARY. u*wr '**"' V. . .,j w m Belle and the boys waving their hats in the bright moonlight. My wife's face expressed the blankest astonishment when she saw who was my shipmate. " We thought you must have fallen asleep out there. Didn't know you had company ! " Mary was still in the black books when I came down the next Saturday. Belle had a bitter complaint. " She sat there the whole after- noon yesterday and part of the evening, writing and rewriting a letter before my very eyes. * Are you replying to Will Axworthy ?* I asked quite cordially, for I did want to have a hand in answering that letter — had some cutting sentences all ready for him. * Yes, mawm,' said sh*^ very shortly ; * but I guess I can man- age to get along by myself.' " I did not dare own up to the advice I had given, but I saw that matters must be hastened. Hav- II: li g their onlight. cd the len she • • st have Didn't e black the next I bitter ►le after- t of the riting a 5. * Are orthy ? ' or I did iswering cutting r him. very an man- to the aw that Hav- ^<^. THE MAKING OF MARY. 133 ing business in Chicago about that time, I visited almost every hospi- tal in the city, telling Mary's story in my most dramatic newspaper style. I made it understood that it was very noble and self-sacrific- ing of tiie young woman, when she might live in the lap of luxury, — for thus did I unblush- ingly describe my own modest establishment, — to embrace a nurse's vocation and labor for the good of humanity, including her- self, of course. The education — or the lack of it — was the draw- back everywhere, and also the youth of the applicant, twenty- five being a more acceptable age than barely twenty-one. But my perseverance was at last rewarded by finding the superin- tendent of a training school who still had some imagination left, and who became deeply interested in Mary's ** tale of v/oe." " Make her study her reading, spelling, and arithmetic as hard as I 'I • w 134 THE MAKING OF MARY. lit) mm I she can for the next few months, and I'll get her in the very first opening." The prospect roused Belle's old- time vigor, and she had spelling matches for Mary's benefit, made the girl read aloud to her, gave her dictation to write, and heard her the multiplication tables every forenoon — when she did not for- get. One delightful morning in October I had the honor of tak- ing our prot^g^e into Chicago and delivering her up to the lady superintendent. If she could only stand the month of probation, we flattered ourselves that she would be safe. Three weeks later I met the Rev. Mr. Armstrong on the street. " I think it is only right to tell you what people are saying," said he. " It's my business to know," I replied. ** I mean about your adopted ■' !IY. THE MAKING OF MARY. 135 months, ery first ;lle's old- spelling fit, made er, gave id heard les every not for- ling in r of tak- :ago and :he lady »uld only ,tion, we le would net the e street, t to tell saying," now," I adopted daughter. I have just been told by two reputable parties, one after the other, that she has been dis- missed from the hospital for flirt- ing, and that you and Mrs. Gem- mell are hushing the matter up as well as you can, but that you don't know at all where she is." When I reached home my first question was : " Have you heard from Mary lately, Belle ? " " Not for a week, and I'm quite worried about her. Before that, she wrote to me dutifully every two or three days, telling me all about her work. I've kept on writing to her just the same, making excuses for her to her- self, and never doubting her for a minute ; but to tell you the truth, Dave, I'm getting dreadfully anx- »> lOUS. Then I told her what I had heard. " Don't you believe it, David ! I never shall till I hear it from I f 'I iHlH « m ^^•^.5. IS; ': 'I if -'ail ltlM»^.'# 136 THE MAKING OF MARY. herself. I know now for a certainty that I love that girl ! ril believe her before all the world ! I'll stick by her through thick and thin ! I'll not insult her by writing to the Hospital ! What now matters the little in- conveniences of living with her? What have a few clothes and toilet articles, more or less, to do with it ? If she has failed, she shall come /lome, and we'll begin the three years' fight all over again. I'll sit down now and write her the nicest letter I can write." That sounded very brave, but inwardly I knew that my wife suffered agonies the next few days. ''Perhaps if I had done this," she would say, " or if I had done that — it seems precisely like a death, and I've killed her." Tuesday morning two letters came from Mary. They were hurriedly and excitedly written. for a at girl ! all the through t insult ospital ! ittle in- th her? les and 5, to do ed, she 11 begin 11 over 'W and r I can ve, but y wife Kt few : this," d done like a letters ' were i^ritten. THE MAKING OF MARY. I37 " My dear good mother, I am accepted ! It is the happiest day of my life ; it will be a red letter day for you ! I love you. I have tried so hard for your sake ; I have tried to make my life hear one long prayer and the dear Lord helps me. I did not write because the exam, was delaid, and I wanted to wait untill I had something ^ood to tell you. I look nice in the unniform. It is pink and a white cap, apron and cuffs. Oh I am so contented ; this work is so filling. I never get lonely or homesick. We nurses had a party, and we danced and served ice cream, and there was some lovely doctors here, and the Princippal is so kind to us we have lots of fun " — and so the letters ran on. The reaction was too much for Belle. She cried, then she laughed, then she fell on her knees and thanked God, and she told me I « 1 1 I m 138 THE MAKING OF MARY. Nil ,'t. 'V ->' ttmm i »'if* she added that, for pity's sake, He 7nust set His angels to guard Mary, for she was a poor, frail child, who had got lost in coming this time, and many persecuted her because she was pretty, and might find a resting place and get a little of what rightfully (?) be- longed to them. After a while she went down to see Mr. Armstrong, and read him the letters. He turned very white. " Oh, the pity of it ! " said he. " I wish I could gather her slanderers into one room and read them these letters," said Belle. For days afterward she button- holed people in the street to tell them about Mary, or to read them scraps of her letters. If they had said she was vain and idle, and selfish and incompetent, just like the half of their own daughters. Belle could have forgiven them. It was their determination to shove her into the gutter Y. ake, He guard pr, frail coming secuted ty, and md get (?) be. : down d read d very dhe. er her id read jlle. )utton- to tell i them ^y had e, and 5t like jhters, them, lation gutter THE MAKING OF MARY. 139 which made my wife her valiant champion. " Whatever that girl amounts to, Dave, will be born of our faith in her, and we must never go back on her. She writes me that when- ever she has a hard task, such as attending fits, there I stand at her back and help." "Just between ourselves, though, you must confess that it is a great relief to have her away." ** You can't begin to feel that as I do. I live again ! I read books, think my own I belong to myself, says, * What's the * Where are you go- my own thoughts. No one matter? * ing ? * * What makes you grave — or gay ? * I sit and chat with my * odd-fish.* I go to all kinds of meetings and discuss all kinds of *isms, and have no tag-tail con- stantly asking * Why ? ' * Why ? ' or 'Tell me!' It's the little things that grind. The next time f 19' I i ii^' ... #■ ,'j 140 THE MAKING OF MARY. I try to help a young girl, I'll not risk losing my influence with her by taking her into my house. Do you know, Dave, I sometimes feel that Mary must have been my own child in a previous incarna- tion, and I neglected and abused her ; that's why she was thrust back upon me this time, whether I liked it or not." After Christmas Isabel decided that she must go up to Chicago to see Mary, and on her return thrilling was the account she gave of her experiences, which included an attendance at an autopsy — but upon that I shall not enlarge. Introducing herself to the Superintendent of the School, she said : " Can I have Miss Gemmell for two days at my hotel ? ** " Indeed, no, madam. We are short of help, and it would be entirely against the rules." "Then I'll stay here with her." , I'll not kvith her se. Do nes feel een my incarna- abused thrust lether I lecided Chicago return le gave icluded y — but the jchool, ell for /e are Id be with THE MAKING OF MARY. 141 The Lady Superintendent looked distressed. " Don't think us inhospitable, but there is absolutely no provi- sion for guests in all this great building." " Oh ! " said Belle, unabashed. •* I seem to be unfortunate in breaking, or wanting to break, the rules of tnis house. Now, will you kindly tell me what I can do ? How can I see the very most f my Mary while i am in Chicago?" After some thought the answer came : " You may have Miss Gemmell to-morrow afternoon, and two hours on Sunday." "That will not suit me at all! Now, please forget all that has been said, and I will tell you that I Mrs. David Gemmell of Lake City, Michigan, am a poor tired woman, threatened with nervous prostration, have already chills of apprehension running down my back, coupled with flushes of ex- I I I I ill $ 'I'l . 3- fr >3y 0' ■I ^^A r Hi^^. ■fi^,'ii 142 THE MAKING OF MARY. pectation to my head." By this time Mary, the Lady Superin- tendent, and two other nurses present were all attention, and Belle added gravely : " T want one of your best pri- vate rooms on Corridor B, where Miss Gemmell is on duty, and I should like to see the House Sur- geon at once." So Belle was comfortably and luxuriously established in the hospital, and the only drawback was that she had to be served with her meals in her room. " What feasts we had — Mary and I," she said. ''.What fun! Before I left I had demoralized that whole hospital staff, and broken every rule in the institu- tion. It did them all good." " I hope you haven't been in- discreet," said i. *' Indiscreet ? " " You must remember that Mary braced herself up to go to the hospital when she was ' out ' with m'' Y. By this superin- nurses ^n, and •est pri- , where S and I ise Sur- ly and n the iwback served -Mary t fun! ah'zed and istitu- THK MAKIXC; OF MARY. 143 >» en m. Mary 3 the with you. Now you've gone and made so much of her that she'll think, whenever things become too hot for her, she has only to march straight back here again." " She assures me she zvt// graduate." ** There should never be any question of that." ** David, I've only told you the one side. If that girl were my very own I should pluck her out of that particular fire. I'd get dovvn on my knees and beg her pardon for having thrown her into it. It burns up their youth, their bloom, their originality, their modesty. It thrusts the girls into a charnel house of sin, sickness, and death. It shatters the nerv- ous system of nine out of ten, or it leaves them calm, steady, burnt- out women, who have been behind the scenes of life and are disillu- sioned. When that little pink and white thing sat there and told me of some of the awful I » t I P m Ilk* 144 THE MAKING OF MARY. m) m\\ ! m -' ■"1 1 '^1 1 ^^Bu i . situations that she'd been placed in, and over which she was made responsible, the tears rolled down my face. I forgave her lots of things." ** Plenty of refined, educated women with a very different bring- ing up from Mary's go through the same." " Well, I advised her to go on and finish the course, if only to show her friends, and enemies, the stuff she's made of. When I think of those free wards, and the menial, disgusting offices that frail little girl has to perform ! What did she sow that she should reap this fighting in the thickest of the fight, so poorly equipped ? " ** I dare say there are allevia- tions." " Oh, yes ! She flirts — says she'd die if she didn't — with every man in the place, from the elevator boy to the head doctor, and, really, I excused her. The head nurse in Mary's ward is very harsh -n placed I'as made led down r lots of educated tit bring- through go on only to memies, When I and the ^at frail What lid reap t of the allevia- s she'd y man levator , and, - head ' harsh THE MAKING OF MARY, I45 with her, but I let her and every- one in the place understand that Miss Gemmell is no stray waif without influence to back her. Every day I send out thought- waves — hypnotism — whatever you like to call it — to compel that Dean woman to think oi some- thing else than the making of trained nurses, and physical wrecks at the same time. People are greater than institutions." " The discipline will be the making of Mary.** I I » f I t t it" fM. ■ 'it 1^ ^ M W*'^ • *•' ■f «4KmI,, IIS • '; '; iW' '. iir?* ' I » I m\^ CHAPTER VIII. ^URING the famous Pullman strike of last summer, duty bade me cross to Chicago in the interests of the £c/io. On Saturday afternoon, July the 7th, I was at the pulse of the Anarchist movement, near the corner of Loomis and Forty-ninth Streets. Taking up my stand in the deep entry of a " House to Let," I watched the operations of a body of strikers gathered round a box car close to the Grand Trunk crossing. They had set it afire, and were trying to overturn it upon the railway track, encour- aged by the cheers of a mob numbering about two thousand men, women, and children. THE MAKING OF MARY. 147 famous of last ade me ► in the 2 Echo, uly the of the ;ar the :y-ninth tand in ouse to ions of round Trunk afire, urn it ncour- mob usand The incendiaries were so much engrossed that they did not ob- serve, backing swiftly down upon them, the wrecking train it was their purpose to block. Vv^hile still in motion, the cars disgorged Captain Kelly and his company, who had been guarding the Pan Handle tracks all day, but had not yet, it seemed, earned their night's repose. The crowd greeted the soldiers with stones, brickbats, and pieces of old iron, but the car burners proceeded with their little job, paying no attention at all to the approach of the military. A pistol bullet out of the mob swished in among his men, and then Captain Kelly gave the order to fire. When the smoke of the volley cleared away, I saw the people stand still, shocked and dumb with surprise. A second later, realizing that the worm had had the audacity to turn, they vented a medley of shrieks and \ ir II' % 148 THE MAKING OF MARY. 't Ci *\\fc III %^ I! |« 'I ,iir ''■;' I' ;ft#»l"ll| 1^' rf! ' II ' III 152 THE MAKING OF MARY. home. My whole interest in life was concentrated upon that hospi- tal ward, and with half-closed eyes I lay there and took notes un- consciously. An ideal life it may seem to outsiders, but there is as much wire-pulling, as much jealousy and scandal within the walls of one of those big institutions, as anywhere else on this planet. It is an epitome of the world battle, and the strugglers meet in hand- to-hand conflict. Nurse Dean, the head of our ward, tall and angular in form, stern and cold in feature, was the dragon Belle had told me about, but she knew her business, and I, for one, preferred that she should regard me simply as a machine laid up for repairs. I did not even think her unduly severe upon Mary, after I heard her giving that damsel " Hail Columbia" for her carelessness inhaving adminis- tered the wrong medicine one LRY. THE MAKING OP MARY. 153 est in life hat hospi- osed eyes lotes un- seem to as much jealousy walls of itions, as anet. It d battle, in hand- i of our in form, was the e about, 3, and I, i should machine not even i upon ing that for her idminis- ne one whole forenoon to Number N'ne — which was myself. If I had not made a feeble pro- test in her favor, "Nurse Gem- mell " would have been discharged on the spot. I do not wish to leave the im- pression that Mary had not in her the making of a fairly good nurse. She was light of foot, as well as quick of hand, and I liked to have her do things for me ; found her aura agreeable, as Belle would have expressed it. Like many half-educated people, she was very observant, but, so far as I could judge, she had one eye on her work and the other on the lookout for flirtations. I be- came quite interested in some of them. There was the German fiddler in the next bed to mine, who could not keep his eyes off Mary whenever she came into the ward, and once when Nurse Dean was off duty, and she brought out r ^•^ 1: 0, mi 1? mw «#. 111)1 *■ 1 1 i e '■; ! "lii: '•M HI 111, 111 154 THE MAKING OF MARY. her silver-plated cornet to " toot " a little for him, he declared it was the most ravishing music he had ever heard in his life ! I strongly suspected that the limp young artisan on the other side of me was perfectly well enough to be discharged, but he could not brace himself up to part from Mary. Then there was a young doctor whose face I dimly recognized, but it tired my poor head too much to try to think who he was. He and Mary had many a talk at my bedside about their own affairs. One evening I heard the unmistakable sound of a banjo, and managed to twist myself round far enough to see that this same doctor was playing an accompaniment to Mary's very fair imitation of a skirt dance out in the passage. The sight revived me so much that I laughed aloud, and Mary came hastily forward, blushing, with finger on her lip. The pink Y. " toot " d it was he had hat the e other \y well but he up to ere was face I ired my try to d Mary bedside One takable anaged nough or was nt to of a sage, much Mary shing, e pink THE MAKING OF MARY. 155 and white uniform did indeed become her wonderfully well, and I was not surprised to notice hearty admiration in the sleepy blue eyes of the young house surgeon. Where had I seen that " Burne Jones' head " before? " You don't seem to remember me, Mr. Gemmell," said the owner of it, holding out his hand. " My name's Flaker. \ is at Inter- laken summer b *orv 1st." " You're a ' .'l-.'edged M. D. now?" " Oh, yes, it I'm taking a year's practice in here, before I set up for myself." Shades of the hotel matrons ! They would probably say, if they heard this, that Mary had been sent here on purpose to catch him. Poor Mary ! She had her own row to hoe. She came to me in tears one evening because Nurse Dean had been after her that whole day about one thing or another. If 4 ft" ./iW 156 THE MAKING OF MARV. i " I am never particular 'nough to please her. If it wasn't for Dr. Flaker I wouldn't stay here another day." **You like him pretty well, eh ? " " Well enough, an' he's all broke up on me ; says he was at Interlaken too, on'y he couldn't say anythin', 'cause he wasn't of age. His folks are awful high- toned." " They'll have their discipline," thought I. "By the way, Mary, how long is it since I was brought here?" " Two weeks to-day." I sprang almost out of bed in my surprise. " Why didn't you tell me ? Has no word been sent to Lake City?" " None since that first telegram. I don't write very often now to your wife, but when I did, I never said nothin' 'tall about your bein* here, 'cause you told me not to." Y. 'nough sn't for ay here :y well, he's all : was at couldn't asn't of ul high- cipline, ow long ere?" bed in I't you Jen sent :legram. now to did, I about ou told THE MAKING OF MARV. 157 **And haven't you had an answer?" '•There*: a letter lyin' there from Mis' Gemmell to you. I don't know how she could have found out your address. Nurse Dean said I wasn't to give it to you if you was a bit feverish." " Fetch it this minute, Mary, or I'll get up and walk the floor,'' and the girl brought me this remarkable document. It had neither beginning nor end, but rusned to the point at once. ** I know all ! You have laughed at my occult tendencies, sneered at my Theosophy, but I can now, alas ! give you convinc- ing proof of the penetrative power of the one, the sustaining power of the other. I became so nerv- ous at your continued silence and absence that I did what I had promised you not to do — went out in my astral to hunt for you — and I found you ! Would to God I had never tried ! It is not my I' •58 THE MAKING OF MARY. m i»«r"niil 10* #'' «.■'• f^^ mi, 1 ■4-, M ' i ' ' '9 -r'i ■ '1 ■^M^T "^M ^^^^^^1 H j^%r -^M health that is ruined, but my heart and my happiness. To make assurance doubly sure, I psychometrized the only letter I have received from Mary in weeks. She was cunning enough not to mention your name, but the un- spoken testimony was the same. To think that you of all men — but I do not blame you ! I have gone down to the £c/'o office, my heart bursting with despair, and have told lies to account for your absence, to keep things moving until you see fit to send your own explanation. I have thrown dust too in the eyes of the family, till you tell me your will concerning them. No, I dare not blame you ! Did not I myself thrust the girl into your life — and the best of us are but human. It is Karma ! I have deserved this blow for some previous sin of my own, and I bow my head to the stroke. Your >wn harvest will be just as certain, however long delayed. O David, Y. 3ut my s. To sure, I letter I n weeks. I not to the un- le same. I men — I have ffice, my air, and for your moving our own wn dust nily, till icerning leyou ! [the girl St of us •ma ! I )r some I bow )ur ^wn [certain, David, THK MAKING OK MARV. 159 David ! I can look back now and sec the very bc^^inning of your interest in Mary — but that it should end in this — that you should fly from me to her "* Having read so far, I burst into hysterical laughter, and it took Mary and her lover and Nurse Dean, and how many more I know not, to hold me in bed. Of course I had a relapse, and riy life was despaired of, but I would not, in my icnsible moments, allow Mary to write to, or send for Isabel. I pictured the streets still full of rioting strikers, and the mails and trains still disorganized. In waking and in delirium alike, " Keep her out of harm's way ! ** I cried, " I'll go home to-morrow, sure," but it was a long to-morrow that saw me on the boat bound for Lake City. Mary wanted to accompany me, for I was still very weak, and had to walk with a stick on account of my knee, but I said brusquely, fwrn'm^ 1 60 THE MAKING OF MARY. " You stay where you are, and keep an eye on Dr. Flaker, or you'll maybe get left again." " No fear of that ! " she said, holding up her left hand to show me a broad gold band with five diamonds in it, adorning her third finger. " We'll be married as soon as his year is out, for he has plenty of money." The stones in her ring caught the evening sunlight as she stood on the wharf waving her handker- chief to me, while the boat moved slowly out, and I lay in a steamer chair on the hurricane deck, pre- pared to enjoy a smoke and a gossip with my old friend, the captain. I wished her well with all my heart, but I sincerely hoped that I had seen the last of Mary. 'Judging the family to be at Interlaken as usual, I took the first train down there, and toiled ' M lY. THE MAKING OF MARY. Ibl ire, and aker, or ♦» n. he said, to show vith five her third soon as IS plenty I caught he stood handker- it moved steamer ck, pre- and a nd, the vith ali hoped last of be at ook the toiled in the sun from the depot up to the cottages, by way of t:he hill, which I had never considered steep before, to find my own house deserted, windows and doors boarded up, veranda un- swept, hammocks removed. I would not give any of the neigh- bors the satisfaction of knowing I was surprised and disappointed, so I kept out of sight till they had all been to the hotel for din- ner and dispersed. Then I went in for mine, and after it returned to the beach near the station, lay down on the sand, and waited for the next train. There was not one back to town until late in the af*:ernoon, and the evening being cloudy, it was quite dark by the time I left the electric car at the corner of our street. Even that little bit of a walk exhausted me, and I had to rest on my stick every few minutes, but what a relief it was to see, gleaming cheerfully as ever, 1; If', K I!;: ':1s "fsr^J nil 162 THE MAKING OF MARY. the windows of the House ot the Seven Gables. I leaned against our iron railing for a minute or two to collect my- self before making my appear- ance, and highly necessary was it for me to do so, because ihe atti- tude of the two ladies upon the veranda struck me dumb with amazement, and their conversa- tion completely floored me. That sandy-haired little woman in the low rocker must be my mother, but could that regal figure on the edge of the veranda, with her head in my mother's lap, possibly be my wife ? The light from the nursery window showed them to me distinctly, but I kept back in the shadow and listened to the voices. ** My puir lamb ! YeVe grat eneugh ! Gang awa' tae yer bed ; ye're sair forfoughten." As she stroked the wavy gray hair of the head on her knee, her tone changed. RY. ;e oi- the )n railing llect my- appear- y was it the atti- ipon the nb with :onversa- e. That n in the mother, e on the with her possibly rom the hem to back in to the [ve grat ^er bed ; ry gray lee, her THE MAKING OF MARY. 163 " I canna thole to think 'at son o' mine has brocht a' this trouble upon ye," '' Not a word against him, mother! He's the best man that ever lived, and I didn't appreciate him, that's all. I can never think of him but as my dear, old, solid, yours-to-count-on Dave Gemmell. He was the silent partner, unpopu- lar, getting no praise, paying all bills, backing me up in every fad, whether his judgment approved or not. He was just the square foundation I could lean away out on — could dance jigs on if I wanted to. Now that he is dead — or dead to me — I can only hope that he is happy. Oh ! if I had but listened to you, mother, had never brought that girl into the house. My own vineyard have I not kept." ** Let by-ganes be by-ganes — but I wad jest like to hae Davvit by the lug." " Lug along, mother ! Here I It 11 r^ 164 THE MAKING OF MARY. h>' §,'j^- *■ m t ff^m-n' i«** ,1' , r ^ »| ,1,1** '':*H" |i#»* :f|| #iS am ! " I managed to shout, and then I hung over that fence and laughed till my specs dropped off in the grass, and my stick fell away from me. I could not move without it, so I had to wait till the two women took pity on me and released me from my impale- ment. Betv/''en them they got me into the house and on to my old sofa, and listened to what I had to say. '' I was share there must be some iuistak','* said my mother, her self-respect restored, but, when I saw how affectionately her hand rest'^' i on the bowed head of her weepirig daughter-in-law, I did not regret the bullet in my knee. " We'll put it all down to your Theosophy, Belle — a collection of half-truths, more dangerous than lies, when you shove them too far." " Don't let us talk about that now, David. It breaks my heart to see you so thin. Your clothes RY. out, and mce and )pped off stick fell lot move wait till ^ on me 7 impale- t me into old sofa, id to say. must be mother, put, when her hand d of her '. did not nee. to your ection of ous than lem too out that ny heart clothes THE MAKING OF MARY. i6s are just hanging on you. Oh ! if I had only known the true state of the case and been there to nurse you I *' Mary has been very good to me, I assure you." ** I don't want to think about that girl any more. I'm glad she's all right, but I hope never to lay eyes on her again." " Oh, yes, she':, all right, and when she marries Dr. Flaker she won't want to */rt!pa' and * mamma.* us, though she may condescend to patronize us a little." " I'll be gled o' the day she draps the name o' Gemmell ! " My wife is still a theosopl st. If it pleases her to think that she has ascertained t^ nature and method of existence, I have noth- ing to say. Soretirnes I even look with envy upon her cheerful attitude toward the approach of old age, her conviction that we ! !•■ i66 THE MAKING OF MARY. m- [:/-■ '."i t *# M;t" m are to have another chance — many more chances — to do and to be that which we have failed in doing and being, t/it's time. To judge of a tree by its fruits, there is, of course, no doubt that Isabel, because of, or in spite of her Theosophy, has been The Making of Mary. I'lMi;., VRY. ce — many ind to be d in doing its fruits, oubt that n spite of n ^ARY. t- EPILOGUE. URSE DEAN walked through the Pest House, adjoining the great hospital, with the in- dependent mien of the woman who is confident that her skirt clears the ground. Her keen, light-colored eyes took in at a glance the condition of every patient, the occupation of every nurse. There had been a smallpox epidemic in Chicago, and three of the nurses in Hospital had taken the disease, two of them lightly, one very heavily ; but all were now convalescent. The two had gone home to their friends to 1 68 EPILOGUE. 1 -I ■" : ■ I ' ^- ■ HI**"'' »''■]> •'■'] |!» ,-tii;M|i recruit, but the third lay in an invalid chair in a darkened room, looking as if the desire of life had left her. Nurse Dean came in with a cheery smile, put on just outside the door, and proceeded to bathe the girl's eyes with warm water. ** When are you coming out to help me, Mary? I'm sure the light wouldn't hurt you now. I'm having too much night work, those other nurses being gone. I thought you might begin to ease me a little with the smallpox patients through the day." " I don't know as I care to go on with the business," replied Mary, sometime called Mason. " Nonsense ! You're low- spirited just now because you're not quite better, but wait till you're on your feet and going around the wards again. There's nothing like work of this sort to make a person forget her- self." \ EPILOGUE. 169 lay in an jned room, of life had 1 came in Lit on just proceeded with warm ing out to sure the now. I'm jht work, iing gone. begin to ^ smallpox »» y- are to go ," replied Mason, re low- ise you're wait till nd going There's this sort rget her- Nurse Dean's strong but gen- tle hands began to rub with oil the patient's neck and shoul- ders. " I wish I could forget myself and everybody else too. I wish I had died of the smallpox. There aint anybody that cares whether I live or die." **Hush! Mary, you forget Dr. Flaker." "Aint it just him I'm thinkin* about? He came in to see me to-day for the first time. He hates smallpox, and he smelt so of iodoform he nearly made me sick. About all he had to say was that it was very foolish of me to meddle with the clothes of them patients, and he could hardly believe I was so crazy's not to be vaccinated when the other nurses were. Just as if it wasn't him that admired my lovely arms. Look at them ^1 now ! I" " They won't be so bad when \ lyo EPILOGUE. r^ in '■'ii|n all these scales are off. There ! Doesn't thai; feel better?" " It feels all right enough, but you know I'll be a sight to be seen the rest of my days. I was glad the room was dark, so's Flaker couldn't get a good look at me. He'll know soon enough — and hate the sight of me. H*^ was always so proud of my -ar- ance." •' But I'm sure he likes you for something else too, Mary." " I don't care whether he does or not, he's got to marry me just the same. I aint goin' to be left again," and the girl tried to make a blazing diamond ring keep in place upon her thin finger. ** You love him very much ?'* " Don't know as I do — no more than lots of other fellows ; but I won't have any more chances now. I didn't ask to be born into this world, and somebody in it owes me a living." '' See here, Mary ! " said the \ - EPILOGUE. 171 There ! nurse, in a suddenly energetic >• tone that made the girl look up ugh, but at her with startled eyes. " You ht to be know, as well as I do, that you . I was can't make that man marry you. ark, so's Why not give him back his ring ood look of your own free will?" enough " Why should I ? You think I ne. H** aint in love } " ny .dr- " Love ? You don't know what the word means in any but its you for very lowest sense. Suppose you • stop loving men, and take to lov- he does ing women and children ; you'll me just find them much more grateful, I be left to make can tell you." Mary closed her eyes, but there keep in were no eyelashes to keep the • tears from trickling out upon the ich?" scarred face. lo more *' My dear child ! " said Nurse ; but I Dean, in a voice hardly recog- chances nizable, it was so sympathetic. il 1 Drn into " you've been fighting for yourself y in it ever since you can remember, and you haven't made much of it. 1 id the 1 have you ? " ..<^a. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) k A {/ % a5^. A >^* ,V^ A % % 1.0 t^ I I.I 1^1 2.5 2.2 1^ 1^ IL25 i 1.4 2.0 1.6 ^J > Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M5S0 (716)a72-4S03 A fV \\ sS^ «■ °^*^ <<^^^ ^ o^ i-»« 172 EPILOGUE. *11 to/"*' The girl's lips shaped an inaudi- ble " No." " Wouldn't it be a good idea, then, to try a little fighting for other people? " " I haven't any folks." " Your * folks ' are whoever you can help in any way. What have you done yet to deserve a foot- hold on this earth ? Instead of seeing how much you can get out of everybody, turn round and see how much you can do for them." There was a long silence. When Nurse Dean thought her charge was falling asleep, she placed a shawl carefully over her, but Mary, without opening her eyes, drew something from her left hand to her right. " You can give him back his ring," she said. Nurse Dean closed the door softly behind her, and then paused for a moment to wipe an 1 an inaudi- good idea, ghting for »» loever you What have rve a foot- [nstead of I can get round and an do for I silence, ought her sleep, she '' over her, ening her from her L back his the door ind then o wipe an EPILOGUE. 173 impertinent tear from her cold gray eye. *' I shouldn't be at all surprised if the smallpox were just The Making of Mary." THE END. i#«^S h; '^li; THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY OF CHOICE ORIGINAL FICTION. The volumes are long and narrow, just the right shape to slip into the pocket, and are bound in flexible cloth and ornamented with a chaste design. The type is large and the margin generous. Price* per volume, 50 cents. 1. Mademoiselle Ixe. By Lanoe Falconer. 2. The Story of Eleanor Lambert. By Magda- len Brooke. 3. A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow on the Wave. By Von Degen. 4. The Friend of Death. Adapted from the Spanish by Mary J. Serrano. 5. Philippa; or, Under a Cloud. By Ella. 6. The Hotel D'Angleterre, and Other Stories. By Lanoe Falconer. 7. Amaryllis. By Georgios Drosines. 8. Some Emotions and a Moral. By John Oliver Hobbes. 9. European Relations. By Talmage Dalin. 10. John Sherman, and Dhoya. ByGanconagh. 11. Through the Red-Litten Windows, and The Old River House. By Theodor Hertz- Garten, la. Back from the Dead. A Story of the Stage. By Saqui Smith. 13. In Tent and Bungalow. By "An Idle Exile." 14. The Sinner's Comedy. By John Oliver Hobbes. 15. The Wee Widow's Cruise in Quiet Waters. By "An Idle Exile." B m "DRKNOWN" Library-CoDtiDDed. •'-i'. ^ l^'\ •fvn Cj 4 in ^ ■ 1 pi i6. «7. i8. 19. 20. 31. 22. 23- 24- 2S- a6. 27- 28. 2g. 30- 31- 32- 33- 34. 35- 36. 37- 38. A New England Cactus, and Other Tales. V>y Frank Pope Humphrey. Green Tea. A I-ovc Story. By V. Schallen. berger. A Splendid Cousin. By Mrs. Andrew Dean. Gentleman Upcott's Daughter. By Tom Cobbleigh. At the Threshold. By Laura Dearborn. Her Heart was True. By " An Idle Exile." The Last King of Yewle. By P. L. Mc- Dermott. A Study in Temptations. By John Oliver Hobbes. The Palimpsest. By Gilbert Augustin Thierry. Squire Hellman, and Other Stories. By Juhani Aho. A Father of Six. By N. E. Potapeiko. The Two Countesses. By Marie Ebner von Eschenbach. God's Will, and Other Sturies. By Use Prapan. Translated by Helen A. Mac- Donald. Her Provincial Cousin. By Edith Elmer Wood. My Two Wives. By One of their Husbands. Young Sam and Sabina. By Tom Cobbleigh. Chaperoned. By Albert Ulmann. Wantedjji^Copyist. By W. N. Brearley. TTBundle of Life. By John Oliver Hobbes. The Lone Inn. By Fergus Hume. "Go Forth and Find." By Thomas H. Brainerd. The Beautiful Soul. By Florence Marryat. Dr. Endicott's Experiment. By Adeline Sergeant. THE CASSELL PUBLISHIHG CO., 31 East 17th Street CUnion Square), NEW YORK. CoDtinned. her Tales. P.y V. Schallen- ndrew Dean, r. By Tom ^earburn. I Idle Exile." iy P. L. Mc- John Oliver trt Auguntin Stories. By tapeiko. ie Ebner von ies. By Use len A. Mac- Edith Elmer ir Husbands, m Cobbleigh. nn. Brearley. ver Hobbes. me. Thomas H. ice Marryat. By Adeline 16 CO., Square)* 'W. c. HUT:)so]sr's Interesting Jiooks, Jack Gordon, Knight-Errant, Gotham, 1863. l2mo, Cloth, 75 cents ; Taper, 50 cents. *' A capital piece of work." — I'ittsl^urg Dispatch. On the Rack. I2mo, Cloth, 75 cents ; Taper, 50 cents. "A story of unitsual power." — Boston Post, The Diamond Button. A Tale from the Diary 0/ a Lawyer and the Nott* book 0/ a Reporter. l2mo, Cloth, 75 cents ; Taper, 50 cents. " A pronounced success." — Albany Express, The Dugdale Millions. l2mo, Cloth, 75 cents ; Taper, 50 cents. *' The plot is ingeniously cast and most skillfully worked out, and the strong interest of the reader is not allowed to flag for a moment." — Boston Home Journal. The Man with a Thumb. i2ino, Cloth, 75 cents ; Paper, 50 cents. *' Holds the attention to the last page." — Cleveland Plaindealer. Vivier. l2mo, Cloth, 75 cents ; Paper, 50 cents. •' The story contains not a single dull page." — Ohio State Journal. Should She Have Left Him? i2mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper.so cents. ** No one can go to sleep over one of Mr. Hudson's stories, for the author supplies incidents, generally unexpected, too, and in more rapid succession than any other living v&\\iox.^^—Godey s Magazine. THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. 31 East 17TH St. (Union Square), NEW YORK. L W. CLARK RUSSELL'S POPULAR SEA STORIES. THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00. Paper Binding, 50 Cents. " No better sea story has been written."— /VliVrt. " It is a bright, interesting story."— .A^. K H^ortd. LIST, YE LANDSMEN! 1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00. Paper Binding, 50 Cents. " A stirring romance." — Rochester Herald. " Next to a genuine sea voysLg^."— Boston Journal. ROMANCE OF A TRANSPORT. 1 Vol., 12mo, Cloth, $1.00. " One of his hft%\.:'— Brooklyn Citizen. " Who has ever begun one of Clark Russel^s tales and neglected to finish it? ""—Phila. Item. ISj» s . K» THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO., 31 Cast 17th Street (Union Square), NEW YORK. H ►SELL'S STORIES. SHIP. oth, $1.00. Cents. written."— />>liA,. '-A^. y. World. SHEN! )th, $1.00. Cents. • Herald. •Boston Journal. \mm. S1.00. 'zen. c RusselPs tales fteiH. m CO., n Square),