T T /"I HT HP 
 
 ju L/ .1 iJ i. 1
 
 DELIGHTFUL DODD
 
 By the same author 
 
 THE SPOILSMEN 
 
 BY 
 
 ELLIOTT FLOWER 
 
 One vol., library izmo, cloth, $1.50 
 
 Published by 
 L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 New England Building 
 Boston, Mass.
 
 DELIGHTFUL 
 
 By ELLIOTT FLOWER 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE SPOILSMEN," ETC. 
 
 FRANK T. MERRILL 
 
 Boston + L. C.PAGE 
 & COMPANY <& Mcmii) 
 
 & 
 
 -P 

 
 Copyright, 2904 
 BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 (INCORPORATED) 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published October, 1904 
 
 COLONIAL PRESS 
 
 Eltctrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simondi & Co. 
 Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. READY AND RESOURCEFUL . . . i 
 
 II. A "PECULIAR" MAN 10 
 
 III. THE JOY OF PROBLEMS .... 19 
 
 IV. A NEW MEASURE OF VALUE ... 29 
 V. LEONARD AND THE BEE .... 40 
 
 VI. RETURNING AND DEPARTING GUESTS . . 49 
 
 VII. AT TERRACE COTTAGE 58 
 
 VIII. "DODD'S GERMANIA" 71 
 
 IX. THE UNLICENSED BARBER .... 82 
 
 X. THE SERMON AND THE WHISTLE . . 94 
 
 XI. THREE LETTERS 107 
 
 XII. LEONARD GOES INTO TRAINING . . .120 
 
 XIII. A GENERAL MISUNDERSTANDING . . . 133 
 
 XIV. THE PROWESS OF ACKERMAN . . . 144 
 XV. DODD DISCUSSES WOMAN . . . .159 
 
 XVI. A FAVOUR FOR A NEIGHBOUR . . . 169 
 
 XVII. THE SHETLAND PONY FARM . . .181 
 
 XVIII. THE CASE OF DODD vs. WAKELEY . . 192 
 
 XIX. DODD AND THE INDIANS .... 209 
 
 XX. DODD Is ANNOYED 219 
 
 XXI. A TIP FROM DAKE WAKELEY . . .231 
 
 XXII. Miss MARSDEN'S ADVENTURE . . . 247 
 
 XXIII. THE FIGHT AT THE COTTAGE . . . 262 
 
 XXIV. THE RESULT OF THE FIGHT . . . 270 
 XXV. SOME TROUBLESOME POINTS . . . 280 
 
 XXVI. DODD'S PARTING DISSERTATION . . . 287
 
 FULL - PAGE 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 AS FOLLOWS : 
 
 PAGE 
 
 DANIEL DODD .... Frontispiece 
 " LEONARD RECEIVED HIS FIRST UN - 
 
 LICENSED MICHIGAN SHAVE" . . 92 
 "' IF A MAN MOVES, I'LL BREAK THIS 
 
 FELLER'S NECK ! '" . . . 1 54 
 
 DAKE WAKELEY . . . .194 
 
 * 
 
 In addition to the above there are a number of 
 minor sketches throughout the text and on the end 
 papers.
 
 DELIGHTFUL DODD 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 READY AND RE- 
 SOURCEFUL 
 
 A YOUNG woman 
 quiet, self - possessed, 
 with the air of one who 
 was accustomed to 
 think and act for her- 
 self stepped from 
 the kitchen door of the 
 farmhouse and walked 
 briskly toward the barn. In the well-worn path she 
 met a man, moving with the deliberate stride of 
 weight and strength in the direction of the house. 
 " Can you get me to the 9.20 train? " she asked. 
 He looked at her, and then at a big silver watch 
 that he carried. 
 
 " Be ready in five minutes," he said. 
 
 Neither hurried, but neither lost any time. His 
 
 favourite horse already had the harness on, and 
 
 he had only to bring it out and hitch it to the 
 
 side-bar buggy. She went to her room, put a few
 
 Delightful Dodd 
 
 things in a little valise, and was ready when he 
 drove up to the horse-block at the lane gate. A 
 moment later they were speeding down the country 
 road. 
 
 " If the train's on time," he remarked, " I'm 
 afraid we won't make it, but it's generally late." 
 
 " We must make it," she said. 
 
 "What's wrong?" he asked. 
 
 " Gracie's husband is dead," she replied. " I am 
 going to her." 
 
 He touched the horse with the whip and the 
 spirited anirrDal responded with a burst of speed. 
 
 " I knew it was something serious," he com- 
 mented, " or you wouldn't have tried to make this 
 train. Somehow there's always a reason for any- 
 thing you ask, and you don't have to chase around 
 like a chicken with its head off to make a fellow 
 understand it. Some girls would have had hys- 
 terics first and thought about the train afterward." 
 
 " Some men," she returned, quietly, " would have 
 wasted time with questions instead of getting the 
 horse." 
 
 " Oh, well, I know you," he said, as if that set- 
 tled the whole question. " When you speak in that 
 quiet, earnest way, it means something. You know 
 what you want to do and the reason why, and it's 
 generally the best thing to do always, I guess."
 
 Ready and Resourceful 
 
 " Not always," she corrected. 
 
 " Well, anyway, I don't stop to ask any ques- 
 tions when you want a thing done in a hurry." 
 
 "That's why I go to you," she said. "We 
 understand each other." 
 
 It was, indeed, the understanding that comes 
 from the association of two capable people. Jessie 
 Marsden had lived under the same roof with her 
 cousin, Sam Carroll, ever since the death of her 
 mother several years before, and she had proved 
 herself to be a woman of quiet firmness, quick per- 
 ception, and excellent judgment. " She thinks like 
 a man," Sam had once said of her, in a burst of 
 admiration, but, while there was something of truth 
 in the expression, it gave a false impression, for 
 there was nothing masculine about her. In appear- 
 ance she was a pleasing young woman of about 
 twenty-two years, with natural graces of mind and 
 person that had been further developed by excel- 
 lent educational advantages. She was sincere, un- 
 assuming, resourceful, and her aunt, with whom she 
 had lived since the death of her mother, had learned 
 to depend upon her in many ways, so many, in 
 fact, that she discouraged any suggestion of going 
 back to the city. So Jessie, having a very trifling 
 income of her own, and lacking the expertness in 
 any line that would enable her to earn her own
 
 Delightful Dodd 
 
 living (except possibly as a school-teacher), had 
 made the best of a situation that could not, in the 
 very nature of things, be particularly agreeable to 
 her. 
 
 Sam Carroll admired her as a brother might 
 admire her. He was big, good-natured, easy-going, 
 as a general thing, and he liked her air of quiet 
 self-possession and confidence. Never aggressive, 
 never anything but womanly, she nevertheless gave 
 one an impression of reserve force and readiness; 
 and he was like her in one thing, and one thing 
 only: he would think and act quickly, although 
 never hurriedly, when occasion required. Under 
 the same circumstances, no other two would have 
 been on their way to town so soon after the receipt 
 of the news that led her to make the trip. As it 
 was, even he big, blundering man could not 
 fail to appreciate the mental readiness that led her 
 to start as few women would think possible. She 
 had only a little hand-bag. 
 
 " How about your trunk ? " he asked. 
 
 " I asked Jane to pack it, and you'll have to for- 
 ward it," she replied. " I suppose," whimsically, 
 " she'll leave out half the things I want, and scatter 
 some of my most cherished possessions, but I 
 couldn't wait for a trunk after I got that telegram. 
 I barely had time to slip into a decent gown."
 
 Ready and Resourceful 
 
 " You're all right in any gown," he asserted, 
 thus unconsciously paying a tribute to the neatness 
 that was one of her most pleasing characteristics, 
 neatness without irritating preciseness. 
 
 At the station they found that the train was fif- 
 teen minutes late. It ought to reach the Junction 
 eight minutes ahead of the through train, with 
 which it aimed to make connections, but it promised 
 to be seven minutes behind it. 
 
 " Will they wait for us?" she asked. 
 
 " Not over two minutes," replied the station- 
 agent. 
 
 " See here, Bill," put in Sam, with the familiarity 
 of an old acquaintance, " can't you fix it for us? " 
 
 " Trains ain't held on my orders," returned the 
 agent. 
 
 " But I must get that train," she urged. " Isn't 
 there any way to do it? It is very important." 
 
 Whatever a woman wants is " very important " 
 in most cases, and men who have constant dealings 
 with the sex are not easily impressed, but, after 
 a moment of hesitation, the agent turned to his 
 telegraph-key. 
 
 " I'll see what I can do, Miss Marsden," he said. 
 
 Presently he turned back to her. 
 
 " I made it a personal matter with Tom over at 
 the Junction," he explained, " and he's pretty sure
 
 Delightful Dodd 
 
 he can get the conductor to hold the train five min- 
 utes, if I get word to him that your train won't 
 be any later than that. They don't usually bother 
 much about this one-horse branch." 
 
 " Thank you," she said. 
 
 " I'm glad to do it for you," he assured her. 
 Most men were glad to do what they could for 
 Jessie Marsden, not, as is often the case, because of 
 any appearance of helplessness, but because of her 
 quick and sincere appreciation of favours done and 
 her unaggressive self-reliance. The rational woman, 
 whose self-reliance is not so irritatingly prominent 
 as to savour of egotism, is the happy medium be- 
 tween the one who is unreasonable in her flurried 
 dependence and the one who is unreasonable in her 
 strong-minded independence. Jessie resembled 
 neither of these, and in consequence her earnestness 
 led the agent, who knew her, to do his utmost in 
 her behalf. 
 
 " Wire him that we'll make it," said the engi- 
 neer; and, with the incentive of the through train 
 being held five minutes for him, he did make it. 
 Just that spur was needed. 
 
 As the train drew into the Junction, Jessie stood 
 on the platform of the car, waiting. 
 
 " Don't get off before it stops," cautioned a 
 brakeman.
 
 Ready and Resourceful 
 
 " I never do," she replied, quietly. 
 
 She was on the station platform the moment the 
 train stopped, however, and she crossed quickly 
 to where the conductor of the through train stood, 
 watch in hand. 
 
 " No baggage ! " came the cry. 
 
 " That's a good thing," growled the conductor, 
 as he gave the signal to start. 
 
 Jessie settled herself comfortably and tried to 
 read, but her thoughts were busy with her sister. 
 Gracie was two years older, but much more de- 
 pendent. There had always been some one to take 
 care of her, for she had married just previous to 
 their father's death, and had been spared the trou- 
 bles that had followed, culminating in the death 
 of their mother. Her husband had been reasonably 
 successful in business until ill health had forced his 
 retirement and sent him to the Peninsula County 
 (Michigan) farm, where he had died; but Jessie 
 feared that he had left practically nothing, and that 
 her sister, in this trying hour, was among compara- 
 tive strangers. This made it doubly imperative that 
 she should get to her at once. She knew that she 
 had to leave the train at Traverse City, that it was 
 an hour's ride by boat from Traverse City to Neah- 
 tawanta, and that the farm was six or seven miles 
 from the latter place; this much letters had told
 
 8 Delightful Dodd 
 
 her; but she never before had made the trip, and 
 now she was wondering how she could best avoid 
 the possibility of delay. 
 
 It was with a feeling of relief that she saw a 
 baggage-transfer man coming down the aisle of the 
 car. 
 
 " Is there an afternoon boat to Neahtawanta ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Sure," he answered. " Want to go to the 
 dock?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Any baggage ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 'Twenty-five cents, please," hie said, handing 
 her a transfer ticket. 
 
 " Is there a livery-stable at Neahtawanta ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Sure. We keep a branch there for the summer- 
 resort business." 
 
 "Can I telegraph for a horse and buggy?" 
 
 " I'll telephone." 
 
 ' Thank you. Tell them to have it at the dock, 
 please, when the boat gets in, for Miss Marsden. 
 I want to get to Daniel Dodd's farm as soon as 
 possible. You won't forget, will you ? " 
 
 To reassure her he made a memorandum of her 
 instructions before passing on, and he also made the
 
 Ready and Resourceful 
 
 mental comment, " She's all right," meaning that 
 she lacked the nervous indecision that he found in 
 many women travellers. 
 
 There was a wait of half an hour at the Trav- 
 erse City dock, but there was none whatever at the 
 Neahtawanta dock. A man was waiting there with 
 a horse and buggy, and she had reached it before 
 most of the women passengers had succeeded in 
 gathering together their bundles. Yet she did not 
 seem to hurry as much as the rest of them; it all 
 lay in her directness and readiness mental as well 
 as physical. 
 
 " For Miss Marsden ? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes," replied the driver. 
 
 She gained the seat beside him an awkward 
 feat for any woman while he was thinking of 
 jumping out to help her. 
 
 " I want to go to Daniel Dodd's farm, and hurry, 
 please," she said. " I am willing to pay something 
 extra for speed." 
 
 The details of that trip from farm to farm 
 uneventful, so far as adventure or serious tribula- 
 tions are concerned give a better idea of Jessie 
 Marsden than could be conveyed by any mere de- 
 scription of her. She kept her purpose ever in 
 mind, and she let nothing bewilder or disconcert 
 her.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A " PECULIAR " MAN 
 
 DANIEL DODD wandered aimlessly down Cherry 
 Lane, smoking a cigar. Dodd was a city man, 
 transferred to the country by an unexpected com- 
 bination of circumstances many years before, and 
 he never had lost his city preference for a cigar. 
 Occasionally he might smoke a pipe, but he was 
 usually successful in his efforts to have a few cigars 
 in reserve. 
 
 Dodd was a man of medium height and build, 
 with gray hair, a gray beard, a kindly smile, and 
 eyes that were proof of a sense of humour. It 
 was frequently necessary to glance at those eyes 
 or catch a fleeting glimpse of the smile to decide 
 definitely whether it was humour or bitterness that 
 lurked behind some of his remarks. But the hu- 
 mour could always be discerned by any who took 
 the trouble to look for it. 
 
 Some of the neighbours said that Dodd was a 
 " peculiar " man, and " peculiar " is a very indefi- 
 
 10
 
 A " Peculiar " Man 1 1 
 
 nite and misleading term. It may mean that a 
 man is original or unbalanced or disagreeable, 
 in fact, anything that differs from the mediocre 
 average of mankind. The man who does not live 
 exactly as we do is " peculiar." The man whose 
 idea of pleasure varies ever so slightly from ours 
 is " peculiar." So is the man whose ambition in 
 life we do not happen to understand, and the 
 lunatic and the genius. The idea conveyed all de- 
 pends upon the manner in which the assertion is 
 made. It may bring a shudder or a laugh or make 
 us wish to know the man better. 
 
 Dodd was at least harmlessly peculiar. He said 
 strange things and enjoyed himself in strange ways, 
 but he was honest, sympathetic, and generous, so 
 no one said evil of him. Some one who had been 
 over to borrow a churn of him the day before 
 might say to the passing stranger : " Dodd ? Dan'l 
 Dodd? Oh, of course, I know him. He means 
 right, but he's jest a leetle peculiar." There would 
 be a tone of condescending pity in this, a sort 
 of " Too bad ! " inflection that was an indication 
 that the man had got the churn. Otherwise, he 
 would say much the same thing in a way that would 
 convey an impression of objectionable or dangerous 
 peculiarity. 
 
 And, for the most part, this grew out of the fact
 
 12 Delightful Dodd 
 
 that Dodd could enjoy himself by himself. He did 
 not seek seclusion or spurn the society of his fel- 
 lows, but he did not need that society for his own 
 enjoyment. He had a mathematical mind, and the 
 farm was full of mathematical problems, if any one 
 took the trouble to look for them. Dodd could sit 
 on the front porch of his house and see whole acres 
 of problems. Nearly everything he saw gave him 
 an idea to elaborate or a problem to solve. He 
 could pick up ideas and problems in the woods, 
 so the woods had many attractions for him ; but the 
 neighbours could not understand this view of things, 
 and it naturally followed that Dodd talked little 
 with them. Yet he was a most entertaining con- 
 versationalist to any one who could appreciate 
 originality and quaint humour, for he always had 
 something new and surprising to suggest. 
 
 Knowing this much of Dodd, no one could have 
 been blamed for surmising that he was estimating 
 the number of cherries on the trees in Cherry Lane, 
 or the cubic feet of sntoke that could be produced 
 by one cigar. But, in this instance, his mind was 
 on neither problem, for one of the minor tragedies 
 of life had been enacted under his roof. Edward 
 Congrove had died early that morning, unexpect- 
 edly in one sense, but not in another. That he 
 might, and probably would, die suddenly had been
 
 A "Peculiar'' Man 13 
 
 known for some time, but he had not been an in- 
 valid in the sense of being confined to his bed, and 
 there was little outward indication that he was 
 fatally afflicted. Consequently, his wife had refused 
 to look upon his death as an immediate probability 
 that would come without further warning. Yet 
 Dodd, being an observing man, and also of an in- 
 vestigating turn of mind, had realized the situation 
 from the beginning, and also what it meant to 
 him. He had a large place, with one large house 
 and several smaller ones on it, and the people who 
 came there for the summer added materially to an 
 income that was none too large. It was not a place 
 for invalids, and he did not want them. The con- 
 ditions made association so intimate that a death 
 would " kill the season," and even a serious illness 
 would result in a general depression that would 
 drive people away. In such a place one cannot 
 escape the influences that are unnoticed elsewhere. 
 Some neighbours of Dodd, not being " peculiar " 
 and open to criticism, would have sent Edward Con- 
 grove away, and other neighbours would have said 
 they had done just right. But Dodd, being " pecul- 
 iar," discussed the matter with his wife, and ended 
 the discussion by saying, " Let him stay." In do- 
 ing this, he did not minimize the possible cost to 
 himself. On the contrary, he gave that thoughtful
 
 14 Delightful Dodd 
 
 consideration, and then looked at it from another 
 point of view. The doctor, Mrs. Congrove informed 
 him, had said that a restful, quiet summer out-of- 
 doors might prolong his life. Mrs. Congrove, with 
 happy optimism, had interpreted this to mean 
 " would prolong his life," but Dodd grasped the 
 significance of the " might." 
 
 " It doesn't seem to me," mused Dodd, " that I 
 can put my money against his chance to live a little 
 longer. I think I'd rather lose than feel that I'd 
 won in that kind of a game." 
 
 Daniel Dodd certainly was " peculiar." He was 
 beholden to this man in no way; he never had 
 heard of him until the application came for rooms; 
 he never had seen him until the man and his wife 
 arrived; he had nothing to gain and considerable 
 to lose; but he said, "Let him stay!" And an- 
 other " peculiar " thing about Daniel Dodd was 
 that he was not thinking of the fact that " the sea- 
 son was killed," as he strolled along Cherry Lane; 
 that he had made this sacrifice to no purpose what- 
 ever ; that he might better have followed the course 
 dictated by business sense, which would have pre- 
 vented a loss he could ill afford and would have 
 done no harm. Instead, he was thinking of Mrs. 
 Congrove, as he had been since four o'clock that 
 morning, when he started to see if he could get a
 
 A "Peculiar" Man 15 
 
 telegram through to Mrs. Congrove's sister by tele- 
 phoning from Old Mission to the operator at Trav- 
 erse City. He was thinking of her helplessness, and 
 wondering what would, or could, be done for her. 
 She had collapsed so completely that she was utterly 
 incapable of acting or thinking for herself, further 
 than to say, " Wait for Jessie." But it would be 
 another day before Jessie could get there, so Daniel 
 Dodd and his wife had had to assume responsi- 
 bility in many ways. It was the future, rather than 
 the present, that occupied Dodd, however. He was 
 such a " peculiar " man that he was giving his 
 whole mind to an attempt to solve this young wid- 
 ow's problems for her, for something of her finan- 
 cial circumstances had become known to him. And 
 he was so " peculiar " that he gave no inkling of 
 this, although he heard some talk of her probable 
 predicament from others. Dodd liked to discuss 
 abstract, impersonal questions, but the personal 
 affairs of others were too sacred for idle gossip. 
 So, when Ralph Leonard came to him in Cherry 
 Lane, he became more absorbed than ever in the 
 smoke and the cherries. 
 
 " It's been a nice day," remarked Leonard, for 
 want of something better to say. 
 
 " Nice for some, bad for others," returned Dodd, 
 sententiously.
 
 1 6 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " I referred to the weather only," Leonard has- 
 tened to explain. 
 
 " So did I," said Dodd. 
 
 "Well, the weather has been good, hasn't it?" 
 persisted Leonard. 
 
 " Depends on your business or your pleasure," 
 replied Dodd. " Good weather for some of us just 
 now would be rainy weather. The crops need it." 
 
 "Well, what do you think about it?" 
 
 Dodd looked thoughtfully at the sky for a mo- 
 ment. 
 
 " I haven't noticed that it makes much difference 
 what kind of weather I prefer," he said at last, 
 " and perhaps it's just as well. If the Lord con- 
 sulted me, there'd be some other fellow kicking." 
 
 Leonard laughed and changed the subject. 
 
 " Would you consider it impertinent or indeli- 
 cate," he said, " if I asked if you knew anything 
 about er Mrs. Congrove's financial condition?" 
 
 " I don't know that it concerns you," retorted 
 Dodd, with a sharpness that was unusual. 
 
 " Now, please don't think so badly of me as that," 
 urged the young man. " There's been some gossip 
 that I've heard, and er it's so horrible to think 
 of a woman having financial worries on her mind 
 at such a time! I thought that, if it were true, I 
 might be able to help in some way through you
 
 A "Peculiar" Man 17 
 
 without her knowing it. I don't know just how, 
 but well, there's the board. There was some talk 
 on the porch of " 
 
 " The only way that some people can mind their 
 own business," interrupted Dodd, " is to pretend 
 that other people's business is theirs. You tell them 
 it's paid, paid in full to date, and clear into the 
 future as long as she wants to stay here." 
 
 The young man, rather crestfallen, was turning 
 away when Dodd called him back. 
 
 " You mean well, but you don't know," said 
 Dodd. " There's only one way for a man to do 
 a clever and delicate thing right, and that's to get 
 a woman to do it for him. A man may have the 
 right impulses, but he wants to turn the job over to 
 his wife. I guess that's the reason marriage was 
 invented. I'm not saying it's the only reason, but 
 it looks to me like one of them." 
 
 Leonard laughed again. Dodd was always giv- 
 ing him surprises, and it was a relief to know that 
 his motive was really understood. 
 
 " It seems to me," the young man remarked, 
 " that in this particular instance you're doing it as 
 well as a woman." 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " Whatever I may be do- 
 ing or planning to do reveals the usual masculine 
 clumsiness, or you never would have found it out."
 
 1 8 Delightful Dodd 
 
 He turned toward the house, as he saw his wife 
 beckoning him from a side door. Mrs. Dodd was 
 very tired and very much distressed. 
 
 " I don't know what we're going to do," she said. 
 " She has been at a window for the last hour, watch- 
 ing for her sister. She seems always to have relied 
 on her sister for consolation and counsel." 
 
 " She can't get here to-night," returned Dodd. 
 " I'll meet the miorning boat at Neahtawanta, but 
 to-night " 
 
 " Listen ! " interrupted Mrs. Dodd. 
 
 Some vehicle was being driven rapidly along the 
 road, too rapidly to seem natural in that locality. 
 It turned in at the drive, and they saw a foam- 
 flecked horse, with a young woman and a driver 
 from Neahtawanta in the buggy behind it. 
 
 " Well, by thunder ! " ejaculated Dodd. " Ain't 
 I old enough yet never to try to say what a woman 
 can't do!" 
 
 Mrs. Dodd hurried back to her charge, who 
 turned from the window to say with a weary sigh 
 and smile : " I told you so. You didn't know Jessie, 
 you see." 
 
 And Jessie, after nine hours of travel, took imme- 
 diate charge in her quiet, masterful way, that in- 
 spired all with a sense of confidence and relief.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE JOY OF PROBLEMS 
 
 "A MOST remarkable man!" com- 
 mented Mrs. Sardley. 
 
 " Think of the time he wastes on fool- 
 ish problems and absurd ideas," said Mr. 
 Sardley, and Leonard had to smile, for 
 a hammock and a cigar claimed nine-tenths of all 
 Sardley's time, which surely was not putting it to 
 profitable use. 
 
 " Have you told him we are going? " asked Mrs. 
 Sardley. 
 
 " Yes," replied Sardley. " He said he under- 
 stood we had engaged the rooms for the summer, 
 but I told him recent happenings made the asso- 
 ciations a little too gloomy for us." 
 
 '9
 
 2O Delightful Dodd 
 
 "Did he object?" 
 
 " No ; but I could see he didn't like it very well." 
 
 " I'm sorry for him," remarked Mrs. Sardley, 
 " but I don't see why we should spoil our summer on 
 his account. Are you going to stay, Miss Winton?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; now that it's all over and they've 
 gone," replied Miss Winton. " If they were coming 
 back, it would be different." 
 
 " From what is known of his affairs in the city," 
 put in Mr. Sardley, " I don't believe he left money 
 enough to enable them to come back, and I don't 
 understand that the sister has anything." 
 
 Before anything could be added to the gossip, 
 Daniel Dodd came around the corner of the house. 
 
 " Dodd," exclaimed Sardley, with patronizing 
 geniality, " we were just talking about you, and I 
 made a wager that, with your penchant for figures, 
 you had already discovered the dimensions of that 
 big maple that's the pride of your place." 
 
 Dodd gave the tree thoughtful and speculative 
 scrutiny, while Sardley winked at the others. The 
 tree was a magnificent specimen, and it was well 
 known that Dodd took great pride in it. 
 
 " It seems to me," said Dodd at last, as if trying 
 desperately to recall something, " it seems to me that 
 some boy that was up here about ten years ago did 
 measure it, but those easy things don't interest me."
 
 The Joy of Problems 21 
 
 "Measured its height?" exclaimed Sardley. 
 
 " Height, diameter, and circumference." 
 
 Sardley smiled with easy confidence. He knew 
 mighty little outside of his own little rut in the city, 
 but the city man seldom appreciates his ignorance. 
 
 "How did he measure its height?" demanded 
 Sardley. 
 
 " Just as any smart boy would," replied Dodd, 
 with solemn innocence. 
 
 " How would any smart boy do it ? " persisted 
 Sardley. " Don't be evasive, Dodd. We've got 
 to have this demonstrated." 
 
 " Oh, if you want to know the height of the 
 tree," said Dodd, " why, measure it." 
 
 "How?" demanded Sardley. 
 
 " Get a long, straight stick," said Dodd. 
 
 Sardley disturbed his comfort long enough to 
 get a stick. 
 
 " Measure the stick," said Dodd. 
 
 " And then," laughed Sardley, as he followed 
 instructions, " I suppose you'll tell me to climb the 
 tree and use the stick as a sort of yardstick. What 
 is the joke, Dodd?" 
 
 " It's coming," replied Dodd. " Now, hold the 
 stick straight up from the ground and measure its 
 shadow."
 
 22 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Done," said Sardley. " When are you coming 
 to the incantation?" 
 
 " Measure the shadow of the tree from base to 
 tip," instructed Dodd. 
 
 " That's a good deal of a job, Dodd," protested 
 Sardley, for Dodd was now sitting comfortably 
 on the edge of the porch, and Sardley was busy 
 in the sun. 
 
 " That's what the boy said," asserted Dodd. 
 Sardley was about to throw down the stick and 
 measure in disgust when Dodd added : " But the 
 boy did it, and he got the height of the tree." 
 
 Sardley looked at Dodd uncertainly. 
 
 " When he knew how much of a stick it took 
 to cast a certain shadow at a certain time of day," 
 Dodd went on, " he found out how much of a tree 
 it would take to cast another certain shadow at the 
 same time of day, just as any smart boy would." 
 
 Leonard and the ladies laughed, and Sardley's 
 face grew red. 
 
 " Why, of course ! " exclaimed Sardley. " I 
 knew that, but somehow I didn't happen to think 
 of it." 
 
 " The things wie know and don't think of when 
 we ought to know them most don't count for much 
 in this world," remarked Dodd, drily. Dodd did 
 not like to be patronized or " guyed," and when he
 
 The Joy of Problems 23 
 
 detected a disposition on the part of any one to do 
 either of these things, he usually managed to acquit 
 himself creditably. " And, on the other hand," he 
 added, " if we could always remember the things 
 that we know when we -ought to remember them, 
 we'd all of us reduce our mistakes by more than 
 half." 
 
 " The height of the tree," announced Sardley, 
 who had been busy with pencil and paper, " is 
 fifty-nine feet." 
 
 " The diameter of the spread of its branches," 
 added Dodd, looking into space reflectively, " is 
 fifty-six feet, which, as any schoolboy knows, gives 
 a circumference of 168 feet." 
 
 " How did you come to figure that out? " asked 
 Sardley. 
 
 " For amusement." 
 
 " Queer kind of amusement ! " 
 
 " Well, perhaps, but I don't know that it's any 
 queerer than playing cards or drinking wine, and 
 it's a blame sight cheaper and healthier." 
 
 " Did you count the leaves for amusement ? " 
 asked Sardley. 
 
 Dodd looked the tree over from top to bottom. 
 
 " No," he said at last, " I didn't count the leaves, 
 but, when they're all there, you could find enough 
 of them to cover ten acres of ground."
 
 24 Delightful Dodd 
 
 "Now you're joking!" exclaimed Sardley. 
 
 " I can show you," returned Dodd, slowly, " how 
 any smart boy can do the problem." 
 
 " No, thank you ! " replied Sardley, hastily. " I 
 don't want any more smart-boy examples. But 
 how did you do it ? " 
 
 " I read up a little on maples, learned how thickly 
 the leaves ordinarily grow, experimented a little 
 on a small scale, verified the minor estimates, got 
 the thing satisfactorily settled for a small tree, re- 
 duced the total leaf area to square yards, and then 
 it was a simple matter to progress to the big tree 
 and acres." 
 
 " Is that amusement ? " asked Sardley, when he 
 had recovered from his astonishment. 
 
 " Oh, it's every man to his taste," answered 
 Dodd. " There are some who like to go over to 
 Elk Rapids on circus day and come home broke and 
 nervous, but figures suit me." 
 
 "Does that tree tell you anything else?" asked 
 Miss Winton. " You seem to be able to get a good 
 deal of information from it." 
 
 Dodd looked at the tree again in his deliberate 
 way, and then turned to Miss Winton. 
 
 " The tree," he said, quizzically, " tells me some- 
 thing that leads me to surmise that it is not a 
 feminine tree."
 
 The Joy of Problems 25 
 
 " Not a feminine tree ! " they all exclaimed. 
 
 " That, you understand," Dodd explained, with 
 a barely perceptible twinkle in his eyes, " is merely 
 a surmise from what it tells me." 
 
 "What does it tell you?" inquired Mrs. Sard- 
 ley. 
 
 " It tells me its age," replied Dodd, and now 
 Sardley had his opportunity to laugh. 
 
 "Anything else?" asked the ladies, anxious to 
 pass on to the next point. 
 
 " Yes," answered Dodd. " It tells me that this 
 ground was clear before the days of the white man." 
 
 "How can it tell you that?" persisted Miss 
 Winton. 
 
 " Because," replied Dodd, " a tree seeks the 
 light. In a forest it shoots straight up to get to the 
 sun, but on open ground it spreads out. This tree 
 is two hundred years old and has a wonderful 
 spread. It was probably one of the boundary 
 marks of an Indian clearing." 
 
 " You must have wasted a lot of time over these 
 things," remarked Sardley. 
 
 "Was it wasted?" asked Dodd, rising; "or 
 was it the time previously spent in the city that 
 was wasted ? " 
 
 " We'd rather you'd answer your own question," 
 said Mrs. Sardley. " Which was it ? "
 
 26 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " That, madam, depends upon the point of view," 
 replied Dodd. Then, turning to Leonard : " Want 
 to drive over after some tools with me ? " 
 
 " Glad to," answered Leonard. " Need some 
 new tools? " 
 
 " No," returned Dodd, " I need some old ones." 
 
 "Borrowing?" laughed Mrs. Sardley. "I've 
 heard you all borrow in the country." 
 
 " No ; some of us merely loan. But the borrower 
 in the country thinks he has done all that is neces- 
 sary if he sends for the thing he wants. We didn't 
 understand that when we first came here, and I 
 loaned a lantern, expecting it to be returned. Hav- 
 ing need of it a few months later, I went after it, 
 and found there wasn't enough left to bring home. 
 In my ignorance of local custom, I undertook to 
 gently chide the man, and he retorted : * Well, if 
 you wanted it, why didn't you come for it ? ' 
 
 " If that's the case, I wonder that you loan any- 
 thing," exclaimed Miss Winton. 
 
 " I've often wondered that myself \" returned 
 Dodd, with the air of one who was truly puzzled. 
 And he sometimes did wonder why he was so ac- 
 commodating. " By the way," he added, as he was 
 moving away in the direction of the barn. " I've 
 had a letter from Miss Marsden, and she wants to
 
 The Joy of Problems 27 
 
 bring her sister back here for the rest of the sum- 
 mer. She says they must get into the country some- 
 where." 
 
 " I should think they would go somewhere else," 
 said Miss Winton. 
 
 " Well," exclaimed Dodd, unconsciously apolo- 
 gizing for the absent ones, " it's rather difficult to 
 find another suitable place, and make the necessary 
 arrangements just now, under the circumstances." 
 
 " It's nothing to us," put in Mrs. Sardley, " for 
 we're going, anyhow, but it will freshen distressing 
 memories for others who were here when when 
 it happened, and people don't like distressing things 
 on summer outings." 
 
 " No, they don't," admitted Dodd. 
 
 " They'll feel as if they ought to be walking on 
 tiptoe and talking in whispers." 
 
 " I suppose so," said Dodd. 
 
 " And they'll leave, to get away from the feel- 
 ing of depression." 
 
 " Some will," Dodd conceded. 
 
 " It's a hard proposition for you," suggested 
 Sardley. "Have you decided what to do?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Well," said Dodd, slowly, " it sort of seemed
 
 28 
 
 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to me that that little woman needs the farm more 
 than all the rest of us put together just now." 
 
 It was said without bitterness, but it left some 
 worldly people puzzled and thoughtful. They 
 couldn't understand Dodd. He was " peculiar."
 
 CH AFTER ' IV. 
 
 A NEW MEASURE OF VAL.UE 
 
 " I'M thinking of starting in to do something 
 when I go back to the city," remarked Leonard, 
 as he and Daniel Dodd drove along on Dodd's 
 errand. 
 
 " Haven't you done anything yet? " asked Dodd. 
 
 " Nothing much, except live on my income." 
 
 " Like a reservation Indian," said Dodd. 
 
 There was something in Dodd's smile that 
 soothed the sting of his occasional sarcasm. While 
 the young man felt that it was a palpable hit, he 
 was not disposed to resent it. 
 
 " When you've got bank stock that's paying you 
 pretty regular dividends, you've no incentive to 
 work," argued Leonard. 
 
 " That depends on the man," returned Dodd. 
 " I worked the hardest when my money was in a 
 bank." 
 
 " Where is it now ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " Still in the bank, I guess." 
 29
 
 30 Delightful Dodd 
 
 "And where's the bank?" 
 
 " You'll have to ask the receiver. He had it 
 the last I knew anything about it, and it was such 
 a good thing he didn't seem to want to let go." 
 
 "Whose bank was it?" 
 
 "Mine, partly." 
 
 " So that's where you get your penchant for 
 figures ? " suggested Leonard, at a loss for any- 
 thing else to say. When a man inadvertently 
 touches upon a failure in another man's career, he 
 instinctively feels that he is on dangerous ground. 
 
 "Well," replied Dodd, thoughtfully, "after a 
 good many years spent in the management of a 
 country bank, I naturally had to look for mathe- 
 matical problems of some kind. I tell you, a coun- 
 try bank is the place to study finance right close 
 to the people." 
 
 "And you studied it?" 
 
 " I had to, and I think I learned it, too, all 
 but one thing." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 " Why, I neglected to draw out my investment 
 when I drew out myself." 
 
 Leonard did not wish to seem impertinently in- 
 quisitive, but he was interested, and he finally re- 
 marked that the bank, apparently, did not fail under 
 Dodd's management.
 
 A New Measure of Value 31 
 
 "No," replied Dodd, slowly. "I bought this 
 place with an idea of an old age of ease and com- 
 fort right next to nature, and a few years later 
 I had to take off my coat and hustle to make it pay. 
 It's a big place, and I had great plans for it, but 
 I no longer had the money to carry out the plans. 
 You've got to put money into a farm in order to 
 take it out, especially a fru.it farm. The average 
 farmer doesn't seem to know this, but he's begin- 
 ning to learn it. You've got to be generous to your 
 farm or it won't be generous to you, and it takes 
 money and men to be generous to a farm. Do 
 you know who is considered the richest man in this 
 vicinity? " 
 
 "No. Who?" 
 
 " Old Hank Dickman." 
 
 "What's he worth?" 
 
 " Five able-bodied sons." 
 
 Leonard gave Dodd a quick look, but the latter 
 never smiled. 
 
 " That's a new way of figuring wealth," Leon- 
 ard suggested at last. 
 
 " It's what counts up here," returned Dodd. 
 " There are a thousand bushels of cherries being 
 picked in this district to-day, and there ought to 
 be five thousand. The difference represents waste. 
 People are crying for work in the city, and people
 
 32 Delightful Dodd 
 
 are crying for men, women, or children to do the 
 work up here. That's why fruit is often high, even 
 when the crop is large." 
 
 " I suppose you even up on the increased price, 
 then." 
 
 Dodd looked thoughtfully out over the country. 
 
 " The only man who has a certainty," he replied, 
 " is the man who sells his fruit as it stands, the 
 buyer to do the picking and packing. He gets a 
 lump sum and takes no risk, but only the best can 
 be sold that way. Take apples, for instance. Hank 
 Dickman is so rich in boys that his orchards are 
 always in the very best of condition. They are 
 ploughed up regularly, and every possible care given 
 to the trees, and he'll sell to a fruit-buyer from the 
 city for $3,000 or $4,000 spot cash. The buyer 
 will send his own men up here to pick, pack, and 
 ship the apples. Dickman might make a little more 
 by shipping himself, but he would run a risk, for 
 a bad storm might do serious harm, and, even with 
 his five boys, he might not be able to handle the 
 crop. The buyer can do the work more economic- 
 ally and with greater certainty, for he will buy 
 the product of many orchards. No one could afford 
 to bring pickers and packers from the city for his 
 own crop, even if he could get them."
 
 A New Measure of Value 33 
 
 " And what do the rest of you do, those who 
 are unable to sell on this plan?" asked Leonard. 
 
 " Oh, we do the best we can," answered Dodd. 
 " We capture such men as happen to stray into 
 this region ; we brutally insist upon putting them to 
 work at good wages ; we pick and pack the apples, 
 and ship them to our favourite commission men, 
 and then, in the course of time, we learn how much 
 we owe, because the apples have steamed or been 
 bruised. Shipping fruit to market at your own 
 risk is one of the most exciting forms of gambling 
 known to mankind. But you generally lose, because 
 the player at the other end of the line has the last 
 say, and you can't prove he's a liar without going 
 to the city with your shipment." 
 
 Dodd's tone and manner of whimsical resigna- 
 tion, as he gave this description of conditions, 
 amused Leonard immensely, but he could see that 
 there was a real hardship in it all. Later, when 
 he learned more of Dodd's story, he was forced 
 to admire the courage with which the old man faced 
 the unexpected reverses just when he believed he 
 had established himself comfortably for life. Hav- 
 ing retired from active business, he had interested 
 himself in planning to beautify and improve this 
 fine old place, and then he had to devote himself 
 to the problem of making it furnish an immediate
 
 34 Delightful Dodd 
 
 living for himself and his wife. He could not be 
 generous to his farm unless his farm was first gen- 
 erous to him. He had to take off his coat and go 
 to work in the fields. Knowing what was necessary 
 to make the place pay handsomely, he found himself 
 so involved that he had to abandon all hope of 
 ever being able to accomplish it. But Daniel Dodd 
 was as kindly and as cheerful in adversity as he 
 ever had been in prosperity. He might be " pecul- 
 iar," but he had the wisdom of practical business 
 experience, and his assistance and advice was cheer- 
 fully given to any of his neighbours who might 
 seek it. There were many who came to him with 
 their financial problems, or, indeed, problems or 
 questions of any description. 
 
 Then, to help out, the Dodds began to take sum- 
 mer boarders. The buildings on their place had 
 been put up by a man of wealth, who had planned 
 to spend his summers there, so they were con- 
 structed on a much larger and better scale than other 
 structures in the vicinity. All in all, it was an ideal 
 place for a quiet summer, and became deservedly 
 popular with the few who knew of it. But to know 
 the place was not to knowi Dodd. To most of the 
 boarders, he was a mystery. He dressed like a 
 farmer, and he looked like one; he made no pre- 
 tensions to being anything else; he seldom spoke
 
 A New Measure of Value 35 
 
 of his experience as a business man; but he had 
 an extraordinary amount of information stored 
 away in his mind, and he knew where to find almost 
 anything desired. 
 
 " Dodd," said a boarder, on one occasion, " have 
 they any kind of a reference library at Traverse 
 City?" 
 
 "What do you want to find out?" asked Dodd. 
 
 " Why, we've been having a little argument about 
 State repudiation of debts in this country, and we 
 want to find out just what States were guilty of it." 
 
 Dodd was hoeing in the garden at the time. He 
 dropped his hoe, and started for a little house that 
 lay back of the main building. Presently he re- 
 turned with a book. 
 
 " I could have told you most of them from mem- 
 ory," he said, " but it's just as well to be certain 
 about these things. Here's the list." And he read 
 it aloud while the other jotted down the names. 
 " My reference library is back there," he explained. 
 " I intended to have my office and den there, but " 
 with one of his whimsical smiles "I decided 
 later to have it out in the fields under my hat." 
 
 On another occasion a boarder, looking for some- 
 thing to read on a rainy day, asked Dodd if he 
 happened to have anything a little better than the
 
 36 Delightful Dodd 
 
 light summer fiction with which most of the visitors 
 were supplied. 
 
 "How would Macaulay do?" asked Dodd. 
 
 "Got something of Macaulay's?" inquired the 
 boarder, in surprise. 
 
 " I've got his complete works," replied Dodd. 
 
 " Got it at a bargain, I suppose," laughed the 
 boarder. " They're popularizing nearly everything 
 now." 
 
 " Yes, it was a bargain," returned Dodd. " For 
 a fellow situated as I have been, Macaulay at any 
 price would be a bargain." 
 
 " Much of a library ? " asked the boarder. 
 
 " No; not much of a one," replied Dodd. " Only 
 about a thousand volumes, in one place and another, 
 but I selected it with considerable care." 
 
 These little details, throwing a light on Dodd's 
 character and predilections, came to the knowledge 
 of Leonard gradually, and, at the time of their drive, 
 the latter realized only that the former was a most 
 interesting and entertaining man. He was thinking 
 of the surprises that the old man constantly gave 
 him, when Dodd suddenly checked his horses. 
 
 " Are you armed ? " asked Dodd, anxiously. 
 
 "What's the matter?" inquired Leonard. 
 
 For answer, Dodd pointed to a man walking 
 toward them.
 
 A New Measure of Value 37 
 
 " He doesn't look dangerous," said Leonard. 
 
 " Dangerous ! " exclaimed Dodd. " Of course he 
 isn't dangerous, and neither are we. That's the 
 trouble. I want that man. He looks as if he could 
 work. Well," resignedly, " if we can't kidnap him, 
 we'll have to do the best we can in some other way." 
 
 Then he hailed the man. 
 
 "Want a lift?" he asked. 
 
 " You ain't going my way," the man replied. 
 
 " But I will be going your way when I come 
 back," said Dodd. " And you're going my way 
 now." 
 
 The man looked puzzled. 
 
 " I ain't much stuck on walkin' when I can ride," 
 he admitted. " I'm goin' to Bentley's." 
 
 " Why don't you go to Dodd's? " asked the genial 
 Daniel, with the air of a disinterested party who 
 hated to see even a stranger make a mistake. " It's 
 nearer, you know." 
 
 "Who's Dodd?" asked the man. 
 
 " Oh, Dodd's a queer old fellow who'll hitch up 
 and drive ten miles any day rather than have a 
 man who's coming to work for him get all tired 
 out on the way. Dodd's a little peculiar, and he 
 likes to have men reach his place good and fresh. 
 You'll be all rested up when I drop you at Dodd's 
 on the way back."
 
 38 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " How much does Dodd pay ? " 
 
 " Why, he pays just a leetle bit more than Bent- 
 ley does, and he keeps his good men right through 
 the cherry season and the apple season and all the 
 rest of it." 
 
 " Blamed if I don't think Bentley might have sent 
 for me," said the man, undecided. 
 
 " Dodd would," asserted the crafty Daniel, sol- 
 emnly, " and he'll send you back when you want 
 to leave. Dodd's men don't have to walk." 
 
 " Does Dodd pay you for getting men for him ? " 
 asked the man, suspiciously. 
 
 " No. I do it for love of Dodd." 
 
 The man vaulted lightly over the wheel and into 
 the back of the wagon. 
 
 " I'll take a chance with Dodd," he announced. 
 
 " All right," said Dodd, cheerfully. " I'm Dodd." 
 
 For a moment the man seemed to be in doubt. 
 Then he laughed long and loud. 
 
 " You suit me," he said. " I ain't up here for 
 my health, an' I'll work for Dodd." 
 
 Dodd turned and looked at him thoughtfully for 
 a moment. 
 
 " I suppose," he said, " you wouldn't let me tie 
 you up." 
 
 " Why should I ? " demanded the man. 
 
 " Oh, I don't insist," Dodd hastened to explain.
 
 39 
 
 " But I wish you'd lie down in the wagon-box 
 where people can't see you. When I get a prize 
 package, I don't like to have it stolen before I get 
 home." 
 
 The man studied Dodd's face, and finally caught 
 the fleeting smile. Thereupon he passed judgment 
 with the words, " You're all right." 
 
 " But I'm sorry about Bentley," said Dodd ; 
 " that is, I am commercially sorry." 
 
 " What's being commercially sorry ? " inquired 
 Leonard. 
 
 " Why, when you're commercially sorry for a 
 man, you're just sorry enough so's not to let it 
 interfere with business. You say, * Too bad about 
 poor old Jones ! ' and then you reach out for any- 
 thing he happens to have that you want, and tell 
 your lawyer to jump in ahead of the other creditors. 
 I'm commercially sorry for Bentley, but the last 
 time he had the chance to be commercially sorry 
 for me, and you bet he was! Still, I don't think 
 I'll go past Bentley's house on the way back." 
 
 " You said it was beyond Dodd's," interrupted 
 the man. 
 
 " That," said Dodd, " is a relic of my old literary 
 habits. It's what we call commercial fiction."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LEONARD AND THE BEE 
 
 THE new man was slightly below medium height 
 and stockily built. He looked like a good, able- 
 bodied man, and the unobserving would have given 
 him no second thought, but Leonard had noted the 
 lightness and ease with which he vaulted over the 
 side of the wagon. Leonard's college life was not 
 so far behind him that he had forgotten how to dis- 
 tinguish an athlete, and to him every movement of 
 this man conveyed an impression of power. There 
 were indications of strength, but there was also 
 more than strength. The strong man is not neces- 
 sarily active. 
 
 Dodd broke in on Leonard's meditations with a 
 question. 
 
 " Now that I've got you," he said to the man, 
 " I'd like to know what to call you." 
 
 "Call me 'Ben/" was the reply. 
 
 "Ben what?" 
 
 " I don't need more'n one name." 
 40
 
 Leonard and the Bee 41 
 
 " Like a horse," suggested Dodd, and Ben looked 
 troubled until he caught the twinkle of an eye. 
 " Of course," Dodd went on, " one name is enough 
 for all ordinary affairs, but it wears out quick that 
 way, and it gets monotonous. Now, I'm Dodd and 
 Mr. Dodd and Daniel Dodd and Dan and Dan'l. 
 That gives enough variety to keep me from get- 
 ting sick of myself. If I was Dodd all the time, 
 or Dan all the time, I'd feel like a riddle with one 
 string, and pretty soon I'd go crazy for want of 
 something in a little different key. Besides, a fel- 
 low has got to have a last name for formal occa- 
 sions. You couldn't get a marriage license for just 
 Ben." 
 
 Ben was busy trying to fill a pipe, as the wagon 
 jolted along, but this suggestion so startled him 
 that he spilled his tobacco. 
 
 " I don't want a marriage license ! " he exclaimed, 
 worried. 
 
 " I presume not," said Dodd. 
 
 " I don't want a wife," persisted Ben. 
 
 " No? " returned Dodd. " Well, a man's wishes 
 in that respect are of trifling importance if some 
 smart woman happens to decide that he will make 
 a good husband." 
 
 " She'd have to be pretty smart to get me," said 
 Ben.
 
 42 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Comparatively smart," said Dodd. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " Why, a woman is comparatively smart when 
 she's smarter than a man, but she isn't considered 
 real smart unless she's smarter than another 
 woman." Then after a pause : " All women are 
 comparatively smart." 
 
 After Ben had considered this for a few minutes 
 and decided that it was too deep for him, he sur- 
 rendered and announced that his last name was 
 Ackerman. 
 
 " Thank you," said Dodd. " If I didn't know 
 your full name, I couldn't put it on a check or a 
 deed to the farm when you get ready to leave. 
 Sometimes I think it would be easier to put it on 
 a deed, but the help don't seem to want the bother 
 of looking after the farm." 
 
 " You may have labour troubles of one kind," 
 laughed Leonard, " but you escape the domestic 
 problem of the city." 
 
 "Do we?" returned Dodd. "Well, looking at 
 it in one way, perhaps we do. Up here we don't 
 have any domestics. Sometimes, by using a little 
 diplomacy, we get a girl to help us out, just as an 
 accommodation, but she isn't a domestic; she's a 
 friend of the family. We have to be mighty careful 
 how we treat her. She's one of us, and she makes
 
 Leonard and the Bee 43 
 
 us understand that she doesn't have to work, and 
 is only doing it as a favour to us, and we're ex- 
 pected to be properly grateful. But I notice she 
 takes the money just the same. Now, down in the 
 city, you're establishing domestic science schools, 
 but, as near as I can make out, the daughters of the 
 wealthy are the ones who are going to them, and 
 I've been wondering just how that's going to work 
 out. The girls who ought to know how to cook 
 are too proud to learn, and the girls who have 
 money enough to employ cooks are anxious to get 
 the instruction. It worried me a little, but I think 
 I see a solution of the problem now." 
 
 "What is it?" asked Leonard. "If you can 
 solve that problem your fortune is made." 
 
 " It's easy," explained Dodd. " The girls who 
 have to earn their own living won't learn to cook, 
 but they'd make almost any sacrifice for a chance 
 to equip themselves for the ballroom and the par- 
 lour. Therefore, instead of arranging to give cook- 
 ing diplomas, there should be a system of instruc- 
 tion in etiquette for the girls who seek domestic 
 employment. Then, when Mrs. and Miss Croesus 
 desired to give a fine luncheon, they would go into 
 the kitchen themselves, and send Bridget and Han- 
 nah into the parlour to entertain the guests." 
 
 Even Ben Ackerman saw the point of this, and,
 
 44 Delightful Dodd 
 
 by the time he was through laughing at the ab- 
 surdity of the idea, Dodd had turned into a lane 
 and stopped before a barn. Ben sprang to the 
 ground instantly, but Dodd passed the reins to 
 Leonard and left him on the seat of the wagon. 
 
 " If you'll excuse me a moment," said Dodd, 
 " I'll go in and thank this fellow for the privilege 
 of being allowed to loan him my tools and then 
 take this long ride on a busy day to get them again." 
 
 Just at that moment a man, with his head en- 
 veloped in mosquito-netting, appeared at the door 
 of the barn, and with him came a few aggressive 
 bees. 
 
 " Better drive those horses along," called the man. 
 " I'm extracting the honey, and the bees don't feel 
 good about it." 
 
 " Drive down the road a bit," said Dodd to 
 Leonard, but just at that moment a bee made a 
 dart for Leonard's head, and the young man 
 dropped the reins to wave his arms frantically. 
 
 "Don't do that!" cried Dodd. 
 
 " Keep still ! keep still ! " yelled the man at the 
 barn door. 
 
 " That only excites the bee ! " added Dodd. 
 
 " Well, the bee excites me ! " retorted Leonard. 
 He had his hat off now and was waving that. The 
 bee would circle just out of reach and then dart
 
 Leonard and the Bee 45 
 
 in suddenly, and Leonard would endeavour to hit 
 it with his hat. Neither scored. 
 
 " I'll bet on the bee! " exclaimed Dodd. 
 
 " Look out for the horses ! " cautioned the man 
 at the barn. " That ain't the only bee on the place." 
 
 " Drive on ! " cried Dodd. 
 
 "What with my feet?" asked Leonard, still 
 deeply absorbed in his duel with the bee. 
 
 " That fellow's going to get you, if he can," as- 
 serted the man at the barn, with the critical air of 
 an authority who had made a careful study of the 
 case. 
 
 " Do you think I don't know that ? " retorted 
 Leonard. 
 
 " You've got him mad ! " said Dodd, in a re- 
 proachful tone. 
 
 " He's got me mad ! " shouted Leonard. 
 
 Ben Ackerman had backed away at the opening 
 of hostilities. As he afterward explained, he was 
 no coward, but bees were not in his line, and he 
 expected more to follow. But, however the other 
 bees may have felt about being disturbed, this 
 seemed to be the only one that had outlined a def- 
 inite course of action. Ackerman, finding that there 
 was to be no general engagement that would call 
 for action on his part, thereupon surrendered to the 
 excitement of watching this contest.
 
 46 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Hit him ! hit him ! " he yelled, jumping up and 
 down. " Now you've got him ! Look out ! he's 
 going to land on the point of your jaw ! He's be- 
 hind you ! Guard your left ear ! You hit him ! you 
 hit him ! No, you didn't ! Aw, cut and run for it ! 
 He's too much of a featherweight for you ! " 
 
 With one final sweep of his hat to drive the bee 
 back, Leonard sprang from the wagon. 
 
 " Run for the house ! " cried the man at the barn. 
 " Mary, open the door ! " 
 
 The shouts and cries had already brought Mary 
 to the scene, and she hastily threw open the screen- 
 door to the kitchen. But Leonard and the bee ar- 
 rived there at the same time, and Leonard couldn't 
 see how he was to gain anything by taking the bee 
 into the house, so he veered suddenly and went 
 down the lane to the main road. Ben Ackerman 
 followed, yelling: "Hit him! hit him!" And 
 then, gaining in aggressiveness, " Let me get a 
 chance at him ! " 
 
 " Come and get it ! " cried Leonard, as, with 
 waving hat and arms, he struck the main road and 
 disappeared in a gully. Dodd and the man at the 
 barn stood looking after them, as they came out 
 of the gully and continued down the road, still fol- 
 lowed by Ackerman. 
 
 " He's got lots of speed," remarked the man.
 
 Leonard and the Bee 47 
 
 " So has the bee," returned Dodd. 
 
 Then they saw Leonard and Ackerman coming 
 back at a slow walk, fanning themselves with their 
 hats. 
 
 " If I was a betting man," said Dodd, drily, " I'd 
 bet that they've lost the bee." 
 
 And so it proved. 
 
 " I struck some brush," explained Leonard, " and 
 the next thing I knew the bee was gone." 
 
 " You ought to have taken to the bushes the first 
 thing," said Dodd. " I could have told you that 
 a bee can only follow in the open." 
 
 "Why didn't you?" demanded Leonard. 
 
 " Well," replied Dodd, " the spirit in which you 
 took the few suggestions I made didn't encourage 
 me to make any more. I couldn't see any indica- 
 tions of gratitude for my well-meant efforts." 
 
 " Wait till I get a chance to throw some pieces 
 of advice at you," laughed Leonard. 
 
 " Even if the bee had got you," put in the man 
 at the barn, " you would have got revenge. A bee 
 kills itself when it stings, for the sting tears away 
 a part of the bee itself when the barb catches. To 
 sting you meant death to the bee." 
 
 " That's why he ran," chuckled Dodd. " He did 
 it all for the bee. He wasn't thinking of himself, 
 but he's so tender-hearted he couldn't bear to kill
 
 48 Delightful Dodd 
 
 the bee. Why, he wouldn't sleep to-night if he 
 thought he'd killed a bee." 
 
 Leonard thought of the sting, and promptly 
 agreed with the latter part of this statement.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RETURNING AND 
 DEPARTING GUESTS 
 
 WITH the re- 
 turn of Jessie 
 Marsden and her 
 sister, Mrs. Con- 
 
 grove> there was 
 
 an exodus of some 
 of the other board- 
 ers, but Dodd was imperturbable, although it meant 
 a great deal to him. Some had engaged accommo- 
 dations for a definite period, but he let them go 
 without a word. 
 
 " I never tried to hold any one here against his 
 will yet," he said, " and I never shall, that is, 
 except Ben Ackerman, and up here we look on help 
 in the fruit season as property rather than people. 
 It's all right to hang on to your property." 
 
 Thus, even when things seemed to be going 
 wrong, he was the same Daniel Dodd, with the 
 same quaint humour. And to the people who were 
 going he was a greater enigma than ever. A death 
 
 49
 
 50 Delightful Dodd 
 
 at the beginning of the season, they held, was 
 enough to cast a gloom over the whole place for 
 the whole summer, and the presence of the widow, 
 no matter how much she secluded herself, would 
 be a constant reminder of that which they would 
 wish to forget. Nevertheless, while they were able 
 to justify their course to themselves, some of them 
 expected an objection from Dodd. But he was 
 as cheerfully accommodating in the matter of their 
 departure as he had been on the occasion of their 
 arrival. 
 
 " It's costing you quite a bit," Leonard ventured 
 to suggest. 
 
 " Yes," he replied, slowly, " but it's worth the 
 price." 
 
 "What's worth the price?" 
 
 " This demonstration of the fact that I am run- 
 ning my own place in my own way," replied Dodd. 
 
 However, Jessie Marsden noted the fact that of 
 the twelve or fourteen people who had come there 
 for the summer, all but four or five left. Such 
 movements are contagious. Let two or three decide 
 to go, discussing and explaining their reasons on 
 every possible occasion, and presently others will 
 become restless. In this case, if Dodd could have 
 got the first three out of the house in the night, 
 the moment their decision was made, he might easily
 
 Returning and Departing Guests 51 
 
 have kept the others, but this, of course, was im- 
 possible. And Jessie Marsden was quick to under- 
 stand the cause of the exodus. 
 
 It had not occurred to her that it would make 
 the slightest difference to the other guests whether 
 she and her sister were there or not. Mrs. Con- 
 grove needed quiet and rest, and the money imme- 
 diately available was very little. There might be 
 more later or there might not, according to the 
 lawyer who was trying to straighten out a serious 
 tangle in her late husband's affairs. Miss Marsden 
 had only a trifling personal income, and conse- 
 quently was not able to do much for her sister's 
 financial relief, and she knew of but one place that 
 was suited to their needs and their resources. Un- 
 questionably, there were others, but of this one only 
 was she sure. In fact, the situation was precisely 
 as Dodd had surmised when they sent word that 
 they wished to come back. And Miss Marsden 
 could see no reason why their presence should 
 trouble or annoy any one else. They had no wish 
 to be a check on the other boarders; they spent 
 as much time in the open air as Mrs. Congrove's 
 strength would permit; they kept to their own 
 room in the evenings, and they met the others, as 
 a general thing, only in the dining-room. Yet Miss 
 Marsden soon realized that their return had done
 
 52 Delightful Dodd 
 
 a real injury to Daniel Dodd, and she was corre- 
 spondingly unhappy about it. 
 
 " Mr. Dodd," she said to him frankly one day, 
 " I fear we have inadvertently done you a great deal 
 of harm by returning." 
 
 " Entirely wrong," replied Dodd, unhesitatingly. 
 " I was worrying a little about Mrs. Dodd, and 
 I'm glad to have her relieved of some of the work. 
 We expected to have more help when we made our 
 plans for the summer." 
 
 Jessie Marsden knew that Daniel Dodd lied de- 
 liberately, but she also knew that she could do noth- 
 ing more unkind than to let him know that she saw 
 through his little fiction. 
 
 " For myself," added Dodd, " I always feel bet- 
 ter satisfied when a party gets down to the few 
 that we really like." 
 
 Miss Marsden, knowing nothing of Dodd, was 
 bewildered. She had not expected to find a courtier 
 in this old man, who dressed and looked much like 
 any other farm-hand. He seemed suddenly to grow 
 and change; she looked through the farmer and 
 saw the man, with his quiet, unassuming consid- 
 eration for herself and her sister, and his generous 
 way of stating the case. But that only made it 
 seem the more imperative that they should relieve 
 him of any embarrassment
 
 Returning and Departing Guests 53 
 
 " My sister and I," she said, with the same cheer- 
 fulness that he had lied to her a moment before, 
 " have been thinking of leaving. She she is not 
 going to be happy here." 
 
 "Would she be happy anywhere just now?" 
 asked Dodd, quietly. 
 
 " No, no, of course not," Miss Marsden answered, 
 disconcerted. " I didn't mean that, but " 
 
 The resourceful young woman, upon whom oth- 
 ers always had relied, was plainly perturbed by the 
 earnest look of those kindly eyes. Wishing only 
 to be as considerate of him as he had been of them, 
 she felt as if she had been caught in some discred- 
 itable trick, and she blushed. She knew that she, 
 always so ready, had bungled this time. 
 
 " Mrs. Dodd and I," said Dodd, removing his 
 hat and bowing gravely, an action that savoured 
 of old-time courtesy, " will be much hurt if you 
 leave us. We shall feel that we have failed some- 
 how in our duty as hosts." Then he added, inci- 
 dentally : " No one is coming back, anyway." 
 
 That was the deciding argument. Even if they 
 could leave in the face of his expressed wish that 
 they remain, their departure now would help mat- 
 ters in no way, for the harm had been done. 
 
 Miss Marsden went back to her sister, feeling 
 that she had unexpectedly discovered a splendid
 
 54 Delightful Dodd 
 
 specimen of the true gentleman. She said nothing 
 of her conversation, for she had acted on her own 
 responsibility and did not wish to worry Mrs. Con- 
 grove. The latter was weak, listless, and depressed. 
 She was lying in a hammock, where she spent most 
 of her time when not in her room, but the course 
 she had followed did not suit the energetic Jessie. 
 
 " The way to gain strength is to do something," 
 the latter held. " The way to gain happiness is 
 to do something. Idleness never yet drove grief or 
 sorrow from any heart." 
 
 So Jessie, acting on this idea without putting 
 it into spoken words, gently insisted upon occasional 
 short strolls that would not overtax her sister's 
 strength. She insisted upon one now, and presently 
 they found themselves in front of a small building 
 where cherries were being sorted and packed. 
 
 " I should think that would be fun ! " exclaimed 
 Jessie. 
 
 " Let's rest here a moment, anyway," said Mrs. 
 Congrove, seating herself on a box by the door. 
 " I like to watch them." 
 
 Jessie stood beside her and watched, also, and a 
 short distance back of her, unobserved, stood Leon- 
 ard. But Leonard was watching the young woman 
 and not the workers. He noted the restless move- 
 ment of her fingers and the deep interest she took
 
 Returning and Departing Guests 55 
 
 in all that was going on. He saw her look at Mrs. 
 Dodd, who was superintending operations, with an 
 appeal in her bright eyes. 
 
 " By thunder ! " he ejaculated to himself. " She 
 wants to go to work." 
 
 Leonard, idly smoking, could not understand any 
 one wishing to work for the mere sake of working. 
 He would work to gain some desired end, but 
 leisure was much more in his line. He was not 
 afraid of work, but he saw no pleasure in it, and 
 it never had been necessary. Consequently, he 
 merely had a profession to which he gave no atten- 
 tion and from which he derived no income. He 
 did not even have to worry over investments, for 
 all he had was in the stock of a single concern with 
 which his father had been connected previous to 
 his death, and the dividends were regular and rea- 
 sonably good. Yet, unable to understand, Leonard 
 nevertheless had judged Jessie Marsden rightly: 
 she wanted to be one of the workers, and, even as 
 he watched, she spoke to Mrs. Dodd, and the latter 
 laughed and procured a big apron. A moment 
 later the young woman was as busy as the rest. 
 
 " Now what do you think of that ! " Leonard 
 remarked to himself. 
 
 Then he noted that Mrs. Congrove was betraying 
 more than customary interest in the proceedings.
 
 56 Delightful Dodd 
 
 She was absorbed in the progress her sister was 
 making, compared with the experts. Her eyes 
 brightened a little and she looked at her own hands 
 speculatively. 
 
 " Mrs. Dodd," she called at last, " do you think 
 I could do a little just a little?" 
 
 Jessie smiled happily at this evidence of awakened 
 interest, trifling as it was, and Mrs. Dodd hastened 
 to arrange matters for the new worker. Jessie 
 felt that real progress had been made; she did not 
 believe in brooding. 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. Leonard, the 
 idler, suddenly discovered that he wanted to help. 
 He could not understand it, but he certainly wanted 
 a place with the others, and it would be especially 
 pleasing if that place happened to be next to Jessie 
 Marsden. He battled with this extraordinary im- 
 pulse for a few moments ; he tried to convince him- 
 self that he was mistaken as to his inclination and 
 would get himself into an unpleasant predicament. 
 It was of no use. He watched the quick Jessie and 
 her slower sister; he heard them laugh over their 
 blunders and awkwardness while accustoming them- 
 selves to the work; he could see that they found 
 real pleasure in this very commonplace occupation, 
 and he was irresistibly impelled to try it himself. 
 
 "Don't you think I could be of some use?" he
 
 Returning and Departing Guests 57 
 
 asked, throwing away his cigar and advancing to 
 the shed. 
 
 " Oh, you don't want to bother with this sort of 
 thing," returned Mrs. Dodd. 
 
 "But I do," he insisted. "Can't I help you, 
 Miss Marsden? " 
 
 " Oh, I'm strong enough to handle cherries 
 alone," she answered, provokingly. 
 
 " This isn't the kind of work to interest a man," 
 added Mrs. Dodd. " You'd get tired of it very ' 
 soon." 
 
 " And want to smoke," suggested Miss Marsden, 
 maliciously. " Now, if you could sort cherries in 
 a hammock or a reclining-chair without letting 
 it interfere with the enjoyment of your cigar " 
 
 They all laughed, for Leonard's laziness had be- 
 come a sort of standing joke. Leonard laughed, 
 too, but he did not press the point, and presently 
 strolled away. 
 
 " That's what reputation does for a fellow," he 
 mused. " When I want to do something, I can't, 
 because I never have done anything. But think 
 of wanting to sort cherries for fun and being dis- 
 appointed because I can't. There must be some- 
 thing wrong with me. Perhaps industry is con- 
 tagious ! "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AT TERRACE COTTAGE 
 
 "HAVE you been down to Terrace Cottage?" 
 asked Leonard, when he found Miss Marsden and 
 her sister under the big maple later in the day. 
 
 " We haven't tried to go anywhere yet," replied 
 Miss Marsden, busy, as always, with some fancy 
 work. 
 
 " But you must see Terrace Cottage," urged 
 Leonard. " It's one of the features of the place." 
 
 " Is it so wonderful ? " inquired Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " The cottage itself is not so wonderful," replied 
 Leonard, " but it's the only existing feature of 
 Dodd's most wonderful summer-resort plans. You 
 must get him to tell you about those plans some 
 day." 
 
 " Why doesn't he carry them out ? " asked Miss 
 Marsden. 
 
 " Why don't I go to Europe on my steam- 
 yacht?" retorted Leonard, laughing. 
 
 "Well, why don't you?" 
 58
 
 At Terrace Cottage 59 
 
 " Because I can't pay for the yacht." Then he 
 added : " Dodd certainly has original ideas and 
 wonderful plans. If he had a few hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars, I can see only one reason why 
 he could not make this a famous resort." 
 
 " What's the one reason ? " asked Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " He has so many and such elaborate plans that 
 he wouldn't know where to begin. Terrace Cot- 
 tage is a mere incident in them." 
 
 " I'm becoming interested," said Mrs. Congrove. 
 " Do you suppose it would tire me too much to 
 walk to this cottage?" 
 
 " I shall be glad to assist you," said Leonard. 
 
 " We can stop for a rest if you get tired," sug- 
 gested Miss Marsden. 
 
 " I'll try it," Mrs. Congrove decided. 
 
 The peninsula that runs out into Grand Traverse 
 Bay rises in great terraces from the water, and these 
 terraces continue below the surface of the water. 
 In some places there is a sheer drop only a few 
 feet from the shore, and in others one may wade 
 a considerable distance out before reaching the edge 
 of the submerged terrace. But it is there, and pre- 
 sumably there are others beyond. In brief, the 
 peninsula is a huge flight of steps rising out of 
 Grand Traverse Bay, a sort of elongated pyra- 
 mid with a very uneven top, and where the Dodd
 
 60 Delightful Dodd 
 
 farm stood there were three terraces, designated 
 upper, middle, and lower, before the bay was 
 reached. A steep and tortuous road led down to 
 the water, with roads branching out at right angles 
 on each terrace. 
 
 Reaching the middle terrace in leisurely fashion, 
 the three rested a few minutes, and then sauntered 
 northward along the winding road on this terrace. 
 The big, straight trees came right to the edge of 
 the road, the tortuous nature of which made it 
 impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. Thus 
 they came upon the cottage suddenly, so deeply hid- 
 den was it. Yet, when they reached it, it seemed 
 extraordinary that it could be so concealed. It 
 was not a small cottage, by any means, having two 
 stories and an attic and a total of nine rooms, while 
 behind it stood a barn and wagon-shed. Neverthe- 
 less, these buildings were so placed that there was 
 no hint of their presence until one was almost upon 
 them, although, being on the edge of the middle 
 terrace, there was a good water view over the tops 
 of the trees on the terrace below. 
 
 Miss Marsden and Mrs. Congrove gave exclama- 
 tions of astonishment when the cottage dawned on 
 their view. 
 
 " I thought we were still in the deep woods ! " 
 cried Miss Marsden.
 
 At Terrace Cottage 6 1 
 
 " You are," replied Leonard. " There is noth- 
 ing for more than a mile ahead, and nothing nearer 
 than the Dodd farmhouse behind. If you want soli- 
 tude within reach of the comforts of civilization, 
 here is the place to get it. If I can get a congenial 
 party to come with me, which I can't, I'll take this 
 house next year." 
 
 " Why can't you? " asked Miss Marsden, as she 
 and her sister sat down on the steps to rest. 
 
 " Oh, my friends are the friends of the city," 
 replied Leonard, regretfully. " They want excite- 
 ment and lively times. Saratoga is the place for 
 them." 
 
 "Or Newport?" suggested Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " Oh, no. Newport is too exclusive. You have 
 to have your own cottage there, or else derive some 
 satisfaction from merely being where society is. 
 We're not tuft-hunters ; we don't care any more for 
 the Vanderbilts and the Goelets and the Bradley- 
 Martins than they do for us; but we are as weak 
 as they in being insufficient for ourselves. We must 
 pay others for our entertainment; we're poor in 
 resources; we have not learned the joys of quiet 
 and solitude ; so, if we are not rich enough to bring 
 excitement to us, we must go where excitement 
 is." 
 
 " I fear you malign yourself unjustifiably," said
 
 62 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Miss Marsden, " for you have come here where 
 there is nothing going on." 
 
 " Because I'm venturesome," explained Leonard. 
 " I'm trying to break the ennui of excitement. The 
 others feel it, but they seek to break it by trying 
 some other kind of excitement, while my spirit of 
 investigation has led me to try the other extreme. 
 Besides, I have about made up my mind to do some- 
 thing, and this turning from the old ways is a sort 
 of preliminary." 
 
 " What are you going to do? " asked Miss Mars- 
 den. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," replied Leonard, languidly. 
 " I'm taking the summer to think it over. Can't 
 you suggest something ? " 
 
 " If Jessie can't, no one can," put in Mrs. Con- 
 grove. " Jessie has been doing things all her life." 
 
 " There's so much to do," said Miss Marsden, 
 " that I don't see how any one can be without oc- 
 cupation." 
 
 " But you're so darned energetic," argued Leon- 
 ard, plaintively, " that people just naturally give 
 you something to do. Why, you brought your 
 fancy work down here with you." 
 
 " And you're so darned lazy," retorted Miss 
 Marsden, quickly, " that people who want things 
 done just naturally go to some one else."
 
 At Terrace Cottage 63 
 
 While this was said in a spirit of raillery, it was 
 so true a hit that it jarred Leonard. 
 
 " Well, you see, I never have had to do any- 
 thing," he explained. " While I'm not rich, I've 
 always had all the money I needed, and there isn't 
 even an estate to look after, for it's all in the stock 
 of one concern that pays regular dividends. I got 
 in with a crowd that had no more to do than I, 
 and I've just drifted along ever since. But I'm 
 going to get into some business when I go back 
 to the city, if only for the novelty of it." 
 
 Miss Marsden looked at him curiously, as if he 
 were some strange animal. 
 
 " I can't comprehend it," she said. " I would 
 like to have money and the leisure to use it as 
 seemed to me best; I appreciate the pleasures of 
 life as much as any one; but to have no useful oc- 
 cupation would drive me to distraction. I don't 
 see how any one can be happy without any real 
 interest in life." 
 
 " Perhaps no one is," returned Leonard, thought- 
 fully. " Perhaps the people whose frivolities we 
 criticize are merely striving to be happy and 
 failing. And perhaps they are failing because they 
 don't strive the right way. Anyhow, I'm going to 
 do something." 
 
 "When?"
 
 64 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Oh, after a little." 
 
 " You don't know when or what ? " 
 
 " No. I'm thinking it over. You see, I've never 
 had to do anything." 
 
 Before Miss Marsden could reply, there was a 
 sound of wheels, and Daniel Dodd drove up to the 
 house. 
 
 "Oh, Mr. Dodd," called Miss Marsden, with a 
 malicious glance at Leonard, " Mr. Leonard says 
 he's never done anything because he never had to 
 do anything. What do you think of that?" 
 
 Miss Marsden was reasonably sure that any such 
 statement would bring an interesting reply from 
 Dodd, and Leonard was sharp enough to see that 
 she was deliberately putting him up as a target. 
 
 " On the farm," said Dodd, in his deliberate way, 
 " the animal that doesn't have to do anything is 
 the one that is being fattened for slaughter, and the 
 only way it can escape its fate is to become active 
 on its own account. Sometimes, when I read about 
 the way inherited fortunes disappear, it seems as 
 if that was the way the thing worked on the human 
 farm, too." 
 
 " I presume that means that I'm being fattened 
 financially for the benefit of some city sharper," 
 laughed Leonard, although two such hits in quick
 
 At Terrace Cottage 65 
 
 succession were annoying. " I'll have to go to work 
 at once." 
 
 " At sorting cherries ? " asked Miss Marsden, 
 whereupon Leonard gave her a reproachful look. 
 But he saw the point: something more strenuous 
 was expected of an earnest man. His one ambition 
 in the line of work had been a mere trifling whim. 
 
 " Would you like to see the inside of the cot- 
 tage?" asked Dodd. 
 
 " Oh, you brought the keys with you ! " exclaimed 
 Miss Marsden. " We forgot to ask for them." 
 
 " I never lock it," said Dodd. " There's no use 
 giving the man who wants to get in any excuse for 
 damaging the property, and we have no tramps up 
 here. It serves only as a refuge in case of sudden 
 storm. Come in." 
 
 Dodd pushed open the door, and the others fol- 
 lowed him in. Mrs. Congrove did not go above 
 the first floor, but the others explored every corner 
 of it for which Miss Marsden later had reason 
 to be most thankful. 
 
 " I should think it would be a delightful place for 
 the summer ! " she commented, when they had re- 
 turned to the little front porch. 
 
 " That is the universal opinion of all but the 
 right people," returned Dodd.
 
 66 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " What do you mean by the right people ? " 
 asked Leonard. 
 
 " The people who are financially able to make the 
 right use of it," replied Dodd. Then, looking 
 dreamily out over the waters of the bay, he went 
 on : " With horses and a steam-launch, this would 
 seem to me to be an ideal spot. It is on no public 
 road, this wood road being my own ; it is quiet and 
 secluded, and yet only a quarter of a mile from the 
 farm buildings, where we aim to keep pretty well 
 stocked up with everything that is to be had in this 
 locality. There would be fresh milk and cream and 
 eggs and butter and fruit and vegetables and every- 
 thing else in that line, and yet a party living here 
 might well imagine itself in the wilderness. It 
 would be a rest cure within easy reach of all reason- 
 able comforts and pleasures. Old Mission is only 
 a few miles away by road, and not many miles by 
 water. Traverse City is not out of reach with a 
 steam-launch, and Neahtawanta and Elk Rapids 
 are much nearer. There are points of interest 
 of historical interest all about here. Any one at 
 all familiar with the early history of this region 
 could easily become absorbed in pleasurable explora- 
 tions and investigations, which horses and a steam- 
 launch would make almost limitless. Of course, the 
 ignorant and unobserving would find it dull, except
 
 At Terrace Cottage 67 
 
 as they were able to touch at some of the livelier 
 resorts: they wouldn't see anything interesting in 
 the shortened rifle-barrel that I found on my farm." 
 
 " Did you? " asked Leonard. 
 
 "Would you?" retorted Dodd, with a quizzical 
 smile. 
 
 "No; I confess a shortened rifle-barrel would 
 mean nothing to me." 
 
 " Did you ever hear of the conspiracy of Pon- 
 tiac?" asked Dodd. 
 
 " It has a sort of familiar sound," replied 
 Leonard. 
 
 " I don't remember the details," admitted Miss 
 Marsden, " and I'm sure a shortened rifle-barrel 
 would not recall them to me." 
 
 " But you would if you trained yourself to see 
 what lies behind the apparent trifles of this life," 
 said Dodd, " and you'd find you had been missing 
 a lot of pleasure by your failure to trace the connec- 
 tion between one thing and another. When I 
 found that shortened rifle-barrel, I saw, in imagina- 
 tion, the Indians gathering outside the fort at 
 Mackinaw for some games; I saw them begin 
 their games with great zest; I saw the men lured 
 from the fort to watch the contests; I saw the 
 Indians gradually working nearer and nearer to the 
 fort; I saw them finally, at a given signal, draw
 
 68 Delightful Dodd 
 
 the shortened guns from beneath their blankets, 
 give their war-whoop, and fall upon the fort and 
 its defenders. That's the story the shortened rifle- 
 barrel told me; in spirit I was back with the men 
 at Mackinaw and saw what happened. The Indians 
 had to shorten their guns to conceal them under 
 their blankets." 
 
 There was a moment of thoughtful silence. Then 
 Miss Marsden said, with frank admiration : " Every- 
 thing here seems to have a story for you, Mr. 
 Dodd." 
 
 " Everything everywhere has a story for the man 
 who has learned to read it," replied Dodd. 
 
 " If all could find stories as easily, there'd be 
 little for the writers to do," suggested Leonard. 
 
 " The writer that you like best," returned Dodd. 
 " tells you a story that you already knew, but never 
 had put into words. When you recognize his char- 
 acters or his incidents, he has made a hit." 
 
 " That's so," asserted Leonard, after a moment 
 of reflection. 
 
 " And yet," continued Dodd, " we fail to give 
 even our favourite writers the full reward and credit 
 that is due them." 
 
 " Some stand pretty high on the roll of fame, 
 and, in these days, some gain a pretty good store 
 of wealth," said Leonard.
 
 At Terrace Cottage 69 
 
 " But we overlook their commercial value," re- 
 turned Dodd. " Now, I suppose you never thought 
 of Walter Scott as a wonderful commercial suc- 
 cess. You give him all due literary credit, but you 
 can't see that he did more for Scotland commer- 
 cially than any other one man in the history of that 
 country." 
 
 " I confess I can't," admitted Leonard. 
 
 " Yet many people go to Scotland solely for the 
 purpose of visiting scenes that Scott made famous 
 in his novels," said Dodd, " and others, being in 
 Scotland for other purposes, feel that they have 
 wasted their opportunities if they do not visit one 
 or more of these scenes. Scott, dead, is drawing 
 more money into Scotland than any dozen living 
 men unless," he added, after a pause, " Carnegie 
 carried his fortune in his grip when he went to 
 Skibo Castle." 
 
 They had to laugh at this quaint conception of 
 Carnegie's migration, but twinkling eyes gave the 
 only indication that Dodd saw the humour of the 
 picture. 
 
 " Scott did for Scotland what Washington Ir- 
 ving did for the Hudson," he added. " Both added 
 greatly to the prosperity and development of the 
 localities in which their fictional characters moved. 
 Scott unwittingly bequeathed a handsome living to
 
 70 Delightful Dodd 
 
 many Scots and wealth to some, while Irving is 
 even now putting dividends into the pockets of the 
 owners of Hudson River steamboat lines, hotels, 
 stage lines, and railroads. The commercial im- 
 portance of such a writer is greater than that of 
 any captain of industry that ever lived and bowed 
 to his own greatness only to be forgotten a few 
 years later." 
 
 Miss Marsden looked at him wonderingly. 
 
 " You are always giving us surprises, Mr. Dodd," 
 she said. " We never know what is coming next." 
 
 " Thank you," said Dodd, bowing gravely. 
 
 " You consider that a compliment ? " she queried. 
 
 " It is the automaton that does the same thing 
 always in the same way," he answered ; " it is the 
 phonograph that says the same thing always in the 
 same way. Neither is capable of thought, and it is 
 thought that gives to us our surprises. I should 
 not like to believe myself an automaton or a phono- 
 graph."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " DODD'S GERMANIA " 
 
 " DID you drive down here to entertain us, Mr. 
 Dodd? " asked Miss Marsden. " If so, it was very 
 good of you." 
 
 " But I didn't," replied Dodd. " I drove down 
 here to drive back. I had just returned from Old 
 Mission when they told me that you had started off 
 in the direction of the cottage, and I thought Mrs. 
 Congrove might like to ride back." 
 
 " Mr. Leonard assured me that it was a short 
 and easy walk to the cottage," explained Mrs. Con- 
 grove. 
 
 " He might have put it even stronger," said Dodd. 
 " It's no more than a short and easy roll to the 
 cottage. You can start at the house and roll down, 
 but you can't roll back." 
 
 " I don't care to roll either way, thank you," 
 laughed Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " Anyhow," asserted Dodd, " you'll find it easier 
 going up in my one-horse elevator." 
 
 71
 
 72 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Then we'd better be going," said Miss Mars- 
 den. " We don't want to keep you from your 
 work." 
 
 " If you consulted my inclinations," returned 
 Dodd, " you wouldn't be in such a hurry to get me 
 back to it." 
 
 " I thought you believed in work." 
 
 " I do, but a man may believe in a thing without 
 wanting a monopoly of it. I never was a monop- 
 olist, although I succeeded in getting a corner on 
 a pretty fair supply of work by beginning at five 
 o'clock this morning. However, I suppose we 
 might as well be starting, for it takes the old horse 
 some time to begin to get ready to go." He led 
 the horse up to the steps, and Leonard helped Mrs. 
 Congrove into the buggy. " Now, Miss Marsden," 
 Dodd went on, " I'm going to entrust the manage- 
 ment of this fiery steed to you, but I must caution 
 you to be very careful. Don't use the whip on him, 
 because you're not strong enough to make any 
 impression. Mr. Leonard and I will walk back." 
 
 " But I want to walk myself," protested Miss 
 Marsden. "You don't mind, do you, Grade?" 
 
 " By all means, walk and enjoy the woods," 
 urged Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " It's all so beautiful and refreshing," said Miss 
 Marsden, apologetically.
 
 " Dodd's Germania " 73 
 
 " I can take you back by the prettiest woodland 
 path you ever saw," Leonard hastened to say. 
 
 Leonard's sudden and deep interest in the com- 
 bination of Miss Marsden and that path was not 
 lost on Dodd. He looked from one to the other, 
 and seemed to be inwardly chuckling over some 
 huge joke. 
 
 " All right," he said, cheerfully. " You jump 
 in, Leonard, and I'll take Miss Marsden back 
 through the woodland path. You might get lost." 
 
 " So much the better ! " exclaimed Leonard, 
 thoughtlessly. 
 
 " To get lost ! " cried Miss Marsden. " No, in- 
 deed." 
 
 " I'd be delighted to drive back with Mrs. Con- 
 grove," said Leonard, " but but I'm sure she'd 
 feel safer with you, for you know the horse." 
 
 Then a strange thing happened. Dodd delib- 
 erately winked at Mrs. Congrove, and she, grasp- 
 ing the meaning of that wink, had to smile. Dodd 
 was enjoying himself at the 'expense of Leonard. 
 
 " It's very good of you to be so considerate of 
 an old man," said Dodd, " but I'm just a little 
 sensitive as to my infirmities, and it is a matter of 
 pride with me now to show you that I can walk 
 back without unusual fatigue." 
 
 This would have been delicious to any one know-
 
 74 Delightful Dodd 
 
 ing Dodd, for, although well along in years, and 
 in no sense a strong man, he had no infirmities, 
 He listened gravely while Leonard protested that 
 he had intended to intimate nothing of that sort, 
 and had not even thought of such a thing. 
 
 " Oh, very well," said Dodd, in reply to this. 
 " Suppose we let Miss Marsden settle it by choos- 
 ing her escort." 
 
 " Oh, I'm entirely impartial," Miss Marsden has- 
 tened to say, nevertheless showing her discomfiture 
 by a blush. " I shall be glad to have either of 
 you." 
 
 " Then let Mrs. Congrove decide," said Dodd, 
 and Mrs. Congrove was sure that she caught an- 
 other wink. But it may be that Mrs. Congrove 
 also caught the quick glance that her sister gave 
 her. At any rate, after a moment of hesitation, 
 she announced that she would feel a little bit safer 
 with Mr. Dodd. 
 
 " I am flattered," said Dodd, taking his place 
 beside Mrs. Congrove. Then he leaned over to 
 say : " Don't stop too long at the green arbour, or 
 linger at the red bench." 
 
 " Where is the green arbour ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " And the red bench ? " added Miss Marsden. 
 
 " In the prospectus of my great summer resort," 
 replied Dodd.
 
 "Dodd's Germania" 75 
 
 " And the prospectus ? " queried Leonard. 
 
 " In my mind." Dodd picked up the reins, but 
 did not start the horse. " That's going to be a great 
 summer resort, Miss Marsden," he explained, and 
 there was something of regret in his tone the 
 regret of a man with a dream unfulfilled. " We 
 have a big place here, with paths and roads every- 
 where. I would have benches and little arbours at 
 convenient points, and, for the purpose of identi- 
 fication, each would be painted a different colour. 
 Think how it would simplify matters to be able 
 to say, ' I'll meet you at the white arbour,' instead 
 of trying to describe it as the third arbour on the 
 second path leading from the lower terrace road. 
 Oh, mine would be an ideal place for lovers." 
 
 He looked at Leonard and Miss Marsden reflec- 
 tively, and both became uncomfortable. Dodd's 
 sense of humour was too strongly developed, they 
 decided. But the humour was kindly, as a general 
 thing; he would not really distress another for the 
 world. 
 
 " There would be fruit everywhere at my resort," 
 he went. on. " When people go into the fruit coun- 
 try, they want fruit when they want it; it is not 
 enough to serve it at table. There would always 
 be fruit in the house and at the most frequented 
 places on the grounds, so that a guest might help
 
 76 Delightful Dodd 
 
 himself when and how he pleased. Don't you think 
 that would be a good idea ? " 
 
 " Splendid," replied Miss Marsden. " Have you 
 any other plans?" 
 
 "Well, yes," replied Dodd, thoughtfully. "It 
 seems to me there ought to be a lot of money in a 
 German resort." 
 
 "For Germans exclusively?" 
 
 " Not at all. Rather for people going to Ger- 
 many. People get rich suddenly these days, and 
 they want to equip themselves for a foreign tour. 
 As a preliminary, they could come to my resort, 
 where nothing but German would be spoken. All 
 the employees would be German; the language of 
 the place would be German, and there would be 
 German tutors to help along the beginners. It 
 would be like stepping into Germany to get used 
 to it. I'm sure there are lots of wealthy people who 
 would appreciate a place like that. It might even 
 become a fad." 
 
 " But why German ? " asked Leonard. " Why 
 not French as well? Or Italian? Germany is not 
 the only foreign country that has attractions for 
 travelling Americans." 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " But it is the only lan- 
 guage, besides English, that one really needs to 
 know, and the far-seeing man will not forget that
 
 "Dodd's Germania" 77 
 
 there are many prosperous Germans in this country. 
 They would like to have their children spend an 
 occasional summer at such a place as I describe. 
 In fact, I would rely largely on the children for 
 success. Even Americans who did not care to take 
 up German themselves would be disposed to send 
 their children here for a summer, to give them the 
 practical knowledge of the language that is not 
 to be gained from books. They'd come with their 
 governesses or their tutors, if not with their parents. 
 Why, in imagination I can hear them saying: 
 ' We're going to Dodd's Germania this summer 
 and abroad next summer,' or, ' The children are 
 at Dodd's Germania putting the finishing touches 
 on their German.' And they'd be having a bully 
 good time while they were doing it ! " Dodd added, 
 with an enthusiasm that subsided almost as soon 
 as it appeared. 
 
 " Would you combine all these plans, or have two 
 separate resorts ? " asked Miss Marsden, with gentle 
 raillery. 
 
 " Oh, while I'm about it," said Dodd, picking up 
 his whip, " I might as well have three or four re- 
 sorts. All they cost is a strain on the imagination. 
 The man who isn't rich enough to buy a few at 
 that price is poor indeed, no matter how much
 
 78 Delightful Dodd 
 
 money he may have. I wouldn't trade my imag- 
 ination for his wealth." 
 
 " Wait a minute ! " Leonard called, as Dodd was 
 about to drive away. " I've been thinking about 
 that shortened rifle-barrel, and it occurs to me that 
 it told you a fairy-tale. This farm is quite a dis- 
 tance from Mackinaw." 
 
 Dodd looked at the young man pityingly. 
 
 " Was it your idea," he asked, " that the Indians 
 left their guns at the fort for souvenirs? They 
 lived in this region." 
 
 Leonard subsided, and Dodd touched the horse 
 with the whip. 
 
 " Don't linger too long at the gray bench ! " he 
 called back, " and you'd better not stop at the brown 
 arbour or you may be late for supper. My summer 
 resort is devised to make young people forget there 
 is such a thing as time." 
 
 A moment later he turned to Mrs. Congrove and 
 said, solemnly: 
 
 " There's lots of fun in this world if a fellow only 
 knows how to find it." 
 
 " You know how," she laughed, as she caught 
 the twinkle of his eyes, and pictured to herself the 
 discomfiture of her sister and Leonard. " I never 
 knew a man who could provide so much harmless 
 entertainment for himself in such original ways."
 
 " Dodd's Germania " 79 
 
 " The independent man," returned Dodd, " is the 
 man who can, when necessary, live within himself. 
 I would rather be independent than rich." 
 
 Leonard and Miss Marsden, however, did not 
 think so highly of Dodd's humour just at this mo- 
 ment. Leonard especially said (to himself) harsh 
 things about it. If he had known Miss Marsden 
 better, or had admired her less, the situation would 
 have been less awkward. As it was, the reference 
 to " an ideal place for lovers " made him self-con- 
 scious and uncomfortable, and Miss Marsden her- 
 self talked in rather a constrained way about pretty 
 nearly everything that was of no interest. She 
 seemed to be afraid, Leonard thought, that he might 
 endeavour to take advantage of the situation thus 
 created, which he deemed no compliment to him. 
 All in all, the walk through the woods was most 
 unsatisfactory, and left him feeling rebellious. 
 
 " I think I shall go back to the city," he said, 
 as they came in sight of the house. 
 
 " When ? " she asked, so suddenly that it caught 
 him unprepared and he made the foolish answer 
 that his indolence too often dictated. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know 5 ," he said, meaning that he 
 had made no definite plan. 
 
 " That's when you're going to do about every- 
 thing, isn't it?" she inquired.
 
 8o Delightful Dodd 
 
 He resented the sally, although it was quite in 
 line with others that had been made that afternoon. 
 
 " I shall go to-morrow," he announced. 
 
 " Do you think it quite fair to Mr. Dodd? " she 
 inquired. " He has lost a good many boarders upon 
 whom he felt that he had a right to count." 
 
 " I shall pay him for the entire season," said 
 Leonard, irritably. 
 
 " Do you think he's the kind of a man who would 
 accept money offered in that way?" 
 
 " Then I must stay," he remarked. 
 
 " My impression of Mr. Dodd," she said, " is 
 that he wouldn't have a dissatisfied boarder at any 
 price." 
 
 " You seem to find objections to either course." 
 
 " Yes," she returned. " As an abstract problem, 
 it interests me. The situation is peculiar." 
 
 " Only as an abstract problem ? " 
 
 He said this without thought. Most of the girls 
 he had known in his somewhat frivolous career 
 had rather expected a mild form of flirtation. 
 
 " What possible interest could it have for me 
 otherwise ? " she asked, with disconcerting straight- 
 forwardness. 
 
 He did not answer, but he was more dissatisfied 
 than ever. It seemed to him that to either go or 
 stay after this would make him look foolish. He
 
 " Dodd's Germania " 8l 
 
 had most absurdly and unnecessarily tangled him- 
 self up in a problem that had no satisfactory solu- 
 tion, and he had gained nothing. In fact, he had 
 a feeling that she regarded him with a certain meas- 
 ure of contempt, as an irrational and useless weak- 
 ling in a world of endeavour. 
 
 " The day-labourer must be her ideal of a man," 
 he told himself, and a man does not tell himself 
 things unless he cares about them. Her opinion 
 was of importance.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE UNLICENSED BARBER 
 
 JESSIE MARSDEN regarded Ralph Leonard as 
 something of a curiosity. She could not under- 
 stand how any one could be content to lead such 
 an aimless life. He was gentlemanly, entertaining, 
 but, from her point of view, of no practical worth 
 except as a problem. As such, he interested her; 
 she liked to study him, but she gave him only such 
 thought as she would give any interesting problem. 
 He was generous, but his generosity cost him no 
 personal sacrifice. How would it be in other cir- 
 cumstances ? 
 
 Ralph Leonard regarded Jessie Marsden as some- 
 thing more than a puzzle. He admired her, while 
 admitting that her aggressive industry irritated 
 him: he wished that she would overlook a chance 
 to do something just once. It annoyed him to 
 find that this spirit of industry influenced even him, 
 as in the case of the cherries, and yet, rebelling, 
 
 he found himself attracted to the very cause of 
 
 82
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 83 
 
 his irritation. Her courage, her devotion to her 
 sister, all appealed to him strongly, but why do 
 work that was wholly unnecessary? The joy of 
 labour well done never yet had come to Leonard, 
 as was quite natural. He might work for friend- 
 ship or for fame or for a passing whim or from 
 necessity, but there must be some reason or reward 
 to spur him on; in the work itself he saw nothing. 
 
 Just now Leonard was confronted by a very dis- 
 agreeable problem, he did not know whether to go 
 or to stay, and his customary indolence led him 
 to adopt the easiest course : he let things drift. He 
 was there; he would stay, at least temporarily. 
 This was not a decision so much as it was a lack 
 of decision ; he merely put the whole problem aside 
 and went on to the next question, which was the 
 important one of shaving. 
 
 " I suppose," he mused, " that every fellow shaves 
 himself in this benighted country, but I would not 
 care to try it so far away from a surgeon. Neither 
 do I want to walk to Neahtawanta, and apparently 
 I am not going to be as fortunate as I have been 
 before in finding some one who is going to drive 
 down. I'll have to submit the problem to Dodd." 
 
 Being comfortably settled in a reclining-chair 
 on the front porch, and feeling that there was no 
 great hurry about the matter, anyhow, Leonard
 
 84 Delightful Dodd 
 
 waited for Dodd to pass that way. Experience had 
 taught him that Dodd might come around the cor- 
 ner of the house at any moment, and that, in any 
 event, he would appear within a few hours, for 
 Dodd gave his personal attention to the garden and 
 adjacent orchards, letting his men go to the more 
 distant fields. And what are a few hours to an 
 indolent man on a vacation? 
 
 Dodd presently came along, going from the gar- 
 den to the barn, and Leonard promptly hailed him. 
 
 " What do you do for a shave, Dodd ? " he asked. 
 
 " Generally," replied Dodd, " I do without." 
 
 " Then you're not your own barber ? " 
 
 " No," said Dodd. " I've got to have confidence 
 in my barber." 
 
 " Then I suppose there is one in the vicinity," 
 suggested Leonard. 
 
 " At times, during the summer," answered Dodd, 
 " when we have helpless men from the city on the 
 peninsula. There is one comes over to Old Mission 
 from Elk Rapids twice a week, but he's so busy 
 that I guess you have to make appointments ahead 
 with him, like you do with a dentist. Then there's 
 one at the hotel at Neahtawanta during most of 
 the resort season." 
 
 "Yes; I tried him two or three times," said 
 Leonard.
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 85 
 
 " You were lucky to get him," remarked Dodd. 
 " He's only there when he happens to be there, and 
 that's when there is nothing interesting going on 
 elsewhere. Getting a shave up here is a good deal 
 like a lottery." 
 
 " But what do you do?" asked Leonard. 
 
 Dodd sat down on the edge of the porch and 
 seemed to be wrestling with this question. 
 
 " There are several things that I do," he said at 
 last. " In the first place, I wear a beard, which 
 simplifies matters considerably. In the second place, 
 I have it raked with considerable regularity, which 
 enables me to keep it untangled longer than would 
 be possible otherwise. In the third place, I have 
 a wife who is always glad of an opportunity to 
 add to the material for the hair mattress she is 
 making. Only when it's absolutely unavoidable do 
 I go to Mrs. Dodd now, however, for she became 
 so avaricious that she cut my whiskers to a really 
 immodest shortness, and it made me blush to have 
 people see me." 
 
 " Then what do you do now ? " 
 
 "Why," said Dodd, confidentially, "I don't do 
 any more than I have to, but when my whiskers 
 get so long that they begin to tangle in the under- 
 brush, I take a day off and go to Traverse City 
 for a barber."
 
 86 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Oh, I don't want to go so far," protested Leon- 
 ard. " That's a good deal worse than Neahta- 
 wanta." 
 
 " It is in some respects, but not in others," re- 
 turned Dodd. " It's a good deal longer trip, but 
 you must remember that Traverse City is a place, 
 and Neahtawanta is only a lonesome spot, unless 
 you bring friends along with you. But perhaps 
 we can fix you up without trying either place. I'll 
 hitch up after supper, and we'll see what we can 
 do at Old Mission." 
 
 After supper Dodd appeared with a horse and 
 buggy, and he and Leonard set out for Old Mission. 
 
 " I hope," said Dodd, solicitously, " that you have 
 no conscientious scruples against breaking the law." 
 
 " Breaking the law ! " exclaimed Leonard. 
 " What's the law got to do with getting a shave? " 
 
 " The law has a good deal to do with everything," 
 replied Dodd, " and it's getting worse. There's 
 so much law that you trip over it before you know 
 it. Then you get up and find that you've kicked a 
 corner off a law that you didn't know existed, and 
 somehow you don't think you're any nearer hell 
 than you were before. After you've broken two 
 or three fool laws, you sort of get the law-break- 
 ing habit, and pretty soon it doesn't worry you to 
 break any law that happens to be inconvenient.
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 87 
 
 We're getting to be a lawbreaking people not 
 because we're naturally lawless, but because we're 
 tying ourselves up with laws so that we can't move 
 without hearing something bust. Everybody wants 
 his own little law on the statute books these days, 
 and he gets it there, too. It's a fool law ; you break 
 it, and after that all law looks pretty cheap to you." 
 
 " But what has that to do with shaving? " asked 
 the bewildered Leonard. 
 
 " Just as much as it has to do with shoeing 
 horses," answered Dodd. " Now, I've got a man 
 on my farm who can shoe a horse, but he can't." 
 
 " Please say that over again," said Leonard, 
 plaintively. 
 
 " Perhaps it would be better to say that he can 
 shoe a horse, but he may not," explained Dodd. 
 " In its infinite wisdom, the legislature of this great 
 State of Michigan has decreed that a horse may 
 be shod only by a licensed blacksmith. No license, 
 no shoeing. You can't shoe your own horse in an 
 emergency without being subject to a fine." 
 
 " What in the world is the reason of that ? " de- 
 manded the astonished Leonard. 
 
 " The union labour vote," replied Dodd. " If 
 you're not a union man, you'll find it mighty hard 
 to get a license."
 
 88 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Well, that's the most absurd thing I ever heard 
 of ! " exclaimed Leonard. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," returned Dodd. " I under- 
 stand the Chicago public school-teachers have joined 
 the Federation of Labour. How long do you think 
 it will be before you have to have a union card 
 to get your children into the public schools? Any- 
 how, if the non-unionist is not to be allowed to 
 make a living, what's the use of educating him at 
 all?" 
 
 " But the shaving ? " urged Leonard. 
 
 Dodd assumed a whimsical, puzzled expression. 
 
 " I confess I don't quite understand that," he 
 said. " The generosity of the great men who rule 
 us is almost incomprehensible, for they have not 
 made it a penal offence for a man to shave himself, 
 merely providing a fine for the man who shaves 
 another without first taking out a license. Even 
 then, they've overlooked something." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Why, there are barber-shops on some of the 
 limited trains that run through the State. Why 
 don't our brilliant officials hold them up and clap 
 fines on the alien barbers, to the everlasting glory 
 and pecuniary profit of the sovereign State of Mich- 
 igan? And I'll bet unlicensed barbers on the lake 
 steamers occasionally work in Michigan ports.
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 89 
 
 That's the trouble with the great minds of this la- 
 bour-union age; they seem to weary of a reform 
 before they've made it really thorough." 
 
 " Do I get a licensed barber ? " asked Leonard, 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Possibly, possibly," replied Dodd. " It's Sat- 
 urday night, and we may catch one at Old Mission. 
 If not, you'll have to break the law, or go to church 
 to-morrow as the hairy man." 
 
 " The lesser crime of the two," asserted Leonard, 
 with conviction, " will be the breaking of the law." 
 
 " Thus," moralized Dodd, with mock solemnity, 
 " does the law itself lure us to lawlessness. In time, 
 we may have to submit our every proposed trifling 
 act to a legal expert, just to keep out of jail." 
 
 At Old Mission Dodd left Leonard in the buggy, 
 while he went to make inquiries at the office of the 
 long, low-frame hotel that seems to have attrac- 
 tions for many summer visitors, principally women 
 and children. Presently he emerged and came down 
 the walk to the buggy with a most ludicrous imita- 
 tion of a stage conspirator's walk. 
 
 " Hist ! " he cautioned, in a hoarse whisper, as 
 he came stealthily through the gate. " We are 
 driven to crime. The licensed barber came over 
 from Elk Rapids this morning and went back this 
 afternoon. We must risk the horrors of an unli-
 
 90 Delightful Dodd 
 
 censed shave. Hist! See that we are not 
 watched ! " 
 
 Cautiously he climbed into the buggy. 
 
 " Do you see any one who looks like a detec- 
 tive? " he asked. 
 
 " No one," replied Leonard, laughing. 
 
 " Then we must make a break for it," said Dodd, 
 and he whipped up the horse. 
 
 Down the road they went, faster than Leonard 
 had ever seen the old horse move before, around 
 a corner, up a side street, down a lane, and, after 
 several more bewildering turns, stopped in front of 
 a red house. 
 
 " I think we are safe now," said Dodd, " but 
 this trifling with the Michigan law of shaves is a 
 risky business. We are defying the strength and 
 wisdom of the greatest minds of a great State, 
 minds that soar always and ever as high as shaves 
 and hair-cuts, leaving trifles to weaker intellects. 
 Hist! Wait!" 
 
 With the same exaggerated air of stealth, he left 
 the buggy and approached the house. There Leon- 
 ard saw him joined by another man, with whom he 
 held an animated conversation. It was evident, 
 however, that the stranger was rejecting all over- 
 tures, for he kept shaking his head. 
 
 " He's afraid," said Dodd, when he came back.
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 91 
 
 " He doesn't know me, so he thinks I'm too up- 
 right a man to trample the laws of Michigan under 
 foot Do I look like a detective?" 
 
 " You acted like one when you approached the 
 house," laughed Leonard, as he recalled the picture 
 the old man made tiptoeing up the walk. 
 
 " Perhaps that's it," said Dodd. " He thought 
 I was trying to lure him into evil ways, just to 
 arrest him. At any rate, he refused to accept me 
 as a pal in the great crime of conspiring to make 
 a fellow mortal presentable for church, the same 
 being against the laws of Michigan and the labour 
 unions. But we have still another chance to get 
 ourselves into trouble." 
 
 When nearly home, Dodd turned into a lane and 
 stopped before a barn, where he began calling for 
 " Arthur." Arthur, when he emerged, proved to 
 be a husky farm-hand. 
 
 " S-s-sh ! " said Dodd. Then, leaning over the 
 seat : " They tell me some of you boys sometimes 
 shave each other." 
 
 Arthur looked startled. 
 
 " It's all right," Dodd hastened to explain. " I've 
 got a young man here who's anxious to get into 
 the ways of crime himself." 
 
 Arthur looked puzzled, but evidently deemed it 
 wise to say nothing.
 
 92 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " He wants to get shaved," Dodd added, " and 
 I'll vouch for him. He'll never give away a pal." 
 
 Arthur looked dubious. 
 
 " I'd like to oblige any of your people, Mr. 
 Dodd," he said, " but I don't want to get into any 
 trouble." 
 
 " That's all right," returned Dodd. " If you just 
 scratch him up a little, he can easily make people 
 believe he shaved himself." 
 
 Arthur smiled at this and decided that he would 
 run the risk of fine or imprisonment that the young 
 man from the city might go to church. He got 
 some hot water, escorted Leonard up into the loft 
 of the barn, rigged up a lantern for light, as it 
 was now getting rather dark, and arranged two 
 old chairs, one behind the other. In the first he 
 instructed Leonard to sit; then he placed one foot 
 on a rung of the other, thus bringing his knee high 
 enough to make a head-rest; and in this primitive 
 fashion, his head resting on the knee of the ama- 
 teur barber, Leonard received his first unlicensed 
 Michigan shave. The arrangement being decidedly 
 awkward, he was somewhat nervous, and he swore 
 softly to himself about the fool lawmakers of the 
 Wolverine State. 
 
 " And yet," said Dodd, as they drove home, " it 
 might be worse."
 
 "LEONARD RECEIVED HIS FIRST UNLICENSED MICHIGAN- 
 SHAVE. "
 
 The Unlicensed Barber 
 
 93 
 
 " How ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " Why, they might make a mother take out a 
 license to give her baby a bath," replied Dodd. 
 " We haven't yet reached the limit of legislation."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SERMON AND THE WHISTLE 
 
 AT the breakfast-table Sunday morning, Dodd 
 bowed gravely to Leonard and said : " Will you 
 say grace, Mr. Leonard ? " 
 
 Leonard was startled. He never had been called 
 upon to say grace in his life, and this was the more 
 unexpected because it was not customary in the 
 Dodd household to say grace. Nothing of the sort 
 had been done before during Leonard's stay. Nev- 
 ertheless, Dodd bowed his head and waited. The 
 others looked up in surprise and then followed his 
 example, although some of them seemed to find 
 Leonard's confusion amusing. Leonard himself 
 was too bewildered to even think connectedly. He 
 bowed his head, but, from necessity, remained si- 
 lent ; he did not know what to say. His face flushed, 
 drops of perspiration stood on his forehead. The 
 others waited, and presently Leonard's voice was 
 heard saying weakly : " May I have a little of the 
 egg, please?" 
 
 94
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 95 
 
 Dodd gave him an astonished, reproachful glance, 
 but behind it were his twinkling eyes. Some of 
 the others laughed, and some seemed to hesitate 
 between indignation and laughter. Mrs. Dodd, 
 however, was unquestionably on the indignation 
 side, for Dodd was always doing some unexpected 
 thing that distressed her. 
 
 " Daniel Dodd," she exclaimed, " will you never 
 reform ? " 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " Reform movements are 
 dangerous. We like reform in theory, but not in 
 practice, and it usually paves the way for greater 
 evil. Look at New York. After reform Tammany 
 wins by increased majorities. Look at the average 
 individual. Reform only gives him a greater dis- 
 tance to fall when he wearies of it. I am surprised, 
 Mrs. Dodd, that you should wish me to do so fool- 
 ish and dangerous a thing as to reform." 
 
 " Don't," laughed Leonard. " We much prefer 
 you as you are." 
 
 " Indeed we do," added Miss Marsden, " even 
 if you do have a little harmless fun with some of 
 us occasionally." 
 
 "That's just the point," asserted Dodd. "It's 
 harmless now, but after a reform it would be 
 vicious. There's nothing worse than an unravelled 
 reform. Now, in my case, never having reformed,
 
 96 Delightful Dodd 
 
 I always feel quite properly penitent for my mis- 
 deeds. Just now I am so anxious to make atone- 
 ment that I extend an invitation to all of you to 
 go to church with me." 
 
 Miss Marsden looked at him in some surprise. 
 She had heard that his religion was of the fields 
 rather than the churches. 
 
 " Are you a regular attendant ? " she asked. 
 
 " In the summer," replied Dodd, " I go to church 
 every Sunday." 
 
 " Why, Daniel Dodd ! " exclaimed his wife. " I 
 don't believe you've been inside of a church in ten 
 years ! " 
 
 " Oh, inside of a church ! " repeated Dodd, with 
 an air of innocent surprise. " Of course not. But 
 I go to church whenever any one wishes to be driven 
 over, and I stay right there (on the outside) until 
 the whistle blows." 
 
 Leonard laughed, but some of the others seemed 
 to be shocked by the irreverent levity of the expres- 
 sion. 
 
 " I may go myself," said Leonard, " if service 
 and sermon are not too protracted. I have noticed 
 that when a country minister gets a few people from 
 the city in his congregation, he seems to think that 
 something in the line of extra effort is necessary,
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 97 
 
 and I imagine it will be pretty hot in church to-day. 
 How long is he likely to preach ? " 
 
 " Until the whistle blows," replied Dodd, sol- 
 emnly. 
 
 " Daniel Dodd ! " exclaimed Mrs. Dodd, severely. 
 
 " Now, Emma," returned Dodd, plaintively, 
 " you don't know anything about it, because you 
 never go to church in the summer when we have 
 visitors up here. You tried it once or twice, at 
 first, but you had to admit that your spirit was 
 too worldly to be reached by the words of the good 
 man, especially when there was such distressing 
 uncertainty as to when he would quit. You know 
 perfectly well that during the last half of the ser- 
 mon you were always wondering whether dinner 
 would be spoiled by the time we got back to it." 
 
 The laugh that followed this showed that other 
 women could appreciate Mrs. Dodd's predicament, 
 but some of them were still doubtful about the 
 propriety of the reference to the whistle. 
 
 " If you could lift yourself out of the kitchen," 
 Dodd went on, " and give the thought to church 
 affairs that I do, you would know that more than 
 half the people who go to Old Mission Sunday 
 mornings during the summer go there to see the 
 weekly boat from Chicago come in, and merely drop 
 into the church to pass away the time. When the
 
 98 Delightful Dodd 
 
 boat whistles, they start for the dock. The preacher 
 has been wise enough to understand the futility of 
 trying to hand out even the best brand of salva- 
 tion in the face of the arrival of a steamer that may 
 leave a new man for the girls or a new girl for the 
 men or a woman with gowns that can be criticized 
 by all the others of her sex, so he shuts off quick 
 and hurls the benediction after the retreating con- 
 gregation. That's what I mean by saying that 
 church lasts until the whistle blows. It's literally 
 true. After the first five minutes of the sermon, it 
 is a mere matter of listening for the whistle, and 
 even the preacher keeps one ear cocked for it." 
 
 " Mr. Dodd," explained Mrs. Dodd, apologet- 
 ically, " is utterly unregenerate." 
 
 " Why, Emma," expostulated Dodd, " I have al- 
 ways been particular to observe the Sabbath just 
 as other men do." 
 
 " How is that ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " By putting on clean underclothing and a higher 
 collar," replied Dodd, in his serious way, which 
 greatly increased the effect of his unexpected re- 
 marks. " I have noticed that in many circles, espe- 
 cially in the city, a man's reverence is gauged by 
 the height of his Sunday collar, and in my poor, 
 weak way I do the best I can, although my neck
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 99 
 
 isn't long enough to give me the very best stand- 
 ing." 
 
 Mrs. Dodd laughed indulgently, for, in spite of 
 her protests, she had deep affection and sincere ad- 
 miration for her kindly, quaint husband, and she 
 had long before learned how useless it was to at- 
 tempt to curb him. 
 
 Later, when Dodd was driving those who wished 
 to attend church to Old Mission, Leonard under- 
 took to draw him out a little more. 
 
 " I suppose, Mr. Dodd," he said, " that, aside 
 from the question of high collars, you have your 
 own way of observing the Sabbath." 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied Dodd. " I always try to keep 
 my thoughts and conversation within appropriate 
 limitations. So far as possible, I think of the moral 
 and really commendable things that I have done 
 or tried to do, but, unfortunately, I ran out of ma- 
 terial within two Sundays after I laid down this 
 rule, and I've had to keep going over the same 
 ground ever since. To-day I am keeping properly 
 solemn by thinking of the time I quit smoking." 
 
 " That was a commendable thing to do," re- 
 marked Miss Marsden. 
 
 " I suppose so," replied Dodd, lugubriously. 
 
 " Don't you know it ? " she insisted. 
 
 " The evidence is conflicting," explained Dodd.
 
 IOO Delightful Dodd 
 
 " You see, it was about the way it is when any man 
 quits smoking: the people who don't have to asso- 
 ciate with him commend his moral strength, and 
 those who do can only say, ' For heaven's sake ! 
 take a cigar and look pleasant! You give me the 
 blues ! ' The second day after I quit, I gave my 
 entire attention to snapping customers' heads off and 
 throwing them in the waste-basket. At the close 
 of business that day, I had acquired nothing but 
 a needless supply of temper and the ill-will of every- 
 body I had met. It took three years of smoking 
 to get back the business that I lost in one week of 
 abstinence. However, it eased my conscience a 
 little to find that smoking was not a luxury or a 
 vice, but a business necessity. It gave me the upper 
 hand in my dealings with my conscience, and I've 
 been mighty careful to keep it ever since." 
 
 Dodd seemed offended by the laughter that 
 greeted this, for he looked reproachfully at Leon- 
 ard, who sat beside him, and then at the others 
 on the seats behind. 
 
 " That isn't a joke," he said ; " that is merely 
 a statement of one of the sad truths of life. We're 
 wrecked by the trifles. I get just as mad if a cow 
 goes dry as I would if the house burned down, 
 go the limit on the trifle and have nothing left. 
 One way or another, we're all like old Pete Flint.
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 101 
 
 Pete was the most fluent and artistic cusser that I 
 ever heard. I never did believe much in cussing, 
 but I can rip out a few unpolished words when 
 things go wrong, and that's where I've always had 
 the best of Pete. In the swearing line, Pete is one 
 of these continuous shows, and mighty strenuous. 
 He can't say three words without two of them 
 being cuss-words, wasting his ammunition just 
 like a boy with a new gun and a few cartridges. 
 Well, one day things went wrong with Pete, 
 very much wrong. His barn blew down, a peddler 
 beat him out of two dollars, and a neighbour threat- 
 ened to sue him for trespass. Pete was livid with 
 rage; he shook his fist in the neighbour's face, his 
 jaws worked, but he didn't say anything. Then 
 he just lay down on the ground and began to cry. 
 Happening along about then, I asked him what was 
 the matter. 
 
 " ' I'm all in,' he said, despairingly. 
 
 "'Hurt?' I asked. 
 
 " ' Not in my body,' he said, ' but in my feelings. 
 I've been cussing so blamed much, Dodd, that I 
 ain't got a blamed word left to show how mad 
 I am.' " 
 
 " Is that story quite suited to the day, Mr. 
 Dodd ? " asked one of the ladies in the back of 
 the carryall.
 
 102 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Of course," replied Dodd. " It has a fine moral 
 to it." 
 
 "What's the moral?" 
 
 " Don't be wasteful, even of cuss-words ! Hold 
 something in reserve for the really big affairs of life! 
 But we don't ; we let the trifles wear us out and use 
 up all our resources. That's why the farmer shows 
 his age more than the city man : he has more of the 
 little annoyances to keep him constantly irritated." 
 
 At the door of the church Miss Marsden asked 
 Dodd if he wouldn't establish a new precedent by 
 going in. 
 
 " No," he replied; " I'll stay out here and watch 
 the horses." 
 
 " Do the horses have to be watched ? " she 
 queried. 
 
 " On Sundays," he told her, confidentially, " I 
 like to pretend they do." 
 
 Then he drove the team under the spreading 
 branches of a big tree, hitched it, and made himself 
 comfortable in the shade, where he was presently 
 joined by Leonard. 
 
 " I got to the door," explained Leonard, " but 
 it looked too hot inside and too cool over here." 
 
 " It's a funny thing," commented Dodd, " that 
 we're urged to keep out of hell by going to the 
 hottest place we can find on Sundays."
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 103 
 
 Then he made himself comfortable, with his back 
 against a tree, lit a cigar, and smoked in meditative 
 silence, while Leonard stretched himself full length 
 on the grass. It was an ideal place and an ideal 
 day for meditation. The music from the church 
 and the rustling of the leaves were all that broke 
 the silence, except as a horse stirred occasionally. 
 Dodd, apparently, was busy with one of those queer 
 problems that gave him so much pleasure, and 
 Leonard was idly wondering whether Miss Marsden 
 thought he should or should not have left after the 
 little scene when she so confused him. Of course 
 it was a matter of no importance, but he won- 
 dered. She seemed to have such very decided opin- 
 ions, although she never obtruded them, and there 
 seemed to be no uncertainty as to her own course 
 of action under any circumstances. Yet, under this 
 unusual resourcefulness, there was the womanly 
 charm that is so attractive to the normal man; she 
 had strength without aggressiveness. 
 
 " If she could only be a little lazier occasionally," 
 sighed Leonard. " Why, her fingers are busy with 
 fancy work as she sits beside her sister's hammock, 
 and she can't even go to the woods without collect- 
 ing pine-needles for a sofa-cushion. However, it 
 doesn't concern me." 
 
 But he kept on wondering just the same, until
 
 104 Delightful Dodd 
 
 it dawned on him that it must be time for church 
 to be dismissed, and he looked at his watch. 
 
 " The service ought to be over by this time," 
 he remarked. 
 
 Dodd slowly roused himself from his own little 
 reverie until he was able to grasp the import of what 
 Leonard had said. 
 
 " No whistle yet," he returned. 
 
 " But the boat may be late," said Leonard. 
 
 " The boat is late," replied Dodd. 
 
 " Do you really mean to say that he'll preach until 
 he hears the whistle?" 
 
 " If he can." 
 
 "And if he can't?" 
 
 " He'll piece out with prayer. You see, it has 
 become so much a matter of custom to have the 
 boat whistle end the service that he just naturally 
 doesn't know when to stop without it. It's an illus- 
 tration of the way habit clutches and holds us. 
 Or you might say that he's a sort of religious engi- 
 neer : keeps full steam ahead until he gets the sig- 
 nal to back up. Sometimes I've thought it might 
 be a good idea to sue the steamboat company for 
 the dinners that are spoiled when the boat is late. 
 There have been times when Mrs. Dodd and vari- 
 ous other housewives would cheerfully have drowned
 
 The Sermon and the Whistle 105 
 
 the captain, although he's usually on time or a little 
 ahead of it." 
 
 Meanwhile there was restlessness in the church, 
 for Dodd had not greatly exaggerated conditions. 
 A summer congregation at Old Mission could no 
 more be held after the steamer's whistle was heard 
 than could a stampeded herd of cattle, and, as the 
 steamer usually came in about the time the service 
 ended, the minister had learned to give the same 
 attention to it that the congregation did. Indeed, 
 having had to cut his closing sentences on a few 
 occasions, he had unconsciously acquired the habit 
 of hurrying a little in order that the steamer might 
 not beat him to the finish. Thus the whistle had 
 become a sort of guide. 
 
 But to-day the boat was late. The minister 
 preached and listened. Usually there came to him 
 faintly over the water a first whistle, to which those 
 of the congregation who heard it paid no attention, 
 but there was just time between this and the whistle, 
 as the boat approached the dock, for the closing 
 prayer. He was waiting for this whistle, but it 
 did not come, and he was like a man who had lost 
 his reckoning in the woods. He wandered anx- 
 iously and uncertainly through the rhetorical forest, 
 listening ever for the sound that would show him 
 the way out. On and on he wandered, while his
 
 106 Delightful Dodd 
 
 listeners stirred uneasily and looked at their watches, 
 until he found that he was going over the same 
 trail twice. Then he stopped abruptly, abandoned 
 his sermon and began to pray. But here again he 
 was lost. There seemed no way to stop without 
 the customary signal, so strong is habit, although, 
 if he had looked over his congregation, he might 
 have seen that every head was turned so that the 
 whistle could not escape the waiting ear. He 
 prayed for the congregation, for himself, for Old 
 Mission, for Peninsula County, for the State of 
 Michigan, for the lake sailors, for the United States, 
 for North America, and 
 
 The whistle was heard. Loud and clear it came 
 to the weary and restless worshippers, showing that 
 the boat was approaching the dock and the prelim- 
 inary whistle had not been heard. 
 
 " Amen ! " said the parson, quickly, and a great, 
 combined sigh of relief went up. 
 
 " I have always feared some such tragedy as 
 this," said Dodd, as they drove home, " andT have 
 thought some of suggesting that an imitation steam- 
 er's whistle be put on the dock, in order that no 
 serious consequences ashore would follow an acci- 
 dent to the boat. As matters are now, one runs 
 a great risk."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THREE LETTERS 
 
 LEONARD had decided that in one thing Miss 
 Marsden was right a man really ought to have 
 some occupation. It need not be a very engrossing 
 occupation, but the days should not be entirely ob- 
 jectless. Consequently, Leonard took upon himself 
 the duty of meeting the mail-carrier every after- 
 noon. There really was no reason why any one 
 should meet the mail-carrier, for, under the rural 
 free delivery system, every family has a mail-box, 
 nailed to a post at the side of the road, where the 
 mail may be left until it is convenient for some one 
 to come from the house to get it. But it gave Leon- 
 ard a little interest in life to feel that there was 
 a certain thing to do at a certain time, so he strolled 
 down to the road and waited in the shade of a tree 
 
 107
 
 108 Delightful Dodd 
 
 for the " R. F. D. man," as the carrier was desig- 
 nated. 
 
 He was comfortably settled here one afternoon, 
 when Dodd drove along on his way to see a neigh- 
 bour about a little business matter. 
 
 " Whoa ! " said Dodd to his horse, and, when 
 the latter had stopped, he leaned over with the air 
 of a man having a serious purpose in view. 
 
 " Waiting for the mail ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes," replied Leonard. 
 
 " While you have been waiting for the mail day 
 after day," said Dodd, " did you ever stop to think 
 how many thousands of miles of travel the rural 
 free delivery system saves the farmers of the coun- 
 try?" 
 
 Leonard gasped at the magnitude of the problem 
 thus suddenly presented to him. 
 
 " Never," he replied at last. 
 
 " I supposed not," said Dodd. " There are few 
 people who know how to be entertaining to them- 
 selves. Now, in my own case, I figure that I used 
 to travel 1,800 miles a year to get my mail before 
 we had the rural free delivery, because we had a 
 good deal of mail, and went for it more regularly 
 than some of the others. On the other hand, there 
 were many who had a much greater distance to 
 go, so very likely it would average up to at least
 
 Three Letters 109 
 
 1,500 miles a year for each family in the whole 
 district. For a hundred families that would mean 
 150,000 miles a year. But, while most of our trips 
 were made for the mail, we had to make occasional 
 trips for supplies, and these we still have to make. 
 Possibly one in every four of the old trips are still 
 necessary, leaving only three saved, or about 112,- 
 ooo miles a year. But that is only for a very small 
 district, right about here. Just extend your district 
 from the lighthouse to Traverse v City, and you'll 
 have some figures that are really interesting, and 
 yet it takes only two carriers to cover the whole 
 peninsula. Having finished the peninsula, a little 
 investigation would give you an excellent basis on 
 which to estimate the saving in the State of Mich- 
 igan, and from that " 
 
 " Whoa ! Back up ! " cried Leonard. " Do you 
 want me to drown myself in a sea of figures ? " 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " I merely wanted to give 
 you a little entertainment. You'll find statistics as 
 to rural population in my office library, and it ought 
 not to be difficult to learn the limits of the rural free 
 delivery system. Then you will have the basis of 
 an enjoyable mental occupation that will keep you 
 from being lonely all summer. I don't like to see 
 people getting rusty." 
 
 Dodd touched the horse with the whip, and a
 
 HO Delightful Dodd 
 
 moment later was jogging along down the road, 
 while Leonard looked after him in wonder. 
 
 " I'll bet you never get rusty," mused Leonard, 
 and then it occurred to him that there was some- 
 thing pathetic in this old fellow, with his active 
 mind and the wreck of his plans, struggling with 
 his hands to keep things going. It was the more 
 sympathy-compelling because of Dodd's cheerful- 
 ness in the face of worries and conditions that could 
 not fail to be exceptionally trying to him ; he never 
 complained; there was no bitterness in his heart; 
 and yet the very problems that he devised and solved 
 showed a mind that was ever seeking to escape the 
 restrictions entailed by existing conditions. 
 
 " He's the only one of the kind," laughed Leon- 
 ard ; " the model was lost. But there are few men 
 in this world who could bow to adverse fate and 
 accept disheartening conditions as gracefully as he 
 does. I rather think he's more of a hero than some 
 of the men the poets have sung about." 
 
 The appearance of the mail-cart in the distance 
 stopped these meditations, and Leonard walked 
 along the road to meet it. Receiving the Dodd 
 mail, he sorted out the letters that were for him- 
 self and put the rest in his pockets. His own letters 
 he read as he walked back to the house. 
 
 The first was from a lawyer, who had been his
 
 Three Letters 1 1 1 
 
 father's intimate friend and his own adviser and 
 representative in all business matters. He merely 
 glanced at this envelope and then put it under the 
 others. 
 
 " Business ! " he soliloquized. " Alvord never 
 writes on anything but business. Let it wait" 
 
 The next envelope was addressed in a feminine 
 hand. 
 
 "Now, what does Edith want?" he went on. 
 " Is it my income or me or just a little amuse- 
 ment?" 
 
 Edith was a " butterfly of fashion " a girl who 
 had been taught that her mission in life was to use 
 such charms as nature and society had given her 
 to capture the largest income within reach, taking 
 with it such incumbrance in the way of a man as 
 might be necessary. She was pretty, vivacious, and 
 mercenary, but, aside from matrimony, it is prob- 
 able that she never had had a serious thought. 
 Leonard had flirted with her after an idle fashion, 
 there being a feeling that the flirtation might drift 
 into something serious. It had been a sort of spar- 
 ring for time, while each looked to see what other 
 opportunities there might be. It would have taken 
 very little to have made what society would have 
 termed " a brilliant match " of it at that time, but 
 somehow they had parted still undecided, and the
 
 112 Delightful Dodd 
 
 flirtation had resulted only in a correspondence that 
 made anything or nothing a future possibility. 
 
 In the letter he was addressed as " My dear 
 Hermit," and upbraided for hiding himself away 
 from all the people worth knowing. She was writ- 
 ing, she said, in their favourite woodland nook of 
 the summer before, which was the next best thing 
 to having him there. Then she told him how much 
 gayer it was than the summer before, and what 
 splendid opportunities there were for enjoyment, 
 boating, dances, drives, tennis, golf, swimming, 
 woodland walks, and about everything else in the 
 line of pleasurable occupation. All in all, her letter 
 was an indirect but unmistakable invitation to come 
 to her. 
 
 He tore it up, with an impatient exclamation. A 
 short time before he would have gone, glad of the 
 chance to renew the flirtation at close range and 
 under such favourable auspices. But it annoyed 
 him now. She led such an utterly useless and ob- 
 jectless life. So did he, for that matter, but 
 well, he had grown weary of it and was going to 
 do something. Not just then, but some day. Of 
 course he would begin right away if he only knew 
 what to attempt, but there wasn't much to do in the 
 summer, anyway. Still, admitting his own short- 
 comings, he looked at Edith from an entirely differ-
 
 Three Letters 113 
 
 ent view-point now, and she did not please him as 
 she had done before. His ideal, although hazy, 
 had changed; it was not enough that a woman 
 should be pretty, dress well, and entertain cleverly. 
 
 The third letter was from a Chicago friend, who 
 told him he was making the mistake of his life in 
 searching for pleasure elsewhere. " Nothing doing 
 here but fun," he wrote. " Two summer extrava- 
 ganzas running, lots of pretty girls, and no one left 
 in town to criticize you for anything you may choose 
 to do. Cool evenings for drives and lively times 
 at the summer gardens. Just enough of the right 
 kind of men at the clubs to make things interesting. 
 Better comb the hay out of your hair and come 
 back to life." 
 
 Leonard tore this letter up, also. He realized 
 that the conditions pictured ought to prove alluring, 
 but they did not. He was somewhat surprised to 
 find that he preferred to stay at Old Mission. True, 
 he had planned to spend most of the summer there, 
 telling himself that he was weary of the livelier and 
 more worldly pleasures, but the plans he made for 
 the summer were usually abandoned by the first of 
 July, and he acted on impulse thereafter. Yet this 
 time he was sticking to a very prosaic programme. 
 
 " Why should I give myself the bother of mak-
 
 114 Delightful Dodd 
 
 ing a change?" he mused, with a laugh. "It's 
 easier to stay here." 
 
 He took the rest of the mail to the house, and 
 then settled himself in a hammock to read the law- 
 yer's letter. 
 
 " Dreadful bore," he thought. " Alvord's always 
 criticizing the management of the bank, but it was 
 good enough for father, and I don't know where 
 I could get as good returns on the money invested." 
 
 He overlooked the fact that his father, in his 
 lifetime, had been an officer of the bank, and con- 
 sequently in a position to protect his investment, 
 but this was suddenly impressed upon him when he 
 read the letter. The bank had failed. 
 
 " You will recall," Alvord wrote, " that I always 
 advised against carrying all your eggs in one basket. 
 I did not think it wise even in your father's case, 
 and it was a much greater risk after his death. 
 However, nothing is to be gained by taking up that 
 question now. The bank is closed, and its affairs 
 are reported to be in a very serious condition, owing 
 to erratic and reckless management and the effort 
 on the part of one of its officers (now supposed to 
 be headed for some South American country) to 
 get rich in a hurry. It is impossible, at this writing, 
 to say how far the assets will go toward covering 
 the liabilities, but it is my personal opinion that the
 
 Three Letters 115 
 
 depositors will get little and the stockholders noth- 
 ing. This, however, is a mere surmise. It will 
 be some time before the receiver is able to make 
 a report, and he may find things in much better 
 condition than now seems probable. But, at best, 
 you must expect to stand a very considerable loss. 
 As your presence will in no way improve the sit- 
 uation, I see no reason why you should return to 
 the city at this time, as I shall watch matters, and 
 can send for you whenever your interests require 
 it. I presume you have enough cash for current 
 expenses. If not, you may draw on me for what 
 you need. As a depositor, you will get something 
 in time, even if you get nothing as a stockholder; 
 but, taking the liberty of an old friend of your 
 father's, I would suggest that you give some thought 
 this summer to the question of a business occupa- 
 tion, for I tell you frankly that you are pretty cer- 
 tain to need one. I shall be glad to give you any 
 assistance I can when you have reached a decision, 
 but of course there are practically no opportunities 
 during the hot months. That is why I suggest that 
 you might as well stay where you are unless you 
 hear from me to the contrary." 
 
 The suddenness and severity of the blow dazed 
 Leonard. His predicament was even more serious 
 than the lawyer supposed, for he had little cash with
 
 Il6 Delightful Dodd 
 
 him and his bank-account was carried in the col- 
 lapsed institution. This was now beyond his reach, 
 at least temporarily. And he, whose sole activities 
 up to date had been in the line of college athletics, 
 golf, and polo, was confronted with the task of earn- 
 ing his own living. There might be enough saved 
 from the wreck to help a little, but even that was 
 doubtful. 
 
 He was too dazed to think connectedly. Sitting 
 in the hammock, still holding the letter in his hand, 
 he looked vacantly into space, while his mind 
 jumped from one thing to another. Then he got 
 up and walked down into the woods toward Ter- 
 race Cottage, and somehow the walking seemed 
 to clear his head a little. What should he do? 
 What could he do? He had had a good education, 
 but no practical experience in any line ; he had been 
 an idler. Fortunately, he thought, the college grad- 
 uate was more in demand than ever before; busi- 
 ness men were beginning to realize that, all else 
 being equal, the college man had a better founda- 
 tion for success than the one who began business 
 earlier, and the great corporations had reached the 
 point of actually favouring him. This he had read, 
 and he had also seen something of it. He knew 
 that one fellow, in needy circumstances, had been 
 engaged almost at the door of the university, and
 
 Three Letters 117 
 
 he had been advanced rapidly. He had to begin 
 low, but his college training told very quickly; he 
 was what business men called " good material," 
 capable of understanding and of thinking for him- 
 self, as soon as a little of his self-consciousness and 
 conceit had been rubbed off. And, counting from 
 the day of his graduation, Leonard had lost only 
 two or three years. Why could not he, starting a 
 little later, do as well as others ? He had the health 
 and the strength and the mental ability, if only he 
 could decide how to apply them. It would be rather 
 difficult to come down to a small salary basis of 
 living, but surely he could do it, if only he could 
 find the occupation that promised something. 
 
 " I'll go back to the city at once," he decided. 
 Then he recalled what Alvord had said, and the 
 reason of it was apparent to him. Opportunities 
 were few and far between during the summer 
 months, and living in the city would be more costly 
 than living on the farm. The friends who might 
 help him were nearly all away, and business was 
 at a low ebb. Men were discharged rather than 
 employed at such a season. It would be better to 
 wait until there was a need of willing workers and 
 a chance to reach those in authority, now away 
 on vacations. In the meanwhile, he might write to 
 some of those whom he could reasonably expect
 
 Ii8 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to be friendly to him, explain the situation, and 
 inform them that any honourable employment, hav- 
 ing something of promise for the future in it, would 
 be acceptable to him. His father had had many 
 business friends who would surely do what they 
 could to give or get employment for the son, and 
 some of these he himself knew quite well. 
 
 " But," he argued, " the fellow who expects to 
 do well in any kind of a new stunt has to go into 
 training. Work is going to be a new stunt for me, 
 and the harder the training I get this summer, the 
 better the record I will be able to make next fall. 
 I ought to go back now, get any old job there is, 
 and train myself for the real business that is to 
 follow. I've got to get used to the restrictions and 
 the office hours and the monotony before I'll be 
 of any use at all. Besides, I can't stay here, for 
 I haven't the money, and I certainly don't like the 
 idea of borrowing any from Alvord. It will have 
 to come out of the little that's saved from the wreck 
 of the bank, and the smaller the inroads I make into 
 that, the better for me. If I've got to earn a living 
 or part of a living, I can't begin to practise the 
 stunt any too soon." 
 
 Leonard was waking up, although he did not 
 fully appreciate the fact. He had the energy, he 
 had the ability, he had the courage, but all had been
 
 Three Letters 119 
 
 dormant. After the first shock of the news, he had 
 spent no time in repining; he had been bewildered 
 and uncertain, but he gave his thought to the future 
 rather than the past. The circumstances were such 
 that he needed to be forced, to have a difficult and 
 necessary task ahead of him. 
 
 " I've got to do something while waiting," he 
 said. "If there's nothing here, why " 
 
 He stopped short in his walk. 
 
 " Great thunder! " he exclaimed. " They're just 
 crying for help here, and where can I go into train- 
 ing for work better than on a farm! I've got to 
 practise working just plain working at anything 
 and I'll bet Dodd would rather have a farm-hand 
 than a boarder. I'll hunt him up." 
 
 He turned back and seemed almost cheerful as 
 he walked rapidly to the house. It was something 
 to have solved the first incidental problem of the 
 new situation ; it was also something to have solved 
 it so that he did not have to leave Dodd's farm 
 immediately, but he did not tell himself why a solu- 
 tion that kept him here was especially pleasing to 
 him. Perhaps he did not reason it out. 
 
 But Leonard's walk and manner had changed 
 completely within the space of a few hours : he had 
 really waked up, or perhaps it would be better to 
 say that he had been awakened.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LEONARD GOES INTO TRAINING 
 
 DODD was sitting on the porch, placidly smoking 
 a cigar when Leonard found him. Standing in the 
 house drive was a horse and wagon, evidently the 
 property of a man who was talking excitedly to 
 Dodd. The man, approaching the porch, gesticu- 
 lated wildly, while Dodd's interest seemed to be 
 centred in his cigar. 
 
 "We did the work, didn't we?" demanded the 
 man. 
 
 Dodd nodded. 
 
 " Well, I want my money," the man declared. 
 
 " And I want my jackscrew," said Dodd. 
 
 " I don't know anything about your jackscrew ! " 
 asserted the man. 
 
 " Then you'd better find out something about it," 
 said Dodd, pleasantly. 
 
 " There's an old, unclaimed jackscrew down at 
 High's place, below Neahtawanta," the man sug- 
 gested.
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 121 
 
 " That isn't mine," returned Dodd. " My jack- 
 screw wasn't an old one." 
 
 " Oh, this is a good jackscrew, all right enough," 
 said the man. " I didn't mean old in the sense 
 that it is useless." 
 
 " I suppose," remarked Dodd, thoughtfully, 
 " that the job at High's was the last one you had 
 to do on the peninsula." 
 
 "What makes you think that?" demanded the 
 man. 
 
 " Because you wouldn't have been thoughtless 
 enough to leave my jackscrew behind if you had 
 had any further use for it." 
 
 " Oh, devil take the old jackscrew, anyway ! " 
 exclaimed the man. " I haven't got time to bother 
 with it. I want the cash for repairing your wind- 
 mill." 
 
 " And I want my jackscrew," persisted Dodd, 
 still placidly smoking. 
 
 " I've told you where it is," said the man. 
 
 " But it isn't here," said Dodd. 
 
 " Do you expect me to go for it ? " the man asked, 
 angrily. 
 
 " No; oh, no," replied Dodd. " Since I've lived 
 on this peninsula I've learned not to expect anybody 
 to return anything of mine. We'll just call the
 
 122 Delightful Dodd 
 
 jackscrew yours, and you give me a receipt for the 
 windmill job." 
 
 " What ! " the man fairly yelled. 
 
 " Oh, suit yourself," said Dodd, conciliatorily. 
 " If you'd rather return the jackscrew and get cash 
 for the job, it's all the same to me." 
 
 " You have to drive to Neahtawanta every little 
 while," urged the man, " and you can get it your- 
 self." 
 
 " I can," admitted Dodd, " but I won't." Thus 
 far he had spoken as if the matter were one that 
 did not interest him particularly, but now he put 
 a little more earnestness into his tone and manner. 
 " I naturally supposed that you had your own equip- 
 ment for your own work, although my experience 
 in Michigan ought to have taught me better, but 
 you needed a jackscrew, and I provided one. Then 
 one of your men wanted to borrow the jackscrew, 
 to use on the job over at Ben Tainter's place. It 
 seemed to me that I had done my share in providing 
 tools for the job I was paying for, but I let him 
 have the jackscrew. Of course, he was going to 
 return it. Well, I waited a week, and then I went 
 over to Tainter's. Your men had gone on to Sib- 
 ley's, taking the jackscrew with them. I drove 
 to Sibley's the next day, but they had moved along 
 to Gregg's. Then I quit. You see," confidentially,
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 123 
 
 " I've pretty near reached the limit on this borrow- 
 ing business. I've been wondering ever since I got 
 up here what the people did before we came. Why, 
 when I want to do a little work in my garden, it's 
 more than an even chance that I'll have to walk 
 or drive two or three miles to get the garden tools 
 some neighbour borrowed a week before. I'm 
 keeping one ice-cream freezer just to loan now. 
 We brought one with us when we came, but we 
 never could keep it with us after the neighbours 
 heard about it, and we got so tired chasing it up 
 that we bought another for our own use." 
 
 " Don't the neighbours get that one, too? " asked 
 Leonard, breaking into a conversation that had been 
 sufficiently amusing to divert his mind from his 
 own troubles. 
 
 Dodd winked solemnly. 
 
 " The neighbours don't know about it," he ex- 
 plained. " When one of them comes to borrow our 
 freezer, I just say : ' Why, certainly. Glad to let 
 you have it. Just run right over to Tainter's, and 
 tell him to let you take it.' I've been loaning that 
 old freezer right along for three years since I last 
 saw it. It never gets home any more, and I keep 
 track of it in a little book, so that I can always tell 
 where to send the next man who wants it. But," 
 he added, turning suddenly on the windmill man,
 
 124 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " the freezer is the limit ; I'm not going to buy 
 another jackscrew just to be clever to windmill 
 men." 
 
 " I'll sue you for the bill," the man threatened. 
 
 " And I'll have you arrested for larceny as 
 bailee," returned Dodd, with perfect good humour. 
 " That will liven things up a bit, and some of the 
 boarders have been complaining that it's pretty dull 
 here." 
 
 The windmill man was angry, but he knew that 
 this quiet, whimsical old fellow had the best of 
 him. 
 
 " If I bring the jackscrew back, will you pay 
 me ? " he asked. 
 
 " You bring it back," said Dodd, " and, if it's 
 mine and in good condition, and you say . ' Thank 
 you ' or ' Much obliged/ or something else to show 
 that you can appreciate clever treatment, I'll pay 
 your bill." 
 
 The man did not know whether to be angry or 
 not. The words seemed harsh, but the tone and 
 manner were mild and conciliatory. 
 
 " But if you're not polite about it," added Dodd, 
 gently reproving, " I shall have to charge you 
 rental for the time you have had the jackscrew." 
 
 The windmill man seemed on the point of ex- 
 ploding, but he finally turned to his wagon without
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 125 
 
 a word. His experience with Dodd had not been 
 such as to encourage him to any further effort. 
 
 " I hate to do that," said Dodd, turning to Leon- 
 ard, " but it's for his own good, as we say when 
 we reprove children, and, besides, I want the jack- 
 screw." 
 
 Leonard smiled, and then reverted to his own 
 troubles. 
 
 " Mr. Dodd," he said, " you need more help here, 
 don't you?" 
 
 Dodd leaned over and caught Leonard by the 
 arm, speaking with humourously impressive ear- 
 nestness. 
 
 " Have you found a man ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Wait ! " said Dodd, rising. " I'll get out the 
 old double-barrelled shotgun that scatters over an 
 entire county, and we'll put this fellow to work, 
 or fix him so that he won't sit down all summer. 
 It's loaded with rock salt." 
 
 " It isn't necessary in this case," returned Leon- 
 ard. " The man wants to go to work for you." 
 
 " I like fairy-tales in their proper place," said 
 Dodd, ruefully, " but I don't like to have them 
 put forward as facts." 
 
 " This is not a fairy-tale, Mr. Dodd," asserted 
 Leonard, earnestly. " I am the man, and I want
 
 126 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to go to work on the farm. I don't know much 
 about the work, but I'll do my best." 
 
 Dodd looked at him quizzically. 
 
 " Well, now, I've had people with all kinds of 
 whims here," he remarked ; " I've had people who 
 wanted occupation of one kind or another, but never 
 before one who wanted a useful occupation. Don't 
 you know it's bad form to tackle anything that's 
 more than just exercise in the vacation season? 
 If you must work to be happy, try something in 
 the line of sport, but don't upset the whole theory 
 of civilization by making yourself useful." 
 
 " I'm in earnest, Mr. Dodd," Leonard persisted. 
 
 " Who would have thought," said Dodd, mus- 
 ingly, " that one useful woman could have so quickly 
 made a useful man ! " 
 
 " You misunderstand the situation entirely," re- 
 turned Leonard, flushing. " It is not a whim, but 
 a necessity. I've got to go to work at something. 
 The bank has busted." 
 
 Dodd's manner changed instantly. 
 
 " The bank in which your money is invested ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " That's it," replied Leonard. " I don't know 
 how much will be saved from the wreck, but there's 
 no more idleness for me." 
 
 " You are discouraged," said Dodd, kindly. " It
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 127 
 
 has come so suddenly that it has upset you, or you 
 never would talk of going to work on a farm. 
 There are other opportunities for a man of your 
 ability and energy. Take time for thought before 
 deciding on a course of action." 
 
 " While I am thinking," said Leonard, " why 
 should I not have a temporary occupation? It 
 seems to me advisable to stay here for the pres- 
 ent." 
 
 " Let us go to my little old study and talk it 
 over," Dodd advised, taking him by the arm. " If 
 you will permit me, I shall be glad to advise you. 
 I have some financial knowledge, you know, as a 
 result of my earlier experience, and it would seem 
 to me that your affairs may need your personal 
 attention." 
 
 This was said with a gentleness and courtesy 
 that made Leonard feel that he had found a real 
 friend, sympathetic, tactful, wise. 
 
 They went to the little study where Dodd had 
 his desk, long unused, and his reference books, and 
 there Leonard explained the situation and produced 
 Alvord's letter. 
 
 " This Alvord is a man that you can trust im- 
 plicitly?" asked Dodd. 
 
 " Oh, unquestionably," replied Leonard. 
 
 " Then it seems to me that you cannot do better
 
 128 Delightful Dodd 
 
 than to follow his advice and stay here," said Dodd. 
 " But why should you go to work on the farm? " 
 
 " I have told you that I have practically no money 
 left, for one thing." 
 
 " I do not see how that affects the situation at 
 all," returned Dodd. " We all take pleasure in do- 
 ing things for our friends." 
 
 " But I am only a boarder a summer boarder, 
 and " 
 
 " Friendships," interrupted Dodd, " are of uncer- 
 tain growth. One may learn to know a friend in 
 a single night, or it may take years. We have seen 
 a good deal of each other in the short time you 
 have been here, and I have hoped to count you as 
 something more than a boarder." 
 
 This was so unexpected, and real sympathy so 
 strongly affects one in the moment of adversity, 
 that Leonard felt a little moisture in his eyes, as 
 he impulsively took Dodd's hand. 
 
 " Besides," Dodd added, before Leonard could 
 speak, " there should be a bond of fellowship in 
 the fact that both our banks have gone to the same 
 hell." 
 
 The transition was so sudden that it forced a 
 laugh from Leonard, which was just what Dodd 
 wished. It is so awkward to be thanked by a man 
 who feels deeply.
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 129 
 
 "Why hell?" asked Leonard. 
 
 " That's where bad banks must go," said Dodd, 
 " and a bank that fails must be a bad one. I only 
 wish I'd known of the departure of yours in time 
 to send a message to mine. I'd like to know whether 
 the receiver went there with it. If he did, it would 
 take away some of the bitterness." 
 
 " Before I can thank you," said Leonard, " you 
 have me laughing, and before I'm through laugh- 
 ing you again have my heart rilled with gratitude. 
 But really, Mr. Dodd, I can't remain here as a 
 guest. I want to go to work. I want to move out 
 to the quarters of the other hands, and show that 
 I'm the real thing. If you won't consent to that, 
 I shall have to go/' 
 
 "Why?" asked Dodd, simply. 
 
 " Because," replied Leonard, as he recalled his 
 own argument to himself, " I want to go into train- 
 ing. I don't know how to work ; I'm not in proper 
 physical or mental condition for continued effort 
 in one line, and I want to put myself in such con- 
 dition before I return to the city and take up busi- 
 ness. Any regular work will be helpful. But we 
 won't call it work, if that seems to put a doubt on 
 your friendship; we'll say that I'm going into 
 training for the most important athletic feat of 
 my life, and that you're going to be my trainer.
 
 130 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Surely you can't refuse to accept the position of 
 trainer." 
 
 " You put it very cleverly," said Dodd, with a 
 smile, " and I'll have to admit that there is a good 
 deal of truth in what you say. A habit of work is 
 mighty valuable. So I'll take you on as one of the 
 hands, but you'll keep your present room and " 
 
 " I'll do nothing of the kind," interrupted Leon- 
 ard, decisively. " I'm going to be a farm-hand, live 
 with the farm-hands, and eat with the farm-hands. 
 I can't live on one plan and work on the other; I 
 can't come to your guests' table in my farm clothes, 
 and they would shy off from me when I met them 
 in the halls. A man coming in from the fields has 
 no business mixing up with them until he has 
 changed his clothes. And the hours of the meals 
 are different. I'm in earnest, Mr. Dodd; I'm not 
 going into this for play, and I don't want to be 
 put in the position of seeming to do it that way. 
 In fact, I'll go back to the city first, taking with 
 me a most grateful memory of what will seem to 
 me your misapplied generosity." 
 
 Dodd was sorely troubled. His was a generous 
 nature that made him wish to help any one who 
 was unfortunate, and he was the more anxious to 
 do so in this case because there was much in Leon- 
 ard that he really liked. The young man seemed
 
 Leonard Goes into Training 131 
 
 to understand, appreciate, and like him, and Dodd 
 had talked more freely with him than with any one 
 else who had been to the farm in several years. 
 They had enjoyed each other's company in a quiet 
 way, and had been together as much as circum- 
 stances would permit. Consequently, the idea of 
 sending the young man to the men's quarters dis- 
 tressed Dodd, although he perfectly understood the 
 other's point of view. 
 
 " It shall be as you wish," he said, finally, " al- 
 though I shall regret to lose you from the main 
 house. I'll turn you over to the head man to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " With instructions to treat me like any other 
 farm-hand ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And pay me what I'm worth, not a cent 
 more? " 
 
 " No more and no less." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Dodd. You can show your 
 friendship in no way that I will appreciate more." 
 
 " But there is one stipulation I would like to 
 make," said Dodd. 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " It is a favour to me," explained Dodd, with 
 that natural courtesy that was one of his greatest 
 charms. " I would like to have as much of your
 
 132 Delightful Dodd 
 
 company as you can conveniently give me without 
 interfering 1 with your work. I shall hope to have 
 you as my guest at the main house all day Sunday 
 and any and all evenings that you are not too tired. 
 If you will grant me this much, I will agree to leave 
 you entirely to the mercies of the head farmer in 
 all matters of work." 
 
 They shook hands on the bargain, and each 
 thought the better of the other for it. As a matter 
 of self-respect, the young man wished to stand on 
 his own merits, and Dodd had delicately recognized 
 this when he agreed to leave him absolutely to the 
 head farmer. 
 
 " There's something to that fellow," said Dodd 
 to himself. 
 
 And Leonard, on his part, saw how cleverly 
 Dodd had made so much of a guest of him as was 
 possible, and clothed it all in the pleasing fiction 
 of a favour to himself. 
 
 " A finer man never lived," was the way Leonard 
 put it in his musings. " I wish I could show how 
 strongly I feel that."
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A GENERAL MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Miss MARSDEN was an- 
 noyed to find that she was 
 disappointed in Leonard. She 
 told herself that there was no 
 reason why she should have 
 any feeling one way or an- 
 other, but she was distinctly 
 disappointed. He was clever, 
 entertaining 1 , and very manly 
 in appearance, but that was not 
 enough. A man of energy 
 and purpose was needed to 
 command her respect, and she had begun to think 
 that there was something of this back of his indo- 
 lence. He had talked of doing something, and 
 then he had gone to work on the farm. 
 
 " So childishly theatrical and absurd ! " she com- 
 mented.
 
 134 Delightful Dodd 
 
 For it seemed to Jessie Marsden that Leonard 
 was making this a part of an attempted flirtation. 
 By nature and the necessities of her previous life 
 she was industrious herself; she believed in work; 
 she had expressed an admiration for men who 
 worked, and intimated a certain contempt for idlers. 
 So he had ostentatiously gone to work as a farm- 
 hand. 
 
 Miss Marsden was not ordinarily egotistical, but 
 in this case the circumstances certainly seemed to 
 warrant her conclusion. Leonard had made one 
 or two amusing attempts to do a little work as 
 a divertisement, and had failed. He had shown a 
 very decided liking for her society and a consid- 
 erable interest in her views of life and work. She 
 had rather hoped, without putting the hope in 
 words, that he would really prove his worth; in 
 fact, she had expected him to do so. And she was 
 disappointed. He had been unable to rise above 
 a silly and spectacular thing, the main point being, 
 apparently, that it should be done under her eyes. 
 
 " I thought there was more to him than that," 
 she mused, " and yet, why should I ? And what 
 difference does it make? If he chooses to be ridic- 
 ulous, let him. I hate people who pose for effect ! " 
 
 Incidentally, Mrs. Congrove made matters worse. 
 Mrs. Congrove had improved considerably during
 
 A General Misunderstanding 135 
 
 their stay at Old Mission, and, while still preferring 
 to be alone with her sister most of the time, their 
 walks and talks and the occasional companionship 
 of Dodd and Leonard had aroused her to an inter- 
 est in the things happening about her, a condi- 
 tion of affairs for which Miss Marsden was striv- 
 ing. So she had not failed to notice the seemingly 
 extraordinary course pursued by Leonard. 
 
 " Jessie," she said, " you certainly have a mission 
 in life that I never suspected. You ought to devote 
 yourself to the task of getting lazy people to work. 
 Why, you had me sorting cherries, and now you've 
 got Mr. Leonard in overalls." 
 
 " What have I to do with that ? " asked Jessie, 
 innocently. 
 
 " Why, your industry and your views have made 
 him ashamed of himself. He's doing it for you." 
 
 " I hope not," returned Jessie, with an irritable- 
 ness that was unusual. " It's no compliment that 
 a girl should inspire a man to make a fool of him- 
 self." 
 
 " Why, Jessie, that's the average girl's mission in 
 life," protested Mrs. Congrove. " They're always 
 leading men to do just that thing." 
 
 " I disclaim all responsibility in this case," in- 
 sisted Jessie. 
 
 " You can't," asserted Mrs. Congrove. " What
 
 136 Delightful Dodd 
 
 else could possibly have put him to work in this 
 romantic way ? " 
 
 " Idiotic way ! " retorted Jessie. Strangely em- 
 phatic was Jessie in expressing her disapprobation. 
 Ordinarily she was very tolerant of what seemed to 
 her shortcomings in others. She had her own views, 
 but she seldom criticized individuals, although she 
 might find fault occasionally with tendencies and 
 customs. Yet there was a sense of personal vexa- 
 tion in this instance. " Let the boy alone," she 
 added, after a moment. " He wants to play farmer, 
 and why should we interfere with children at play? 
 If he isn't equal to a man's game, we can only be 
 sorry for him." 
 
 Mrs. Congrove looked at her sister and smiled. 
 She had found a method of teasing the ordinarily 
 imperturbable Jessie. - 
 
 Meanwhile, Leonard had entered upon his duties 
 with a great deal of enthusiasm. As a matter of 
 fact, Leonard did not yet fully appreciate his loss. 
 He never had cared for money, because he always 
 had had it; he had no ambition for great wealth, 
 and he never had been a spendthrift. Money rep- 
 resented only a certain amount of comfort and 
 pleasure. If he could have the comfort and pleas- 
 ure desired for the moment without money, why, 
 money ceased to be of any earthly importance. And
 
 A General Misunderstanding 137 
 
 just at this moment he was perfectly contented to 
 go to work on the farm, in fact, he was rather 
 pleased to have the excuse for doing so. He be- 
 lieved it would demonstrate an earnestness and 
 energy that he wished to show he possessed. It 
 never occurred to him that the fact that others 
 lacked knowledge of the reason for his action would 
 lead them to put a disagreeable interpretation upon 
 it, an interpretation that made him look silly. 
 With an instinctive dislike to having his private 
 affairs made the subject of idle gossip, he had 
 pledged Dodd to secrecy, and left the others to 
 speculate as to why he should go to work on the 
 farm. 
 
 " I guess he's going to write a book," said Dodd, 
 when questioned. " This is the age of realism, you 
 know, and a fellow has got to have the experiences 
 he gives his characters. But there are some writers 
 I could mention who do not seem to carry it far 
 enough." 
 
 " In what way ? " he was asked. 
 
 " Why, it would be a boon to humanity if they'd 
 have themselves killed in order to get a proper com- 
 prehension of the sensations. And then," he added, 
 " there are others who fail to make the most of 
 their opportunities. I've been expecting to have 
 some absconder put in the plea that he didn't want
 
 138 Delightful Dodd 
 
 the money, but was only after the feelings and 
 sensations of a hunted criminal, in order that he 
 might make his forthcoming book realistic. You 
 can put up ' the interests of art ' as an excuse for 
 almost anything these days." 
 
 But Leonard remained sublimely unconscious of 
 all this. It would be a mistake to say that he was 
 not greatly worried by thoughts of the future, but 
 he was not so greatly worried as most young men 
 would have been in his case, because the present 
 situation suited him reasonably well, and he never 
 had been accustomed to give much thought to the 
 future. In brief, he was rather proud of the way 
 he adapted himself to circumstances, and, since he 
 had solved the first problem that confronted him, 
 poverty had not seemed as serious a matter as it 
 had at first. The work was no more than a novel 
 vacation experience. He had worked as hard in 
 athletics, and had been much more uncomfortable 
 in camp. He was solemn, however, when he set- 
 tled down to write to the various business men 
 who might be of assistance to him. This brought 
 home to him the fact that he was not going to 
 be able to " break training," as he did after a foot- 
 ball game or a boat-race. Circumstances might 
 give zest to this preliminary practice, but it was 
 another thing to confront a complete and permanent
 
 A General Misunderstanding 139 
 
 change in his whole manner of life. After writing 
 the letters, explaining his situation and his needs, 
 and expressing a willingness to work hard at any- 
 thing that offered, he went for a long, moody walk 
 in the woods. But the next day he was again look- 
 ing on the bright side of the affair, and joking with 
 Ben Ackerman as if he hadn't a care in the world. 
 The work was a pretty serious strain on Leonard 
 at first. He was physically sound and strong, but 
 he was out of practice, and the exertion made his 
 muscles ache. Consequently, he was seen little at 
 the main house, being too tired to care for the 
 association of the boarders. He had occasional 
 chats with Dodd out at the barn or the carriage- 
 shed, and he learned to know something of Acker- 
 man, the man Dodd had captured in the road, and 
 who now had the next room to Leonard. In truth, 
 Leonard found Ackerman interesting. The man 
 was a Hercules without looking it, and as good- 
 natured as he was strong. He had made his repu- 
 tation with the other men by putting one long arm 
 around the arms and body of the strongest of them 
 and carrying him away as if he had been a child 
 caught up under its mother's arm, and he had 
 demonstrated his ability to handle bags and barrels 
 as no other farm-hand could. He was rough, good- 
 hearted, and faithful, the kind of a man who
 
 140 Delightful Dodd 
 
 would dare anything, d anything, for a friend. 
 And he had a great liking and admiration for Leon- 
 ard, and was, indeed, proud of the chance to asso- 
 ciate with him. The latter was a gentleman, but 
 unassuming. Ackerman's experience with so-called 
 gentlemen had given him the impression that they 
 were supercilious and patronizing. But Leonard 
 was unquestionably a gentleman, and he was com- 
 panionable and democratic. 
 
 So strong was Ackerman's liking and so sincere 
 his admiration that he gratefully accepted sugges- 
 tions from Leonard that he would have resented 
 in his own forceful way from another. 
 
 " If I had to eat with those people at the big 
 house," he told Leonard one day, " I'd throw a 
 fit. I wouldn't know what to do." 
 
 " It's not so important to know what to do as 
 to know what not to do," laughed Leonard. " If 
 you ever have to eat with them, you might begin 
 by not eating with your knife." 
 
 Leonard sat next to Ackerman at the men's table, 
 and the rash way the latter handled his knife was 
 really distressing. Others there were who were 
 somewhat careless, but they were not directly under 
 Leonard's eye, and they were not quite so fearless 
 of consequences. 
 
 " Say, it ain't the fashion to eat with the fingers,
 
 A General Misunderstanding 141 
 
 is it?" asked Ackerman. "I used to do that, but 
 I quit." 
 
 " Why not try the fork ? " suggested Leonard. 
 " Careless handling of the knife at table makes 
 some people nervous." 
 
 Ackerman, while not quarrelsome, did not take 
 kindly to criticism from most people, but he meekly 
 laid down both knife and fork and watched Leonard 
 for a few minutes. Then he tried to imitate him, 
 and thereafter he studied to handle his " tools," as 
 he called them, properly. No greater proof of ad- 
 miration and friendship could Ackerman give any 
 one, for thus eating ceased to be a pleasure to him. 
 In other ways, too, he imitated Leonard. 
 
 " I can't ever win," he said, " but I might as 
 well make a stagger at the real thing. I always 
 did wish I was a gentleman." 
 
 " To be a man a real man is a finer thing," 
 returned Leonard. " There are too many alleged 
 men who are merely male bipeds." 
 
 " I guess that's all right," said Ackerman, look- 
 ing puzzled, " but I don't jest get you." 
 
 But, in another quarter, Leonard found much 
 to trouble him. The first time he dined at the main 
 house he discovered that Miss Marsden was regard- 
 ing him with mild amusement. She asked him
 
 142 Delightful Dodd 
 
 about the farm work much as she would have asked 
 a child about its doll-house. 
 
 " It has been rumoured," she said, " that you are 
 writing a book, but I rather incline to the belief that 
 you are planning to go on the stage." 
 
 "Why so?" he asked. 
 
 " Oh, this going to work is so thrillingly dra- 
 matic," she answered. " Such nobleness would get 
 wild applause from the galleries." 
 
 " Then it is only you," he retorted, warmly, " who 
 has the right to work when and how you please." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " she answered. " Any one has a right 
 to strike an attitude and cry, * Behold ! I will prove 
 my worth by hoeing potatoes ! ' But it is difficult 
 to make a drama out of a comedy. Still, you may 
 learn to play the horny-handed son of toil well 
 enough to catch the galleries." 
 
 " I am sorry," he said, " that my present occu- 
 pation is too lowly to suit you." 
 
 Retiring to his room, Leonard muttered : " She 
 isn't as sincere as the flighty girls of fashion. They 
 at least make no pretence of ignoring station and 
 honouring work, while she Oh, I suppose she 
 made a mental reservation that the work must be 
 genteel." He laughed scornfully and somewhat 
 bitterly.
 
 A General Misunderstanding 143 
 
 Meanwhile, Mrs. Congrove was expressing her 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Why, Jessie Marsden ! " she exclaimed, " you're 
 just as capricious and inconsistent as any other girl ! 
 The idea of showing such resentment over a matter 
 that does not concern you ! " 
 
 " It was foolish," admitted Jessie, meekly. " I 
 don't understand why I did it myself. I think it 
 must be a little matter of personal pique because 
 my judgment was so much at fault. Perhaps I 
 really did hope that he would do something, not 
 merely pretend to do something." 
 
 Mrs. Congrove smiled knowingly. 
 
 " If you value the independence of spinsterhood, 
 perhaps it is a good thing for you that he has failed 
 to rise to the occasion," she said. 
 
 " Don't be silly, Grade," retorted Jessie. " I'll 
 ignore him so far as possible after this."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PROWESS OF ACKERMAN 
 
 THE weather conditions having given Leonard 
 and Ackerman a day off, and Dodd being in need 
 of certain things from Elk Rapids, the two men 
 offered to make the trip, and Dodd gladly consented. 
 So attired as to make rain a question of little mo- 
 ment to them, they hunted up Dodd for final in- 
 structions, and found him talking to the windmill 
 man. The jackscrew had just been returned. 
 
 " If I were a mean man," said Dodd, examining 
 it critically, " I'd charge you something. It's all 
 here, but it's had pretty hard usage, and won't last 
 me as long as it should." 
 
 ' You promised the money when I brought the 
 jackscrew back," said the windmill man, " and this 
 is the first time I've been able to get up here since." 
 
 " That arrangement of ours isn't outlawed by 
 the statute of limitations yet, is it ? " asked Dodd, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " No, it isn't," answered the man, who had no 
 144
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 145 
 
 sense of humour, and found Dodd simply inex- 
 plicable. 
 
 " Because," said Dodd, " I'd just as soon you'd 
 keep the jackscrew and let me off on the windmill 
 job." 
 
 " Well, I won't do it. You've given me enough 
 trouble already." 
 
 " Of course the jackscrew business was no annoy- 
 ance to me," remarked Dodd. " I made two trips 
 to get it, but I guess I needed the exercise. Is there 
 anything else? " 
 
 "What should there be?" 
 
 " I didn't know but you had forgotten some- 
 thing." 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Oh, all right." Dodd began to count out the 
 money, but he withheld the last five dollars of the 
 amount. 
 
 " Five dollars short," said the man. 
 
 " Oh, that's all right," returned Dodd. 
 
 " No, it isn't all right," the man asserted aggres- 
 sively. 
 
 Dodd toyed carelessly with a five-dollar bill, and 
 looked at the windmill man. 
 
 " Are you sure you haven't forgotten anything? " 
 he asked.
 
 146 Delightful Dodd 
 
 The man's mind reverted to their previous con- 
 versation, and his face got red. 
 
 " Oh, much obliged for the use of the jackscrew," 
 he said. 
 
 " Ah ! " remarked Dodd, handing over the bill. 
 " Now you see how truly it is said that politeness 
 pays." 
 
 When the man had gone, Dodd turned to Leonard 
 and said, with a deep, dismal sigh : " It is hard 
 to be schoolmaster to so large a class. But there 
 are so many who really need the lessons ! " 
 
 Then he told them what he wished them to get 
 at Elk Rapids, some supplies not to be had at 
 Old Mission, and they started. 
 
 Dodd offered to drive them to Old Mission, where 
 they took the boat across the bay, but they refused 
 to permit this. With big boots and mackintoshes 
 and old slouch hats, the rain and mud were matters 
 of no moment to them; in fact, there is some joy 
 in sloshing around when one is dressed for it. Be- 
 sides, they were doomed to a wetting, anyway. 
 But they Were tough-looking specimens when they 
 reached Old Mission, and it was not surprising 
 that people on the dock rather avoided them. On 
 the boat, too, they were left very much to them- 
 selves, although they could not fail to notice that 
 they were receiving considerable attention from a
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 147 
 
 distance. The other passengers stood about in little 
 groups, whispering and gesticulating. 
 
 Now, Ackerman had a code of ethics peculiarly 
 his own. He was ordinarily good-natured, and he 
 had been known to laugh at affronts that would 
 make another man fight, but he also had been known 
 to fight when another would have laughed. In the 
 Ackerman code it was the extreme of discourtesy 
 to make a stranger the object of whispered criti- 
 cisms or furtive glances, and intentional discour- 
 tesy was something to be resented quickly and 
 sharply. 
 
 "Think I'm the prize ox at a cattle show?" he 
 demanded, suddenly approaching one of the groups. 
 
 " Why, no," the man nearest to him replied, con- 
 ciliatorily. " We was jest wonderin' if you wasn't 
 strangers in these parts." 
 
 " We been here longer'n you think," retorted 
 Ackerman, whereat the men exchanged quick, mean- 
 ing glances that puzzled Leonard. " An' I guess 
 we're strong enough to stay till we get ready to go," 
 he added. "If anybody has any objections, I'll 
 stand him on his head." 
 
 " We didn't mean no harm," the stranger has- 
 tened to explain. " I s'pose you're goin' over to 
 see where the robbery was." 
 
 " What if we are ! " demanded Ackerman, al-
 
 148 Delightful Dodd 
 
 though he hadn't the faintest idea what the man 
 was talking about. 
 
 " Oh, we're all goin'," said the man. " Every- 
 body's goin' that can git away from work. It's 
 queer how those desperadoes got away so easy." 
 
 " It don't take much of a man to get away from 
 people up here," retorted Ackerman. Then, sud- 
 denly : " Look the other way ! We ain't a beauty 
 show!" 
 
 The man addressed and those nearest to him 
 turned their heads so suddenly as to be in danger 
 of dislocating their necks, whereupon Ackerman, 
 feeling that he had sufficiently asserted his dignity, 
 returned to Leonard. Ackerman realized nothing 
 except that some people were " getting gay," as he 
 expressed it, but the affair had deeper significance 
 to Leonard. 
 
 "Ben," he said, "there's been trouble at Elk 
 Rapids, and those people think we're the guilty 
 men." 
 
 It took a moment for Ackerman to grasp this. 
 Then he laughed. 
 
 " And what you said," added Leonard, " made 
 the matter worse. I'll bet they try to arrest us 
 at Elk Rapids. There isn't a soul on board who 
 knows me, and it's my first trip to the Rapids."
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 149 
 
 "Oh, won't it be a great scrap!" exclaimed 
 Ackerman, enthusiastically. 
 
 " We look like desperadoes, too," persisted Leon- 
 ard. 
 
 " Let's act like 'em," urged Ackerman. " I'm 
 dyin' for a little fun." 
 
 " Well, I'm not," asserted Leonard. " These 
 peace-loving people are nasty when they get going. 
 They trail the people they're after with barrel-staves, 
 pitchforks, and muzzle-loading shotguns, but you 
 bet they get them and bring them back, if it's only 
 in sections." 
 
 " I don't usually back up," returned Ackerman, 
 regretfully, " but I don't want to get you into 
 trouble." 
 
 " I don't mind trouble when there's reason for 
 it," explained Leonard, " but I don't want to get 
 in a country jail, and I don't want to make a cross- 
 country run in front of all the men and dogs of 
 an entire township. We'll have to find some way 
 to show who we are." 
 
 " Oh, all right," said Ackerman, resignedly. " I 
 don't look for trouble, but I don't dodge it, an' I 
 been in the habit of havin' excitement about once 
 in so often. I'm due now, an' these people makin' 
 fools of themselves looked like Providence. There
 
 150 Delightful Dodd 
 
 probably won't be another chance for fun this sum- 
 mer. But I'm ready to back up for your sake." 
 
 Leonard laughed and suggested that their very 
 earnest conversation already had attracted further 
 attention, and that it would be advisable to be a 
 little less serious. So they laughed and chatted 
 carelessly during the rest of the trip. 
 
 The rain had lightened to a steady drizzle when 
 they reached Elk Rapids, but it was still sufficient 
 to make all who had not business out-of-doors seek 
 shelter, and they anticipated little trouble to escape 
 the curious and suspicious eyes that had followed 
 them on the boat. In this they were mistaken, how- 
 ever. The news seemed to spread rapidly, and they 
 still found themselves the objects of disagreeable 
 attention. Leonard tried to counteract this by talk- 
 ing of Dodd and Old Mission when they were 
 within the hearing of any one else, but this did not 
 have the desired effect. In a store they visited 
 they overheard comment that was disquieting. 
 
 " They wouldn't dare come back," one man was 
 saying. 
 
 " That's jest what they'd do," was the reply. 
 " Those kind of fellers ain't afraid of anything. 
 They got nerve. They'd come back and hold up 
 the town if they thought they'd missed anything.
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 151 
 
 Besides, this is jest where nobody 'd be looking for 
 'em." 
 
 At the hotel they learned the details of the affair. 
 Two fruit-buyers had arrived late, carrying con- 
 siderable cash, which they had deposited in the safe 
 in the hotel office for want of a better place. The 
 safe had been blown open during the night, evi- 
 dently by men who were following the fruit-buyers, 
 the money taken, and a running fight with the 
 marshal and a few citizens had resulted, in which 
 one of the citizens had been shot and dangerously 
 wounded. This, following a series of robberies at 
 Traverse City, had convinced the people that there 
 was a desperate gang in the vicinity. The robbers 
 had worn masks, had temporarily eluded their pur- 
 suers, and finally had escaped in a stolen sailboat, 
 going in the direction of Old Mission. 
 
 " No wonder they suspect us," commented Leon- 
 ard. " We are unknown, we are coming from that 
 direction, we show that we have been tramping 
 through the mud, and, all in all, we are tough-look- 
 ing characters. I'd suspect myself, if I happened 
 to be some one else, especially as we are buying sup- 
 plies. The natural inference is that the gang has 
 its headquarters on the peninsula." 
 
 Ackerman said nothing. He was beginning to 
 feel the thrill of anticipated conflict, and the strong,
 
 152 Delightful Dodd 
 
 resourceful, undefeated man is always in high spirits 
 when an unsolicited chance to show his prowess 
 seems to be coming his way. In truth, it must be 
 admitted that Ackerman was so far unloyal to 
 Leonard as to endeavour, in various indirect ways, 
 to strengthen the suspicions already created. It 
 seemed to him a good joke. Consequently, he said 
 things and did things that, innocent in themselves, 
 might not be so interpreted. That there might be 
 any serious menace to himself in this never for a 
 moment occurred to him. 
 
 Their purchases being made, there was some time 
 to wait before the boat started back, and Ackerman 
 discovered that he had a thirst. Leonard confessed 
 that he could think of no better way to pass the 
 time, in view of the circumstances, than over a bottle 
 of beer or something stronger, if desired. While 
 temperate, Leonard was decidedly not a prohibition- 
 ist, and he led the way to a place that advertised 
 liquid refreshments. It being a matter of thirst 
 and time to spare rather than need of artificial ex- 
 hilaration, they established themselves comfortably 
 at a small table, with a bottle of beer, and presently 
 were laughing over their experience as suspected 
 criminals. They had not failed to note that the 
 barkeeper had put the bung-starter within easy 
 reach when they entered the place.
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 153 
 
 It was so near the time for their departure that 
 even Leonard had ceased to be anxious, and neither 
 of them paid much attention to the five men who 
 entered and went direct to the bar. It never oc- 
 curred to them that these men were after the re- 
 ward that had been offered for the arrest of the 
 desperadoes. They knew that they were suspected 
 in a general sort of way, but they did not know 
 that one of the men who had caught a fleeting 
 glimpse of the robbers asserted that they closely 
 resembled the mud-covered strangers. It does not 
 take much to identify men in a time of excitement. 
 
 The new arrivals ordered drinks and chatted with 
 the barkeeper. Incidentally, they moved restlessly 
 about and drew nearer to the table at which Leon- 
 ard and Ackerman sat. Leonard was the larger, 
 and looked to be the stronger, of the two, so the 
 plans of tbe would-be captors were laid accordingly. 
 At a signal, three of them sprang on him, upset 
 him and his chair, and piled on top of him. At 
 the same moment, the other two sprang for Ack- 
 erman, but they missed connections. Ackerman was 
 as quick as he was strong. The big, strong man 
 is usually clumsy, the little, strong man active, and 
 Ackerman was, if anything, a little below medium 
 height. Furthermore, he happened to glance up 
 as the signal was given. He might be mentally
 
 154 Delightful Dodd 
 
 slow in some ways, but he knew instinctively and 
 by experience what to do in a row. He was on 
 his feet, tipping his chair over backwards, before 
 either of the men could reach him; he lunged for- 
 ward, escaping the charge of one man, caught the 
 other about the waist and hurled him half-way 
 across the room. Turning instantly, he ducked 
 under the arms of the first, and when he straight- 
 ened up the man came up with him, crying out 
 in pain as he felt himself crushed in a fierce em- 
 brace. Just how he accomplished his next feat, 
 no one ever was able to explain, least of all the 
 victim, but Ackerman said he had done the thing 
 many times in sport. He turned the man over 
 and brought him head down on the floor. 
 
 " Back up ! " he cried, as a sort of general warn- 
 ing. "If a man moves, I'll break this feller's 
 neck!" 
 
 The action had been so bewildering, so startling, 
 so spectacular, that it caught and held the attention 
 of every one. Leonard was powerless beneath the 
 three, and the three, still holding him, could only 
 stare in amazement at the spectacle of a man, head 
 down, about to be used as a sort of pile-driver. 
 There could be no possible doubt of Ackerman's 
 ability to break the fellow's neck at any moment. 
 In fact, Ackerman bumped his head a little, just to
 
 '"IF A MAN MOVES, I'LL BREAK THIS FELLER'S NECK ! '
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 155 
 
 convince him of the inadvisability of trying to grasp 
 his legs and thus trip him up. The fifth man lay 
 where he had been thrown, and the barkeeper, com- 
 ing with the bung-starter, stopped short. Acker- 
 man, holding his man upside down by the legs, was 
 master of the situation. 
 
 " Hands up, or there's a dead man here! " cried 
 Ackerman. 
 
 " For God's sake, let me up ! " whined his vic- 
 tim, as Ackerman bumped him a little to emphasize 
 his demands. 
 
 " Hands up, quick ! " shouted Ackerman. 
 
 The barkeeper's hands went up; the three on top 
 of Leonard rolled off and, sitting on the floor, shot 
 their hands into the air; the one who had been 
 thrown lay on his back with his hands raised. It 
 was so ludicrous a scene that Leonard often laughed 
 at it afterward, but he was not disposed to laugh 
 at the time. 
 
 " Search 'em ! " ordered Ackerman. 
 
 Leonard confiscated two revolvers, a billy, and the 
 bung-starter. Then Ackerman let go of his vic- 
 tim's feet, and the fellow flopped over on the floor. 
 
 " Say! wasn't that great! " exclaimed Ackerman, 
 a happy, satisfied grin on his face. " I ain't had 
 so much fun since sister had the mumps. What'll 
 we do with 'em ? "
 
 156 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Leonard was leaning against the wall with a 
 revolver in each hand, fearful that some one would 
 enter to complicate matters before they could get 
 the affair straightened out. Fortunately, however, 
 it was a dull hour in the saloon business. 
 
 " We've got to settle this thing now," he said. 
 
 " Don't shoot ! " wailed one of the men. " We 
 won't try to foller you." 
 
 " Shoot ! " exclaimed Leonard. " Who wants to 
 shoot ! All I want is to get out of it without shoot- 
 ing. Keep your hands up ! " he cautioned. Then 
 he went on : "I suppose you think we're the fel- 
 lows who blew open the hotel safe." 
 
 " Well, yes," was the hesitating admission. 
 
 " Well, we're not. We're employees of Daniel 
 Dodd, over on the peninsula. Do you believe it ? " 
 
 " Yes," quickly, from all of them. 
 
 " Because if you don't," put in Ackerman, " why, 
 we'll " 
 
 " We do," they cried. 
 
 Then Leonard, still troubled, had an inspiration. 
 
 " Get the letters out of my pocket," he instructed 
 Ackerman. " I'd rather not put these guns down 
 just yet." Ackerman pulled out half a dozen letters. 
 " Show them to them," Leonard continued. 
 " They're all addressed to me at Dodd's." 
 
 " I got one myself," said Ackerman.
 
 The Prowess of Ackerman 157 
 
 Ackerman, seeming to enjoy the situation, went 
 from one to the other and showed them each en- 
 velope in turn. 
 
 " If that isn't enough," persisted Leonard, " you 
 may send a committee back to the Mission with 
 us, as big a committee as you want, only there 
 must be no funny business." 
 
 " We're satisfied," asserted the man who had been 
 stood on his head. 
 
 " Have a drink on the house," urged the bar- 
 keeper. 
 
 " All right," returned Leonard, " but you've got 
 to send somebody to the boat with us, to tell people 
 we're all right. We don't want anybody else trying 
 to arrest us." 
 
 " We'll all go," they declared. 
 
 " Still, as a precaution," said Leonard, " I'll just 
 keep the revolvers until we're aboard." 
 
 They lined up to the bar and drank boisterously 
 to each other's health, the reaction from the tension 
 of the last few minutes finding vent in noisy demon- 
 stration. Ackerman alone did not seem to feel this 
 sense of relief. He was merely exuberantly happy, 
 as a boy might be after emerging from some col- 
 lege sport in which he had been victorious. 
 
 " We ain't so bad in a scrimmage when we 
 get waked up," he laughed.
 
 158 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " You're not," one of the others admitted. 
 " You're a wonder." 
 
 "Me!" exclaimed Ackerman. "Oh, I'm fair, 
 but you ought to see this man," indicating Leonard, 
 " when he gets started. He's the only feller that 
 can handle me, an' the only man I duck to. But 
 nobody can't do anything when three big men pile 
 on to him from behind before he knows what's 
 coming." 
 
 Leonard started to expostulate, but Ackerman 
 winked at him and he held his tongue. When they 
 were alone, their late antagonists having left them 
 with every token of distinguished consideration and 
 respectful admiration, Ackerman said : " Might as 
 well have the reputation for bein' a devil in a fight." 
 
 " But I'm for peace," urged Leonard. 
 
 " Sure," returned Ackerman. " An' the easiest 
 way to have peace is to get the reputation of bein' 
 able to lick the tar out of everybody. Things has 
 been so peaceful for me sometimes that I've had 
 to move."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 DODD DISCUSSES WOMAN 
 
 THE news of the exploit at Elk Rapids spread 
 rapidly. From the lighthouse to Neahtawanta peo- 
 ple were talking- of the wonderful prowess of Leon- 
 ard and Ackerman, and Leonard ranked first in all 
 discussions. What Ackerman could do had been 
 demonstrated, and Ackerman had confessed that 
 Leonard could handle him. Therefore, Leonard 
 must be just about the greatest man that ever lived. 
 When he went to Old Mission, people turned to 
 look after him on the street; if he met a farmer 
 on a country road, the man bowed to him deferen- 
 tially and admiringly, as he would to some hero. 
 There was no one who was not proud to claim his 
 acquaintance. 
 
 While this was amusing, it was also annoying. 
 Leonard had no wish to sail under false colours, 
 but Ackerman considered it a good joke, and so 
 did Dodd and all the men at the farm. In fact, 
 Ackerman lost no chance to strengthen this idea, 
 
 159
 
 160 Delightful Dodd 
 
 detailing imaginary exploits whenever opportunity 
 offered. 
 
 " I wish," complained Leonard, " that I could 
 stop this thing. Of course, here on the farm we 
 all see the absurdity of it, but they don't elsewhere, 
 and some day I'll be called on to live up to my repu- 
 tation." 
 
 " Not any," retorted Ackerman. " Nobody's goin' 
 to try to make you live up to the reputation you got 
 now, 'cause they're all afraid. They want to keep 
 you nice an' peaceful." 
 
 Even Dodd chuckled over the affair, and assured 
 Leonard that there was no man on the peninsula 
 who would not cheerfully agree with him on any 
 subject upon which he appeared to have decided 
 opinions. 
 
 " You're a good deal like a good-natured mas- 
 tiff," explained Dodd. " Everybody's proud to 
 know you and to pat you on the head while you con- 
 tinue good-natured, but they're more than half 
 afraid something may annoy you, and you'll growl. 
 They want to humour you all the time." 
 
 Miss Marsden alone seemed to take a different 
 view of the matter, although she said nothing. She 
 treated him with studied politeness, but it was very 
 evident that his course did not meet her approval. 
 She never joined in the jocular comment the affair
 
 Dodd Discusses Woman 161 
 
 provoked, either in his presence or his absence. She 
 never referred to it in any way, until she was di- 
 rectly addressed on one occasion. Then Dodd was 
 given a gentle shock that, if he had been observing, 
 he might have avoided. 
 
 " The reflected glory of our Hercules," he re- 
 marked, " is making me feel pretty big myself." 
 
 " Our real Hercules," she returned, quietly, appar- 
 ently deeply interested in the crochet-needles she 
 was using, " modestly passes the glory on to some 
 one else. Heroes are proverbially modest." 
 
 Dodd looked dreamily into space. 
 
 " It's a good joke," he ventured at last. 
 
 " But don't you rather like the man who stands 
 solely on his own merits ? " she asked. " It must 
 be so much more satisfactory to be made great by 
 one's own acts." 
 
 Again Dodd looked dreamily into space. 
 
 " I think it will rain," he said. 
 
 " When ? " she asked, looking up, quickly. 
 
 " I am not much of a prophet," replied Dodd, 
 " but I think it will rain before it snows." 
 
 Dodd was wise enough to understand, and he 
 was also wise enough to attempt no explanation or 
 defence. There are occasions when silence is better 
 than the presentation of even the most convincing 
 case. Under cover of Miss Marsden's amusement
 
 1 62 Delightful Dodd 
 
 at his weather prediction, Dodd retired gracefully. 
 But he was not to escape this entanglement so eas- 
 ily, for, as he and Leonard smoked after dinner, 
 before returning to work, Leonard asked him a 
 very simple but disquieting question. 
 
 " Mr. Dodd," he said, " have I shown myself a 
 silly, pretentious fool, or a man?" 
 
 " Very much of a man," replied Dodd. 
 
 " Thank you," said Leonard, simply. " I have 
 learned to value your opinion highly, and I did not 
 think I could be so far wrong as another seems 
 to think. If you are right, then she " 
 
 " Yes ? " said Dodd, quietly. 
 
 " is as insincere and worldly as any of the 
 frivolous girls I have known." 
 
 Dodd looked dreamily into space, even as he had 
 done before. 
 
 " Perhaps you do her an injustice," he suggested, 
 in his gentle way. 
 
 " Well, it's of no moment," returned Leonard, 
 forcing himself to speak lightly. " She may not 
 think so much of a farm-hand as she does of a man 
 of leisure, but my plans were made for myself." 
 
 Again Dodd deemed it wise to sheer off, at least 
 slightly, by turning the conversation to woman in 
 general, which is always an allowable and interest- 
 ing topic.
 
 Dodd Discusses Woman 163 
 
 " Woman," he said, " is a strange and puzzling 
 creature, who is always giving new perplexities to 
 man. Woman makes you think she thinks what 
 she doesn't think, so the best thing to do is to think 
 she doesn't think what she seems to think. Do I 
 make myself clear?" 
 
 " Perfectly," answered Leonard, forced to smile 
 at this tangle of "thinks." 
 
 " She's quite honest about it in most cases," 
 Dodd went on. " She really doesn't know that 
 she doesn't think what she thinks she thinks, so 
 she makes herself unhappy without cause, and gives 
 all sorts of wrong impressions, and Do I make 
 myself clear? " 
 
 "As clear as a thunder-cloud on a dark night," 
 replied Leonard. 
 
 "That's all right, then," asserted Dodd. "All 
 you've got to do is to keep your eye on the place 
 where you think that thunder-cloud is, and in the 
 morning you'll be surprised to find there's nothing 
 but sunlight there." 
 
 Thus Dodd cleverly laid the foundation for much 
 of comfort that had its effect later, although, at 
 the moment, Leonard failed to untangle the remarks, 
 and was merely amused. 
 
 " Does a reasonable, or even an intimate, knowl-
 
 1 64 Delightful Dodd 
 
 edge of one woman qualify you to speak thus au- 
 thoritatively of the sex?" asked the young man. 
 
 Dodd leaned toward him and spoke confidentially. 
 
 " Woman," he said, " is so inconsistent, contra- 
 dictory, and many-sided that a careful and pro- 
 tracted study of one wife is as good as being a 
 Mormon. The Sultan of Turkey hasn't discovered 
 any more of the peculiarities of the sex than I 
 have." 
 
 Dodd looked about him furtively and became even 
 more confidential. 
 
 " If you don't think I'm right," he whispered, 
 " come with me and I'll show you a little feminine 
 idiosyncrasy that the Sultan of Turkey never saw. 
 It's just about time." 
 
 Taking the surprised and amused Leonard by 
 the arm, he cautiously led the way to the wood- 
 shed. There, concealed by a pile of wood, he cer- 
 tainly did point out a most extraordinary sight. 
 
 Mrs. Dodd was seated on the kitchen steps, with 
 a bottle of medicine on one side of her and a basket 
 on the other. She held a medicine dropper, which 
 she was carefully filling from the bottle. 
 
 " Come, Hannah ! " she called at last, whereupon 
 the cook appeared. " Hold her tight this time, 
 Hannah," Mrs. Dodd went on. " She doesn't like
 
 Dodd Discusses Woman 165 
 
 it, but it's good for her. She's getting better right 
 
 along." 
 
 Hannah reached into the basket and took out a 
 
 cat. The cat struggled. 
 
 " Hold her tight," Mrs. Dodd cautioned again. 
 " The last time I know she didn't get the full dose." 
 
 Hannah held the struggling cat in her lap, and 
 Mrs. Dodd steadied the cat's head with one hand, 
 while she dropped the medicine into its mouth as 
 opportunity offered, meanwhile soothing the dis- 
 gusted feline with soft words. 
 
 " There ! " she said at last. " You got it all that 
 time, and you'll be all right in another day." 
 
 She took the sputtering cat from Hannah and 
 gently replaced it in the basket. 
 
 " The show is over," announced Dodd, suddenly 
 appearing from behind the wood-pile. His wife 
 laughed in a constrained way. " Mrs. Dodd's weak- 
 ness," he went on, " is a desire to relieve suffering 
 and help the helpless. Any dumb creature in trouble 
 appeals to her sympathies, and she has more original 
 ways of aiding them than twenty men could think 
 of in a year of Sundays. When she doesn't know 
 what to do, she experiments. I don't think she ever 
 has prescribed for the horses or the cows, but pretty 
 nearly every other living thing has received her
 
 1 66 Delightful Dodd 
 
 ministrations. I've known her to nurse a wounded 
 bird for weeks." 
 
 " But the poor thing would have died if I hadn't 
 taken charge of it," urged Mrs. Dodd. 
 
 " And as for chickens " 
 
 " Now, Dan'l ! " interrupted Mrs. Dodd, redden- 
 ing. 
 
 " As for chickens," repeated Dodd, maliciously, 
 " I could tell you of a time when she ground up a 
 liver pill and mixed it with the chicken food, after 
 diagnosing the trouble of one of the hens." 
 
 "Dan'l!" she cautioned. 
 
 " Well, you did, didn't you ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Yes, I did," she retorted, defiantly. " And the 
 chicken got well, didn't it ? " 
 
 " It did," he admitted. 
 
 " Well, then ! " she exclaimed, triumphantly. 
 
 " My dear," he said, contritely, " you entirely 
 misinterpret the purpose of my remarks. I am not 
 trying to make fun of you; I am merely calling 
 attention to the transcendent genius that could dis- 
 cover that a liver pill would do a chicken good. I 
 don't think anything like it ever before has been 
 known in the history of the world." 
 
 " But it cured the chicken," she insisted. 
 
 " It did," he conceded, " and ever since you have 
 discovered the interchangeableness of foods and
 
 Dodd Discusses Woman 167 
 
 remedies, I've been half-expecting that some day 
 you'd try dog biscuit on me as a cure for indiges- 
 tion." 
 
 " Come into the house," laughed /Mrs. Dodd, 
 " and I'll give you a commission that will turn 
 your mind into other channels." 
 
 He meekly followed her into the house, while 
 Leonard went back to his work, inwardly laughing 
 at the idea of feeding chickens ground-up liver pills, 
 and dosing a cat with a medicine dropper. 
 
 " Dan'l," said Mrs. Dodd, when she had told 
 him of the things she wished done, " it's becoming 
 very awkward." 
 
 " What is ? " he asked, innocently. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Leonard and Miss Marsden," she 
 explained. 
 
 " Oh, they are ' it,' " he remarked. 
 
 " You know what I mean," she said. " They are 
 so frigidly civil to each other that it's worse than 
 a row. There's something between them." 
 
 " Emma," returned Dodd, with exaggerated im- 
 pressiveness, " you are right. There is something 
 between them." 
 
 "Do you know what it is?" she asked. 
 
 " I do," he replied. 
 
 " Is it serious ? " 
 
 " The most serious thing in the world," he said.
 
 1 68 Delightful Dodd 
 
 She waited, but he volunteered no information. 
 
 " Is it a secret ? " she asked. 
 
 "A most remarkable secret," he answered; " so 
 remarkable that I am the only one that knows it." 
 
 " They have confided in you? " 
 
 " They couldn't, because they don't know it them- 
 selves. It is my exclusive secret." 
 
 " Are you crazy, Dan'l ! " she demanded. " What 
 are you talking about ? " 
 
 " The thing that has come between them," he 
 said, with amusing impressiveness, " is 1-o-v-e. Let 
 them alone and they'll find it out for themselves. 
 They told me without knowing it. And you 
 women," he added, patronizingly, " who pride your- 
 selves on reading such riddles, let an old man 
 and a farmer at that find this out first." 
 
 " Go on out and see to your berries ! " ordered 
 Mrs. Dodd. " You're getting more unbearable 
 every day." 
 
 But an affectionate smile followed him as he 
 retreated.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A FAVOUR FOR A NEIGHBOUR 
 
 DODD was at his customary work in the vege- 
 table garden. He had not the strength for heavy 
 work in the fields, and, although he assisted in 
 gathering and packing the fruit, his close personal 
 attention was largely given to raising the vegetables 
 that were among the luxuries of life on the Dodd 
 farm. These were not for market, but for home 
 consumption. 
 
 Dodd exercised a general supervision over the 
 farm work, but the head farmer was in active 
 charge, so the old man had ample time for the 
 no less necessary work nearer the house. Now he 
 leaned on his hoe and listened. Mrs. Dodd was 
 calling. 
 
 " Halloo! " he answered. " What is it? " 
 
 " Some one to see you ! " answered Mrs. Dodd 
 through a small megaphone kept for just this pur- 
 pose. 
 
 " Man or woman ? " asked Dodd. 
 169
 
 170 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Man." 
 
 "Can he walk?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Well, here I am." 
 
 Dodd was so obliging that he would walk half 
 a mile to meet a man who wanted to ask a favour 
 of him, and only that morning Mrs. Dodd had sug- 
 gested that he ought to be a little more careful of 
 his own time and strength. This was his method 
 of letting her know that he had taken the lesson 
 to heart, at least temporarily. He would forget 
 all about it in another day, and walk a mile for 
 the privilege of loaning some one a rake. How- 
 ever, in this case the man came to him. He proved 
 to be Erastus Dutton, who lived some miles away. 
 
 Dutton nodded to Dodd and remarked that it was 
 a nice day. Dodd examined the heavens critically 
 and admitted that Dutton was right. Then Dutton 
 chewed a straw, while Dodd leaned meditatively 
 on his hoe. Dodd was wondering whether Dutton 
 had come to borrow his churn or a wagon. The 
 last time he had appeared he had asked if Dodd 
 remembered the tonic Mrs. Dodd had recommended 
 for his wife, and, learning that Dodd's memory was 
 treacherous, he had recalled the circumstances and 
 dilated on the wonderful properties of that remedy. 
 
 " I'll never forget it," he had said, in conclusion.
 
 A Favour for a Neighbour 171 
 
 " Mrs. Button took every drop of it," as if that 
 entitled her to the gratitude of the Dodds, " and 
 now could you loan me your plough ? " 
 
 Such were the details of the previous call, and 
 Button's hesitation now seemed to indicate a desire 
 for an even greater favour. So Bodd leaned on 
 his hoe, and inwardly hoped that the man didn't 
 want any of the things over which Mrs. Bodd had 
 supervision, for Mrs. Bodd had become weary of 
 loaning, and Bodd knew he would have some 
 trouble in arranging matters. Button, however, 
 branched off into the question of crops, and for 
 ten or fifteen minutes they speculated on the amount 
 of fruit that would go to market from Peninsula 
 County. 
 
 " I got to raise some money to git my apples to 
 market at all," Button remarked, finally. " Bon't 
 know anybody that's got any to lend, do ye? " 
 
 " They've got plenty of schoolma'ams' money at 
 the bank," replied Bodd. 
 
 Button looked bewildered. 
 
 " Whose money ? " he asked. 
 
 " Schoolma'ams'," answered Bodd. " Bidn't you 
 ever stop to think who the real capitalists of the 
 country are ? " 
 
 " Rockyfeller, Morgan " 
 
 " The schoolma'ams," interrupted Bodd. " The
 
 172 Delightful Dodd 
 
 schoolma'ams are the great money-savers, consid- 
 ering them generally. No one of them may have 
 much, but collectively they have a lot, and it's their 
 money that the big financiers use in their deals. 
 Others, with more money individually, are using 
 it for their own purposes, and it's the school-teach- 
 ers' money that the banks have to loan. The school- 
 ma'ams move the crops in the fall, and, unknow- 
 ingly, they furnish the cash for other great and 
 necessary movements in the business and financial 
 worlds. When you hear about the banks furnishing 
 the money to move the crops, just you sit down 
 and laugh, for the schoolma'ams are doing it. The 
 thing for you to do is to get some of their money." 
 
 Dutton shook his head. 
 
 " There's not less than a thousand dollars in my 
 apples, Dodd," he said, " but I couldn't sell 'em 
 on the trees, an' that makes it look bad to people 
 with money. I borrowed a little on the crop earlier 
 too, an' I've got to pay that loan, if I make another, 
 or the man will come down on me. Ye see, I got 
 behind last year." 
 
 " How much have you got to have? " asked Dodd. 
 
 " Three hundred and fifty dollars, to pay the 
 other loan and get the apples to market. You can 
 fix it for me at Traverse, Dodd, if you will." 
 
 Dodd looked troubled. As a banker, he had been
 
 A Favour for a Neighbour 173 
 
 able to be impersonal and cautious, but his ready 
 sympathy and generous heart had got him into 
 trouble occasionally in his personal affairs, and he 
 had declared that he would turn and run at the 
 next financial suggestion from a friend or neigh- 
 bour. In brief, he had proved himself a better 
 guardian of other people's money than of his own. 
 
 "If the crop holds as good as it looks now, I 
 only got to deliver 'em in Chicago to git a thousand 
 dollars for 'em," Button persisted. " A Chicago 
 commission man will take 'em all at the market 
 price, delivered, if they grade right." 
 
 " But he wouldn't buy them on the trees," mused 
 Dodd, doubtfully. 
 
 " I'll show you the letter from the commission 
 man," said Button. 
 
 Bodd read the letter, but made no comment. 
 The letter and Button's report of his crop, which 
 Bodd knew to be approximately correct, seemed to 
 make the loan a safe one. But a storm might wreck 
 everything. That possibility made bankers cau- 
 tious. 
 
 " I got to raise the money, Bodd," Button added. 
 " There's a little interest on a mortgage on the 
 farm besides. I got to do it or I'm busted. They'll 
 listen to you at Traverse, for you was a banker 
 once."
 
 174 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Dodd glanced at Dutton's pathetically anxious 
 face, put the hoe over his shoulder, and started 
 toward the house. 
 
 " We'll try it," he said. 
 
 They are astir early in the country, and there was 
 yet time to catch the boat at Neahtawanta. During 
 the drive to that point, Button was profuse in his 
 thanks, but Dodd spoke little. It was not that he 
 begrudged the day lost from work on the farm, 
 for he said drily that he was always looking for 
 a good excuse to miss a little work; it was not 
 that he did not want to help a neighbour, for he 
 cheerfully put himself to great personal inconveni- 
 ence for them. But he knew his own weakness, 
 and he feared he might do something of which Mrs. 
 Dodd would not approve. 
 
 At Traverse City they hunted up a banker whom 
 Dodd knew, and stated the case to him. 
 
 " I don't see how we can do it," he said. " There 
 ought to be no difficulty in selling a good crop on 
 the trees, which means ready money and no ex- 
 pense in getting the apples to market." 
 
 " There are too many larger orchards to be had," 
 explained Button. " They won't touch anything 
 less than a $1,500 crop on that basis this year. 
 And my trees are bearing unevenly, so it is rather
 
 A Favour for a Neighbour 175 
 
 hard to figure. But I have made a careful personal 
 estimate." 
 
 " There are several possibilities that might spoil 
 all calculations," argued the banker. " The risk is 
 too great. We can't do it. I'd like to oblige Mr. 
 Dodd, but my first duty is to the bank." 
 
 Dodd glanced at Button and saw that there were 
 tears in his eyes. Evidently he had not exaggerated 
 his predicament. 
 
 " I'm very sorry," the banker added. 
 
 " No matter," said Dodd, carelessly. " We can 
 get the money elsewhere." 
 
 He took Button by the arm and led him to the 
 Park Place Hotel. The man had been so confident 
 that Bodd could arrange the matter that the disap- 
 pointment left him on the verge of collapse. He 
 sank into a chair in the corner of the reading-room 
 and buried his face in his hands. 
 
 " Wait here," said Bodd, gently. " I'll see what 
 I can do." 
 
 Then Bodd went back to the banker alone. 
 
 " Bon't you think I was right, Mr. Bodd ? " asked 
 the banker. " You have had experience in this 
 business yourself." 
 
 "Why, no," replied Bodd, frankly. "I think 
 you were entirely wlrong, but I didn't come back to 
 argue the question with you. It is your privilege
 
 176 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to do business your own way, and I have taken out 
 no license to find fault. I merely came in to tell 
 you that the north end of my farm is for sale. I 
 understand there are some people with money up 
 here this summer, and somebody may want a sum- 
 mer home. If so, you'll hear about it." 
 
 " I'll do the best I can for you," said the banker. 
 " But why do you think I made a mistake in refus- 
 ing the loan? " 
 
 Thus he came back to the subject, even as Dodd 
 had wished and planned. 
 
 " Why, it is my experience," replied Dodd, " that 
 there are two kinds of finance, high finance and 
 straight finance, and the rules that should be 
 applied to them differ materially. Too many small 
 bankers follow the rules of the Wall Street bankers, 
 who are dealing largely with gamblers, and have 
 to be unusually careful. If a man came to me to 
 borrow money to put a stock-jobbing deal through, 
 I'd be damn careful and damn cold-blooded. At 
 best, the money will do good to no one but himself. 
 At worst, you are not the only banker on his list. 
 He has fifty ways of raising money. But the farmer 
 who wants to move his crops has only one. He 
 must go to the one banker he knows, and refusal 
 there leaves him at the limit of his resources. He 
 needs the money for himself, but it is also to help in
 
 A Favour for a Neighbour 177 
 
 a movement that is of benefit to others." He leaned 
 forward and became emphatic. " As a banker, I 
 would never refuse the honest man who wants a 
 small loan, for he is the man who is going to put 
 the money to good use. I would give it to him 
 on as long time as he wants for this reason : when 
 he has the money, he will pay, even if it is ahead 
 of time, and you will get double use of the money. 
 If, as is sometimes the case, he decides not to pay 
 until the note falls due, he will deposit the money 
 in your bank, and here again you have double use 
 of it, once on his loan and once on his deposit 
 That is something you never get from the man 
 of high finance, who is using the money for his 
 own purposes every minute that it is in his pos- 
 session." 
 
 " There is truth in what you say," remarked the 
 banker, thoughtfully. " The small borrower fre- 
 quently does leave the money in our bank while 
 waiting for his note to be due, and thus we may 
 loan it again and get double interest. But that is 
 no reason for making loans that are uncertain of 
 payment." 
 
 " And there is another thing," said Dodd, ignor- 
 ing the last remark. 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " When you turn down the man who wants a
 
 178 Delightful Dodd 
 
 small loan for his crops, he goes away with the 
 thought, 'Well, it's a hell of a bank that hasn't 
 $350 to spare ! ' and his friends and others take the 
 same view of it. It doesn't help a bank any." 
 
 " But we have got it to spare ! " exclaimed the 
 banker, hotly. 
 
 " Oh, I know that," returned Dodd, carelessly, 
 " but all farmers haven't been in the banking busi- 
 ness. They can't see why a man in the banking 
 business should refuse a loan of $350 on a thousand 
 dollars' worth of apples, if he has the money, and 
 sometimes it's worth while to stretch a point to con- 
 vince them that you've got it to spare." 
 
 There was enough of hard sense in what Dodd 
 said to make the banker do a little hard thinking. 
 City banks and country banks have to look at many 
 things from different points of view, for different 
 interpretations are put on their actions, due to the 
 difference in their patrons. And that comment that 
 Dodd had put into the mouth of the man refused 
 rankled. It was just the comment that might be 
 expected from men who believed that no more than 
 a reasonable request had been made. 
 
 " If you believe it's a safe loan, Dodd, indorse 
 the note and I'll let him have the money," said the 
 banker.
 
 A Favour for a Neighbour 179 
 
 Dodd looked at the banker and smiled, whim- 
 sically. 
 
 " I'm pretty hard up myself," he suggested. 
 
 " Even so," laughed the banker, as he saw how 
 he had put Dodd in a corner, " I'll feel a little safer 
 if I have two honest men on the note, for, what- 
 ever happens, one or the other will pay it in time. 
 Besides, you insist that it's safe." 
 
 " I said it was a good investment for a banker," 
 replied Dodd, " but it's no investment for me. I get 
 nothing but the risk." 
 
 " Well, if you won't take it for friendship, I 
 won't take it for business," returned the banker. 
 
 Dodd sighed. 
 
 " I knew I was a fool to leave the farm to-day," 
 he said. Then he added : " Have the papers ready, 
 and I'll be back with Dutton in about fifteen min- 
 utes. I know he's got the apples." 
 
 It was no doubt of Dutton that made him hesi- 
 tate. There was a risk, of course, but Dutton was 
 honest. Indorsing another's note, however, is un- 
 wise, as any financier will tell you. The indorser 
 has a chance to lose and no chance to win ; the best 
 he can do is to get out even. Like many another, 
 Dodd had long before determined that he never 
 would put his name on another man's note, but 
 Dutton was in such deep distress that
 
 i8o Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Lord help me if Emma hears about this ! " 
 mused Dodd. " She'll take me into court and have 
 a guardian appointed." 
 
 But he forgot his doubts when he saw the way 
 Button's face lighted up and felt the clasp of his 
 hand. Even if it came to the worst, it was worth 
 $350 to give a fellow human such relief and joy, 
 that is, it was worth it, if a man had the $350. 
 But Dodd had it not.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE SHETLAND PONY FARM 
 
 LEONARD joined 
 the Dodd circle at 
 the evening meal 
 less and less fre- 
 quently, apparently 
 preferring to be with 
 Ackerman and the 
 others at the men's 
 quarters. For break- 
 fast and dinner this 
 was a necessity, as 
 he would hardly join 
 the Dodds in his working clothes, even if Dodd him- 
 self did so. Dodd's work was of a nature which per- 
 mitted him to keep himself somewhat more present- 
 able than was possible in the case of the farm-hands, 
 and, besides, he was a privileged character. He 
 came in a little ahead of the others, " spruced himself 
 up a bit," as he expressed it, and was ready to join 
 
 181
 
 l82 Delightful Dodd 
 
 the guests. But Leonard felt that he had to make 
 a complete change of clothing, and he pleaded this 
 as an excuse for keeping pretty close to the men's 
 quarters, although he might easily have joined the 
 Dodd circle in the evening. He really was too tired 
 to appear many evenings, but he certainly would 
 have been seen oftener if he and Miss Marsden 
 had been on better terms. As it was, they con- 
 tinued to be studiously and coldly polite, and such 
 association is worse than joyless. Miss Marsden 
 believed that he had deliberately accepted the laurels 
 that belonged to Ackerman, and this, combined with 
 what she considered his childish effort to " play 
 at being a man," was more than she could overlook. 
 She demanded sincerity and purpose in a man, 
 real purpose and not the mere pretence of it. That 
 he stuck to his disagreeable work was encouraging, 
 but she, and others, still considered it a mere whim, 
 a foolish attempt to be eccentric. It was easy 
 to believe that pride made him stick to it, however 
 much he might regret beginning. And he, on his 
 part, misunderstood her quite as much as she mis- 
 understood him, for he had convinced himself that 
 it was the lowly nature of the work he was doing 
 that had led her to so change her attitude toward 
 him. 
 
 Dodd watched them and smiled in his whimsical
 
 The Shetland Pony Farm 183 
 
 way. Indeed, it amused him so much that he 
 could not refrain from telling her one day that she 
 would give a million dollars to know what he knew. 
 
 " I couldn't pay any such sum for the informa- 
 tion," she returned, laughing, " but, if it's of such 
 great value to me, why don't you tell me, anyway? 
 I'll promise to be grateful." 
 
 "Well," said Dodd, confidentially, "I'll tell 
 you " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I'll tell you why I don't tell you." 
 
 " I'm beginning to think, with Mrs. Dodd, that 
 you're incorrigible," laughed Miss Marsden. " No 
 one ever knows what you're going to say or do. 
 But, anyway, tell me why you won't tell me." 
 
 " Because," said Dodd, in a stage whisper, " you 
 wouldn't believe me, if I did." 
 
 Then, pleased with his little joke, he tried it on 
 Leonard. 
 
 " You wouldn't sleep to-night, if you knew what 
 I know," he said. 
 
 " Would it worry me as much as that ? " asked 
 Leonard. 
 
 " It wouldn't worry you at all," replied Dodd. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Why, confidentially," answered Dodd, " it's " 
 
 "Yes?"
 
 1 84 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " It's something that you've got to find out for 
 yourself; but you'll find it out." 
 
 And no more would Dodd say, although his quiet 
 laughter led Leonard to think it was all a joke. 
 Then, quickly changing the subject, he announced 
 that he had a little job for Leonard that evening. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " Why, I've had a little disagreement with a 
 peninsula curiosity about some timber, and I'm go- 
 ing to drive over to see him. I wish you would 
 go along, hear both sides of the case, and tell me 
 if I am in the least unfair. He says I am, and I 
 don't want to do any one the slightest injustice, 
 but neither do I want any one to ride over me. If 
 I seem to be demanding a penny more than my 
 rights, just you kick my shins, and I'll back up. 
 A fellow doesn't always see straight in his own 
 case." 
 
 " Well, you're certainly careful to be fair," said 
 Leonard. 
 
 " I have to be in this case," explained Dodd. 
 " The fellow is pretty much at my mercy, and has 
 got to accept my terms whenever I choose to insist. 
 That's why I'm so anxious not to be unreasonable. 
 If we were on even terms, I could bluster and bluff 
 with the best of them." 
 
 " I doubt it," laughed Leonard. " You're too
 
 The Shetland Pony Farm 185 
 
 ready to consider the rights of the other fellow, 
 to the exclusion of your own. But what's this par- 
 ticular trouble about ? " 
 
 " You'll find out when we get there. There's no 
 use going over the ground twice. It's rough enough 
 ground to make one trip over it all that you want, 
 especially in the company of two such specimens 
 as Dake Wakeley and yours truly. But you'll find 
 he's worth going miles to see, and it's just the even- 
 ing for a drive." 
 
 Now, it is possible that it was purely an accident, 
 or it may be that there was something of design in 
 it. There can be no doubt at all that Dodd had a 
 mischievous streak in him, and was not above plan- 
 ning for a little harmless fun. There was nothing 
 of malice in his humour, but there was so much of 
 humour in him that one never could be sure just 
 when he was quietly and privately enjoying a little 
 joke of his own. In this instance, Miss Marsden 
 and Mrs. Congrove had strolled down the road a 
 short time before, and Dodd now announced that, 
 as the buggy needed cleaning, he would take the 
 surrey. As before stated, it may have been a coinci- 
 dence, but the fact remains that he and Leonard 
 overtook Miss Marsden and Mrs. Congrove and that 
 they had ample room in their vehicle. An observ- 
 ing man might have noted, also, that something
 
 1 86 Delightful Dodd 
 
 seemed to strangely amuse Dodd previous to the 
 discovery of the two ladies in the road, and that 
 he was not in the least surprised to see them. 
 
 " Better ride," he suggested, drawing up, while 
 Leonard bowed formally to Miss Marsden, and con- 
 gratulated Mrs. Congrove on her increasing strength. 
 
 " Oh, we're out for the exercise," returned Miss 
 Marsden. 
 
 " It's nearly all up-hill going back," urged Dodd. 
 
 Evidently there was a mischievous streak in Mrs. 
 Congrove also, for, when Dodd solemnly winked at 
 her, she laughed most inopportunely, and decided 
 that the walk back might be rather hard for her. 
 
 " We've taken this stroll before," said Miss Mars- 
 den, in surprise. 
 
 " But I'm rather tired to-night, Jessie," insisted 
 Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " And you really ought to see the curiosity," 
 added Dodd. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " It's a he," replied Dodd. " He lives all alone 
 in a deserted cabin in a clearing on the north end 
 of the farm, acts as his own cook and housekeeper, 
 hoards every penny he gets, and begs an occasional 
 loaf of bread from his neighbours. I call him a 
 curiosity because he would really be a good-looking 
 man if he had false teeth, a shave, a hair-cut, a
 
 The Shetland Pony Farm 187 
 
 bath, and a glass eye. That's about all he needs, 
 except a better disposition." 
 
 " Oh, we must see him ! " cried Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " And I'll tell you a new way to make money 
 as we drive along," said Dodd. 
 
 " I shall have to surrender to the allurements you 
 hold out, Mr. Dodd," said Miss Marsden. " No 
 one can withstand you." 
 
 Leonard sprang from his seat to help the ladies 
 in, and then Mrs. Congrove did a surprising thing. 
 She insisted upon riding on the front seat with 
 Dodd. 
 
 " I won't surrender that privilege to any one," she 
 declared. " Mr. Dodd furnishes just the kind of 
 entertainment that makes me determined to have 
 a front seat." 
 
 Mrs. Congrove, while a dependent woman in all 
 the serious affairs of life, was of quick perception, 
 and there seemed to be an understanding, suddenly 
 reached, between her and Dodd. Leonard and Miss 
 Marsden were their unconscious victims, " be- 
 cause they are so foolish," as Mrs. Congrove would 
 have expressed it. 
 
 Of course, neither Miss Marsden nor Leonard 
 could well object, so he assisted her to the seat and 
 then followed her. Dodd looked on with solemn 
 face, but Mrs. Congrove smiled mischievously. It
 
 1 88 Delightful Dodd 
 
 was, indeed, an amusing spectacle, for Miss Marsden 
 accepted Leonard's assistance with a resigned air, 
 and Leonard seemed fearful of meeting a rebuff. 
 Once on the seat together, both tried unsuccessfully 
 to appear at ease, although it must be admitted that 
 Miss Marsden did far better than Leonard. It was 
 one thing to be merely formally courteous in the 
 casual meetings of life on the farm, and quite an- 
 other to carry out the same idea on the narrow seat 
 of a surrey, bumping over a rough road. They 
 tried to speak of commonplace things in a common- 
 place way, but it all sounded flat and ridiculous. 
 
 " Do you feel cold ? " Dodd whispered to Mrs. 
 Congrove. 
 
 She looked up in surprise, only to catch that sol- 
 emn wink and she understood and laughed. 
 
 " I suppose it's mean," she said, " with my own 
 sister." 
 
 " But if people will be foolish, what are we to 
 do ? " asked Dodd, whimsically. 
 
 " No whispering ! " cautioned Leonard, trying to 
 speak lightly. 
 
 lt I was telling Mrs. Congrove about my Shetland 
 pony farm," returned Dodd, unblushingly. 
 
 " Your Shetland pony farm ! " cried Miss Mars- 
 den, glad of this opportunity to make the conver- 
 sation general. " Where is it? Tell us about it! "
 
 The Shetland Pony Farm 189 
 
 " It's here," explained Dodd, tapping his fore- 
 head. " People say that I have wheels, but they are 
 mistaken. What they consider wheels are merely 
 Shetland ponies galloping about. This farm is one 
 of my many ways of making money." 
 
 " In theory," said Leonard, " you ought to be a 
 billionaire." 
 
 " In theory, yes," returned Dodd, rather sadly. 
 " My schemes have been devised since I have been 
 unable to put them into execution; before that I 
 was too busy making money in the ordinary ways. 
 And people with money stick to the ordinary ways, 
 just as I did, so it is useless to mention anything 
 new to them, except possibly when you have the 
 prestige of great success behind you." 
 
 " But this theoretical farm," persisted Leonard. 
 
 " Why," said Dodd, " it's just this way : Shetland 
 ponies are as hardy and as easy to raise as sheep. 
 Now, in my theoretical farm, up here," tapping his 
 forehead again, " I have been careful to choose a 
 convenient locality, from which I can get my ponies 
 to market easily. I have also arranged to play a 
 little confidence game on some of our well-to-do 
 people. I know where their children are at school, 
 and some day, just about the noon hour, I wander 
 along with a drove of Shetland ponies. The boys 
 are after me in a minute. I talk to them and let
 
 190 Delightful Dodd 
 
 them try some of the ponies. They are for sale 
 at a reasonable price, and pretty soon one boy an- 
 nounces that he's sure his father will buy one for 
 him. Another is just as sure; another isn't quite 
 so sure, but he's going to make the old man's life 
 miserable if he doesn't. Before I quit, I have forty 
 or fifty sales-agents enlisted, each one bound to sell 
 a pony to his own father, and you bet they'll do it, 
 if the old man has the money and a place to keep 
 the pony. You get the pony fever started in a town, 
 and you can take the money away in baskets. All 
 that's necessary is to show up at the right kind of 
 schools, schools in the right localities, I mean. 
 Towns would be better than cities, for there is too 
 much flat-life in the cities, and consequently too 
 few people able to keep a pony, even when well 
 able to buy one. But, with a little judgment, a fel- 
 low could do pretty well in the cities." Dodd 
 paused and looked dreamily over the fields. " I 
 have a dozen men out with ponies from my fanciful 
 farm now," he announced at last. " They have 
 mastered the business and they know where to go. 
 They show up always where children are congre- 
 gated; they are centres of pleasurable excitement 
 and enthusiasm. Perhaps you can picture the scene 
 when a man comes along, at close of school, with 
 well-broken and hardy little ponies."
 
 The Shetland Pony Farm 191 
 
 " I can," said Leonard, emphatically. " I've been 
 a boy myself." 
 
 " Perhaps," continued Dodd, " you can picture 
 various fond fathers either reaching for their 
 pocket-books or taking to the woods when the cry 
 goes up, ' Dodd's ponies are coming ! ' 
 
 " I do not see how a fond father could avoid 
 one thing or the other," asserted Leonard. 
 
 " Nor I," added Mrs. Congrove. " I should think 
 there'd be a fortune in your scheme." 
 
 " It's one thing to sell ponies through the regular 
 horse markets, and another to sell them through 
 the children," declared Leonard. 
 
 " All of which convinces me," said Dodd, drily, 
 " that possibly an all-wise Providence was showing 
 thoughtful consideration for the fond fathers when 
 it deprived me of my money before I had thought 
 out this scheme. Otherwise, I would be more dan- 
 gerous than a pirate."
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE CASE OF DODD VS. WAKELEY 
 
 DAKE WAKELEY'S log cabin was in a clearing at 
 the north end of the Dodd farm, and it was in such 
 a tumble-down condition that it had to be propped 
 up with poles on one side. No one knew just when 
 Dake had taken possession of it ; he was simply dis- 
 covered there one day, and Dodd had let him stay. 
 The Dodd farm was unusually extensive, but only 
 the south part of it was cleared and planted, the 
 north end being still nearly all forest, with winding 
 roads cut through. As Dodd had no possible use 
 
 for the old cabin, and was not utilizing the land 
 
 192
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 193 
 
 in the vicinity, he saw no reason to disturb Dake, 
 further than to exact a nominal rent for the pur- 
 pose of keeping his title from being threatened by 
 any attempt to establish squatter rights. This nom- 
 inal rental was paid in work, and, to such extent, 
 Dake received recognition and was allowed to do 
 a little farming on his own account. As he lived 
 on almost nothing, begged a part of his provisions, 
 made some money by his farming, and spent noth- 
 ing, he was popularly supposed to have a fairly 
 good sum hoarded up. But he looked like a pov- 
 erty-stricken wretch. 
 
 When they came in sight of the cabin, Mrs. Con- 
 grove and Miss Marsden could not repress an ex- 
 clamation of astonishment. 
 
 " Is it possible that any one lives in that place? " 
 cried Mrs. Congrove. 
 
 " I would hardly say ' lives,' " replied Dodd, " but 
 Dake Wakeley exists there." 
 
 " It looks deserted," said Miss Marsden. " Some 
 of the windows are broken and there are cracks 
 between the logs. One corner seems almost ready 
 to collapse." 
 
 " True," returned Dodd. " It matches the man. 
 If he's too miserly to repair himself, you can't 
 expect him to repair his home. He plugs up the
 
 194 Delightful Dodd 
 
 holes in winter and lets things rip in summer 
 inside and out. You ought to see the inside." 
 
 " Is it like the outside ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " He can't prevent the sun 
 and the rain from getting at the outside, and sort 
 of cleaning and cheering things up a bit, but he 
 can shut them out of the inside and keep things 
 slovenly enough to seem sort of homelike to him. 
 I don't think you'd better go in. I'll bring him out." 
 
 Dodd left the surrey a short distance from the 
 cabin, and went after his man. The door almost fell 
 in when he pushed it, being caught by some one on 
 the inside, who pushed it back into place, and then 
 laboriously opened it by lifting one side and swing- 
 ing it around. The top hinge was missing, and the 
 lower one was only a piece of leather. 
 
 The sun was just disappearing behind the trees 
 to the west, but its last rays made the cabin and 
 its occupant stand out very distinctly when the man 
 emerged. And they were eminently suited to each 
 other. Dake Wakeley was even more dilapidated 
 than his home. He had only one eye, a scraggly 
 gray beard, matted hair, and only about a third the 
 usual number of teeth, as was very evident when 
 he tried to talk. He was dirty, unkempt, ragged, 
 and the way he held his hand to his ear showed 
 that he was also slightly deaf, although later it
 
 DAKE WAKELEY.
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 195 
 
 was discovered that he had little difficulty in hear- 
 ing what he wanted to hear. 
 
 A conference followed that seemed to be mutually 
 unsatisfactory. Dodd apparently was trying to in- 
 sist upon something, to which Dake strenuously ob- 
 jected, for Dodd would point to the surrey and 
 Dake would shake his head. Finally Dodd came 
 slowly back to the surrey, while Dake started away 
 across the fields. 
 
 " He wants to tell his story to a judge," Dodd 
 announced. " I wanted him to tell it to you, just 
 to satisfy my own conscience that I am just and 
 right in the matter." 
 
 " Do you have to let him put you to all this 
 trouble? " asked Leonard, to whom the remark had 
 been addressed. 
 
 " Why, no," replied Dodd, simply. " He has 
 occupied and used my property for years without 
 a cent of pay, although lately I have insisted that 
 he shall do a trifling amount of work as a sort of 
 recognition of my ownership. I can put him off at 
 any time ; but," in his conciliatory way, " if it will 
 satisfy him any better to tell his story to Judge 
 Pratt, why not let him do it ? I always like to con- 
 vince people that I'm fair. If you don't mind," he 
 added, resuming his seat in the surrey, " we'll drive 
 over to Pratt's farm. He's the nearest justice, and
 
 196 Delightful Dodd 
 
 his duties take mighty little time from his farm 
 work. Dake is taking a short cut that will get him 
 there as soon as we are." 
 
 As they drove along, all were thinking of the 
 curious and repulsive old fellow, who chose to live 
 alone in this wretched way, and make himself even 
 more unprepossessing than nature had made him. 
 
 " How lonely it must be ! " exclaimed Mrs. Con- 
 grove, with a shudder. 
 
 " Not necessarily," returned Dodd, musingly. 
 " A man may be company for himself in the woods, 
 but never in the city. I have been joyous in the 
 solitude of the woods; I have laughed and sung 
 as I drove through a sparsely settled country, where 
 I met few and knew none; but I was miserable in 
 my loneliness one day in New York City. I sat 
 at a hotel window and watched the hurrying throng, 
 and I realized that never before in my life had I 
 known what real loneliness was. In all that crowd 
 not a soul did I know and not a soul knew me. 
 I was no more to them than any brick in any of 
 the buildings; I was just a jackstraw in the pile. 
 No other day of my life was so long as that one, 
 and never before or since have I been so blue and 
 depressed. And I was not a backwoodsman, unac- 
 customed to city ways, either. I tell you, there
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 197 
 
 is no loneliness in the country that equals the lone- 
 liness of a stranger in a great city." 
 
 Dodd's voice was dreamily gentle as he said this, 
 and somehow it turned the thoughts of all into 
 channels that made them silent. It was dusk now, 
 the hour of sentiment and sympathy, and there 
 was not one of them who did not conjure up some 
 picture of pathetic loneliness. Leonard and Miss 
 Marsden were rather glad to have their thoughts 
 and the attention of the other two diverted. 
 
 Thus they arrived at the home of Theodore Pratt, 
 J. P., and found that worthy, milk-pail in hand, 
 listening to an explanation of the situation by Dake 
 Wakeley, who had arrived a moment before, and 
 had caught the distinguished judicial officer between 
 the barn and the house. 
 
 " Hiram ! " yelled the justice, when he saw Dodd 
 drive up. " You Hiram ! Come get this milk an' 
 tell your ma to put a lamp in the court-room. I 
 got law business on hand." 
 
 Then, without waiting for Hiram, he put down 
 the milk-pail and advanced to the surrey. 
 
 " Evenin', Dodd," was his greeting. 
 
 " Good evening, judge," returned Dodd, as sol- 
 emnly as if the incongruity of the whole thing were 
 not apparent to him. 
 
 " Got a purty big case on, I hear," persisted the
 
 Delightful Dodd 
 
 justice. " Reckon I better send over fer Cy Tap- 
 pan " 
 
 " Oh, I'm willing to leave it to you," said Dodd. 
 
 ' " No," said the justice, gravely shaking his head. 
 
 " When it ain't more'n the case of a stray sow, 
 
 I'm willin' to try it alone, but this here's a case for 
 
 advice." 
 
 "Dodd, he don't care," put in Wakeley. "It 
 ain't nothin' to him, fer he's rich." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I'm rich," retorted Dodd, sarcastically. 
 " I made $2,000 to-day by raising the price of my 
 farm." 
 
 "Got a buyer?" asked the justice, quickly. 
 
 " No," replied Dodd. " I haven't even got an 
 offer, but I put up the price $2,000, so I'm $2,000 
 richer. Anybody can see that. If I don't seem rich 
 enough to-morrow, I'll put it up again. It's easy 
 to make money when the assessor isn't due." 
 
 " I wisht I could git rich like that," grumbled 
 Wakeley, and the laughing party in the surrey were 
 astonished to see that both the justice and Wakeley 
 were blind to the point of the joke. 
 
 " You study Wall Street until you find out what 
 fictional wealth is," advised Dodd, " and then you 
 can get rich any time. I don't see why you can't 
 make as much as you want by raising the price of 
 your hat."
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 199 
 
 The justice scratched his head in perplexity, and 
 Dake Wakeley took off his battered old hat and 
 looked at it. Then the justice decided that the 
 problem was too much for him, and invited them 
 all into the house to have a glass of cider while 
 waiting for Hiram to bring Cy Tappan, the asso- 
 ciate justice pro tern. 
 
 The " court-room," to which they repaired, 
 proved to be a room that also did duty as parlour 
 and library. It had the old, stiff, uncomfortable 
 haircloth furniture, a small organ that probably 
 hadn't been opened for years, the usual books and 
 trinkets on the what-not, some family pictures and 
 chromos, a big Bible, and, in one corner, a table 
 for the justice. It was all so stiff and formal that 
 it gave one the blues, but here they sat and talked 
 until Tappan arrived, although Dake was consid- 
 erate enough to wait outside. 
 
 When Tappan appeared, he and Pratt took their 
 places behind the table in the corner, with the lamp 
 in front of them and a solitary law-book at Pratt' s 
 elbow. Then Dodd and Wakeley were called upon 
 to take seats directly in front of the table, while 
 the others sat a little behind them. 
 
 " This here court will come to order ! " announced 
 Justice Pratt. Then, apologetically, " I ain't always 
 so pertickler on forms, but this here's a big case,
 
 2OO Delightful Dodd 
 
 an' we can't be too careful to see that the rich an' 
 the lowly has ekal justice. Now, what's it all 
 about?" 
 
 " Why, your honours," Dodd began, gravely, but 
 Wakeley interrupted with, " He's tryin' to beat me, 
 him a rich man an' me a poor one." 
 
 " Silence in the court I " ordered Justice Pratt. 
 " You ain't the judge, to say what anybody's tryin' 
 to do. That's what me an' Cy is here fer. Now, 
 what's it all about?" 
 
 Dodd waited for Wakeley to begin his story this 
 time, but Wakeley had been cowed by the repri- 
 mand. 
 
 " The plaintiff," began Pratt, and then stopped. 
 " Dern me, if I know which is the plaintiff," he said, 
 bewildered. " How about that, Cy? " 
 
 Tappan, however, was as bewildered as his asso- 
 ciate, and could only scratch his head and look 
 anxiously at the solitary law-book. 
 
 " The court," announced Pratt, " will talk over 
 the law." 
 
 Then the two farmers leaned toward each other, 
 in earnest consultation, until their gray whiskers 
 and gray hair intermingled. Dodd took this oppor- 
 tunity to turn until Leonard and the two ladies could 
 see his twinkling eyes. They were all having 
 trouble keeping their faces straight, for both of the
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 20 1 
 
 farmers were entirely solemn and serious about the 
 matter, and Pratt' s sudden switches from the ex- 
 treme of dignity to the familiar " Cy " that he used 
 when addressing his associate were really convuls- 
 ing, the more so because he had no idea that he 
 was anything but gravely impressive. 
 
 " The court," said Pratt, when the conference 
 was ended, " decides that it don't care which is 
 plaintiff, there not seemin' to be any rule coverin' 
 the point in this case, an' it decides that it's Dodd's 
 turn to tell what he claims. Go ahead, Dodd." 
 
 "Has Dodd been swore?" interrupted the asso- 
 ciate justice. 
 
 " By gum ! " cried Pratt, excitedly. " Hand up 
 that Bible. Dodd, do you swear to take this 
 woman " 
 
 His associate nudged him, and Pratt stopped and 
 grew very red. 
 
 " I was usin' that form last night," he said, ex- 
 planatorily. " Kiss the Bible, Dodd, an' give me 
 your word you'll stick to facts." 
 
 Both parties to the controversy having thus 
 agreed to stick to facts, Pratt again instructed Dodd 
 to tell his story. 
 
 " This man, Dake Wakeley, has been on my 
 land for a good many years," said Dodd, " and 
 during the last few years I have insisted that he
 
 2O2 Delightful Dodd 
 
 shall pay a small rental in produce, just to keep 
 the question of ownership clear." 
 
 " I paid it, ain't I ? " interrupted Wakeley. 
 
 " Not the last time," replied Dodd. 
 
 " I can't pay what I ain't got, an' " 
 
 " Silence ! " thundered Justice Pratt. " Go on, 
 Dodd." 
 
 " I have occasionally paid him a little something 
 for work, too," said Dodd, " and last winter I made 
 a deal with him to clear three and a half acres at 
 twenty dollars an acre. Isn't that correct, Wake- 
 ley?" 
 
 " Yes, but I ain't got the money." 
 
 " Seventy dollars," announced Tappan, who had 
 made a hasty computation on his fingers. 
 
 " A big case," commented Pratt. " That's why 
 I was fer callin' you in. Go on, Dodd." 
 
 " After clearing this three and a half acres of 
 timber," Dodd continued, " he was to plant it to 
 potatoes, share and share alike, and then pay himself 
 for the work out of my share. I was to have noth- 
 ing until my share had paid him seventy dollars. 
 In other words, he was to get a total of $140 out 
 of that cleared space before he began to pay me 
 anything, and after that it was to be share and share 
 alike of whatever was raised on it, as long as I 
 owned the land and he planted it."
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 203 
 
 " That's the reg'lar way of farmin' on shares," 
 said Pratt. 
 
 " And the clearing that his house and garden are 
 on he's been using without any pay ever since he 
 first located there," added Dodd. " I thought I 
 was pretty liberal." 
 
 " Looks that way," said Pratt, and Tappan 
 nodded a grave affirmation. 
 
 " But I ain't never got the money out of the 
 clearin', an' I want it," asserted Wakeley, doggedly. 
 
 " You didn't plant it," said Dodd, " but you took 
 my timber and sold it." 
 
 " I got to get paid some way," said Wakeley. 
 
 " Hold on ! " ordered Pratt. " What's the rest of 
 the story?" 
 
 " The timber, of course, belonged to me," ex- 
 plained Dodd. " That's why I was willing to pay 
 him to clear the land. But he sold the timber, pock- 
 eted the money, and didn't plant the clearing at all. 
 Then he made a further demand on me for the 
 seventy dollars cash." 
 
 " I was to have it fer clearin' the land," Wakeley 
 declared. 
 
 " You were to get it out of the potatoes," asserted 
 Dodd. 
 
 " But there ain't any potatoes," argued Wakeley. 
 
 "That's your fault," said Dodd.
 
 204 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " But there ain't any potatoes," repeated Wake- 
 ley, sullenly. " I got to have my money." 
 
 " You sold the timber," said Dodd. 
 
 " Well, I got to get my money somehow," argued 
 Wakeley. 
 
 " And now you want seventy dollars cash." 
 
 " I was to git it fer clearin' the land." 
 
 " Silence ! " ordered Pratt. " It's ag'in the dig- 
 nity of this here court to have any back-talkin'. 
 Now, what's the claim ? " 
 
 " I want my seventy dollars ! " exclaimed Wake- 
 ley. 
 
 " Your honours," said Dodd, " I am entitled to 
 the money for the sale of the timber, and I have 
 a right to demand that Wakeley shall get his pay 
 as originally arranged. I am in no way to blame 
 for his failure to plant the clearing to potatoes this 
 year, and his neglect to carry out the agreement 
 means some loss to me, the loss of my share 
 of this year's yield. It certainly is no more than 
 fair to demand that he get his pay out of that clear- 
 ing, beginning next year, but I'm willing to do even 
 better than that. Let him take his pay out of the 
 money he got for the timber it was valuable 
 timber and return the balance to me. Then he 
 may plant the clearing on shares next year."
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 205 
 
 " I got to git my money," said Wakeley, as if 
 he could think of nothing else. 
 
 " Let's sum up these here claims," interposed 
 Pratt. " Wakeley claims seventy dollars fer clearin' 
 the land, an' Dodd claims the money fer the timber." 
 
 " There's the question of planting the clearing, 
 and getting the money that way," suggested Dodd. 
 
 " It ain't planted," declared Pratt, oracularly, 
 " so it don't rigger in the case. Me an' Cy has the 
 facts now, so we'll step outside an' consider. No 
 use sayin' more." 
 
 The two judges rose and walked out on to the 
 porch, where they could be seen arguing the ques- 
 tion for five or ten minutes. Then they marched 
 back, and Pratt, standing, announced the decision 
 of the court. 
 
 " Considerin' this matter as between man an' 
 man," he said, impressively, " we find that Dan'l 
 Dodd an' Dake Wakeley, each on 'em, owes the 
 court fifty cents an' fees, an' .that Dan'l Dodd owes 
 Dake Wakeley five dollars, an' the question of 
 plantin' the clearin' to potatoes can come up next 
 season, if they don't fix it up between 'em afore 
 that. An', as man to man, we think this fair." 
 
 It was Dodd's turn to scratch his head and look 
 bewildered, and Leonard was quite as bewildered.
 
 206 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Aside from any question of the merits of the case, 
 where had that five dollars come in ? Neither party, 
 at any point, had even thought of a five-dollar claim. 
 But Dodd was abstractedly reaching for his pocket- 
 book. 
 
 " It's outrageous ! " whispered Leonard, leaning 
 forward. " Don't pay it." 
 
 " Oh, they mean all right," replied Dodd. 
 
 " But you can get back at old One-Eye, anyway," 
 urged Leonard, for the decision made him indig- 
 nant. 
 
 " I can," admitted Dodd. " But I told him I'd 
 leave it to the justice, and I never was a small man, 
 that is, not that I know of. I'll just pay him 
 the five and call it settled. I never was much of a 
 fellow for revenge." 
 
 Still Leonard was dissatisfied, and he watched for 
 an opportunity to speak to Pratt when they all 
 walked out to the surrey. 
 
 " Pardon me, judge," he said, " but that decision 
 certainly puzzles me." 
 
 " Oh, Dodd's a good fellow," replied the justice, 
 " and we didn't want to be hard on him." 
 
 " But it seems to me you were," urged Leonard. 
 " The judgment should have been against the other 
 man, according to my view of the evidence." 
 
 The justice shook his head.
 
 The Case of Dodd vs. Wakeley 207 
 
 " It ain't any use passin' judgments that can't 
 be enforced," he said. " It hurts the dignity of a 
 court. An' you can see he ain't got any money, 
 so ain't it foolish to order a man to do what he 
 can't do ? But you got to make some findin'." 
 
 " The evidence showed he got the money for that 
 timber, didn't it ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 The justice stopped short. 
 
 " By gum ! we clean fergot that ! " he exclaimed. 
 " It's a dern shame, that's what it is ! " 
 
 Although he refused to store the thing up against 
 his late opponent and take the revenge that was 
 within his reach, even going so far the other way 
 as to say a pleasant word when he paid the money, 
 the kindly Dodd was really disgruntled by the de- 
 cision, and they were nearly home before he bright- 
 ened up and remarked that it was a costly joke. 
 
 " What was ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " That remark about making $2,000 by raising 
 the price of my farm. I figure it out that I paid 
 five dollars for that joke. The judge didn't see 
 the point, and he assessed the damages against the 
 man he thought could best afford to pay. They 
 don't like rich men up here, anyway, and Well, 
 any time you think I'm getting too gay, just say 
 ' Five dollars,' and see how quick I'll calm down. 
 I always did hate a man who couldn't be serious."
 
 208 Delightful Dodd 
 
 But the moonlight showed those twinkling eyes 
 again, for Dodd liked nothing better than to state 
 a truth facetiously or a joke solemnly, and there was 
 truth in what he said about the justice.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DODD AND THE INDIANS 
 
 LEONARD at last had discovered the joy of work- 
 ing, not of working for fame or profit, but just 
 of working. The work he had been doing was not 
 congenial, but he discovered that it was infinitely 
 better than idleness. 
 
 " Without the work," he told himself, " life here 
 would have been intolerable, and I would have 
 wearied of it long ago. It was all right for a brief 
 change from the previous excitement, but I couldn't 
 have stood it long. With the work, time has passed 
 rather pleasantly." 
 
 Of course, Leonard had, and could appreciate, the 
 companionship of Dodd, and there was always a 
 welcome for him at the main house, so his situation 
 was not exactly that of the ordinary farm-hand. 
 Then, too, Jessie Marsden had given him plenty of 
 food for thought, so that his mind was occupied. 
 There could be no doubt that she had had a good 
 
 deal to do with the eagerness with which he adopted 
 
 209
 
 210 Delightful Dodd 
 
 farm work as a temporary solution of the problem 
 that confronted him, but later he had found a meas- 
 ure of personal satisfaction in it. The gratification 
 of doing came into his life for the first time. Only 
 the physically tired man can really appreciate sleep 
 and rest ; the man who does not tire himself in hon- 
 est labour loses one of the greatest pleasures of life. 
 Without exactly reasoning it out, Leonard had come 
 to understand this, and was looking forward to the 
 time when he should have an opportunity to do 
 something really worthy of himself. And this op- 
 portunity was already in sight. Alvord, the lawyer, 
 had written to say that one of the men to whom 
 Leonard had applied by letter would have an open- 
 ing for him about the middle of September. This 
 man had been a friend of Leonard's father, and, 
 after a conference with Alvord, had decided to give 
 the young man a chance to show what he could do. 
 The salary would be small for a man accustomed 
 to live as Leonard had lived, but there was excellent 
 promise for the future. That was all Leonard 
 asked. As a matter of fact, his inclinations had so 
 changed that he would have accepted that place even 
 if his lost money were suddenly restored to him. 
 There was so much more in life when one was doing 
 something, when one felt that one's own efforts were 
 bringing even a small measure of success. He found
 
 Dodd and the Indians 211 
 
 that he had the same ambition to win at work that 
 he formerly had to win at play. And the same letter 
 that brought him the news of his opportunity also 
 informed him that there was likely to be no ques- 
 tion of wealth to distract his thoughts. He would 
 get a little out of the wrecked bank, but only enough 
 to make things a trifle easier for a short time, 
 not enough to invest with a view to having a perma- 
 nent income. But this news did not trouble Leon- 
 ard as much as the news of his business opportunity 
 pleased him; his interest centred in what he could 
 do rather than in what he could get. If only Miss 
 Marsden had been a little more gracious, the sum- 
 mer But, as usual, he steered away from this 
 subject when he reached this point. 
 
 As the time for his departure approached, he 
 talked the matter over frequently with Dodd, and 
 the latter seemed to share his enthusiasm and pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 " Do you know," he said, as they sat on the 
 porch one evening, " I never supposed it was a pos- 
 sible thing for me to work like this ! " 
 
 " Habit," commented Dodd. " Habit puts re- 
 strictions on all of us, and we have to put aside the 
 restrictions before we know what we can do. Why, 
 there was a school-teacher came to me once Did
 
 212 Delightful Dodd 
 
 you know that I served as a school trustee for a 
 time?" 
 
 " I didn't," replied Leonard, " but I should think 
 you would make a good one." 
 
 " I don't know about that," said Dodd, "but I 
 had my own ideas. Well, this school-teacher came 
 to me and said the work was too hard. 
 
 " ' Others seem to stand it,' I suggested. ' Are 
 you ill or an invalid ? ' 
 
 "'No; I'm in perfect health,' she replied, 
 warmly ; ' but I can't stand the hours and the work.' 
 
 " ' Habit,' I said, ' has put restrictions on you that 
 you should remove. Then you will discover how 
 much you can do.' 
 
 " I had studied her pretty closely while she was 
 there, and I thought she would see the point of this, 
 but she merely left in indignation. Then her mother 
 came. 
 
 " ' You are killing my daughter with work,' she 
 said. ' Her health is being undermined.' 
 
 " ' I have noticed it,' I returned. 
 
 " ' She must be transferred or given some lighter 
 work,' she persisted. ' Why, she fainted twice last 
 week.' 
 
 " ' Madam,' I said, ' do you really wish to do 
 something for your daughter's welfare in this mat- 
 ter?'
 
 Dodd and the Indians 213 
 
 " ' Of course/ she replied ; ' or, rather, I want 
 you to do it.' 
 
 " ' It wouldn't be proper for me to do it,' I told 
 her. 
 
 "'Why not?' she asked. 
 
 " * Because,' I said, with my most courtly bow, 
 ' all she needs is to have her corset-strings cut.' 
 
 " Well," concluded Dodd, " I don't know whether 
 the restrictions of habit were removed in this case 
 or not, but I heard no more complaints from that 
 woman or her daughter. Any one of sense could 
 have seen the reason for her fainting spells." 
 
 Mrs. Congrove, Miss Marsden, and some of the 
 other boarders had come out on the porch during the 
 telling of this little anecdote, and their laughter en- 
 couraged the old man to delve a little deeper into 
 his school experiences. 
 
 " The great trouble with many teachers is that 
 they have learned their little lesson just as they 
 expect the scholars to learn theirs," he remarked, 
 musingly, " and they don't know anything else. 
 It's all a matter of rules : they learn by rule and 
 they teach by rule; they seldom do any reasoning. 
 If you stop one of them in the middle of a demon- 
 stration, she's got to begin at the beginning again, 
 like a parrot speaking a piece; if a child does an 
 example a new way, the teacher is lost and marks
 
 214 Delightful Dodd 
 
 it wrong on general principles. Why, I had one 
 come up for examination, who had a formula as 
 long as your arm for the simplest problems. When 
 she got started, I could just catch something like 
 this : ' Constituent units . . . factors . . . ratio of 
 . . . divide . . . find the relation . . . and then 
 you add and multiply.' That seemed to be the limit 
 of her knowledge, and she would rattle it off at the 
 rate of a mile a minute. If you stopped her, she 
 would have to begin all over again. I'm not sure 
 that it was always identically the same rule, but she 
 always reached the same conclusion to add and 
 multiply. Why, she rattled along down to that 
 same point when I suddenly switched my question- 
 ing from arithmetic to geography, and she never 
 could understand why she didn't get a place in our 
 schools. Said I was prejudiced, I believe." 
 
 "What is she doing now?" asked one of the 
 ladies. 
 
 " Still trying to add and multiply, I guess," re- 
 plied Dodd, dreamily. " She's married." 
 
 For a moment there was a dead silence. Then 
 Leonard deliberately tipped his chair over and rolled 
 off the porch. A jolly little woman put a handker- 
 chief to her face, but could not stifle the sounds 
 of suppressed laughter. A very prim young woman
 
 Dodd and the Indians 215 
 
 began, " I don't see " and stopped. Then, some- 
 how, the little gathering broke up. 
 
 " What's the matter ? " asked Dodd, as Leonard, 
 still laughing, got on his feet. 
 
 But Leonard only shooed Dodd away weakly 
 with one hand and continued to laugh, not so 
 much at Dodd's slip of the tongue as at the bewil- 
 dered, blank looks of those who heard it. They 
 did not know whether to laugh or to endeavour 
 to look sublimely unconscious, and this it was that 
 made the situation so ludicrous. 
 
 " I didn't mean it," protested Dodd. 
 
 " I shall never be able to decide positively whether 
 you did or not," replied Leonard, "but Hullo! 
 here come your Indians ! " 
 
 Leonard always referred to the Indians as Dodd's, 
 because they seemed to trust Dodd and depend on 
 him in many ways. Their camp was across the 
 bay to the west, and they came over to the penin- 
 sula to sell baskets to the summer boarders scattered 
 all the way from Neahtawanta to the lighthouse. 
 During these brief visits they camped on Dodd's 
 land, came to Dodd for supplies, and gave Dodd 
 first chance to buy the fish that they occasionally 
 caught. Others might deal with them and sell and 
 buy, but Dodd was their friend. Now, headed by 
 a massive half-breed known as Big John, they came
 
 216 Delightful Dodd 
 
 across the lawn in single file and offered some fish 
 for sale. Mrs. Dodd came out to attend to the 
 details of this deal, and bought and paid for the 
 fish she wanted. Then Big John held up a quarter, 
 and, with guttural terseness, said, " Corn ! " Dodd 
 took the quarter, and waved his hand in the direc- 
 tion of a patch of sweet corn, whereupon the Indians 
 filed away in that direction. 
 
 " I suppose they'll take all they can carry/' re- 
 marked Leonard. 
 
 " They'll take no more than they've paid for," 
 replied Dodd. " Treat an Indian fair and he'll treat 
 you fair; cheat him and he'll get even with you 
 some way at some time. I'll trust them farther than 
 I will a good many white men that I know." 
 
 " They consider Mr. Dodd their friend," ex- 
 plained Mrs. Dodd, " and they trust him." 
 
 " An Indian's faith," added Dodd, " is the faith 
 of the dog, unwavering and unreasoning. I have 
 been clever to them in some trifling ways " 
 
 " Trifling ways," repeated Mrs. Dodd. " In that 
 cloudburst last spring, when their temporary camp 
 was washed out, you took them to Terrace Cottage, 
 and then you came to the house through that fright- 
 ful storm, and went back again with some milk 
 for the children and provisions for the bucks and
 
 Dodd and the Indians 217 
 
 squaws, because all they had was spoiled or washed 
 away." 
 
 " But a fellow doesn't like to think of people being 
 cold and wet and hungry," pleaded Dodd. " That 
 was an awful night to spend without shelter. They 
 had papooses with them, too. And they cleaned 
 up the cottage before leaving as no white man ever 
 would think of doing. I guess they would do as 
 much for me if I happened to be on the other side 
 of the bay." 
 
 " That's right enough," laughed Mrs. Dodd. " I 
 don't think there is anything they wouldn't do for 
 you." 
 
 " Besides," persisted Dodd, " somebody ought to 
 stand up for them, for nearly everybody is against 
 them. When they go to town on circus day, they 
 get drunk and make trouble, a trick the white 
 man has taught them, and so the white man 
 charges all evil up to them. Chickens and an occa- 
 sional pig have been stolen from some of the farms 
 lately. Two men have been to me to accuse the 
 Indians, and to get me to join them in a scheme to 
 have their main camp on the west shore searched." 
 
 " What did you say ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 "I told them," replied Dodd, "that it is my 
 experience that the Indians never steal, knowingly. 
 They simply take the pay that you neglect or refuse
 
 21 8 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to give them. If the Indians took anything from 
 me without my knowledge and consent, I would 
 immediately review the past, to see where I had 
 defrauded them. When an Indian steals, he thinks 
 he is taking only what is due him from the com- 
 munity or the individual, with interest generally, 
 just like the white man. I have learned that, as 
 long as I am fair with him, he will be fair with 
 me, and possibly he is the more grateful because 
 there are so few who do not suspect him and show 
 it. But there have been a lot of thefts in this 
 vicinity lately. My only contention is that you can't 
 tell a thief by the colour of his skin." 
 
 " And the Indians," suggested Mrs. Dodd, " are 
 so dependent on the favour of the people and the 
 government that they can't afford to do any such 
 extensive stealing." 
 
 " Quite true," admitted Dodd, " but I rather like 
 to credit them with better motives."
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DODD IS ANNOYED 
 
 THE near approach of the time for Leonard's 
 departure disturbed Dodd. It was not that he was 
 to lose Leonard, although he had conceived a great 
 liking for the young man, but he believed that Leon- 
 ard was going to lose a great deal himself. The 
 relations existing between Leonard and Miss Mars- 
 den distressed Dodd, for he felt sure that he knew 
 what lay beneath the surface, and yet he saw no 
 way of making them understand each other with- 
 out breaking faith with Leonard and explaining 
 the exact situation. Even then, he was pretty sure 
 to be misunderstood and to make things worse, for 
 Dodd fully appreciated what a ticklish thing it is 
 to interfere in such matters. Nevertheless, he did 
 venture to suggest to Leonard that Miss Marsden 
 laboured under a misapprehension that was unjust 
 to him. 
 
 " Well, let her," returned Leonard, rather shortly. 
 219
 
 220 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " If she chooses to misinterpret what I do, it is her 
 privilege." 
 
 A short time before Dodd would have greeted 
 this with one of his whimsical smiles, and would 
 have thought it rather diverting, but now it dis- 
 turbed him. He could see and enjoy the humour 
 of a trifling and somewhat absurd misunderstand- 
 ing, but the happiness of others was a part of his 
 creed. For the happiness of others he decided that 
 he was justified in breaking faith with Leonard and 
 explaining the young man's situation. Dodd was 
 no masculine match-maker, but he disliked to see 
 things go seriously wrong. However, it was one 
 thing to decide on a course, and quite another to 
 act on the decision. Any mention of Leonard was 
 greeted by Miss Marsden with a cold formality that 
 Was chilling. It was a good deal as if he spoke of 
 the Czar of Russia or the Ahkoond of Swat or some 
 other person so far removed that it was an effort 
 to show even a slight interest in their doings. So, 
 finally, Dodd was forced to speak without getting 
 a favourable opportunity, and he showed a woeful 
 lack of his customary diplomacy. In fact, this un- 
 accustomed role had made him so desperate that he 
 leaned forward one day, and said, with blunt con- 
 fidence : " He isn't as bad as you think. Why, he 
 hasn't any money at all."
 
 Dodd Is Annoyed 221 
 
 Miss Marsden was so astonished that she did not 
 grasp the full meaning of this at the moment, al- 
 though she knew perfectly well to whom Dodd re- 
 ferred. 
 
 " Other people's personal affairs do not interest 
 me, Mr. Dodd," she replied, and Dodd got up, and 
 walked disconsolately away. 
 
 " I always suspected that I was a fool," he solilo- 
 quized, " but I wouldn't have believed I was so big 
 a fool, without proof. And I've got the proof." 
 
 He was so completely disgusted with himself that 
 it was with a positive feeling of relief that he saw 
 Erastus Dutton driving up the back road toward 
 the barn, although he instantly jumped to the con- 
 clusion that Dutton was in more trouble, and more 
 trouble for Dutton was likely to involve him. He 
 was on Dutton's short-time note, and the note was 
 nearly due. Furthermore, Dutton was not a man 
 to put himself to any great inconvenience to bring 
 good news. 
 
 " But he'll give me a problem that's in my line," 
 thought Dodd, " and won't lure me on to show how 
 foolish I can be." 
 
 Dutton began to talk the moment he drew up his 
 horse at the carriage-shed. 
 
 " You ain't goin' to lose a cent, Dodd," he said, 
 with trembling voice, as he climbed out of his buggy.
 
 222 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " I'll pay ye every penny, Dodd, every penny, an' 
 I was honest, too. I thought the money was comin', 
 an' it ought to come. It's got to come, Dodd. They 
 promised me, an' they got to pay." 
 
 The purport of these remarks was plain : Dutton 
 would be unable to meet his note, and Dodd would 
 have to pay. 
 
 " Lord ! what will Emma say ? " w*as his first 
 thought. His sympathy and good nature had led 
 him to do a generous but unbusinesslike thing, to 
 which he knew his sensible wife would have ob- 
 jected, and he felt a good deal like a boy who had 
 been caught playing hookey. But he showed nought 
 of this to Dutton. 
 
 " Of course I'm not going to lose a cent," he 
 said, " and neither are you. I don't know what it's 
 all about, but we're both going to get all that belongs 
 to us." 
 
 " In another season I'll be all right, an' I'll pay 
 ye, Dodd," Dutton persisted, excitedly grabbing 
 Dodd's hand. " You was good to me, an' I wouldn't 
 have ye lose a cent fer a million dollars. I'll pay 
 it all back, if it takes ten year." 
 
 " Who's talking of losing a cent ? " demanded 
 Dodd, in an effort to calm the other. " I'm not. 
 I don't expect to lose anything. Now, what's all
 
 Dodd Is Annoyed 223 
 
 the fuss about? Tie up your horse, and then tell 
 me what's wrong." 
 
 Button was almost hysterical, and kept repeat- 
 ing, " You ain't goin' to lose a cent, Dodd ! " but 
 Dodd finally got him settled on a log beside the 
 carriage-shed, and then induced him to explain him- 
 self. His story was that he had shipped his apples 
 to market, as he had planned when he made the 
 loan, but there had been some delay about paying 
 for them. It had been the understanding that the 
 commission man would take them at the market 
 price for that grade, but Dutton did not have this 
 definitely in writing, and, besides, the question of 
 their condition when received had to be left to the 
 purchaser. Most of the fruit-growers had the feel- 
 ing that they frequently got very much the worst 
 of the deal in this way, and shipments had been 
 known to be refused and allowed to spoil. In this 
 particular case, Dutton had finally become so nerv- 
 ous over the delay, having understood that he was 
 to have an immediate remittance, that he had drawn 
 on the commission man, and the draft had been 
 allowed to go to protest. 
 
 " He kep' the apples," wailed Dutton, " an' he 
 didn't tell me anything was wrong with 'em or that 
 he wouldn't take 'em, so's I could have a chance to 
 try some one else; he didn't do a thing but refuse
 
 224 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to pay my draft, an' I don't know yet what's the 
 matter with 'em." 
 
 " Oh, he'll have to pay something for them," said 
 Dodd, consolingly. " He can't keep the apples and 
 refuse to pay anything." 
 
 " But what'll he pay? an' when? " asked Button. 
 " He knows I'm hard up an' have got to have money 
 mighty soon. I ain't got time to make a fight; I 
 got to take what he offers, an' it looks like he was 
 puttin' me where he could say them apples steamed 
 an' offer less 'n half what they're worth, an' make 
 me like it. I'm lookin' to git word from him/ Take 
 this or fight ! ' an' ' this ' won't be enough to pay 
 the note, let alone leavin' a margin I got to have. 
 He's gone in to rob me, deliberate." 
 
 " It doesn't look just right," admitted Dodd, 
 " but you may be mistaken. Drafts come at mighty 
 inconvenient times to even the best of concerns oc- 
 casionally, but he certainly ought to explain it. 
 Have you telegraphed him ? " 
 
 " That's why I come to see ye," said Dutton, 
 drawing a sheet of foolscap from his pocket. " I 
 been tryin' to telegraph him, but it costs most too 
 much, an' I thought you, bein' a business man once, 
 could fix it up. I got to let him know it's impor- 
 tant."
 
 Dodd Is Annoyed 225 
 
 " Yes," admitted Dodd, " you've got to let him 
 know it's important." 
 
 " An' I got to be nice to him." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Dodd. " Has he been clever to 
 you?" 
 
 " Well, no, but I may want to do business with 
 him ag'in." 
 
 " Not if he's the kind of a man you think he is," 
 said Dodd. 
 
 " I want to show him that I ain't tryin' to be 
 mean, only I got to do it," persisted Dutton. " If 
 I make him mad, he won't pay not now, anyhow." 
 
 " If you apologize to him when he refuses a 
 draft," retorted Dodd, " he'll think you're easy. 
 There are times for conciliation and times for indig- 
 nation. Let's see your telegram." 
 
 Dutton handed it to Dodd, and Dodd read it 
 carefully. It was a letter rather than a telegram 
 a letter of explanation and apology. It recalled the 
 understanding upon which the apples had been 
 shipped, referred to a conversation and a previous 
 letter, gave the date of shipment and of an unan- 
 swered letter of inquiry, explained the necessity for 
 realizing on the shipment promptly to meet other 
 obligations, and hoped that payment of the draft 
 had been refused under a misapprehension.
 
 226 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " That covers the ground, it seems to me/' said 
 Button, anxiously. 
 
 " It covers the ground," admitted Dodd, " but 
 with a useless waste of words." 
 
 " I thought you could condense it," said Button, 
 hopefully. " But I want him to understand." 
 
 " Quite right," returned Bodd. " It is important 
 that he should understand, and, as I am considerably 
 interested in this matter myself, I would like to have 
 you send my revision of this remarkable despatch." 
 
 " I'll do it," said Button. 
 
 Bodd tore a strip off the bottom of the sheet of 
 foolscap, threw the rest away, and then wrote on 
 the strip : " Why in hell don't you honour my 
 draft?" 
 
 " Sign that and send it," said Bodd, " and I think 
 he will understand." 
 
 Button gasped. 
 
 " I don't dare," he said. 
 
 " You promised," said Bodd. 
 
 " It'll make him mad," urged Button. 
 
 " It will make him think you're mad," returned 
 Bodd, " and it's time to make him think so. There's 
 no use being ugly, you know," he added, with his 
 whimsical smile, "but a little convincing earnest- 
 ness is not out of place. And you want him to un- 
 derstand."
 
 Dodd Is Annoyed 227 
 
 Button was undecided, but when he looked at 
 Dodd, the latter merely said, " I mean it. Send 
 that message just as it stands." 
 
 "All right," returned Button, although he still 
 shook his head doubtfully. " I guess I got to do 
 wfiat you say." 
 
 For some time after Button had left, Bodd re- 
 mained seated on the log, thinking the matter over. 
 It would be very inconvenient to have that note 
 presented to him for payment, and it would be very 
 awkward to have to explain to Mrs. Bodd, for he 
 had promised her not to entangle himself financially 
 for any one, especially while his own affairs were 
 in such unsatisfactory condition. And now 
 
 He got up with a sigh, and made his way to the 
 nearest orchard. He had done all that he could do 
 in the matter, and he might as well give his atten- 
 tion to less distressing subjects. All in all, things 
 did not seem to be going very well with him that 
 day. 
 
 Even when he went to the house a little later, 
 there was something to vex him. As usual, he 
 had his pockets full of apples. In the fruit season 
 Bodd always appeared with fruit of one kind or 
 another in his pockets. He gathered whatever was 
 just ripening, and brought it to the house for in- 
 spection. The apples he brought in now he regarded
 
 228 Delightful Dodd 
 
 as prize specimens, and he carefully deposited them 
 on a table in the sitting-room, whereupon Mrs. 
 Dodd promptly swooped down upon him. 
 
 " Take those right up," she ordered, and he 
 meekly obeyed. Then she took the embroidered 
 table-cover off, and folded it up. " I don't know 
 what's the matter with that girl," she remarked. 
 " I've told her dozens of times that we can't have 
 table-covers anywhere in the house during the fruit 
 season, for Dan'l always has his pockets full, and 
 he empties them wherever he happens to be." 
 
 Dodd deposited his apples on the bare table, 
 looked after the retreating form of his wife, and 
 remarked, " I like to have things neat, but some 
 women will strain at a gnat and swallow a saw- 
 mill." Then the twinkle reappeared in his eyes, 
 and he laughed silently. " Things have gone a little 
 wrong to-day, but I suppose we ought not to expect 
 to have it as easy as they do at Beaver Island." 
 
 " Do they have such an easy time there ? " asked 
 Mrs. Congrove, who had been reading in the room 
 when the little scene was enacted. 
 
 " Pretty easy," replied Dodd. " Beaver Island is 
 the place where wrecks are most frequent, and the 
 people there get their living from the wreckage, 
 grain vessels in distress being especially welcome.
 
 Dodd Is Annoyed 229 
 
 We were discussing crops one day when a Beaver 
 Island man joined in. 
 
 " ' The Lord is good to us over on Beaver Island/ 
 he said, devoutly. ' He not only sends us corn, but 
 He sends it shelled.' 
 
 " It took some of us a little time to figure the 
 thing out, but we got there at last. Things don't 
 come to us as easy here, but I guess they don't come 
 to them as easy there as they used to, either. We're 
 drifting away from the simple life." 
 
 " Do you think so ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, indeed," returned Dodd, solemnly. 
 " Why, when we first came here there was an old 
 woman a few miles down the road who beat any- 
 thing I ever knew for simplicity. She was always 
 doctoring people in the very simplest ways, and her 
 rules were simple, too." 
 
 " What were some of them ? " asked Mrs. Con- 
 grove. "I've always thought the modern schools 
 of medicine put us to a lot of unnecessary trouble." 
 
 " No doubt about it at all," replied Dodd. " Now, 
 this old woman used to depend a great deal upon 
 such a trifling and common thing as the bark of the 
 slippery elm." 
 
 "For what?" 
 
 " Oh, either as an emetic or a physic," said Dodd. 
 " Her instructions were to peel it up if it was to be
 
 230 Delightful Dodd 
 
 used as an emetic, and down for a physic." Then, 
 regretfully, " Things are so much more complicated 
 and expensive these days. That's just one illustra- 
 tion of her simple methods. And I knew of a case 
 of an old soldier who demanded the music of the 
 fife and drum while his leg was being amputated. 
 That was a sufficient anaesthetic for him." 
 
 " Truly, we are departing from the simple life," 
 laughed Mrs. Congrove. " Music would never an- 
 swer that purpose now." 
 
 " Well, I don't know," returned Dodd, gravely. 
 " That would depend on the music. I've heard some 
 that would make the agony of the amputation of a 
 leg seem insignificant by comparison. The music 
 would hurt so that you wouldn't have time to think 
 of the leg."
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A TIP FROM DAKE WAKELEY 
 
 DAKE WAKELEY did a remarkable thing, so 
 remarkable that he was surprised at himself. In 
 all the time he had lived in the vicinity of Old 
 Mission, no one could recall that he ever had gone 
 out of his way to do a favour. But now Dake 
 tramped four miles through the woods to tell Dodd 
 something that he ought to know. However, there 
 were a great many people who would do more for 
 Dodd than for any one else, and in after years Dodd 
 occasionally mentioned this unprecedented act of 
 Dake's as an answer to the criticisms by Mrs. Dodd. 
 
 " You never can tell," Dodd would say, " whether 
 you're doing a foolishly generous thing or merely 
 
 making an investment. You remember how easy 
 
 231
 
 232 Delightful Dodd 
 
 I was with Wakeley, when I let myself get the 
 worst of it, and you remember what it paid." 
 
 Then Mrs. Dodd, although still holding that 
 Dodd was frequently unjust to himself in his con- 
 sideration for others, would smile at him affection- 
 ately and let him have his own way. For Dake 
 had broken all records by walking four miles to 
 do Dodd a good turn. 
 
 " I don't feel jest right 'bout that five-dollar 
 deal," announced Dake, upon his arrival at the 
 Dodd farm. 
 
 " Neither do I," returned Dodd, " but I didn't 
 think it would bother you." 
 
 " No," said Dake, apparently missing the point 
 of this, " it looks like I got the worst of it." 
 
 " You got the worst of it ! " exclaimed Dodd, in 
 astonishment. " Say, Dake, did you ever get the 
 best of anything? " 
 
 " Never," replied Dake, promptly. " I'm the 
 most unluckiest feller that ever lived. That there 
 court business cost me sixty-five dollars." 
 
 While Dodd had always held that Dake Wakeley 
 was perfectly honest in his contention, merely being 
 blinded by miserly self-interest, this calm assertion 
 fairly took his breath away. 
 
 " If I gave you outright the ground your cabin
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 233 
 
 stands on," remarked Dodd, finally, " I suppose 
 there would still be something to kick about." 
 
 " Well," admitted Dake, " it would seem sorter 
 mean not to throw in the garden. But you ain't so 
 bad as some, Dodd," he added, flatteringly. " Some 
 folks, bein' in your place, would have kicked me 
 off when we got riled up over that there timber 
 deal. Some folks would have been that mad that 
 they'd go out for revenge when they had to put up 
 any cash. I give you credit, Dodd, fer payin' up 
 like a man. Course you had the best of it, but 
 there's lots would get mad jest the same, s' long 's 
 the jedge didn't give 'em every bit they claimed. 
 An' I got thinkin' it over, Dodd, an' I see how you 
 could get even with me if you felt like to be mean, 
 an' you didn't do it, but paid right up cheerful, so 
 I says to myself, ' He's honest, anyhow : he thinks 
 he's right an' he ain't tryin' to beat me.' ' 
 
 "Oh, I'm honest," remarked Dodd. 
 
 " Looks like that to me," returned Dake. 
 " Course it ain't so hard to be honest when you got 
 the best of it, anyhow, but I can't help thinkin' how 
 mean some folks would be, havin' your power, so 
 I says, ' Dodd's all right,' an' here I am." 
 
 " Well, what do you want ? " asked Dodd. 
 
 " I want to show you that I don't cherish no
 
 234 Delightful Dodd 
 
 hard feelin's fer the way you beat me out, so I come 
 to say that there's folks livin' in your cottage." 
 
 " Oh, the Indians may have put up there for a 
 night," returned Dodd, " although it's strange they 
 should do so without coming to me first," he added, 
 thoughtfully. " They've never used the cottage but 
 twice, when driven there by storms, and both times 
 with my knowledge and consent. There's been no 
 storm to drive them there lately, either." 
 
 " They ain't Injuns," asserted Wakeley, " an' I 
 seen 'em there two times. I was goin' by last night 
 an' they had a light in the big room." 
 
 " Up here," remarked Dodd, "I've found people 
 who are pretty free with other people's property, 
 but the white man isn't as careful as the Indian, 
 and white strangers are a big risk. They might 
 set fire to the place. Are they there now, Dake ? " 
 
 " I come that way to see," replied Dake, " an' 
 I cut into the woods to the side when I come by. 
 There was a feller sittin' on the steps, smokin' a 
 pipe." 
 
 " All right, Dake. Much obliged to you," said 
 Dodd. " I'll go down and see about it. It's most 
 likely a camping-party from the other side of the 
 bay that has stopped over for a day or two to fish. 
 But they might be courteous enough to look me 
 up."
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 235 
 
 Dodd leisurely sauntered down the road leading 
 to the bay, and presently turned into the path that 
 made a short cut to Terrace Cottage. 
 
 " Some day," he mused, " some neighbour will 
 want to borrow that cottage, and will ask me to 
 take it over and bring it back." 
 
 Dodd had no thought except that some camping 
 or fishing party was making free with his property, 
 and he had no objection so long as he was assured 
 that they would take proper care of it. Conse- 
 quently, he made no attempt to approach by stealth, 
 but took the direct route to the cottage. There was 
 no one on the porch when he came in sight of it, 
 but a man's coat, thrown carelessly on one of the 
 steps, showed that some one had been there and 
 that he probably would be back. The porch was 
 small and did not face the bay, that being to one 
 side of the house, so Dodd came up to it without 
 getting in sight of the shore, which proved to be 
 fortunate. He made no attempt to conceal him- 
 self until he saw a white cloth mask lying beside 
 the coat. Then it suddenly dawned upon him that 
 this was a serious matter, and he stopped short. 
 If there was any one in the house, it was too late 
 for him to retreat, for he was in plain view from 
 the front windows. There were no signs of life, 
 however, and he could see that the front room was
 
 236 Delightful Dodd 
 
 empty, so he retired a little, and made a circuit 
 among the trees to the barn in the rear. There he 
 came upon a lot of chicken feathers. 
 
 " One mystery is solved," he mused, as he recalled 
 the neighbours' complaints of thefts. 
 
 From the middle terrace, on which the house 
 rested, there was a steep descent to the lower ter- 
 race, which had a width of about two hundred yards 
 before reaching the water. A rustic stairway, to 
 the west of the cottage, reached a path on the lower 
 terrace, and the path led to the water's edge. Dodd 
 moved forward cautiously to a point near this stair- 
 way, which gave him a view of the path and the 
 bay beyond, the shore view being cut off by the 
 great trees everywhere else. On the terrace below 
 he could see a man, without his coat, leisurely fol- 
 lowing the path to the bay, and far out over the 
 bay a sailboat was approaching. 
 
 " Those Elk Rapids bandits stole a sailboat when 
 they escaped," thought Dodd. 
 
 He crept back, around the rear of the house, 
 to the shelter of the trees to the west, and paused 
 a moment to decide what he should do. These 
 men, he decided, were the bandits for whom the 
 authorities had been seeking, and for whose cap- 
 ture a reward of $2,000 had been offered. They 
 were held to be responsible for a number of daring
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 237 
 
 robberies at Traverse City, and for innumerable 
 minor depredations along nearly the whole length 
 of Grand Traverse Bay. The boat gave the secret 
 of their method of foraging; the$* were pirates 
 rather than bandits. While the east side of the 
 peninsula was being searched for them after the 
 Elk Rapids affair, they unquestionably had rounded 
 the point and temporarily secluded themselves some- 
 where on the west bay. They could not have been 
 at Terrace Cottage all the time, but they might 
 easily have made it their headquarters and have 
 spent considerable time there, especially at night. 
 No one ever came that way at night, and it was 
 probable that no one had been above the. first floor, 
 either day or night, since Miss Marsden explored 
 the place early in the summer. It was quite pos- 
 sible that there was booty stored in the upper part 
 of the house. 
 
 " Well," thought Dodd, " pretty nearly every- 
 body else has taken liberties with the cottage. It 
 only needed this to make the list complete. But 
 perhaps I'll get a little money out of it this time 
 if they'll stay here a little longer." 
 
 He started back through the woods at unusual 
 speed for him, for he was ordinarily most delib- 
 erate in his actions. It was probable, he thought, 
 that the boat was returning from another raid.
 
 238 Delightful Dodd 
 
 In any event, it was practically certain that quick 
 action by the authorities would enable them to catch 
 the whole gang, and the reward 
 
 " I could use that," said Dodd, as he hurried 
 along. " It would clean things up and give me 
 a start on next season that would enable me to 
 forge ahead, that is, if I turn it over to Mrs. 
 Dodd. I never could keep anything of my own 
 myself, although I guess I've been pretty careful 
 of other people's property and affairs." 
 
 Which was true. Dodd was one of those strange 
 contradictions sometimes found, careless and im- 
 pulsive in the management of his own finances, but 
 cold, cautious, and resourceful in handling the 
 affairs of others. 
 
 At the barn he hastily hitched a horse to a cart, 
 and, calling Leonard in from the field, started with 
 him for Old Mission. He wanted company. After 
 the dull uneventfulness of peninsula life, this un- 
 expected sensation seemed to make it necessary that 
 he should have some one with whom to discuss it. 
 
 " I've found the bandits," he announced, briefly, 
 as they drove along. 
 
 "What!" cried Leonard. 
 
 " They're at Terrace Cottage," explained Dodd. 
 
 " For heaven's sake, let's get them ! " urged 
 Leonard, thoughtlessly.
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 239 
 
 " Of course," said Dodd, " but don't let's let them 
 get us. There's no reward for being killed or cap- 
 tured by them." 
 
 " But the men on the farm ! " persisted Leonard. 
 " We could muster a dozen altogether." 
 
 " With one old shotgun, a few pitchforks, and 
 perhaps a revolver or two," said Dodd. " I haven't 
 got anything but a shotgun, and I don't think 
 you could find more than two pistols among the 
 men. We don't go much on firearms up here." 
 
 " You're right, of course," returned Leonard, 
 cooling down. " It looked like such a fine thing 
 to round up those fellows that I let my enthusiasm 
 run away with me. I was thinking of the reward, 
 too. You ought to get that, Mr. Dodd." 
 
 " That goes to the man who furnishes the au- 
 thorities with information that leads to their arrest, 
 with $200 for the capture of any individual member 
 alone," explained Dodd. " Anyhow, I'm getting 
 old enough so that I'd a little rather let the police 
 or the deputies do the fighting. I never was much 
 of a fighting man, anyway," he added, drifting into 
 one of his musings, " although I can see its advan- 
 tage to the general public." 
 
 " I don't see where that comes in," retorted 
 Leonard. " Speaking generally, and putting aside
 
 240 Delightful Dodd 
 
 specific instances, what does fighting do for the 
 general public ? " 
 
 " It educates it," replied Dodd. " War is a great 
 educator. What did you know about the Philip- 
 pines before the war with Spain?" 
 
 " Mighty little," admitted Leonard. 
 
 " What did you know of Manchuria before war 
 was declared between Japan and Russia?" 
 
 " Practically nothing." 
 
 " It takes war to make you study geography," 
 said Dodd ; " it takes war to teach you where the 
 things you use come from. The price of something 
 goes up, and you ask why. ' War/ says the dealer. 
 ' Thunder and guns ! ' you exclaim, ' I didn't know 
 we got that from the war zone.' You find that 
 you have a personal interest in that war, while you 
 previously thought you were nothing but an idle 
 spectator; you begin to look things up and do a 
 little thinking on your own account. You find that 
 you have more ties than you ever supposed, and 
 that what affects your brother in some far-off land 
 indirectly affects you. Then some products of your 
 own country go up, and you are told that some 
 belligerent is buying for its armies and decreasing 
 the visible supply, so you are moved to give a little 
 consideration to the law of supply and demand. 
 Thus you have learned something about the people,
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 241 
 
 the geography, the products, and the needs of some 
 country or countries to which you had previously 
 given no thought, and of the influence of that coun- 
 try's course upon your own life. It makes you 
 study. I don't advocate war, but it's a great 
 teacher." 
 
 " Well," returned Leonard, " that has nothing to 
 do with the little question of fighting that we have 
 on hand now. I wonder if they will get those 
 fellows without loss of life. Say, it's lucky that 
 no one has been to the cottage recently, isn't it?" 
 
 "Perhaps," said Dodd, "but I have an idea 
 they have been there only occasionally at night, 
 and, if they have stored any booty there, it's prob- 
 ably up in the attic. Very likely we could have 
 gone there almost any day without noticing any- 
 thing wrong, unless we happened to run on the 
 feathers back of the kitchen. Do you think," he 
 asked, thoughtfully, " that Dake Wakeley is en- 
 titled to part of this reward, if I get it?" 
 
 " Certainly not," answered Leonard. " Dake 
 gave you notice of some trespassing on your prop- 
 erty, but he did not discover the bandits, and he 
 did not notify the authorities or assist in their cap- 
 ture. Now, Mr. Dodd," Leonard went on, more 
 earnestly, " if you're going to hunt for an excuse 
 to give away what is rightfully yours, I'm going
 
 242 Delightful Dodd 
 
 to report the matter to Mrs. Dodd, and see that 
 she takes charge of the cash." 
 
 Dodd laughed. 
 
 " You have discovered the only person I'm afraid 
 of," he said. " I think perhaps I'd better get the 
 reward before I dispose of it. I believe even Mrs. 
 Dodd would commend that course. At any rate, I 
 know she wouldn't let me spend the $2,000 I made 
 by raising the price of my farm, and I had to admit 
 that there was a good deal of sense in the argu- 
 ments she used." 
 
 "What were they?" 
 
 " Why, she pointed out that I couldn't spend it 
 because I didn't have it, which seemed to me, on 
 mature reflection, a very reasonable view." 
 
 At Old Mission, Dodd decided, after advising 
 with Leonard, to call up Traverse City by telephone. 
 He had intended to merely report the facts to the 
 Old Mission authorities, but Leonard insisted that 
 they could do nothing, and probably would them- 
 selves report the matter to Traverse City. Old 
 Mission was too small to boast of a police force, 
 and its sole reliance in such a case would have to 
 be on a posse of farmers, while Traverse could send 
 officers in a steamer or a launch. 
 
 " We might as well have taken our own men 
 and tried to capture them as to turn the thing over
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 243 
 
 to any one at Old Mission," Leonard urged, " and, 
 to avoid complications in the matter of the reward, 
 you want to report it to headquarters yourself. 
 The reward was offered from Traverse City, and 
 that's where these fellows will have to be taken 
 if captured." 
 
 " I guess you're right," admitted Dodd. " I 
 don't want them to have time to escape, but men 
 can get out from Traverse pretty quick, even if they 
 have to come by boat to Neahtawanta and drive 
 over. I'll try it that way." 
 
 The officials at Traverse City were greatly ex- 
 cited by the news that Dodd gave them, the more 
 so because there had been some bold depredations on 
 the west peninsula the night before, the penin- 
 sula from which Dodd had seen the sailboat coming, 
 and they promised that a strong detail of men 
 would be sent down immediately. Coached by 
 Leonard, Dodd cautioned them to send a launch, 
 so that the sailboat could be overtaken in case of 
 flight, but to have the party landed from the launch 
 some distance south of the cottage, as any attempt 
 to land near it would alarm the men sought. 
 
 " We'll send a small party by launch to cut off 
 escape by water," was the reply, " and a larger 
 party will be landed at Neahtawanta, and go on
 
 244 Delightful Dodd 
 
 from there by land, to make the capture if pos- 
 sible." 
 
 On the way back to the farm, Dodd and Leonard 
 were too much engrossed in the near approach of 
 what promised to be a thrilling adventure to wan- 
 der into the amusing and interesting little verbal 
 byways ordinarily so favoured by Dodd. They dis- 
 cussed various ways of approaching and surround- 
 ing the cottage and of surprising its possible in- 
 mates. There was a shed door, according to Dodd, 
 that could be reached with little chance of being ob- 
 served from any of the windows, provided no one 
 was in the kitchen, and the door from this shed 
 to the kitchen could be broken down easily, if found 
 to be locked. But Dodd believed it would be open. 
 
 Leaving Dodd to put up the horse, when they 
 reached the farm, Leonard wandered to the front 
 of the house, to pass the time as best he could in 
 his excited state until the arrival of the officers. 
 Mrs. Congrove looked up from a book, as he ap- 
 peared, and nodded to him pleasantly. 
 
 " You see I am left alone," she said. " Jessie 
 is too strenuous for me. She has gone down to say 
 good-bye to the cottage before we " 
 
 11 The cottage ! " exclaimed Leonard, startled. 
 
 " Why, yes. She went down there about the 
 time you started away with Mr. Dodd."
 
 A Tip from Dake Wakeley 245 
 
 Leonard darted back to the barn, his face white 
 and haggard in an instant. 
 
 " Dodd ! Dodd ! " he cried. " Miss Marsden is 
 at the cottage ! Went down an hour ago ! " 
 
 Then he turned and made for the road to the 
 bay. Dodd, who was leading the horse into the 
 barn, dropped the halter, and started after Leonard 
 at a surprising pace. Passing the building in which 
 his " office " was located, he paused just long 
 enough to get an old shotgun, and then continued 
 toward the bay, followed closely by Ackerman, 
 who appeared just in time to see Dodd running 
 down the hill with a gun. Ackerman knew noth- 
 ing of the nature of the trouble, but it was enough 
 for him to know that there was trouble somewhere. 
 
 Part way down the hill Leonard met three In- 
 dian bucks and three squaws slowly plodding up, 
 and it flashed across his mind that they might prove 
 their devotion and gratitude to Dodd in this emer- 
 gency. An Indian ought to be able to fight, and his 
 presence certainly would disconcert any ordinary 
 lawbreaker. 
 
 " Robbers in the cottage ! " he said, stopping in 
 front of them. " Dodd's cottage ! Come and drive 
 them out!" 
 
 The Indians looked at him blankly, and then at 
 each other, but made no movement.
 
 246 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " White woman in danger ! " he cried, desper- 
 ately. "Help free her!" 
 
 The Indians merely grunted, and, with an excla- 
 mation of anger, Leonard was starting on, when 
 Dodd caught up. 
 
 " Big John ! " gasped the breathless Dodd. 
 "Fight! Forme!" 
 
 Then Dodd darted from the road into the path 
 that made a short cut to the cottage (which Leon- 
 ard had momentarily forgotten), and the three 
 bucks, led by Big John, silently followed, while the 
 squaws squatted in the road, content to learn what 
 it was all about later. 
 
 Leonard and Ackerman plunged in after them, 
 and, in single file, compelled to let Dodd set the 
 pace (which was not nearly fast enough for Leon- 
 ard), the six made their way by the woodland path 
 to the point where it joined the terrace road, when 
 Dodd slackened his pace and turned aside, the better 
 to approach the house unobserved.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MISS MARSDEN'S ADVENTURE 
 
 Miss MARSDEN and Mrs. Congrove were to leave 
 for home in a few days, and Miss Marsden had been 
 making farewell pilgrimages to the many little 
 nooks that she had discovered and enjoyed during 
 her stay at Old Mission. She was going back to 
 the dull routine of life with her aunt on the Carroll 
 farm, and Jessie Marsden, natural as it was for 
 her to work, had learned to hate farm drudgery. 
 And the farm to which she was returning was far 
 different from the farm she was leaving. The lat- 
 ter was big and beautiful, and was identified with a 
 restfulness that she had found nowhere else. How- 
 ever, she told herself that there was more reason 
 for gratitude than regret, for word had been re- 
 ceived that Mrs. Congrove's affairs were in better 
 shape than had been supposed at the time of her 
 husband's death. She would have a modest income, 
 small, but still sufficient to make the future no 
 
 longer the distressing problem it had seemed to be. 
 
 247
 
 248 Delightful Dodd 
 
 This made it possible to plan definitely, and they 
 had quickly settled on a date for their departure. 
 Then Miss Marsden had evolved a sentimental 
 desire to make a last visit to all the familiar places, 
 little rustic retreats to which she had often re- 
 tired, the paths along which she had strolled to 
 gather pine-needles for the sofa pillows with which 
 she had been busy much of the time. Mrs. Con- 
 grove went with her occasionally, but the places 
 had not the same associations for her that they had 
 for her sister, for she had given them less attention 
 on previous visits and never had stolen away to any 
 of them alone. In fact, the natural beauties of the 
 place did not, and could not, appeal to Mrs. Con- 
 grove as they did to Miss Marsden, for the former's 
 thoughts were on other things, while the latter was 
 experiencing a freedom that she never had known 
 on the Carroll farm, which was the misfortune, 
 and not the fault, of the Carrolls. Mrs. Congrove, 
 too, had demanded less attention as her strength 
 increased and the first shock of her husband's death 
 wore away, had gradually taken her part in the 
 quiet life of the place, and had derived pleasure 
 and benefit from occasional association with others. 
 So Miss Marsden had more time to herself, and 
 now she was going alone for a last visit to the 
 cottage.
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 249 
 
 On the way, her thoughts were busy with Dodd's 
 remark, " He isn't so bad as you think. Why, he 
 hasn't any money at all." She laughed as she 
 thought of the way he had blurted this out, and of 
 his crestfallen look as he retired, but somehow the 
 statement had made an impression. What did it 
 mean? Was it possible that Leonard was not pos- 
 ing, but really and earnestly working? It was a 
 foolish kind of work for a man of his training and 
 ability, but it might be temporarily expedient. If 
 not merely a pose, there certainly must be some 
 good reason for it. In any event, if he were not 
 financially independent, it threw a very different 
 light on his action. But she had understood, and 
 from him, that he had an income that left him no 
 incentive to work. Possibly, Dodd, in his friend- 
 ship, had undertaken to deceive her, but that was 
 not like Dodd. 
 
 Speculating after this fashion, she turned into 
 the woodland path, and later left that to pluck some 
 wild flowers. Lured from one to another, she finally 
 emerged from the wood near the back of the cottage, 
 and noticed that the door of the shed was open. 
 
 " I'll go in that way," she said to herself. 
 
 Passing through the shed into the kitchen, she 
 discovered some evidences of recent occupation in 
 various scraps of food lying about, but it did not
 
 250 Delightful Dodd 
 
 disturb her in the least, for she knew of Dodd's 
 good-natured acquiescence in the occasional use of 
 the cottage. 
 
 " He said the Indians were neat and careful," 
 she commented. " I suppose this is a man's idea 
 of neatness." 
 
 The house was not furnished, except for two or 
 three old wooden chairs, and she found nothing but 
 these and a blanket in the parlour. The blanket, 
 however, made her pause. That seemed to indicate 
 that whoever had been there was coming back, and 
 a sudden chill of fear swept over her. She was 
 alone in a deserted house in the woods. They had 
 been so quiet and secluded at the Dodd farm that 
 no thought of possible harm had ever come to her 
 in any of her rambles in the woods, but was there 
 not danger now? Who might these men, or this 
 man, be? She could not say whether one or more 
 had occupied the house, but she would be at his, 
 or their, mercy if caught there, and the blanket 
 
 Jessie Marsden was suddenly and unaccountably 
 overcome by unreasoning fear. She, who had en- 
 joyed solitude, was instantly almost panic-stricken 
 in her loneliness. She might tell herself that it 
 was only the Indians, who were held to be harmless 
 and friendly, or some other to whom Dodd had 
 given the privilege of the cottage, but she was
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 251 
 
 afraid, fearfully and inexplicably afraid ; she 
 who always had been so self-reliant. Never before 
 had she experienced such a feeling of feminine help- 
 lessness. She rushed to the front door, threw it 
 open and recoiled. A man's coat and a white 
 cloth mask lay on the steps. A mask evidently im- 
 provised from a handkerchief. It flashed upon her 
 that there had been something psychological in that 
 feeling of fear; the danger had impressed itself 
 upon her in spite of her reason. There could be 
 no doubt now that the cottage had been occupied 
 by desperate characters, and one at least was still 
 in the vicinity. 
 
 She backed in and shut the door, deciding to 
 make her escape through the shed; but, before she 
 could turn, she heard voices outside, and knew that 
 some men were coming up the rustic stairway from 
 the lower terrace. To add to her alarm, one of the 
 men was swearing volubly and horribly, and the 
 glimpse she caught of them through the west win- 
 dow showed them to be rough, brutal-looking fel- 
 lows, whom any woman would fear to meet alone. 
 They were so close now that escape was impossible, 
 for she could not leave by either the front or the 
 back way without almost a certainty of being seen 
 before she could get to the shelter of the trees. 
 Behind her was a stairway, leading to the floor
 
 252 Delightful Dodd 
 
 above, and up this she went, her heart beating 
 wildly, her face white, and her prized independence 
 utterly gone. For once in her life she longed for 
 the protection of man. 
 
 Another narrow and steep stairway led to the 
 attic, and she continued up this, fearing that, if 
 she did not do it now, her strength would fail her 
 when she had to do it later, in case the men as- 
 cended. In truth, Jessie Marsden was close to col- 
 lapse. She was a strong girl in all the ordinary 
 affairs of life, a resourceful girl in meeting the 
 problems of the modern world, a brave girl in the 
 face of hardship and misfortune, but this personal 
 danger seemed so close and so fearful to her excited 
 imagination that her knees trembled and her 
 thoughts came incoherently. For a moment she 
 could only realize that she was trapped by a gang 
 of vicious and desperate outlaws, and that her pre- 
 dicament could be known to no one. She was no 
 coward, but this was her first experience of physical 
 danger, a danger that apparently no effort of 
 her own could avert. But she knew the need of 
 calmness and strength, and she stretched herself 
 prone on the floor, where she had sunk down, and 
 forced herself to lie perfectly still, in an effort to 
 recover her self-possession and the full control of 
 her limbs. She heard only the confused murmur
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 253 
 
 of voices below, and gradually she was able to gain 
 mastery of the effects of her fear, although not of 
 the fear itself. Then she sat up and looked about 
 her. Two sacks, that seemed to contain plunder 
 of some sort, gave cause for further anxiety. Here 
 was something that might bring one of them to the 
 attic at any moment, and that would mean her dis- 
 covery. If she could remain undiscovered until 
 supper-time, her absence then would create uneasi- 
 ness. 
 
 " But what will happen then ? " she asked her- 
 self. " Gracie knows I came to the cottage, and 
 some one will come to look for me without thought 
 of danger. These outlaws won't let a man who 
 locates them get away, if they can help it." 
 
 Almost the only possible hope of rescue might 
 itself lead to a tragedy. She crept to the east win- 
 dow and looked out, half-hoping and half-fearing 
 that she might see some one, but there was no sign 
 of life among the trees. It was only a few yards 
 to the shelter of the wood, and the chance of ob- 
 servation on that side was slight, as the principal 
 rooms were on the side toward the bay. It was 
 the one point where the house could be approached 
 or left with reasonable hope of escaping discovery. 
 But she could not well drop from a third-story
 
 254 Delightful Dodd 
 
 window. She might risk it from the second floor, 
 however. 
 
 Jessie Marsden's nerve had returned. When she 
 forced herself to lie quiescent, with relaxed muscles, 
 until she could think connectedly, she gained a mas- 
 tery that her will-power now enabled her to hold. 
 She was afraid, desperately afraid, but she was no 
 longer terror-stricken ; she would do what she could 
 to help herself. If she could reach the second floor, 
 she would try a drop from the window and a dash 
 into the woods. 
 
 Back to the stairway she crept, and listened. 
 They were still in the main room on the first floor, 
 their voices, except for an occasional oath, being 
 indistinct. One man was evidently angry about 
 something. It was her chance No; they were 
 coming up-stairs. 
 
 Scarcely daring to breathe, she lay at the top of 
 the second stairway, listening. Were they coming 
 all the way up? or would they stop on the second 
 floor? One of them began the ascent to the attic, 
 and her heart sank. She could feel the weakness 
 overcoming her again, -as she pictured herself the 
 prisoner of these merciless brutes. Then she was 
 given a respite. 
 
 " Don't be in such a damn hurry ! " another of 
 the men growled. " We ain't settled the thing yet."
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 255 
 
 " It's settled for me ! " retorted the man on the 
 second stairway. " It's up to me for a getaway 
 right now ! Why, you ain't got the sense of a calf ! 
 You tear up all one side of the bay when there 
 ain't no need of it, an' then cross over in a boat 
 that's stole an' bein' hunted for, an' shoot right 
 in here in broad daylight. They got us spotted now, 
 sure!" 
 
 "We had to do it," urged the other. "We 
 wanted to lie low over there till night, but things 
 was gettin' too hot." 
 
 "Who made 'em too hot!" exclaimed the man 
 on the stairs, angrily. " You, with your damn 
 foolishness. Why couldn't you go easy till we was 
 ready to pull off the big job? A little snipin' was 
 all right, but it was a fool trick to try to make 
 a string of little rough and ready jobs that would 
 send every farmer for fifty miles after his flintlock 
 musket, an' get all the sheriffs an' constables ex- 
 cited. Why, you ," and he 
 
 characterized his companion in unprintable lan- 
 guage. 
 
 " Cut that out ! " exclaimed the other. " We 
 got in a tight corner an' had to do the best we could, 
 an' now we're all goin' to make a break for it to- 
 gether. But where to? That's what we got to 
 settle now."
 
 256 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Sure it is," chimed in another voice. " The 
 swag up there's in bags, to be got any time, but 
 there's other things to be fixed up. Anyhow, the 
 loose things in the front closet ought to be took 
 out first." 
 
 The man on the stairway apparently surrendered 
 to this argument, for Miss Marsden heard the men 
 enter a room on the second floor. She could only 
 catch an occasional word as they rummaged in a 
 closet that they had evidently used as a storeroom, 
 but she had heard enough to show that their ap- 
 pearance in force in daylight was unpremeditated, 
 and that they contemplated flight under cover of 
 darkness. This was reassuring in one way, but 
 not in another, for one of them would surely come 
 after the two bags up there, and the only place to 
 hide was behind the partition that shut in the stair- 
 way, which would afford no concealment unless 
 he happened to keep on one side of the attic. If 
 he would only wait until dark, there might be a 
 chance, but 
 
 He was coming up now. She shuddered and felt 
 the chill of despairing fear creep over her again. 
 Then came a second respite. 
 
 " Keep your shirt on," growled the man who 
 had interfered before. " Them things is ready, an' 
 these ain't. We got to get these down first."
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 257 
 
 " Sure," said the third voice, and from the bot- 
 tom of the lower stairway some one called : " What's 
 holdin' you up there? Bring that loose truck 
 down ! " 
 
 " We was stoppin' to talk of cleanin' out old 
 man Dodd afore we quit," retorted one of the men 
 on the second floor. 
 
 " Not for me ! " exclaimed the man below. 
 
 " Nor me," echoed several other voices below, 
 showing there were at least six or seven men in the 
 party. 
 
 " Why not? " asked the man above. 
 
 " Those two lads that mixed up over to Elk 
 Rapids is there," was the reply. " Trie one that 
 turned loose is bad enough for me, an' they say 
 the other's worse. I'll take my chance with a gun 
 or 'most any man, but I don't hunt for lads that 
 can turn me upside down an' ram my head on the 
 ground so quick I don't know what's happened. 
 Humans is all right, but they're devils, or a lot 
 of lyin' is bein' done." 
 
 " That's right," chimed in another, " an' this ain't 
 the time to butt into a bad game." 
 
 " Hate to go away without nothin' to remember 
 the old man by," growled the first speaker. " It 
 don't look polite. Ain't there anything up there 
 you want ? "
 
 258 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " Well," replied the man below, with a coarse 
 laugh, " they got some good-lookin' women up 
 there, an' I wouldn't mind stealin' one of them, 
 if it was anyways safe." 
 
 They all laughed at this sally, and Miss Marsden, 
 shuddering again, heard the three on the second 
 floor descending, with a bumping and a clattering 
 that seemed to indicate that there were silver and 
 articles of some bulk in the loot they had collected. 
 From the bottom she heard the further growl : " We 
 had to let Dodd alone first, 'cause it would get 
 people lookin' for us here, an' we got to let him 
 alone now 'cause he's got some strong-arm men 
 of his own. An' women with jew'lry there, too." 
 
 Almost hopeless now, and with even a greater 
 dread than before, she crept again to the window. 
 Her second respite must be about at an end, and 
 the man would surely come for the two bags this 
 time. Perhaps it would be better to drop from the 
 window, anyway. She might be stunned by the fall, 
 she might break a leg or an arm, but she might 
 escape. Surely anything was better than to fall 
 into the hands of these miscreants. She tried the 
 window, and found that it opened noiselessly. She 
 could sit by it, and, as a last resort 
 
 A movement of the underbrush caught her eye 
 and changed the current of her thoughts. For a 

 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 259 
 
 moment it seemed as if her heart stopped beating, 
 and then she wanted to cry out in a very delirium 
 of joy. A man was approaching cautiously, and 
 behind him was another and yet another. And the 
 first man she realized on the instant that it was 
 not a man, but the man; in that thrilling, critical 
 moment she had time to feel a sense of elation, of 
 joy, that relief should come in this form, with Ralph 
 Leonard in the lead. Behind the first three were 
 others, but she really distinguished and recognized 
 only the leader. He was advancing cautiously, and 
 his face she could read in his face, not merely 
 the anxiety of a man for a woman in danger, but 
 the anguish and desperation of a lover who hopes 
 and fears and asks only that he may meet whatever 
 threatens, irrespective of the odds. The face was 
 clear and distinct, as Leonard, keeping his body as 
 much as possible under cover, let his eyes sweep 
 the house and the clearing, until they rested on the 
 face at the upper window. Then there came such 
 an expression of relief as would have betrayed his 
 heart instantly, even if she had not already read 
 it. But she was as sure of him, and of herself, 
 as if he had spoken and she had answered ; it was 
 like the passing of a flash of light, but she knew. 
 She cautioned him to silence by placing a finger 
 on her lips, and then motioned to the rear of the
 
 260 Delightful Dodd 
 
 house, to indicate that their best chance was to enter 
 that way. He nodded, and moved in that direction. 
 She saw then that Dodd, Ackerman, and three In- 
 dians made up the rest of the party, and, with the 
 exception of Dodd, who had an old shotgun, all 
 were armed with clubs, secured as they came through 
 the wood. 
 
 As she turned from the window, she heard a man 
 coming up the stairs, and hastily placed herself 
 behind the stairway partition. He would hardly 
 discover her, she thought, before affairs on the lower 
 floor claimed his attention. The partition merely 
 enclosed the stairway opening, so it was small shel- 
 ter to any one hiding, but it might easily keep her 
 from sight for a few minutes. 
 
 He had, she judged, just reached the top step 
 when the sound of a scuffle came from below. He 
 paused to listen, and she could see his fingers grasp- 
 ing the edge of the partition. Suddenly, it dawned 
 upon her that, if he went back, it would be one more 
 for her rescuers to fight, and that he would come 
 upon them from an unexpected quarter. She had 
 been fearing he might come all the way up; now 
 she feared he might turn back. Everything might 
 depend upon this one man. 
 
 It was on inspiration that she acted; she did not 
 reason, she did not plan, but suddenly she swung
 
 Miss Marsden's Adventure 261 
 
 around the end of that partition and put all her 
 weight and all her strength into one fierce shove. 
 The man, taken unawares, toppled, yelled, fell, and 
 rolled to the floor below. At the same moment there 
 came up from the first floor a most horrible, blood- 
 curdling yell, in which there seemed to be blended 
 a dozen voices, and Jessie Marsden, her over- 
 wrought nerves unable longer to endure the strain, 
 fell in a swoon at the head of the attic stairs.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE FIGHT AT THE COTTAGE 
 
 WHEN the line of rescuers, led by Dodd, swerved 
 from the woodland path, to approach the cottage 
 under cover of the trees, Leonard's anxiety and 
 impatience forced him, at the risk of a bad fall, 
 to push to the front. He swung out from the line, 
 and, dodging among the trees, soon got ahead of the 
 Indians and was on even terms with Dodd. Acker- 
 man, still ignorant of the cause of the excitement, 
 but entirely satisfied with the prospect of a row 
 of some sort, kept close at his heels, while the In- 
 dians, far from warlike in the cast-off toggery of 
 civilization, merely followed where Dodd led. But 
 Leonard had time to note that each of them carried 
 a stout cudgel, and he himself picked up a short, 
 heavy stick that made a fairly formidable weapon. 
 Ackerman did the same, but later decided that the 
 stick only interfered with the free play of those 
 hands and arms that had won all former battles 
 
 for him, so he discarded it. 
 
 262
 
 The Fight at the Cottage 263 
 
 As Leonard was passing Dodd, the latter checked 
 him long enough to caution, " Careful, now. We've 
 got to know what to do before we do it." 
 
 Leonard's impulse was to dash straight to the 
 house and take chances, but, even in his excitement, 
 he knew that Dodd was right and that they must 
 first pause to learn something of the situation. No 
 one knew how large the gang was, but it unques- 
 tionably was armed, and, unless surprised, would 
 have a great advantage. Although he gave no 
 thought to the danger to the attacking party, he 
 knew that it would be worse than folly to jeopardize 
 Miss Marsden's safety by any rashness. So he 
 slacked up as he neared the clearing, and crept for- 
 ward cautiously at the point where there would 
 be the least danger of observation. Dodd seized 
 this opportunity to turn to the Indians. Their right- 
 ing ability might be modified by contact with civili- 
 zation, like their dress, but their yelling ability was 
 not, and a real good Indian yell is an awe-inspiring 
 thing, especially when it comes to one's ears un- 
 expectedly. 
 
 " War-whoop, John," he said to the big leader. 
 " Not now, but when fight starts. Scare white 
 man!" 
 
 Big John grunted and explained briefly to the 
 other two.
 
 264 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Leonard, meanwhile, was advancing carefully, 
 with Ackerman just behind. His face was set, and 
 his eyes alternately blazed fiercely and became pa- 
 thetic as they reflected his anguish and doubt. He 
 knew that the principal rooms of the cottage were 
 on the opposite side, so they had a good chance of 
 reaching it unobserved, but he could not tell where 
 to make the attack. That would depend on where 
 the men were. He swept the clearing with his 
 eyes, and saw that no one was on watch outside, 
 which was one thing in their favour. Then he let 
 his gaze take in the side of the house, going from 
 window to window, in the hope of gaining some 
 clew to the situation inside, and, even before his 
 eyes reached the attic window in their search, he 
 became conscious of a figure there. A great, over- 
 whelming joy filled his heart and was reflected in 
 his face, for they were surely in time. He wanted 
 to cry out and rush forward, but she placed a finger 
 to her lips and then motioned to the shed door. 
 He nodded, to show that he understood, and turned 
 to those behind him. 
 
 " The shed door is open," he said. " If they're 
 in the front of the house, as I think, we may get 
 through the kitchen before we are discovered. We'll 
 try it, but at the first cry of any sort, rush, all 
 rush ! We must overwhelm them ! "
 
 The Fight at the Cottage 265 
 
 " And yell ! " added Dodd, turning to Big John. 
 
 " Plenty yell ! " was the reply. 
 
 The order in which they crept to the shed door 
 was : Leonard, Ackerman, Dodd, and the Indians. 
 Dodd was no coward, but he resigned the leader- 
 ship for two reasons : he could not hold Leonard 
 back, and he had not the strength or activity to 
 make the most of the first onslaught ; it was better 
 that the younger men should head the rush. At 
 the shed door Leonard felt a strong hand laid on 
 his shoulder, and Ackerman whispered : " This 
 looks like my game." Leonard tried to shake off 
 the hand, but it closed with a fiercer grip. 
 
 " It's mine," said Ackerman, determinedly. " I 
 got to have it." 
 
 Leonard felt himself forced back into second 
 place, but he was powerless in such a grip, and he 
 dared not struggle or protest, lest he should alarm 
 the outlaws. 
 
 Thus getting the lead, Ackerman passed into the 
 shed, and then into the kitchen, with Leonard almost 
 at his elbow. From the kitchen they could hear 
 the men swearing and talking in the front of the 
 house, and, with joy, Leonard noted that the way 
 was clear to the room where they were busy packing 
 their plunder. Ackerman paused and gathered him- 
 self for a rush, indicating by a motion that the man
 
 266 Delightful Dodd 
 
 nearest to them, who was stooping over a bundle, 
 was his particular property. 
 
 " Now ! " cried Leonard. 
 
 Ackerman made his dash, caught his stooping 
 victim in his arms, and hurled him head-first into 
 the pit of the stomach of a man who was just 
 straightening up. The next instant he was astride 
 of his first victim, and had secured possession of his 
 revolver. 
 
 " Dodd's scrappers ! " yelled one of the outlaws, 
 and he jumped through a west window and made 
 for the terrace stairway. 
 
 Then came the blood-curdling yell of the Indians, 
 and the panic of the outlaws was complete. 
 
 " Hands up ! " shouted Dodd, making a sweep 
 of the room with his double-barrelled shotgun. 
 
 Three men were down, one thrown by Leonard 
 as he followed Ackerman into the room; one man 
 had gone through the window, and three, with a 
 cry of " Injuns ! " when they heard the yell and 
 saw the brandished clubs back of Dodd, hastily 
 pointed their hands heavenward. 
 
 " Git that man that's runnin', Dodd ! " ordered 
 Ackerman. " I got these." 
 
 Dodd stepped to the window and blazed away, 
 just as the man reached the edge of the terrace.
 
 The Fight at the Cottage 267 
 
 With a yell, the fellow sprang into the air and 
 rolled to the bottom. 
 
 " I'll bet he'll be picking bird-shot out of himself 
 for a year," remarked Dodd, " and he won't want 
 to sit down very much. Where's Leonard ? " 
 
 Ackerman was so busy superintending the dis- 
 arming of the outlaws, which was being done by 
 Big John under the protection of the clubs of his 
 comrades and Ackerman' s captured revolver, that 
 he had not noticed the absence of Leonard. The 
 ridiculous ease of the victory amused and somewhat 
 disgusted Ackerman, who liked a real fight, but the 
 combination of a complete surprise, an Indian war- 
 whoop, and the appearance of two men reputed to 
 be able to juggle human beings would have routed 
 a much more resourceful crowd. Ackerman also 
 lacked a realization of the disconcerting effect of 
 the exercise of his own remarkable strength. To 
 have one man used as a catapult to knock the 
 breath out of another would bewilder and over- 
 whelm almost any one. But it seemed to Acker- 
 man that these men had been taken like so many 
 boys. 
 
 Leonard, meanwhile, had lost all interest in 
 affairs on the lower floor. After the first rush, when 
 he had tripped and violently thrown the first man in 
 his way, his ears had caught the cry and the fall
 
 268 Delightful Dodd 
 
 on the stairs above, and the fate of those below 
 ceased to be of any moment. He went up the stairs 
 two steps at a time, and at the top of the first flight 
 found the man Miss Marsden had thrown down. 
 With a push and a kick he sent the fellow rolling 
 and bumping down the next flight, and then con- 
 tinued to the attic. 
 
 At first he thought the girl lying there, so white 
 and still, was dead, and a sob of anguish rose to his 
 lips. He knelt beside her, raised her head on his 
 arm, and then noted that she was breathing. 
 Tenderly he took her up in his arms, to carry her 
 down-stairs, and paused, as the sound of conflict 
 came from below. He could not take her there; 
 he could not leave her and go back. There was 
 nothing of cowardice in this : he had no thought 
 for his own safety, but heart and mind were centred 
 in the girl. All else was crowded into the back- 
 ground and forgotten. 
 
 As he stood at the head of the stairs, hesitating, 
 he heard Ackerman instructing the Indians to dis- 
 arm the outlaws, and knew that the battle was 
 over, so he descended with his burden. At the 
 head of the lower stairway she opened her eyes 
 slowly, gave him a faint smile, and said, simply, 
 " I'm glad it's you." 
 
 Trifling words, but what a joy they carried to
 
 The Fight at the Cottage 269 
 
 his heart! Forgetting the situation, her weakness, 
 everything, he almost crushed her in a delirious 
 embrace. 
 
 " You hurt me," she said, faintly, but she still let 
 him hold her, and, as his arms relaxed a little, one 
 of her arms stole about his neck, and her eyes closed 
 again. He would have stood there, at the head of 
 the stairs, content simply to hold her thus, until he 
 dropped from fatigue, had he not heard Dodd ask- 
 ing for him. 
 
 " Perhaps I'd better try to walk now," she said, 
 as he moved. " It might look better." 
 
 " In a minute," he replied, and, still holding her 
 helpless (and contented) in his arms, he kissed her.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE RESULT OF THE FIGHT 
 
 WHEN the excitement 
 had subsided sufficiently 
 to enable one to discover 
 exactly how matters stood, 
 a peculiar condition of af- 
 fairs was found to exist. 
 Eight outlaws had been 
 captured by " three In- 
 dians, two white men, and 
 a lover," as Dodd ex- 
 pressed it later. Dodd 
 held that it would be un- 
 fair to classify Leonard 
 as an Indian, and as for 
 including him among the 
 captors, why " Oh, of 
 course, he captured a girl," Dodd conceded, whim- 
 sically, " but I don't understand she made much 
 
 of a fight." Dodd likewise conceded that Leonard 
 
 270
 
 The Result of the Fight 271 
 
 had upset a man in his rush for the stairs. " But," 
 he protested, " the man got in the way, and a fellow 
 who's in a hurry to see his best girl hasn't time 
 to dodge heedless people. It was an accident." 
 
 These comments did not come immediately, but 
 were interjected into the discussion that followed 
 when they had all gathered at the main house, and 
 even then Dodd made unnecessary trouble for him- 
 self by trying to restrain his sense of humour from 
 embarrassing Miss Marsden, " only to find," he 
 explained later, " that she was too contented and 
 preoccupied to be disturbed by anything. I could 
 have joked all I pleased." 
 
 But, as explained, there was little opportunity 
 for joking while they remained at the cottage. 
 Dodd, the moment he saw that Ackerman and the 
 Indians had the situation well in hand, went to see 
 what had become of the man he had " peppered " 
 from behind. And he went cautiously. He knew 
 that the man was armed, and a man who has had a 
 few hundred bird-shot driven into his anatomy from 
 the rear is inclined to be irritable ; he would probably 
 like nothing better than to get one good shot at 
 the man who had thus humiliated him, no matter 
 if he hung for it later. The fellow who feels as if 
 he had just been stung by a thousand nettles isn't 
 worrying very much over what happens to him
 
 272 Delightful Dodd 
 
 at a later date. So Dodd, leaving the house through 
 the window from which he had fired, moved to the 
 edge of the terrace in the most approved border 
 warfare fashion, even lying flat on his stomach to 
 peer through the bushes that skirted the edge. 
 
 " This is mighty serious to me," he mused, " but 
 I suppose it would look mighty funny to any one 
 else. I must be pretty clumsy at it, but I'd rather 
 be a joke than a dead man." 
 
 He had reason to be thankful for his caution, 
 too, for the outlaw below had a revolver in his 
 hand, and, in impotent rage, was looking for a 
 human target. He had been stunned for a moment 
 by his fall, and, with returning consciousness, came 
 a strong desire to do almost anything except sit 
 down; he didn't believe that he ever would want 
 to sit down again. This feeling had been impressed 
 upon him strongly when he instinctively assumed 
 a sitting posture, for purposes of observation, and 
 then fell over on his stomach again, for purposes 
 of comfort. Finally, however, he had succeeded in 
 getting on his feet, and, revolver in hand, his eyes 
 searched the ridge above for some sign of the man 
 he held responsible for his unpremeditated jump. 
 
 Dodd, peering through the bushes above, noted 
 the awkward position in which he stood, and the
 
 The Result of the Fight 273 
 
 way he swept the terrace with his revolver, swear- 
 ing volubly and emphatically all the time. 
 
 " It would relieve his mind a good deal if he 
 could get a shot at me," reasoned Dodd, " but I 
 don't think I want his mind relieved." 
 
 Seeing no one, the man started painfully along 
 the path to the bay, still holding his revolver ready 
 for action, and turning frequently with a menacing 
 motion toward the terrace. 
 
 "This won't do at all," argued Dodd, "but I 
 don't want to hurt that fellow any more. If I give 
 him many more perforations, he'll have to stand 
 on his head to keep from leaking. But what can 
 I do? If I yell at him, he'll shoot at me, and he's 
 not shooting bird-shot, either. I've just got to 
 discourage him a little more first." 
 
 Dodd really did dislike to take that second shot, 
 although the way the men had used his cottage dis- 
 pleased him greatly, but he really could see nothing 
 else to do. The man, on the lower terrace, was 
 making his way slowly to the bay and the boat. 
 He was armed and desperately angry. Given warn- 
 ing of any kind, he would shoot first and talk after- 
 ward. And Dodd did not see why he should let 
 a little additional discomfort for the outlaw weigh 
 against a chance of death for himself. So he poked 
 his shotgun through the bushes, endeavoured to
 
 274 Delightful Dodd 
 
 avoid a vital spot by aiming at the man's legs, and 
 blazed away. The man yelled and collapsed, but 
 got on his feet again almost instantly. 
 
 " Don't do it again ! " he shouted, and, in the 
 pain and despair of the moment, seeing no enemy, 
 but feeling that another charge would follow imme- 
 diately if he did not demonstrate his wish to sur- 
 render, he hurled his revolver away from him and 
 held up his hands. 
 
 "Come back up here!" ordered Dodd, and he 
 added to himself, " It's a good thing he doesn't 
 know I'm out of ammunition and both barrels 
 empty. But the things people don't know are chang- 
 ing history every day." 
 
 When Dodd and his limping prisoner reached 
 the cottage, they found the other outlaws safely 
 bound and disarmed, and Ackerman preparing to 
 take them to the house. Dodd asked for Leonard 
 immediately, and then he heard Miss Marsden sug- 
 gesting that she thought she could walk now, 
 whereat he laughed. The strain relieved, every- 
 thing seemed to amuse Dodd. 
 
 " If you can't," he called, " I'll have the carriage 
 sent down from the house." 
 
 " Oh, I'm sure I can," came the reply, and the 
 next moment she appeared, blushing a little and 
 seeming rather weak.
 
 The Result of the Fight 275 
 
 " I don't think," said Dodd, solicitously, to Leon- 
 ard, " that she ought to be asked to walk to the 
 house without help." 
 
 Somehow Dodd seemed to understand pretty well 
 what had happened. Perhaps, in view of Leonard's 
 mad rush up the stairs, any man would have sur- 
 mised the result of the meeting at the top, even if 
 he hadn't heard Miss Marsden's suggestion that 
 she really thought she could walk now. Anyhow, 
 Dodd found a vent for his humour, and Leonard 
 laughed, as if the circumstances made the teasing 
 a matter of no importance to him. 
 
 " Can I help you in any way ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 "No," replied Dodd; "not me." 
 
 A moment later Dodd turned to say something 
 to Leonard, and Leonard had disappeared. So had 
 Miss Marsden. 
 
 " We'll march our prisoners back by the road," 
 said Dodd to Ackerman. " We couldn't watch 
 them so well in the path. And," he added, " it 
 might be dangerous to do any shooting in the path, 
 if one of them should try to make a break. You 
 never can be sure that somebody isn't using that 
 path, especially now." 
 
 So the prisoners, tightly bound as to their hands, 
 were marched along the road under guard of three 
 Indians with clubs, Dodd with his shotgun, and
 
 276 Delightful Dodd 
 
 Ackerman with captured revolvers sticking from 
 every pocket. Ackerman bantered the men a little 
 as they walked along, Dodd reproved them for using 
 his property, and Leonard, only a short distance 
 away, heard them pass. Leonard was in no hurry 
 at all. Miss Marsden had been so overcome by 
 the strain and shock of her experiences that it 
 seemed imperative to move in the most leisurely 
 fashion, in addition to giving her considerable as- 
 sistance. And she seemed to be in no greater hurry 
 than Leonard. 
 
 " I suppose," he remarked, as the sound of voices 
 came through the trees, " that we ought not to 
 have left as we did. I should have helped take 
 care of these men." 
 
 " They were bound and helpless before we left," 
 she argued. " It would have done no good to keep 
 with them, and," shuddering, " I wanted to get 
 away from those horrible men. You can't imagine 
 what I suffered in that attic." 
 
 The path was so narrow that men coming along 
 it had to go single file, but somehow there seemed 
 to be room for two now, and the two required even 
 less room than before when her shudder led him 
 to try to reassure her. 
 
 " I can imagine it," he replied softly, " because 
 I know what I suffered up to the moment that I
 
 The Result of the Fight 277 
 
 saw your face in the window, and knew that you 
 were still safe. You can't imagine the thrill, the 
 spasm of joy it gave me." 
 
 " I can imagine it," she replied, repeating his 
 words and smiling up into his face, " because I know 
 the relief and joy unspeakable that came to me 
 when I saw you peering through the bushes." 
 
 They walked on silently for a moment. Then she 
 said, retrospectively: 
 
 " I didn't understand, Ralph." 
 
 " Neither did I," he returned. 
 
 " I mean," she explained, " I didn't understand 
 myself." 
 
 "And did you understand me?" he asked. 
 
 " No," she answered. " I thought you were pos- 
 ing. I was awfully unjust " 
 
 " Are you sure now that I am not posing? " 
 
 " Yes ; I am sure." 
 
 " What makes you sure ? " 
 
 " I don't know," she answered, thoughtfully. 
 " Mr. Dodd said something that set me to thinking, 
 but it isn't that. I would know it anyhow now. 
 I I ' well, I just know it." 
 
 " You mean," he said, very softly, " that you love 
 and you trust." 
 
 " Yes," she returned, " I love and I trust. I 
 know it because I know you, and my heart tells
 
 278 Delightful Dodd 
 
 me. I was unjust, unfair, mean, spiteful; I knew 
 it when I saw your face in " 
 
 But he could not let her talk thus of herself, 
 and he took the easiest, most effective, and most 
 delightful method of stopping it. 
 
 " I am to blame," he finally found time to say. 
 " I made a secret of my reasons, and then blamed 
 you for not understanding them. I put a mean, 
 despicable interpretation upon your changed manner 
 when the fault was mine." 
 
 "No; mine," she insisted. 
 
 " Mine," he retorted, and again prevented her 
 from replying until he could go on. " But I did 
 lose everything," he said. " A few hundreds may 
 be saved, but I am and shall be dependent on what 
 I can earn." 
 
 " I am glad," she said, simply. 
 
 " Glad ! " he repeated. 
 
 " Very glad," she said. " I would rather live 
 on $1,200 a year, made by my husband, than on 
 $12,000 a year, made by my husband's father or 
 grandfather. To that extent only is my wonderful 
 independence left. I will, I must be independent of 
 all but my husband. But, oh, Ralph ! I was so much 
 mistaken in myself in everything else ; I was so self- 
 sufficient; I thought I was so strong, so resource- 
 ful, so capable, and find I'm as weak and foolish and
 
 The Result of the Fight 279 
 
 dependent as any other woman, and and I'm 
 glad of it, Ralph. I don't want to be independent ; 
 I don't want to fight the battle of life alone; I just 
 want some one stronger to take up the fight, and 
 let me help all I can. That's what I meant when 
 I said I didn't understand, Ralph; I didn't, for I've 
 never wanted to depend on any one else before." 
 
 " But you do now ? " he asked. 
 
 " I do now," she answered, and they walked on 
 in silence. Then she said, " But he must be inde- 
 pendent and strong." 
 
 " Dearest," he answered, " I am only just learn- 
 ing what independence is; I am only just learning 
 the joy of asking a woman to let me work for her, 
 not merely to provide for her, but to work for 
 her. I shall be really independent." 
 
 " Of all but me," she said, quickly. 
 
 " Of all but you," he answered. 
 
 " For I must help in some ways," she added. 
 
 " Without you I would be useless and helpless ; 
 with you I shall be strong and earnest and of some 
 real worth, for you have taught me " 
 
 " Hush ! " she interposed. " We have helped 
 each other, but I cannot teach my prince." 
 
 They were a long time getting to the house. 
 Dodd said he did not see how it was possible to 
 walk so slowly.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SOME TROUBLESOME POINTS 
 
 THEY were already discussing the question of 
 the reward when Leonard arrived at the house, and 
 some winded horses, covered with lather, showed 
 that the party coming by way of Neahtawanta was 
 on hand to take charge of the outlaws. 
 
 " The reward," one of the arrivals was saying, 
 " goes to Mr. Dodd. He can make such disposi- 
 tion of it as he wishes, but he is the one who has 
 met the terms of the offer. He found these fellows, 
 he notified us, and he has now turned them over 
 to us." 
 
 " I didn't find them," protested Dodd. " Dake 
 Wakeley found them." 
 
 " Dake Wakeley didn't find them," interposed 
 Leonard, fearful that Dodd would evade the good 
 fortune that had come to him. " Dake Wakeley 
 doesn't even know that they've been found yet. 
 
 He had the chance to find them and to notify the 
 
 280
 
 Some Troublesome Points 281 
 
 authorities, but he merely told a neighbour that 
 somebody was trespassing, which was all he knew." 
 
 " He has no claim on the reward," asserted the 
 official. " You may do what you please for him, 
 but he didn't notify us and he didn't turn any of 
 the men over to us. We can't go back of those 
 two points without getting in a tangle." 
 
 " You don't think I got these men alone, do 
 you ? " retorted Dodd. " Why, Acker man led the 
 charge." 
 
 " Who planned it ? " persisted Leonard. " Who 
 kept us from breaking right out into the open, 
 wihere we would have made a fine target? Who 
 got the Indians to help? Who steered us to just 
 the right point to make the attack, and told us 
 just how to make it ? " 
 
 " I didn't notice a man named Leonard holding 
 back very much," asserted Dodd, rebelliously. 
 
 " Oh, that was different," retorted Leonard. " I 
 had a reason, and I don't count in this little matter, 
 anyway. I didn't get any bandits." 
 
 "What did you get?" asked Dodd, maliciously. 
 
 "I got the reward, the only reward I want or 
 will touch," answered Leonard, promptly, and with 
 a smile at Dodd. " I went for it, and I got it. 
 The other reward is too trifling." 
 
 The official and his party looked rather bewil-
 
 282 Delightful Dodd 
 
 dered, but no one seemed disposed to explain the 
 matter to them. 
 
 " I shall report," announced the officer, at last, 
 " that the reward belongs to Mr. Dodd. I really 
 don't see how we can recognize any one else in the 
 transaction. Of course, Mr. Dodd can do what he 
 pleases in the matter of sharing with any who have 
 rendered him assistance." 
 
 " Render me assistance ! " exclaimed Dodd. " I 
 only helped out a little when Ackerman got going. 
 Why, he made a battering-ram of one man to knock 
 the wind out of another." 
 
 " Yes," admitted Ackerman, thoughtfully, " I 
 guess I got the lad that I put my grip on. I 'most 
 always count on havin' a man when I close on him. 
 I'd feel hurt in the pride if one got away." 
 
 " You did more than that," said Dodd. 
 
 " There's only one I put my hands on," returned 
 Ackerman. " What I get my hands on is mine, but 
 that's all. How much does one pay?" 
 
 " Why, the offer was $200 for each individual 
 member of the gang, caught separately, or $2,000 
 for the whole gang," replied the officer. " You 
 might straighten it up with Mr. Dodd by taking 
 the $200 for the one you claim." 
 
 " Suits me," said Ackerman. 
 
 Dodd was disposed to insist that Ackerman
 
 Some Troublesome Points 283 
 
 should have at least an eighth of the reward, if he 
 refused to admit that more than one capture should 
 be placed to his credit, but Ackerman pleaded that 
 $200 at one time would get him into all the trouble 
 he could stand. 
 
 " I've got into jail on less'n a hunderd," he ex- 
 plained. " You give me two hunderd, an' a job 
 when I git back, an' I'll go to Chicago an' blow 
 myself. This place'll look mighty good to me after 
 blowin' in two hunderd." 
 
 Dodd had to laugh at this plan of enjoying the 
 reward, but he knew enough of men to realize how 
 futile it was to try to get Ackerman to spend his 
 money in any but his own way. 
 
 " I like you, Ackerman," he said, " and, just 
 to make sure that you'll come back, there will be 
 another hundred to your credit here." 
 
 " I couldn't have that much an' not be restless," 
 returned Ackerman. " Make it twenty-five an' I'll 
 go you. I never was shy of work when I wanted 
 it ; but this place is goin' to look awful good to 
 me when I finish up, lots better'n a job on a 
 lake boat or hustlin' freight or doin' any of the other 
 things I've tried." 
 
 So this was settled, and Dodd's thoughts turned 
 to the Indians. He thought they were entitled to
 
 284 Delightful Dodd 
 
 something, but they would not know what to do 
 with any considerable sum of money. 
 
 "How much, John?" he asked of the Indian, 
 who had been an attentive listener. 
 
 " Two dollar," was the reply. 
 
 " Oh, you can use more than that." 
 
 " Two dollar cash, five dollar corn, potato, what 
 need." 
 
 " John," said Dodd, after a pause, " it will be 
 five dollars cash each, and anything that we grow 
 on the farm whenever you want it." 
 
 " Dodd plenty good to John," grunted the big 
 buck. 
 
 " It doesn't seem to me right," remarked Dodd, 
 thoughtfully. " Of course, that money will do me 
 a lot of good right now. It looks bigger than any 
 $20,000 ever did in my banking days. But I can't 
 see how I am entitled to so much of it." 
 
 " I'll tell you how it is," said Leonard. " You 
 kept the gang intact. Without you, one would have 
 escaped, and, if one had escaped, the other seven 
 would have been worth only $1,400. That makes 
 the one you followed and brought back worth $600 
 alone. Add to that the fact that you found them, 
 notified the authorities, and showed the method and 
 place of attack "
 
 Some Troublesome Points 285 
 
 The old whimsical smile had appeared on Dodd's 
 face, and now he interrupted. 
 
 " Do you know how I felt with that old gun ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " No," answered Leonard. 
 
 " I felt like a young rooster I've got out back 
 by the barn," explained Dodd. " I never was much 
 for firearms, anyway, and the only times that old 
 shotgun has been used in years have been when 
 some of the farm-hands have borrowed it to try 
 to discourage a hawk or a skunk. I hadn't had 
 a noise like that so close to my ear in fifteen or 
 twenty years, and Well, say! come out and 
 see the rooster." 
 
 He led the way and the others followed. 
 
 " Let those ex-tenants of mine come, too," he 
 said, indicating the outlaws. " They're not going 
 to see much of anything funny for some time." 
 
 So the outlaws, still bound, and now guarded 
 by the men who had come after them, were marched 
 to the barn with the rest. 
 
 " This rooster," explained Dodd, " is just learn- 
 ing to crow, and he scares himself. Just watch 
 him." 
 
 The rooster in question would make careful and 
 nervous preparation for the feat, and finally emit a 
 sudden, incomplete crow, the reason for its incom-
 
 286 Delightful Dodd 
 
 pleteness being that the sound of its own voice 
 would so startle the rooster that it would jump 
 sideways about two feet. Naturally, this would 
 cut the crow short. The rooster would look sur- 
 prised, gradually regain possession of its startled 
 faculties and its courage, and would cautiously be- 
 gin preparations for another trial. 
 
 " That's the way I felt when I was shooting at 
 that fellow," explained Dodd, " and it was just as 
 hard to keep from jumping about eighteen feet the 
 second time as it was the first. I shall always have 
 a fellow feeling for that rooster after this. By the 
 way, I'll bet you never saw a hen that was scared 
 by her own voice. No, sir. A hen just naturally 
 talks up in a businesslike way, and takes it for 
 granted that all creation is interested in what she 
 has to say. But that isn't a subject for general dis- 
 cussion in a mixed company, when a man wants to 
 be polite or wise."
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 DODD'S PARTING DISSERTATION 
 
 DODD and Leonard sat on the porch smoking. In 
 the shade of the house a carriage and a wagon 
 waited to take the departing guests and their bag- 
 gage to Neahtawanta. Mrs. Congrove, Miss Mars- 
 den, and Leonard were about to leave. Presently 
 some farm-hands came, loaded the trunks on the 
 wagon, and one of the men drove away with the 
 load. The carriage would not start until later, and 
 the ladies were still busy with their hand-baggage. 
 
 " It has been an eventful summer for me, Mr. 
 Dodd," Leonard remarked, reflectively, " but, taken 
 all in all, the happiest and most satisfactory I ever 
 have known." 
 
 " It certainly has been eventful for all of us," 
 conceded Dodd, with a note of regret at the part- 
 ing 1 in his tone. 
 
 " For my part," continued Leonard, " I lost 
 everything and then found more." 
 
 " You found yourself," said Dodd. 
 287
 
 288 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " I found a wife the wife," corrected Leonard. 
 
 " There are others," said Dodd, and his eyes 
 twinkled momentarily. 
 
 " The wife for me," insisted Leonard ; " the one 
 girl in all the world. That is the great find that 
 makes all losses too insignificant for even a thought." 
 
 " You found yourself, your real self," repeated 
 Dodd. 
 
 " Yes, of course," admitted Leonard. " I know 
 what you mean, and it's a fine thing for any man 
 to find himself that way, but by comparison " 
 
 " You had to find yourself before you could find 
 the wife," interrupted Dodd ; " that is, such a wife. 
 You mean well, but you figure from effect to cause 
 instead of from cause to effect." 
 
 " I think that finding the girl helped me to find 
 myself," laughed Leonard, " but I won't argue the 
 question; I'm satisfied to have found both. Now, 
 I am going to take her back to her aunt's, escort 
 my prospective sister-in-law to Chicago, tackle my 
 new job, get well enough accustomed to it to be sure 
 that I am fairly started, and then go back for the 
 bride. I must know how and where I stand, but, 
 if work " 
 
 " Oh, you're all right," Dodd broke in. " Any 
 one who can learn how to work just merely how 
 to work as quickly and easily as you did is in
 
 Dodd's Parting Dissertation 289 
 
 no danger of failure. What are Mrs. Congrove's 
 plans?" 
 
 " She will live quietly among her old friends in 
 a Chicago suburb," answered Leonard. " She will 
 have enough for that, and the same suburb will 
 suit me." 
 
 "What suburb is it?" asked Dodd. 
 
 " I've forgotten the name," replied Leonard, " but 
 it suits me because it suits Jessie. Of course, she'll 
 come when I tell her I'm ready," he hastened to add, 
 " but don't you think it's a wise plan for a fellow 
 to put himself in a position to ask her to come where 
 her only sister is ? " 
 
 " It's a plan," said Dodd, emphatically, " that 
 shows real genius." 
 
 " And I shall have her there before Christmas, 
 unless I disagree with my new employer, which 
 seems impossible under the circumstances, for he 
 knows all about me, and I'll work hard," continued 
 Leonard. " We want to be conservative, that is, 
 Jessie and I do. Don't you think it's conservative 
 for us to wait so long? " 
 
 " For people in your position," answered Dodd, 
 " it is wonderfully conservative." 
 
 Leonard nodded his gratification at this endorse- 
 ment (for his previous worldliness seemed utterly
 
 290 Delightful Dodd 
 
 lacking in this affair),. and relapsed into silence. 
 It was Dodd who finally spoke again. 
 
 " I am glad that things have turned out so satis- 
 factorily for you," he remarked, " because it makes 
 me feel mean to be the only lucky one, and I've 
 had some additional good news myself to-day." 
 
 "What?" asked Leonard. 
 
 " Well, I told you about that Button note, 
 didn't I?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And the draft he made on the Chicago commis- 
 sion man ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, that draft was paid after he had sent 
 the telegram I wrote for him. I tell you, there are 
 times when men have to be handled without gloves. 
 If I could handle them that way for myself as well 
 as I do for other people, I'd be rich." 
 
 " No doubt about it," asquiesced Leonard, " but 
 I'm delighted that the draft has been paid." 
 
 " So am I." 
 
 " If you had to meet the note yourself " 
 
 "Oh, I wasn't thinking of that so much." 
 
 "What were you thinking of?" 
 
 " Why," whimsically, " my great feeling of relief 
 arises from the fact that I won't have to tell Mrs. 
 Dodd what a fool I was. Still, by balancing my
 
 Dodd's Parting Dissertation 291 
 
 books for the summer, I might be able to convince 
 her that it pays to be clever." 
 
 " Where's the dividend ? " asked Leonard. 
 
 " Dake Wakeley went out of his way to tell me 
 there were people trespassing on my property, 
 the first time he ever has been known to raise a 
 finger for any man, and the Indians followed 
 me when they would turn for no one else," explained 
 Dodd. " I'm getting a dividend out of that reward 
 that just nicely puts me at the turning-point with 
 the old farm. I'll probably never have to raise the 
 price of the north half of it again to make things 
 balance. You don't realize how much can be done 
 on a place like this with a little ready money that 
 you don't have to pay back. Yes, I really think 
 that I could convince Mrs. Dodd that my policy, 
 taken as a whole, is a wise one, but," with a sigh 
 of relief, " I'm glad I don't have to try. You never 
 can tell what a woman will remember that you have 
 forgotten. I Ah, here come the ladies." 
 
 Dodd motioned the man with the carriage to 
 drive up, and then, with his old-fashioned courtesy 
 and quaint comments, helped them to their seats. 
 He was not going to drive them over himself this 
 time, some matters connected with the farm requir- 
 ing his attention. 
 
 " We shall hope to see you up here again," he
 
 292 Delightful Dodd 
 
 said, and Mrs. Dodd, emerging from the house just 
 then, nodded her approval. 
 
 " We'll surely come," Leonard assured him. 
 
 Dodd looked at Miss Marsden. 
 
 " Oh, Ralph's ' we ' includes me from now on, 
 of course," she said, brightly, " but you really ought 
 not to be quite so inaccessible, Mr. Dodd. A Chi- 
 cago boat stopping at Old Mission once a week, 
 or a trip by boat and carriage from Traverse City, 
 leave you just a little out of reach. There ought 
 to be a trolley line from Traverse City to the 
 end of the peninsula." 
 
 Dodd leaned forward and spoke confidentially. 
 
 " There's going to be one," he said. 
 
 " When ? " she asked, in surprise. 
 
 " After the next panic," replied Dodd. 
 
 They all looked rather bewildered, and finally 
 Leonard remarked, with a laugh, that he didn't see 
 what a panic had to do with a trolley line in that 
 locality. 
 
 "A panic," said Dodd, "brings men back to 
 earth, and they begin to look around for good, safe 
 investments, while a long term of prosperity leads 
 them in search of fabulous profits. The road al- 
 ready has been planned, and it is conceded that it 
 will pay, but capital is too much interested just now 
 in large fictional profits to give any attention to
 
 D odd's Parting Dissertation 293 
 
 small, real profits. Every paper you pick up presents 
 the allurements of wonderful enterprises that pay, 
 or will pay, from twenty-five to one hundred per 
 cent, and every man with a little money or a lot of 
 money has some plan of his own in mind or in sight 
 that makes a safe five, seven, or even ten per cent. 
 look like a mere waste of capital. But after a panic 
 it is different. The money saved is hoarded for a 
 time, and, when brought out for investment, it 
 wants something safe and reasonable, something 
 that is tangible and represents real progress. Paper 
 fortunes cease to be satisfactory." 
 
 " I never associated panics with progress before," 
 remarked Leonard, with a puzzled smile, " but I 
 see the truth of your contention. The money goes 
 to the stock market in flush times." 
 
 " It sounds a little better to say," returned Dodd, 
 " that most of it goes into speculation instead of 
 investments. Then comes the panic, as a natural 
 result, and for a time afterward money goes into 
 investments instead of speculation. Investment 
 means progress; speculation means retrogression. 
 We forget this for a time in the excitement of 
 pleasurable dreams, but always find it out when 
 we wake up." 
 
 " Then," said Leonard, " if we had no panics, 
 we would have no real progress."
 
 294 Delightful Dodd 
 
 " That is rather a crude way of putting it," re- 
 turned Dodd. " Why not say that, if we would 
 only be satisfied with real progress, we would have 
 no panics ? That i-s the truth. Panics are the direct 
 result of the avariciousness of man, not of the 
 individual man but of the collective man. I expect 
 to see the trolley road up here pretty soon now." 
 
 " Why do you say that ? " 
 
 " Too many people are making too much money 
 on paper, and after a little they'll find that the 
 paper can be sold only at pound rates to the rag- 
 man. So I am giving you the very best advice of 
 a pretty long life of reasonable activity when I say, 
 ' Invest, but don't speculate.' ' 
 
 Leonard could not repress a humourous impulse 
 to ask under which head marriage came. 
 
 "Both," replied Dodd, promptly. "The elope- 
 ment of a couple of half-baked youngsters, after 
 a ten-days' summer-resort flirtation is a speculation ; 
 the marriage of two people with the sense to look 
 soberly into the future is an investment. As an 
 investment marriage pays in happiness and content 
 at a really fabulous per cent. ; as a speculation it 
 may pay in anything, but it pays in misery more 
 frequently than in anything else." 
 
 " Dan'l," said Mrs. Dodd, " you're preaching."
 
 Dodd's Parting Dissertation 295 
 
 Dodd looked startled. Then, in his whimsical 
 way : " Here endeth the first lesson." 
 
 As the carriage went down the drive, he called 
 after it : " I've held you so long that you'll have 
 to hurry to catch the boat. For my own pleasure, 
 I hope you miss it and have to come back." 
 
 Dodd could certainly say a clever thing in an 
 unusual way. 
 
 THE END.
 
 L. C. Page and Company's 
 Announcement List 
 of New Fiction 
 
 The Bright Face of Danger. By Robert 
 
 Neilson Stephens, author of " Philip Winwood," " A Gentle- 
 man Player," " The Mystery of Murray Davenport," etc. 
 Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 Stephens's most stirring story tells of the adventures of 
 Henri de Launay, son of De Launay de la Tournoire, made 
 famous in " An Enemy to the King." Mr. Stephens has done 
 what Dumas did in " Twenty Years After," except that, 
 unlike the great French novelist, he has written his best 
 story last. Writing, as only he among modern romancers can 
 write, of fair women and brave men, the gay life of the 
 chateaux and the dangers of the road, hairbreadth escapes, 
 thrilling rescues and gallant combat, Mr. Stephens has 
 accomplished, without question, his masterpiece of romantic 
 fiction. 
 
 " Mr. Stephens has fairly outdone himself. We thank him 
 heartily. The story is nothing if not spirited and entertaining, 
 rational and convincing. If there were more stories like it, the 
 historical novel would be in no danger of falling into disrepute." 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 " Mr. Stephens has a liberal share of the intangible verve and 
 charm of Dumas, and he is at his best in 'The Bright Face of 
 Danger.' It is a gay, dashing, youthful tale of dangers dire and 
 escapes gallantly won. The situations are combined in fresh and 
 captivating style. Things are kept moving swiftly, and the denoue- 
 ment is effective." Chicago-Record Herald,
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Prisoner of Mademoiselle. B y charies 
 
 G. D. Roberts, author of The Kindred of the Wild," 
 " Barbara Ladd," " The Heart of the Ancient Wood." 
 Library I2mo, cloth, gilt top, with a frontispiece by 
 Frank T. Merrill . ... . . . $1.50 
 
 In this charming tale Mr. Roberts has come back to the 
 field of his first novels, the land of Acadia. He tells a story 
 which, although by no means a nature story, still has plenty of 
 those vibrant nature-notes which have endeared his " Barbara 
 Ladd " to its readers. Add to that scenes of tenseness 
 and thrill which surpass those in " The Forge in the Forest," 
 and one can see that here is a romance worth the name. 
 
 The Watchers of the Trails. By charies G. 
 
 D. Roberts, author of " Barbara Ladd," " The Kindred of 
 
 the Wild," etc. With illustrations by Charles Livingston 
 
 Bull. 
 
 Square i2mo, decorative cover .... $2.00 
 
 This is a companion volume to " The Kindred of the Wild," 
 and is another collection of Professor Roberts's characteristic 
 stories of nature and animal life, which stand alone in the 
 world of fiction as absolutely sincere and truthful descriptions 
 of existence in the untamed wilderness. They carry one far 
 from the haunts of convention into the very depths of primeval 
 forces, and present the savage instincts of the beasts of the 
 forests and the elemental problems of living which attend 
 those who live near to nature. 
 
 The book is sure to meet the favor accorded its predecessor 
 and companion, of which a few of the criticisms are : 
 
 " Professor Roberts has caught wonderfully the elusive individu- 
 alities of which he writes. His animal stories are marvels of 
 sympathetic science and literary exactness. Bound with the superb 
 illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull, they make a volume which 
 charms, entertains, and informs." New York World. 
 
 " Is in many ways the most brilliant collection of animal stories 
 that has appeared. Well named and well done." John Burroughs. 
 
 " No more perfect achievement of its kind has come from the hand 
 of man." Chicago Tribune. 
 
 " Incomparably the best in literature that has grown up about 
 animals." Brooklyn Eagle.
 
 LIST OF NEW FICTION 
 
 At Home with the Jardines. By Lilian Beii, 
 
 author of " Abroad with the Jimmies," " Hope Loring," etc. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.50 
 
 Here we have the heroine of " Abroad with the Jimmies " 
 (a book already established in the minds of readers as one of 
 the author's best) back to America, married, and trying to 
 settle down. This book relates her experiences as a honey- 
 mooner, a flat-dweller, a housekeeper, and a hostess. Among 
 her guests as well as counsellors and friends are her (and 
 the reader's) old friends, the Jimmies, and her vivacious sister, 
 Bee. These and a score of others of whom the most promi- 
 nent are Mary Jane, a new type of domestic, and " The 
 Angel " make up a pleasing group of folk with whom to 
 pass a genial hour or so. 
 
 Of " Abroad with the Jimmies," the following are but a few 
 of a great many favorable opinions : 
 
 " A deliciously fresh, graphic book. The writer is so original and 
 unspoiled that her point of view has value." Mary ffartwtll 
 Catherwood. 
 
 " Full of ozone, of snap, of ginger, of swing and momentum." 
 Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 "... Is one of her best and cleverest novels . . . filled to the 
 brim with amusing incidents and experiences. This vivacious nar- 
 rative needs no commendation to the readers of Miss Bell's well- 
 known earlier books. They will all read it, and they. will enjoy it, 
 and that is one of the safest prophecies we have made for some 
 time." N. Y. Press. 
 
 The Sign Of Triumph. A Romance of the Chil- 
 dren's Crusade. By Sheppard Stevens, author of " I Am 
 the King." Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative .... $1.50 
 
 This is a romantic story, dealing with the incidents of the 
 Children's Crusade, and depicts the pathetic experiences of 
 that army of infant martyrs to the cause of religion. Inter- 
 woven with this account is a delightful romance. 
 
 " The author has utilized to unusual effect the picturesqueness and 
 fanaticism of the Crusading children in a story filled with eager 
 charm and stamped with stern truth." Boston Transcript.
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Green Diamond. By Arthur Morrison, au 
 
 thor of " The Red Triangle," etc. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative, with six illustrations $1.50 
 
 " The Red Triangle " proved to be one of the most popular 
 of the year's fiction. " Better than ' Sherlock Holmes,' " 
 " Not to be laid down till the last word has been reached," 
 A first-class story of crime and mystery," are a few of the 
 observations made upon it. This new story promises to be 
 of equal popularity. 
 
 It deals with the adventures of a famous diamond, " The 
 Green Eye of Goona," mysteriously stolen from an Indian 
 rajah, and supposedly concealed in one of a dozen magnums 
 of Tokay wine. An enterprising young Englishman, Harvey 
 Crook, is the principal seeker for the diamond, and proves 
 himself a worthy disciple of Martin Hewitt and Sherlock 
 Holmes. 
 
 Hemming, the Adventurer. By Theodore 
 
 Roberts. With six illustrations by A. G. Learned. 
 Library i2mo, cloth decorative . $1.50 
 
 The hero of this romance is a typical Englishman, straight- 
 forward and manly, with all the charm and fascination of 
 the cultivated man of the world. His adventures are well 
 worth recording, and introduce many phases of life and many 
 types of people. The atmosphere of the book is that of real 
 life, of things perfectly familiar to the author, of incidents 
 personally known and related in the spirit of remembrance. 
 
 The Hound from the North. By mdgweii 
 
 Cullom, author of " The Story of the Foss River Ranch." 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth decorative . . '. $1.50 
 
 This is a story of adventure and mystery, starting in the 
 famous Klondike region, then shifting to the " great north- 
 west" of Canada. Gold escorts, government detectives, 
 ranchmen, and smugglers all play their part, centring around 
 "The Hound from the North," an original and thrilling, if 
 sinister, sketch of animal life. The heroine is sincere and 
 womanly, and the hero a relief to those surfeited with the 
 ordinary " leading man " of fiction.
 
 LIST OF NEW FICTION' 
 
 An Evans Of Suffolk. By Anna Farquhar, author 
 of " Her Boston Experiences," " Her Washington Experi- 
 ences," etc. 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth decorative .... $1.50 
 
 This is a powerful story of modern life. The principal 
 character is a young woman who marries into a conservative 
 Boston family without explaining her antecedents, and is 
 obliged to exercise all her woman's ingenuity to keep un- 
 known the existence of her father, who is the " black sheep " 
 of a distinguished English family. She gradually becomes 
 involved in deception, which grows more and more difficult to 
 maintain, and which threatens to finally overwhelm her. The 
 plot is strong, and the telling is brilliant, while the book has 
 much of the author's gift of social satire, which was so cleverly 
 displayed in " Her Boston Experiences." 
 
 The Motor Pirate. By G. Sidney Paternoster. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative, with frontispiece $1.50 
 
 Mr. Paternoster, in his new book, " The Motor Pirate," has 
 quite outdistanced all competitors. The story is a rattling 
 good one. Told by a man who is a rich landowner and 
 motor enthusiast, it rushes from incident to incident in an 
 almost breathless fashion. There is a strong love interest in 
 the book, and all the characters are well drawn. Turpin, in 
 truth, has been out-Turpined by Mr. Paternoster, who must 
 be congratulated on a most successful work of fiction. 
 
 The Second Mrs. Jim. By Stephen Conrad. 
 With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. 
 Large i6mo, cloth decorative .... $1.00 
 
 Here is a character as original and witty as " Mr. Dooley " 
 or the " self-made merchant." The realm of humorous fiction 
 is now invaded by the stepmother. 
 
 A shrewd, middle-aged spinster marries a prosperous farmer 
 with two boys, and makes them a model wife and mother. A 
 clever climax is attained when she pulls the oldest boy out of 
 love with the wrong girl and into love with the right one. 
 Much quaint philosophy is mingled with extremely humorous 
 sayings in dialect. The book will be read with many inward 
 chuckles and outward laughs of appreciation.
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY 
 
 AzalitTl : A ROMANCE OF OLD JUDEA. By Mark Ashton, 
 author of " She Stands Alone." Illustrated with a colored 
 frontispiece and eight reproductions from rare old plates. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 
 This is the second of the author's series of novels founded 
 on Biblical history, and has Judea for its background, the 
 infamous Jezebel for its central figure, and her intrigues and 
 ambitions for its motif. It is full of interesting and exciting 
 incidents with vivid descriptions of the life of the times. 
 
 " The story is clear-cut and straightforward, and we feel we are 
 breathing the atmosphere of the period. It is brilliant with descrip- 
 tions, has a wealth of interesting incidents, unique situations, and 
 swift action." Boston Herald. 
 
 Delightful Dodd. By Elliott Flower, author of The 
 Spoilsmen," etc. 
 Library i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.50 
 
 From the strenuous whirl of politics to the calm of the back- 
 woods is indeed a far cry ; but Mr. Flower has shown himself 
 as clever in depicting country life in the State of Michigan 
 as in his trenchant portrayal of the doings of the Chicago 
 wards. His principal character, a shrewd old fellow of much 
 wit and ingenuity, is declared by those who have read the 
 manuscript of the story, to "give David Harum cards and 
 spades." 
 
 Rachel Marr. By Morley Roberts, author of The 
 Promotion of the Admiral," etc. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 
 In this novel Mr. Roberts has left the humors and tragedies 
 of the sea for a new field. " Rachel Marr " is a romance full 
 of that atmosphere and spirit which have made Thomas Hardy 
 famous. The book has met with not only popular success in 
 England, where it has gone to a tenth impression, but with 
 artistic success. The Daily Telegraph, London's most con- 
 servative literary sheet, says that " This novel is one of the 
 most significant productions of the times ; it is finely 
 conceived."
 
 Selections from 
 
 L. C. Page and Company's 
 
 List of Fiction 
 
 WORKS OF 
 
 ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS 
 Captain Ravenshaw ; OR, THE MAID OF 
 
 CHEAPSIDE. (4oth thousand.) A romance of Elizabethan 
 London. Illustrations by Howard Pyle and other artists. 
 Library lamo, cloth . . . . . . $1.50 
 
 Not since the absorbing adventures of D'Artagnan have we 
 had anything so good in the blended vein of romance and 
 comedy. The beggar student, the rich goldsmith, the roisterer 
 and the rake, the fop and the maid, are all here : foremost 
 among them Captain Ravenshaw himself, soldier of fortune 
 and adventurer, who, after escapades of binding interest, 
 finally wins a way to fame and to matrimony. 
 
 Philip WinWOOd. (70th thousand.) A Sketch of 
 the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of 
 Independence, embracing events that occurred between and 
 during the years 1763 and 1785 in New York and London. 
 Written by his Enemy in War, Herbert Russell, Lieutenant 
 in the Loyalist Forces. Presented anew by ROBERT NEIL- 
 SON STEPHENS. Illustrated by E. W. D Hamilton. 
 Library I2mo, cloth . . . . . . $1.50 
 
 " One of the most stirring and remarkable romances that have 
 been published in a long while, and its episodes, incidents, and 
 actions are as interesting and agreeable as they are vivid and 
 dramatic." Boston Times. 
 
 The Mystery of Murray Davenport. (30* 
 
 thousand.) By ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS, author of 
 " An Enemy to the King," " Philip Winwood," etc. 
 Library I2mo, cloth, with six full-page illustrations by H., C. 
 Edwards . . . . . . . $1.50 
 
 "This is easily the best thing that Mr. Stephens has yet done. 
 Those familiar with his other novels can best judge the measure of 
 this praise, which is generous." Buffalo News. 
 
 " Mr. Stephens won a host of friends through his earlier volumes, 
 but we think he will do still better work in his new field if the 
 present volume is a criterion." JV. Y. Com. Advertiser.
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 An Enemy to the King. (6oth thousand.) From 
 
 the " Recently Discovered Memoirs of the Sieur de la 
 
 Tournoire." Illustrated by H. De M. Young. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth ...... $1.50 
 
 An historical romance of the sixteenth century, describing 
 the adventures of a young French nobleman at the Court of 
 Henry III., and on the field with Henry of Navarre. 
 
 " A stirring tale." Detroit Free Press. 
 
 " A royally strong piece of fiction." Boston Ideas. 
 
 " Interesting from the first to the last page." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 " Brilliant as a play ; it is equally brilliant as a romantic novel." 
 Philadelphia Press. 
 
 The Continental Dragoon : A ROMANCE OF 
 
 PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE IN 1778. (43d thousand.) Illus- 
 
 trated by H. C. Edwards. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth ...... $1.50 
 
 A stirring romance of the Revolution, the scene being laid 
 in and around the old Philipse Manor House, near Yonkers, 
 which at the time of the story was the central point of the so- 
 called " neutral territory " between the two armies. 
 
 The Road to Paris: A STORY OF ADVENTURE. 
 (25th thousand.) Illustrated by H. C. Edwards. 
 Library I2mo, cloth ..... . $1.50 
 
 An historical romance of the i8th century, being an account 
 
 of the life of an American gentleman adventurer of Jacobite 
 
 ancestry, whose family early settled in the colony of Pennsyl- 
 
 vania. 
 
 A Gentleman Player : HIS ADVENTURES ON A 
 
 SECRET MISSION FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH. (s8th thou- 
 
 sand.) Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 Library i2mo, cloth ...... $1-50 
 
 "A Gentleman Player "is a romance of the Elizabethan 
 period. It relates the story of a young gentleman who, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, falls so low in his fortune that he joins 
 Shakespeare's company of players, and becomes a friend and 
 prote'ge' of the great poet.
 
 LIST OF FICTION 
 
 WORKS OF 
 
 CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 
 
 Barbara Ladd. With four illustrations by Frank 
 Verbeck. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, gilt top $1.50 
 
 " From the opening chapter to the final page Mr. Roberts lures 
 
 us on by his rapt devotion to the changing aspects of Nature and 
 
 by his keen and sympathetic analysis of human character." Boston 
 
 Transcript. 
 
 The Kindred of the Wild. A BOOK OF ANIMAL 
 
 LIFE. With fifty-one full-page plates and many decorations 
 
 from drawings by Charles Livingston Bull. 
 
 Small quarto, decorative cover . . . . . $2.00 
 
 "Professor Roberts has caught wonderfully the elusive individu- 
 alities of which he writes. His animal stories are marvels of sym- 
 pathetic science and literary exactness. Bound with the superb 
 illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull, they make a volume which 
 charms, entertains, and informs." New York World. 
 
 "... Is in many ways the most brilliant collection of animal 
 stories that has appeared . . . well named and well done." John 
 Burroughs. 
 
 The Forge in the Forest. Being the Narrative of 
 the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart, and 
 how he crossed the Black Abbe", and of his Adventures in a 
 Strange Fellowship. Illustrated by Henry Sandham, R. C. A. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth, gilt top $1.50 
 
 A romance of the convulsive period of the struggle between 
 the French and English for the possession of North Amer- 
 ica. The story is one of pure love and heroic adventure, and 
 deals with that fiery fringe of conflict that waved between 
 Nova Scotia and New England. The Expulsion of the Aca- 
 dians is foreshadowed in these brilliant pages, and the part of 
 the " Black Abbe"'s " intrigues in precipitating that catastrophe 
 is shown.
 
 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Heart of the Ancient Wood, with 
 
 six illustrations by James L. Weston. 
 
 Library 12 mo, decorative cover . . . . $1.50 
 
 " One of the most fascinating novels of recent days." Boston 
 Journal. 
 
 " A classic twentieth-century romance." New York Commercial 
 Advertiser. 
 
 A Sister to Evangeline. Being the story of 
 
 Yvonne de Lamourie, and how she went into Exile with the 
 
 Villagers of Grand Pre". 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . . $1.50 
 
 This is a romance of the great expulsion of the Acadians, 
 which Longfellow first immortalized in " Evangeline." Swift 
 action, fresh atmosphere, wholesome purity, deep passion, 
 searching analysis, characterize this strong novel. 
 
 By the Marshes of Minas. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . . $1-5 
 This is a volume of romance, of love and adventure in that 
 picturesque period when Nova Scotia was passing from the 
 French to the English regime. Each tale is independent of 
 the others, but the scenes are similar, and in several of them the 
 evil " Black Abbd," well known from the author's previous 
 novels, again appears with his savages at his heels but to 
 be thwarted always by woman's wit or soldier's courage. 
 
 Earth's Enigmas. A new edition, with the addi- 
 tion of three new stories, and ten illustrations by Charles 
 Livingston Bull. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth, uncut edges . . . . $1.50 
 "Throughout the volume runs that subtk questioning of the 
 cruel, predatory side of nature which suggests the general title of 
 the book. In certain cases it is the picture of savage nature raven- 
 ing for food for death to preserve life ; in others it is the secret 
 symbolism of woods and waters prophesying of evils and misadven- 
 tures to come. All this does not mean, however, that Mr. Roberts 
 is either pessimistic or morbid it is nature in his books after all, 
 wholesome in her cruel moods as in her tender." The New York 
 Independent.
 
 LIST OF FICTION" 
 
 WORKS OF 
 
 LILIAN BELL 
 
 Hope Loring. Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 Library 12010, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.50 
 
 " Lilian Bell's new novel, ' Hope Loring,' does for the American 
 girl in fiction what Gibson has done for her in art. 
 
 " Tall, slender, and athletic, fragile-looking, yet with nerves and 
 sinews of steel under the velvet flesh, frank as a boy and tender and 
 beautiful as a woman, free and independent, yet not bold such is 
 ' Hope Loring,' by long odds the subtlest study that has yet been 
 made of the American girl." Dorothy Dix, in the New York 
 American. 
 
 Abroad with the Jimmies, with a portrait, in 
 
 duogravure, of the author. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.50 
 
 " A deliciously fresh, graphic book. The writer is so original and 
 unspoiled that her point of view has value." Mary Hartwell 
 Catherwood. 
 
 " Full of ozone, of snap, of ginger, of swing and momentum." 
 Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 "... Is one of her best and cleverest novels . . . filled to the 
 brim with amusing incidents and experiences. This vivacious narra- 
 tive needs no commendation to the readers of Miss Bell's well-known 
 earlier books." N. Y. Press. 
 
 The Interference of Patricia, with a frontis- 
 piece from drawing by Frank T. Merrill. 
 Small 1 2mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.00 
 
 "There is life and action and brilliancy and dash and cleverness 
 and a keen appreciation of business ways in this story." Grand 
 Rapids Herald. 
 
 " A story full of keen and flashing satire." Chicago Record- 
 Herald. 
 
 A Book Of Girls. With a frontispiece. 
 
 Small I2mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . $1.00 
 
 " The stories are all eventful and have effective humor." New 
 York Sun. 
 
 " Lilian Bell surely understands girls, for she depicts all the varia- 
 tions of girl nature so charmingly." Chicago Journal. 
 
 The above two volumes boxed in special holiday dress, per set, $2 jo.
 
 L. C.'PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Red Triangle. Being some further chronicles of 
 Martin Hewitt, investigator. By ARTHUR MORRISON, author 
 of " The Hole in the Wall," " Tales of Mean Streets," etc. 
 Library i amo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 This is a genuine, straightforward detective story of the 
 kind that keeps the reader on the gut vive. Martin Hewitt, 
 investigator, might well have studied his methods from Sher- 
 lock Holmes, so searching and successful are they. 
 " Better than Sherlock Holmes." New York Tribune. 
 " The reader who has a grain of fancy or imagination may be 
 defied to lay this book down, once he has begun it, until the last 
 word has been reached." Philadelphia North American. 
 
 " If you like a good detective story you will enjoy this." Brook- 
 lyn Eagle. 
 
 " We have found ' The Red Triangle ' a book of absorbing inter- 
 est." Rochester Herald. 
 
 " Will be eagerly read by every one who likes a tale of mystery." 
 
 The Scotsman, England. 
 
 Prince Hagen. By UPTON SINCLAIR, author of " King 
 
 Midas," etc. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 
 In this book Mr. Sinclair has written a satire of the first 
 order one worthy to be compared with Swift's biting tirades 
 against the follies and abuses of mankind. 
 
 " A telling satire on politics and society in modern New York." 
 
 Philadelphia Public Ledger. 
 
 "The book has a living vitality and is a strong depiction of 
 political New York." Bookseller, Newsdealer, and Stationer. 
 
 The Silent Maid. By FREDERIC W. PANGBORN. 
 
 Large i6mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece by Frank 
 
 T. Merrill . $1.00 
 
 A dainty and delicate legend of the brave days of old, of 
 sprites and pixies, of trolls and gnomes, of ruthless barons and 
 noble knights. " The Silent Maid " herself, with her strange 
 bewitchment and wondrous song, is equalled only by Undine 
 in charm and mystery. 
 
 " Seldom does one find a short tale so idyllic in tone and so fanci- 
 ful in motive. The book shows great delicacy of imagination." 
 The Criterion.
 
 LIST OF FICTION 
 
 The Spoilsmen. By ELLIOTT FLOWER, author of 
 
 " Policeman Flynn," etc. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth $1-50 
 
 "The best one may hear of 'The Spoilsmen' will be none too 
 good. As a wide-awake, snappy, brilliant political story it has few 
 equals, its title-page being stamped with that elusive mark, ' success.' 
 One should not miss a word of a book like this at a time like this 
 and in a world of politics like this." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " Elliott Flower, whose ' Policeman Flynn ' attested his acquaint- 
 ance with certain characteristic aspects of the American city, has 
 written a novel of municipal politics, which should interest many 
 readers. . . . The characters are obviously suggested by certain 
 actual figures in local politics, and while the conditions he depicts 
 are general in large cities in the United States, they will be unusually 
 familiar to local readers. . . . Ned Bell, the * Old Man,' or political 
 boss ; Billy Ryan, his lieutenant ; Rainbow John,' the alderman, 
 are likely to be identified. . . . and other personages of the story 
 are traceable to their prototypes." Chicago Evening Pott. 
 
 Stephen Holton. By CHARLES FELTON PIDGINJ, 
 author of "Quincy Adams Sawyer," Blennerhassett," etc. 
 The frontispiece is a portrait of the hero by Frank T. 
 Merrill. 
 One vol., library 1 2mo, cloth, gilt top . . . $1.50 
 
 " In the delineation of rural life, the author shows that intimate 
 sympathy which distinguished his first success, ' Quincy Adams 
 Sawyer.' " Boston Daily Advertiser. 
 
 " ' Stephen Holton ' stands as his best achievement." Detroit 
 Free Press. 
 
 " New England's common Me seems a favorite material for this 
 sterling author, who in this particular instance mixes his colors with 
 masterly skill." Boston Globe. 
 
 ASS. Holm 65; OR, AT THE CROSS-ROADS. A Sketch 
 of Country Life and Country Humor. By ANNIE FELLOWS 
 JOHNSTON. With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. 
 Large i6mo, cloth, gilt top $1.00 
 
 " ' Asa Holmes ; or, At the Cross- Roads ' is the most delightful, 
 most sympathetic and wholesome book that has been published in a 
 long while. The lovable, cheerful, touching incidents, the descrip- 
 tions of persons and things are wonderfully true to nature." 
 Boston Times.
 
 8 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 A Daughter Of THeSpis. By JOHN D. BARRY, 
 author of " The Intriguers," " Mademoiselle Blanche," etc. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative .... $1.50 
 
 " I should say that ' A Daughter of Thespis ' seemed so honest 
 about actors and acting that it made you feel as if the stage had 
 never been truly written about before." W. D. Howells, in 
 Harper's Weekly. 
 
 " This story of the experiences of Evelyn Johnson, actress, may 
 be praised just because it is so true and so wholly free from melo- 
 drama and the claptrap which we have come to think inseparable 
 from any narrative which has to do with theatrical experiences." 
 Professor Harry Thurston Peck, of Columbia University. 
 
 " Certainly written from a close and shrewd observation of stage 
 life." Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 The Golden Dog: A ROMANCE OF QUEBEC. By 
 WILLIAM KIRBY. New authorized edition, printed from new 
 plates. Illustrated by J. W Kennedy. 
 One vol., library I2mo, cloth ... . . $1.25 
 
 "A powerful romance of love, intrigue, and adventure in the 
 times of Louis XV. and Madame de Pompadour, when the French 
 colonies were making their great struggle to retain for an ungrateful 
 court the fairest jewels in the colonial diadem of France. It is a 
 most masterly picture of the cruelties and the jealousies of a maiden, 
 Angelique des Melloises fair as an angel and murderous as Medea. 
 Mr. Kirby has shown how false prides and ambitions stalked abroad 
 at this time, how they entered the heart of man to work his destruc- 
 tion, and particularly how they influenced a beautiful demon in 
 female form to continued vengeances." Boston Herald. 
 
 The Last Word. By ALICE MACGOWAN. Illus- 
 trated with seven portraits of the heroine. 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth, gilt top . . . . $1.50 
 
 " When one receives full measure to overflowing of delight in a 
 tender, charming, and wholly fascinating new piece of fiction, the 
 enthusiasm is apt to come uppermost. Miss MacGowan has been 
 known before, but her best gift has here declared itself." Louisville 
 Post. 
 
 " The story begins and ends in Western Texas. Between chapters, 
 there is the ostensible autobiography of a girl who makes her way 
 in New York journalism. Out of it all conies a book, vivid, bright, 
 original one of a kind and the kind most welcome to readers of 
 the hitherto conventional." New York World.
 
 LIST OF FICTION 
 
 The Captain's Wife. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, 
 author of " The Wreck of the Grosvenor." With a frontis- 
 piece by C. H. Dunton. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 
 " Mr. Russell's descriptions of the sea are vivid and full of color, 
 and he brings home to the reader the feeling that he is looking 
 upon the real thing drawn by one who has seen the scenes and 
 writes from knowledge." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 "Every page is readable and exciting." Baltimore Herald. 
 
 " This story may be considered as one of the best of his excellent 
 tales of the sea." Chicago Post. 
 
 " There are suggestions of Marryat in it, and reminders of Charles 
 Reade, but mostly it is Clark Russell, with his delightful descriptions 
 and irresistible sea yarns." Phila. North American. 
 
 The Mate of the Good Ship York. B y w. 
 
 CLARK RUSSELL, author of " The Wreck of the Grosvenor," 
 
 etc. With a frontispiece by C. H. Dunton. 
 
 Library i2mo, cloth decorative .... $1.50 
 
 " One of the breeziest, most absorbing books that have come to 
 our table is W. Clark Russell's 'The Mate of the Good Ship 
 York.' " Buffalo Commercial. 
 
 " For a rousing, absorbing, and, withal, a truthful tale of the sea, 
 commend me to W. Clark Russell. His novel, ' The Mate of the 
 Good Ship York,' is one of the best, and the love romance that runs 
 through it will be appreciated by every one." Philadelphia North 
 American. 
 
 " Romantic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and astounding 
 achievements keep things spinning at a lively rate and hold the 
 reader's attention throughout the breezy narrative." Toledo Blade. 
 
 The Golden Kingdom. By ANDREW BALFOUR, 
 author of " Vengeance Is Mine," " To Arms ! " etc. 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative . . . . $1.50 
 This is a story of adventure on land and sea, beginning in 
 England and ending in South Africa, in the last days of the 
 seventeenth century. The scheme of the tale at once puts 
 the reader in mind of Stevenson's " Treasure Island." 
 
 " Every one imbued with the spirit of adventure and with a broad 
 imaginative faculty will want to read this tale." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " ' The Golden Kingdom ' is the rarest adventure book of them 
 all." N. Y. World.
 
 10 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 
 
 The Schemers : A Tale of Modern Life. 
 
 By EDWARD F. HARKINS, author of " Little Pilgrimages 
 Among the Men Who Have Written Famous Books," etc. 
 With a frontispiece by Ernest Fosbery. 
 Library I2mo, cloth . . . . . . $1.50 
 
 A story of a new and real phase of social life in Boston, 
 skilfully and daringly handled. There is plenty of life and 
 color abounding, and a diversity of characters shop-girls, 
 society belles, men about town, city politicians, and others. 
 The various schemers and their schemes will be followed with 
 interest, and there will be some discerning readers who may 
 claim to recognize in certain points of the story certain hap- 
 penings in the shopping and the society circles of the Hub. 
 
 " A faithful delineation of real shop-girl life." Milwaukee 
 Sentinel. 
 
 " This comes nearer to the actual life of a modern American city, 
 with all its complexities, than any other work of American fiction. 
 The book shows an unusual power of observation and a still more 
 unusual power to concentrate and interpret what is observed." 
 St. Louis Star. 
 
 The Promotion of The Admiral. By 
 
 MORLEY ROBERTS, author of " The Colossus," " The Fugi- 
 tives," " Sons of Empire," etc. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated . . $1.50 
 
 This volume contains half a dozen stories of sea life, 
 
 fresh, racy, and bracing, all laid in America, stories full 
 
 of rollicking, jolly, sea-dog humor, tempered to the keen edge of 
 
 wit. 
 
 " If any one writes better sea stories than Mr. Roberts, we don't 
 know who it is ; and if there is a better sea story of its kind than 
 this it would be a joy to have the pleasure of reading it." New 
 York Sun. . 
 
 " To read these stories is a tonic for the mind ; the stories are 
 gems, and for pith and vigor of description they are unequalled." 
 New York Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 "There is a hearty laugh in every one of these stories." The 
 Reader. 
 
 " Mr. Roberts treats the life of the sea in a way that is intensely 
 real and intensely human." Milwaukee Sentinel. 
 
 " The author knows his sea men from A to Z." Philadelphia 
 North American.