Norman H. Kinne 
 
 Evergreen Hennery 
 
 Littleton, N. H.
 
 THE 
 
 LITTLE BLIND GOD 
 A-WHEEL. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIDNEY HOWARD. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, 
 
 PUBLISHER, 
 LONDON. NEW YORK.
 
 Copyright, 1898, 
 
 by 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, 
 
 in 
 United States 
 
 and 
 Great Britain. 
 
 All Rights Reserved.
 
 'What shall arrive with the cycle's change? 
 A novel grace and a beauty strange." 
 
 EGBERT BROWNING. 
 
 2072239
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Bur I can't ride, my dear." 
 
 "Learn, then." 
 
 "Impossible." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Why it is." 
 
 "Everybody rides now, Aunt Evelyn. All the 
 people you'd ezpect it of, and all the people that 
 you wouldn't. It won't be long before we hear 
 that Victoria herself has foresworn her donkey 
 cart and taken to a wheel." 
 
 "But I'm not great enough, mentally or phys- 
 ically, to justify me in any such undertaking. 
 Fancy me, a woman of forty with a sixteen-year- 
 old son, riding off on one of those tipsy affairs! 
 What would your uncle say?" 
 
 "He's abroad and needn't be told." 
 
 "Deceitful girl! And how could I ever main- 
 tain my moral ascendency over Bichie, after 
 letting him see me topple over a few times?" 
 
 Dorothy Alden planted her elbows on the
 
 6 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 table, rested her chin in her hands and gazed 
 reproachfully at her aunt. 
 
 "Aunt Evelyn," she said slowly; "this is the 
 first time I have known you to be deliberately 
 selfish, and I greatly deplore the fact. For the 
 considerations of your own dignity, of your own 
 safety, of your own ascendency in your own 
 family circle, you are willing to destroy the hap- 
 piness of five young people of whom you have 
 always professed to be extremely fond." 
 
 "Five?" 
 
 "Yes, five of us, Boy and I, Helen and the 
 Merricks. Truly, auntie, you must go. Mrs. 
 Eastman and mamma have put their heads to- 
 gether, and you are the only condition on which 
 they '11 let us go. It would be such an ideal trip, 
 and we all are longing for it." 
 
 "But I should break my neck," Mrs. Perry 
 protested feebly. 
 
 "Not if you were properly taught. You've 
 plenty of time, for Roy won't be at home for two 
 weeks, and any way we don't want to start till 
 after the Fourth." 
 
 "Who'll teach me? You can't." 
 
 "Of course not. You must go to Vatican 
 Hall ; all the best people in town are taking les- 
 sons there. Make an appointment, to-morrow, 
 and have a lesson every day. By the time we 
 start, you'll be an expert."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 7 
 
 "II" She smiled scornfully. "I haven't any 
 wheel." 
 
 "Hire one." 
 
 Mrs. Perry slowly shook her head. She felt 
 that one by one her objections were being over- 
 ruled. She was fond of young people, and such 
 a trip as Dorothy was proposing would have been 
 quite to her liking. The party would be a pleas- 
 ant one, and she had no settled plans for the 
 summer. A month of vagrant wandering would 
 be a charming experience for them all. It was 
 only the means of locomotion to which she 
 objected. 
 
 "Why not make it a coaching party?" she 
 suggested. "Then we could go so much more 
 comfortably." 
 
 "A coaching party!" Dorothy's nose gathered 
 a series of little wrinkles across the bridge. 
 These wrinkles and the curve of her lips were 
 indicative of the scorn she felt at the suggestion. 
 "Aunt Evelyn, don't you see? The whole charm 
 of the idea consists in its being a bicycle trip. 
 We girls all have ridden these same old roads 
 for a year, and we're tired of them. Ride we 
 must, and you are the only human being who can 
 make it possible for us to explore new territory." 
 
 "What about Richie?" asked Mrs. Perry. 
 
 "Take him too."
 
 8 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Dolly, he'd tease the life out of you. You 
 know what an irrepressible youngster he is. I 
 won't answer for his good behavior." 
 
 "I will," Dorothy replied valiantly. "Richie 
 has always been my good friend and most obedi- 
 ent slave. If you will take him, I'll engage to 
 keep him in order." 
 
 Mrs. Perry laughed. 
 
 "You little know what you are promising, 
 Dorothy. Kichie's ways are past finding out, 
 and his pranks are remarkable chiefly for their 
 unexpectedness. " 
 
 "But you will really go?" 
 
 "Dolly dear, I don't know what to say. You 
 see, 3 r ou have absolutely taken my breath away, 
 bursting in on me so suddenly." 
 
 Dorothy rose and came around the table, to 
 perch on the arm of her aunt's chair. 
 
 "Poor little auntie! I didn't mean to astonish 
 you so. You see, Roy and Helen and I have 
 been dreaming of this thing for a year; but it 
 was only last week that we girls plucked up our 
 courage to speak to our mothers about it. They 
 have had endless conferences, and we began to 
 despair of their coming to a decision before cold 
 weather sets in; but to-day they said they had 
 made up their minds to let us go, if you would 
 agree to chaperon us."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 9 
 
 Mrs. Perry's eyes suddenly flashed with a 
 naughty idea. Her sister-in-law, twelve years 
 older than herself, always assumed that they 
 were coeval, and equally removed from the fads 
 and follies of youth. 
 
 "I begin to comprehend," she said, as she 
 passed her arm around the slender waist of her 
 niece. "They were so sure I would never ride 
 that they felt safe in making the sole condition 
 that of my going. The idea of my riding is pre- 
 posterous, Dolly ; and yet, I'll ponder upon the 
 matter." 
 
 "Not an hour," the girl said merrily, for she 
 felt that her cause was already gained. "Delay 
 is fatal; I must have your answer at once. 
 Truly, auntie, it is nothing to learn. It isn't 
 ns if you were as old as mamma." 
 
 Dorothy Alden could be artful, when she 
 chose. She had struck the right note. 
 
 "And you say I may take Kichie?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 "And you'll see about engaging my lessons?" 
 
 "Yes. I'll go down to Vatican Hall, the first 
 thing in the morning." 
 
 "And you'll go with me, the first time?" 
 
 "Oh, yes." 
 
 "Well, I'll try the lessons and see." 
 
 "Oh, you dear little auntie!" Dorothy em-
 
 10 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 braced her tempestuously. "Won't mamma be 
 surprised?" 
 
 "I think there's no doubt of that; but don't 
 be too sure I am going," Mrs. Perry answered, 
 while she settled her hair, disarranged by 
 Dorothy's eager caress. "I may not be able to 
 ride, and I may, you know, break all my bones 
 at the first lesson. Now sit down quietly and 
 tell me all about your plan. Remember that as 
 yet I have only heard it in the form of interjec- 
 tions. I wish to know what sort of a responsi- 
 bility I may be assuming." 
 
 "It's this," Dorothy said more quietly. 
 "There are five of us to go, Helen Eastman, Billy 
 and Edith Merrick, Roy and I. We want to 
 start as soon as we can after the Fourth, and go 
 north somewhere, wherever the whim of the 
 moment takes us, and wherever the roads are 
 good. We girls will take no luggage but one 
 trunk for us all, and send that on from point to 
 point, as we need it. We can stop at country 
 hotels or farmhouses as we choose; in short, 
 we'll go where we please, do what we please, and 
 come home when we please. Now, isn't that an 
 enticing prospect?" 
 
 "Very. Will the Merricks go?" 
 
 "They have promised. I stopped, on my way 
 up here, and asked them."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 11 
 
 "But what if I had refused?" 
 
 Dorothy looked up with one of her brilliant, 
 sunny smiles. She was not pretty, except in so 
 far as a dainty, graceful figure and a dark, ani- 
 mated little face could make her so; but, for the 
 moment, she gave the impression of actual 
 beauty. 
 
 "Didn't I know you of old, auntie; and aren't 
 you always ready to spoil me by doing just what 
 I want? But isn't it an harmonious party? 
 Billy and Helen will pair off, and Boy and Edith, 
 and Bichie and I." 
 
 "And who will be left for me?" asked Mrs. 
 Perry, smiling at the girlish reserve which 
 ignored Billy Merrick' s constant devotion to her- 
 self. 
 
 "How stupid I am!" And Dorothy looked so 
 annoyed that her aunt came to her relief. 
 
 "May I suggest one addition to your party?" 
 she asked. "Bemember, I only suggest him, 
 and I shan't be at all hurt if you refuse to accept 
 the suggestion." 
 
 "Who is it? Of course, if you want him." 
 
 "It's Bobert Van Gruder." 
 
 "Dr. Van Gruder!" Dorothy exclaimed in dis- 
 may. "But he wouldn't go." 
 
 "I am almost sure he would. You know he is a 
 great favorite of mine, and then he would be so
 
 12 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 useful, in case I came to grief. It might be a 
 comfort to have a medical examiner on the spot." 
 
 "I don't know -why he couldn't go," Dorothy 
 said thoughtfully. "Of course, he is so much 
 older than the rest of us that he seems like a 
 patriarch to us; but he knows us all and we all 
 like him, only we're rather afraid of him. "Will 
 you ask him, auntie?" 
 
 "I think the invitation would better come from 
 you, dear, as long as you have asked the rest." 
 
 "He would never come for my asking, Aunt 
 Evelyn. He thinks I'm too insignificant to 
 count, a mere moth-miller, not even a butterfly." 
 
 Privately Mrs. Perry disagreed with her, but 
 she only said, 
 
 "Then I'll leave you to see to that and to 
 engage my lessons. How many will it take?" 
 
 "Not manj*," Dorothy predicted confidently. 
 "Helen learned in three lessons and Edith in 
 five. Koy taught me, so I can't tell about my- 
 self; but I have heard of ever so many people 
 who were riding alone at the end of the first les- 
 son. You won't have any trouble, I know. No- 
 body was ever known to fall at the Vatican, they 
 take such good care of their pupils. Aunt Eve- 
 lyn, you are a dear, and I must go home and 
 report your goodness to mamma. It is almost 
 dark, and she will be anxious."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 13 
 
 "Bichie will walk up with you. Here he 
 comes now." 
 
 "Hush, then. Leave me to tell him all about 
 it on the way up," Dorothy said hastily, as the 
 door opened. 
 
 She lingered for a few moments longer, laugh- 
 ing and talking with her aunt. Then, arm and 
 arm with her cousin, she left the room. A min- 
 ute later, she opened the door again for an inch 
 or two and pressed her rosy face against the crack. 
 
 "Auntie," she said solemnly; "do you believe 
 in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures?" 
 
 "I don't know no. Why?" 
 
 "Bead the first chapter of Ezekiel, auntie, the 
 last thing before you go to bed to-night. To- 
 morrow morning, you will be in a position to 
 decide the question. Good-night."
 
 14 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 n. 
 
 DOROTHY had said that all the best people in 
 town were taking lessons at the Vatican; but 
 Dorothy must have intended her remark to be 
 taken in a Pickwickian sense, or else the best 
 people in town were appearing upon the instal- 
 ment plan. Vatican Hall was a cosy little place 
 for a small dance, but far too cosy to admit of 
 more than two bicycle lessons going on at the 
 same time. In fact, a novice in bicycling found 
 no especial difficulty in occupying the whole 
 floor at once, and occasionally charging madly 
 up on the low platform which ran along beside 
 the wall. 
 
 This encircling platform with its row of chairs 
 and the wall beyond possessed a fatal attraction 
 for most beginners. There was an inherent fas- 
 cination about certain spots in the wall which 
 drew first one's sight, then one's wheel in their 
 direction; while graduates of the place had 
 christened one corner The Papal Toe, because so 
 many people had lain prostrate there. For the 
 rest, the floor was as hard and slippery as waxed
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 15 
 
 oak boards could possibly be; and the bicycle 
 teacher was as patient and long-suffering as his 
 much-battered wheel. 
 
 It was almost noon, the next day, when 
 Dorothy Alden and her aunt came out of the lit- 
 tle dressing-room, Dorothy leading the way with 
 the assurance of a veteran, while her aunt sneaked 
 along in the rear, trying to conceal the brevity 
 of her skirt behind the voluminous folds of 
 Dorothy's tailor-made gown. 
 
 "It's so short, Dolly," she had expostulated. 
 "What would Richie say? And your uncle? I 
 might as well wear bloomers. Why couldn't I 
 ride in my regular gown?" 
 
 But upon this point Dorothy was firm. She 
 had forbidden all superfluous drapery. Her aunt 
 rejoiced in spirit that she had been so, when the 
 teacher rolled out the bicycle and, with an en- 
 couraging gesture and a reassuring smile, signi- 
 fied that he expected his pupil to mount. Mrs. 
 Perry quailed at sight of the wheel. Its center 
 of gravity suddenly became more a matter of 
 respectful attention. Then she recalled 
 Dorothy's assurance that numberless women 
 rode off alone at the first lesson. She clutched 
 the bar with one hand, the teacher's arm with 
 the other and boldly clambered up into the sad- 
 dle. A moment later, she was being trundled
 
 16 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 around the hall with as little apparent effort or 
 volition on her part as if she had been seated in 
 a wheelbarrow. 
 
 At the end of the seventh circuit, she was dis- 
 mounted. Only the use of the passive voice of 
 the verb can fitly describe the operation. Her 
 smile was deprecating, as she turned to her 
 niece. 
 
 "How am I getting on?" she asked. 
 
 "Beautifully," Dorothy responded. "You'll 
 be riding alone, before you know it." 
 
 The teacher was rubbing his left wrist with 
 his right hand. He had been walking at the left 
 of the wheel, guiding the bar and holding the 
 saddle. Mrs. Peny whirled around to face him. 
 She was flushed, and her eyes were shining like 
 stars. 
 
 "You didn't hold me up very much; now did 
 you?" she asked. 
 
 He smiled readily, but patiently. It was such 
 familiar ground to him. 
 
 "Only a little. As Miss Alden says, you will 
 ride alone soon." 
 
 Mrs. Perry turned back to her niece, barely 
 repressing an inclination to skip. Her skirt had 
 suddenly assumed proper proportions, to her 
 mind, and the question of the center of gravity 
 was answered.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 17 
 
 "And how am I going to look, Dolly?" 
 
 "Perfect." 
 
 "Really? And do you truly think I shall 
 learn easily?" 
 
 The teacher interposed. He had rolled a sec- 
 ond bicycle out into the floor and leaned it 
 against the platform. Then he came up to Mrs. 
 Perry. 
 
 "Now," he said; "I will help you to mount. 
 Sit in the saddle firmly, and rest one foot on the 
 platform. I am going to take you round on my 
 wheel. "When I come up beside you and take 
 your arm, push off." 
 
 "But won't you hold me on?" The center 
 of gravity once more became problematic. "I 
 shall be sure to fall." 
 
 "I will hold you," he replied quietly, as he 
 settled one foot on the pedal, the other on the 
 platform. 
 
 "You can't! Oh, don't! Dolly, don't let 
 him!" In her alarm, she slid out of the saddle. 
 
 With the same smiling, patient readiness, the 
 readiness of a well-oiled machine, the man came 
 forward and settled Mrs. Perry in her saddle 
 again. She looked up at him rebukingly. 
 
 "Are you going to trust me alone on thk 
 wheel?" 
 
 "Yes."
 
 18 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "And ride beside me?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "But you'll run into me." 
 
 "You're much more likely to run into him, 
 Aunt Evelyn," Dorothy suggested flippantly. 
 
 "Yes; that's what I mean." 
 
 "But he can dodge." 
 
 "Can you?" Mrs. Perry put the question a 
 little sternly. "Perfectly? Well then, come. 
 Dolly, if anything happens, Kichie is to be heir 
 to everything but my gowns. Those you can 
 have. I forgive all my enemies, even you for 
 my present position. lam ready now." She 
 closed her ej'es resignedly. 
 
 A moment later, she opened them again in 
 sheer surprise. She was riding around the hall 
 with the teacher by her side, grasping with one 
 hand the soft silk of her sleeve, with the other, 
 with marvelous deftness, guiding his own wheel 
 to follow every wobble of her unsteady progress. 
 
 "It's it's beautiful, " she gasped; "but can't 
 we go a little slower?" 
 
 "Not very much, and keep upright," he an- 
 swered. "Lean a little more towards me, hold the 
 handlebar very firmly and keep pushing. So. 
 That is better." 
 
 In silence they made a dozen more rounds of 
 the hall. Mrs. Perry was recovering from her
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 19 
 
 first alarm, and she began to think of her teacher, 
 to wonder at his skill and dexterity in managing 
 his own wheel, at his strength in steadying and 
 supporting hers. What if he should run into 
 her, though, after all? 
 
 She shot a timorous glance at his bicycle. 
 The next instant her bicycle followed her glance, 
 there was a crash and she found herself sitting 
 on her forward wheel which had in some way 
 doubled upon itself, as if starting to turn back to 
 condole with its companion in misfortune. Four 
 feet away from her lay a broken pedal, while the 
 teacher stood by her side, ruefully staring from 
 the furrow in the floor to the jagged square of 
 silk in his hand. 
 
 "I'm not hurt, "she gasped reassuringly. She 
 tried to scramble to her feet ; but the waxed floor 
 was treacherous and she went down a second 
 time, this time upon the skirt-guard which gave 
 way beneath her weight. 
 
 "I won't give it up now," she said vehemently, 
 as she was leaving the hall, a little later. 
 "When I came here, I didn't care whether I 
 rode or not; now I am determined to ride, if it 
 takes me a year to learn." 
 
 The teacher squared his broad shoulders and 
 laughed. Her spirit delighted him, and he be- 
 came, in his pleasure, a man and not an automa- 
 ton.
 
 20 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "I'm delighted to hear you say so, Mrs. 
 Perry," he answered. "You mustn't mind a 
 fall or two, and you'll enjoy it, when once you 
 are able to ride alone." 
 
 "How long will it take me to learn?" she 
 asked, her courage rising again at his words. 
 Already she pictured herself dashing rapidly 
 along the boulevards, a true feminine scorcher. 
 
 His next words were a shock. 
 
 "It is impossible to say," he replied. "I 
 should think, though, in three or four weeks, if 
 you have a lesson every morning, you might be 
 able to go out then." 
 
 Two weeks later, Dorothy entered her aunt's 
 dressing-room unannounced. Mrs. Perry started 
 guiltily, blushed and tried to thrust a hand-glass 
 under one of the pillows of the couch. Dorothy 
 pounced upon it. 
 
 "Aunt Evelyn Perry," she demanded; "what 
 in the name of vanity are you doing now?" 
 
 Mrs. Perry groaned. 
 
 "It's not vanity, Dolly; it's bicycle. The 
 only entertainment I am getting, in these latter 
 days, is that gained by counting my bruises. I 
 have a round-up, as they say in the west, every 
 afternoon, and it is really quite fascinating to 
 count the new ones, and watch the old ones turn 
 from blue to black and yellow, and then to green.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 21 
 
 I look as if I had been tattooed by some illiterate 
 person. ' ' 
 
 Dorothy laughed unfeelingly. 
 
 "I shan't condole with you. I saw your man, 
 two days ago, and he said you were doing well, 
 that you had only broken two wheels, ridden into 
 one chair, collided with the piano and had seven 
 falls. You don't need pity; but I do." 
 
 "What is the matter?" Mrs. Perry asked 
 anxiously, for Dorothy's face wore a worried 
 look which rarely appeared there. 
 
 "Nothing; only my party is spoiled," she re- 
 plied tragically, dropping down on the couch, as 
 she spoke. 
 
 "Spoiled?" 
 
 "Yes, ruined." 
 
 "Has your mother forbidden it?" her aunt in- 
 quired, with a sudden accent of hope. 
 
 "No; it'sKoy." 
 
 "What has he done? Isn't he going?" 
 
 "Yes, he is wild over it; but he has spoiled it 
 all, nevertheless. Listen to this. It came 
 to-day." 
 
 She drew a letter out of her pocket and read 
 the last paragraph. 
 
 "And so Aunt Evelyn is martyrizing herself 
 for our sakes, and our bicycle trip is an assured 
 fact. It will be a great lark, Dolly, and I like
 
 22 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 your plans, unless that sawbones man is in the 
 way. He's a good fellow, though. I've asked 
 Phil Band to go with us. Hope you won't 
 object. We've been great chums, you know, 
 ever since he fished me out of the briny deep 
 last summer. He's a fellow you'll like, all 
 round fine, and musical too. He has promised 
 to be on hand by the fifth. " Dorothy folded the 
 letter with an impatient twitch. 
 
 "Well?" observed her aunt. 
 
 "It isn't well; it's ill," she answered, with 
 unwonted asperity. "We were so well arranged, 
 as it was, just eight of us and all knowing each 
 other. This strange man will spoil all our fun 
 and be a drag on us. Roy will have him to take 
 care of, though. I can't be looking out for him." 
 
 "He may be agreeable," Mrs. Perry sug- 
 gested. 
 
 Dorothy interrupted her. 
 
 "That's just it. Eoy thinks he is perfect, and 
 he doubtless is an angel. Still, one doesn't want 
 Gabriels for a bicycle trip; a little original sin 
 is more desirable. The rest of us are such old 
 friends that, if other forms of entertainment fail, 
 we can indulge in a little decorous fighting 
 among ourselves. With this man around we can 
 only smile blandly, and say 'my dear.' My one 
 hope now lies in Richie. Roy will be too much
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 23 
 
 absorbed in Edith to pay me any attention; but 
 Richie and I can go off alone and unchaperoned, 
 and throw things when our feelings are too deep 
 for utterance." 
 
 "By the way, Dolly," Mrs. Perry asked, 
 breaking in upon the pause that followed; "you 
 have never told me what Richie said, when you 
 told him about my lessons." 
 
 Dorothy laughed outright. Her momentary 
 pique vanished in her amusement. 
 
 "He was positively oracular. He stared at me 
 blankly at first, while he slowly absorbed my 
 meaning. Then he said, as impressively as if he 
 had been pronouncing a benediction, 'Gee-whiz- 
 zikins! May I be there to seel' "
 
 24 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 in. 
 
 ON the fifth of July, Dorothy marshalled her 
 forces at a dinner given by her aunt. They were 
 to start early the next morning, and while the 
 party was nominally to discuss plans for the trip, 
 in reality it was intended to introduce Mr. Band 
 to his companions for the coming month. He 
 and Boy Deming had been classmates in college 
 and in the law school ; but their real intimacy 
 had dated from a camping party the previous 
 summer, when Eand had rescued his friend from 
 a narrow escape of drowning. Since that time, 
 Roy had been loud in the praises of his savior 
 and he had gladly taken advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity to introduce him to Dorothy, his favorite 
 cousin and his sister by adoption. 
 
 "But you see," Dorothy was saying to her 
 friend, Helen Eastman, while they lingered up- 
 stairs for a little gossip, before time for the other 
 guests to arrive; "the man is going to be a ter- 
 rible incubus." 
 
 "He's here, then?" Helen asked, as she stood
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 25 
 
 before the mirror, arranging her blond hair and 
 settling her gown. 
 
 "Yes, he's come, an hour ago, and he and Roy 
 are in the library at home now, talking like a 
 couple of girls. I do hope they won't forget to 
 put in an appearance. Strange how Roy wor- 
 ships him! I thought men didn't have such 
 violent friendships." 
 
 "What is he like?" Helen inquired, seating 
 herself on the couch beside her friend. 
 
 "Tall and thin and homely," Dorothy an- 
 swered, sketching her outlines with a merciless 
 tongue. "He makes you feel as if his clothes 
 ought to be outgrown, and his joints ought to be 
 knobby; but they aren't. He wears spectacles 
 and he's no particular color, not a bit like Roy. 
 I keep wondering how he'll look in a golf suit. 
 He's the kind of man you'd expect to see riding 
 in a frock coat and a derby hat ; but Roy assures 
 me that he patronizes the best tailor in New 
 York. I know, though, that he carries a high 
 handlebar and sticks out his elbows." 
 
 Helen laughed quietly. She was a stately 
 blond, as dignified as Dorothy was vivacious 
 and childish. 
 
 "The worst of it is," Dorothy went on, with a 
 pout; "I've had to change my whole plan of 
 creation. I shall pair you off, to-night, as I ex-
 
 26 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 pect you to Btay paired, and I've given him to 
 you. I had meant to give you Billy ; but this 
 man is a stranger \vithin our gates and must be 
 looked out for. You are so respectable, and you 
 are the only one of us tall enough to ride beside 
 him, so the honor falls upon you. Take care of 
 him; won't you, dear?" she added coaxingly. 
 "I can't nee what Roy asked him for, but we 
 must make the best of it." 
 
 Gathered about the table, an hour later, they 
 formed a merry group, and before the fish was 
 removed, they were eagerly laying plans for the 
 start, the next morning. Suddenly Dorothy 
 turned to the man at her side : 
 
 "But tell us, Dr. Van Gruder," she said 
 gayly; "aren't you at all alarmed at the 
 prospect before you? Everybody admits that 
 bicycles are dangerous things. How many com- 
 pound fractures do you expect to reduce?" 
 
 "Of yourselves, or of your wheels?" he an- 
 swered in the same tone, smiling down at the 
 girl beside him. He was a fine-looking man of 
 thirty years or so, strong and athletic, with 
 brown hair and eyes and a rich brown skin 
 through which came the glint of a healthy red in 
 the cheeks. 
 
 "Both," she replied. "We place ourselves 
 unreservedly in your hands, whether our ribs or
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEBL. 2? 
 
 our spokes are fractured. We girls feel well 
 protected. You can repair all damages to our 
 persons and wheels, and our two lawyers can 
 defend us, if we are arrested for riding in for- 
 bidden paths." 
 
 "Paths!" echoed Mrs. Perry, in an aside to 
 the doctor. "It is all I can do to ride in a broad 
 road." 
 
 Eichie's eye was upon her. 
 
 "Broad is the road that leadeth to destruction, 
 mother," he remarked sententiously. 
 
 "Eichie!" Dorothy gave him a furtive, but 
 remonstrant poke, under coyer of the table, while 
 she looked up to see whether Mr. Eand had 
 heard the boy's irreverent remark. 
 
 "But what amlto do?" Mr. Merrick inquired. 
 
 "Forage for us," his sister answered, from the 
 other side of the table. "Dolly and I settled all 
 that long ago. You are to keep us from starv- 
 ing, when we get lost on country roads." 
 
 "You've just the make-up for that, Billy," 
 Eoy added. "I can fancy you insinuating your- 
 self into these country kitchens, stroking your 
 mustache and putting your head on one side, 
 while you wheedle the woman out of her hard- 
 baked pies." 
 
 "Half-baked, you'd better say," Mr. Merrick 
 retorted. "These girls are planning to go into
 
 28 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A.-WHEEL. 
 
 the wilderness and there to live by faith. I 
 think I see the reason of this dinner, Mrs. Perry. 
 You think it will inspire us to take up our bur- 
 dens and set forth on our wanderings." 
 
 "The problem that is absorbing me," Mrs. 
 Perry observed thoughtfully, as she sat with up- 
 lifted fork; "is how I am going to wander with 
 you. I've only been out on the road four times, 
 and I haven't reached the point of absolute suc- 
 cess, as yet. You can't go without me, and I be- 
 gin to be afraid you can't go with me." 
 
 Mr. Band, at the other end of the table, 
 glanced up with a sudden gleam of merriment 
 in his brown eyes. 
 
 "Are you a new rider, Mrs. Perry?" 
 
 "Yes. Didn't Roy tell you; or has he lured 
 you hither under false pretenses? I'm only just 
 graduated from school, but I am already longing 
 for post-graduate instruction." 
 
 "I think myself it would be a good scheme," 
 Richie remarked, in an aside to his cousin. "You 
 all ought to be warned to look out for her. She 
 needs the whole road, and even then you have to 
 be ready to dismount at any moment, for she is 
 possessed with an insane desire to run down any- 
 body who happens to be within range." 
 
 "Don't mind him, Mrs. Perry," Billy Merrick 
 said encouragingly. "We've all of us been 
 there, and we know."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOU A-WHEEL. 29 
 
 "You don't know it all," Mr. Rand inter- 
 posed. "No two riders have the same experi- 
 ences. We are all of us unique, and we have our 
 unique trials and our unique fears." 
 
 "I should hope so," Mrs. Perry answered de- 
 voutly. "The first day, I merely fell over twice; 
 but I didn't ride far. The next day, I collided 
 with an old man on a cross-walk, and he was ex- 
 ceedingly morose about it. I couldn't help it. 
 I don't dare let go, yet, to ring my bell. He 
 ought to have known I was coming. To-day I 
 ran over a puppy. Fortunately it was little and 
 soft, so it didn't throw me." 
 
 "How about the puppy?" asked Dr. Van Gru- 
 der. "I foresee that you alone, Mrs. Perry, will 
 give me all the professional work I require." 
 
 "My first experience was even more painful," 
 Mr. Merrick observed. "I taught myself in one 
 evening, and, the very next day, I vaingloriously 
 asked a girl to go to ride with me. I promptly 
 impaled myself on a barbed-wire fence, to the 
 manifest ruin of my coat, and the girl, who was 
 an experienced rider, dismounted and nobly 
 came to my relief. I shall never forget the 
 maternal fashion in which she pinned up the 
 holes in my raiment." 
 
 "I had her version of it, later on," added his 
 sister. "Some time, when Billy isn't here, I'll
 
 30 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 tell you the other side of the story. Mr. Eand, 
 what was your hairbreadth escape?" 
 
 At the question he looked up; and, as his eyes 
 met Dorothy's, she was conscious of an odd feel- 
 ing, half-liking, half-repulsion. He was alto- 
 gether different from Roy and Billy, those easy- 
 going, attractive fellows so plainly stamped as 
 belonging to the genus college boy. Dr. Van 
 Gruder, even, though older, seemed a more con- 
 genial member of the party. Mr. Band was 
 quieter and graver, and he lacked the easy assur- 
 ance of the others, though one instinctively real- 
 ized that he was accustomed to the ways of the 
 world at its best. He spoke little and with no 
 trace of self-assertion ; yet his words usually car- 
 ried weight. It was the same with his person. 
 Tall, thin and homely, he yet showed himself 
 the gentleman, and his dress suit fitted him with 
 a careless ease far different from the conscious 
 immaculateness of the others. He was unlike 
 most of the men she had been accustomed to 
 meeting, and half-unconsciously she found her- 
 self wondering what he thought of her. 
 
 At Edith Merrick's question, he flushed a lit- 
 tle, though he smiled mischievously. 
 
 "Mine was a real adventure," he replied. "It 
 is too long a story to tell here, though it is 
 worthy of being the subject of a ballad. It con-
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 31 
 
 cerns a muddy road, a carriage, a pretty girl who 
 carried me home, and two days spent in bed. 
 This was the result." He took off his glasses 
 and showed a narrow white scar crossing his nose 
 diagonally from the left eyebrow. 
 
 Dorothy glanced up at him sharply and sud- 
 denly. 
 
 "Who was the girl?" asked Koy. 
 
 "I never knew. She left town, the next day, 
 and I never had the chance to thank her." 
 
 "Where was it?" Helen asked. "Eeally, Mr. 
 Band, you have the material here for a romance. " 
 
 "It was at Lakewood, five years ago. I was 
 an awkward hobbledehoy, and she was a pretty 
 child. She was driving alone and I ran into her 
 and the horse kicked me a little. I was stunned 
 and badly frightened, so she helped me into her 
 carriage and took me to the hotel. I remember 
 that we frankly lamented that she was to go away 
 the next morning; but I hadn't sufficient astute- 
 ness to find out who she was." 
 
 "You'll run across her, some day," the doctor 
 predicted. "It's too pretty a story not to be 
 continued in our next." 
 
 "This appears to be the hour for confessions," 
 Dorothy said quickly. "Mr. Band says we each 
 have our unique fear. I think I've seent hat 
 stated in another connection. But now suppose
 
 32 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 we each tell our pet source of terror. What is 
 yours, Aunt Evelyn?" 
 
 "Even-thing." 
 
 "That's not fair. Specify." 
 
 "Losing a pedal." 
 
 "Helen?" 
 
 "Kunaway horses." 
 
 "Edith?" 
 
 "That my brake will fail on a long hill." 
 
 "That is my terror, too. What is yours, Dr. 
 Van Gruder?" 
 
 He laughed deprecatingly. 
 
 "Don't despise me forever, Miss Alden; but I 
 am afraid of trolley tracks. They are the most 
 treacherous things I knew." 
 
 "I live in lingering fear of an ice wagon," 
 Boy said. "I read of a fellow, a scorcher, you 
 know, who ran into the back of one and broke his 
 nose. It always struck me as such a lurid ex- 
 perience, somehow." 
 
 "I'm prosaic," Mr. Merrick added. "My 
 only corroding fear is of a puncture." 
 
 "And mine of a muddy road," Mr. Rand said, 
 as he put on his glasses. 
 
 "We've heard from all but you, Richie," his 
 cousin said. "What is it that you most dread, 
 on the road?" 
 
 And Richie answered promptly and concisely :
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 33 
 
 "My mother." 
 
 "Bichie will have to be suppressed, Aunt Eve- 
 lyn, " Dorothy said, as her aunt rose. "Come, 
 girls, we must go to see about the trunk, if it is 
 to be locked, to-night. We'll meet you in the 
 parlor, later," she added, turning to Dr. Van 
 Gruder and Mr. Merrick. 
 
 They started up to open. the door; but Philip 
 Band had anticipated them, and was bowing in 
 answer to Dorothy's smile of thanks.
 
 34 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 IV. 
 
 FIVE men in golf suits were gathered on Mrs. 
 Perry's lawn, and four women in the conven- 
 tional short skirts which transform nine women 
 out of ten into graceful girls, the tenth one into 
 a caricature of womanhood. Fortunately the 
 four who stood leaning on their wheels did not 
 count the tenth one among their number, and 
 Dorothy in pale gray and Helen in blue were as 
 picturesque as Mrs. Perry and Edith Merrick in 
 their brown suits. 
 
 Eichie was calling the roll. 
 
 "A Liberty, aFenton, two Warwicks, a Colum- 
 bia, two Kemingtons, a Hartford and one second- 
 hand Crawford hired for the occasion," he said. 
 "We are impartial in our tastes." 
 
 "Why not make a collection of heads?" Eoy 
 suggested idly. "We have a good start here, 
 and we might steal any new ones we meet on the 
 road." 
 
 Dorothy stepped forward, holding up a little 
 chatelaine watch. 
 
 "Come," she said. "It is time we started on
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 35 
 
 our journey. Auntie, will you please choose 
 your cavalier and set the pace ? The rest of us 
 will follow. We'll take turns in leading." 
 
 Mrs. Perry cast an appealing glance at Dr. Van 
 Gruder. 
 
 "Bobert, may I make a martyr of you, to-day? 
 It will be a relief to know that you are at hand, 
 in case of any accident." 
 
 Roy and Edith had already rolled their wheels 
 side by side, and Billy Merrick was moving 
 towards Dorothy. Helen turned to Mr. Band. 
 
 "Shall we humbly bring up the rear of the 
 procession, Mr. Band?" she asked. 
 
 He moved eagerly to her side. Of the three 
 girls he had met, the evening before, she had 
 seemed to him decidedly the most attractive. 
 Dorothy was his hostess, and he had given her 
 her share of attention. In return, he had been 
 amused at her quick, vivacious chatter; but it 
 had been with evident relief that, at Billy Mer- 
 rick 's determined approach, he had left her and 
 strolled back to Helen. Her quiet blond beauty 
 had charmed him and, after he had gone to his 
 room, he had spent some time in trying to pic- 
 ture her in the unclassic drapery she would be 
 forced to assume for the journey. She had the 
 face of a pre-Baphaelite madonna, he said to him- 
 self ; but he had never yet encountered a pre-
 
 36 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 Eaphaelite madonna in a bicycle suit, and he 
 was rather at a loss to imagine how the combina- 
 tion would affect him. Fortunately for him, how- 
 ever, Helen was a thorough artist, and from the 
 lowest hem of her dark blue gown to the white 
 sailor hat that rested on her golden hair, she was 
 as becomingly dressed as she had been in her 
 evening gown the night before. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mrs. Perry was mounting. In 
 that one phase of her training, she felt perfectly 
 secure. Hour after hour in Vatican Hall, she 
 had patiently hopped up and down, sometimes 
 hitting her saddle, oftener missing it. However, 
 the misses had become fewer and fewer, and long 
 since she had considered herself an expert in the 
 art of mounting. To be sure, she had never yet 
 mounted before so many spectators ; but what of 
 that? It would only give her the opportunity to 
 show off her accomplishment to the better ad- 
 vantage. Accordingly, she rolled her bicycle 
 into the middle of the driveway, deliberately put 
 her foot on the pedal, arranged her skirt and 
 sprang upward. To her surprise, she bumped 
 against the horn of her saddle and then droppd 
 back again. She made a little grimace of dis- 
 gust. 
 
 "How clumsy of me!" she said to Dr. Van 
 Gruder who stood beside her, waiting to mount.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 37 
 
 "That's not my usual custom, I assure you. No, 
 thank you; I positively refuse to be helped." 
 
 She rolled her wheel forward until her pedal 
 was once more in position, and again attempted 
 to mount. She balanced herself for an instant on 
 the pedals, failed to sit down and then toppled 
 over unsteadily. 
 
 "Don't get rattled, mother," Richie called, 
 from his position in the rear. "We're all ready 
 to start, whenever you feel like it; but you don't 
 need to hurry. There's plenty of time." 
 
 Again Mrs. Perry rolled her bicycle forward. 
 Again she patiently adjusted her skirt and hopped 
 upward. Again she failed. This time she hopped 
 entirely across her wheel and landed on the other 
 side. 
 
 "Three times," Richie counted, disregarding 
 Dorothy's efforts to suppress him. "Four," he 
 added; as his mother came down astride her 
 wheel and painfully clambered back into posi- 
 tion. "If you keep on, mother, you'll hop all 
 the way to Montana. You'd better back your 
 wheel next time, or you'll have too long a start 
 of us." 
 
 "Hold your tongue, Richie!" Roy command- 
 ed. "She'll never mount, if you get her nerv- 
 ous." 
 
 It was an amusing scene. Eight people were
 
 38 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 standing in line beside their wheels, each one 
 ready to mount as soon as the path should be 
 clear. In the very vanguard of the procession 
 was the ninth, flushed, heated and annoyed, now 
 hopping up and dropping back again, now roll- 
 ing her wheel forward a few feet, to hop and 
 drop again. Already she had passed out of the 
 drive and was well started upon the avenue. 
 The self-control of the jv/ang people was great; 
 but if had its limits. Dorothy and Billy Mer- 
 rick glanced at each other and there came a gig- 
 gle, short but ill-suppressed. Philip Rand's lip 
 curled a little, as he rolled his wheel up to a tree 
 and, cap in hand, stepped forward to Mrs. 
 Perry's side. 
 
 "Let me hold it for you," he said gently. 
 "I've taught ever so many people, and I think I 
 can steady it, without getting in your way." 
 
 The next moment, the cavalcade passed out of 
 the drive and into the avenue. 
 
 "It was too bad to laugh," Rand said, as he 
 dropped back to his place at Helen's side. 
 "Once get a new rider nervous, and it is impos- 
 sible for her to do anything. Mrs. Perry is rid- 
 ing well, now she is started. " 
 
 "I began to be afraid she would hop away out 
 of our sight," Helen answered, with an irrepres- 
 sible smile. "Still, I regard her as a courageous
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 39 
 
 woman. She didn't want to ride at all, and only 
 consented for the sake of this expedition. Miss 
 Alden can usually coax her into anything, but we 
 felt that this was a forlorn hope." 
 
 "She is Deming's aunt, too; isn't she? And 
 that boy is her son? I had no ideal was coining 
 into such a family party." 
 
 "Yes. Didn't Boy tell you? He and Dolly 
 and the Merricks and I have grown up together 
 from the day that Koy came here, a solemn-faced 
 youth in kilts. I remember that Dolly and I de- 
 cided, the first day, that even if he did wear 
 skirts he was nothing but a boy and mustn't 
 touch our best dolls. I also remember that, the 
 second day, he and I had a falling-out, and he 
 buried my best doll aforementioned in the crocus 
 bed. Since then, he has been the acknowledged 
 Napoleon of our number, " 
 
 "He never told me. In fact, Koy rarely goes 
 back into the past, or out into the remote, and I 
 have known nothing of his home life. I don't 
 mean that he is secretive ; but he always is so 
 absorbed in the present moment that he forgets 
 everything else. I didn't even know of Miss 
 Alden, till I was asked into this party." 
 
 "How like Roy that is! He and Dolly keep 
 their experiences to themselves in the same way. 
 Intimate as we are, I never know what she is do-
 
 40 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 ing, when she is out of my sight. She might be 
 engaged in highway robbery, for anything I 
 know to the contrary." Helen laughed, as she 
 quickened her pace. 
 
 As they came into a more open street, she 
 glanced up to look at her companion, with a sud- 
 den whimsical recollection of Dorothy's predic- 
 tion regarding his handlebar. He was riding 
 easily along, with one hand in the side pocket of 
 his short gray coat and his cap pushed back on 
 his head, as if to gain the full advantage of the 
 fresh, cool breeze. Helen gave a little involun- 
 tary smile of admiration. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked quickly. 
 
 "I was thinking that you looked very much 
 content." 
 
 "Why not?" his face lighted, as he gave her a 
 half-mocking bow. "I am quite content, for 
 I'm fond of riding, and I foresee a delightful 
 month of it. How far do we go, to-day?" 
 
 "Only to Mileton. It is Mrs. Perry's first real 
 ride, you know, and Dorothy insisted on a short 
 run, to start with. What is the matter, ahead of 
 us?" 
 
 Mr. Band circled out to the side of the road 
 for an unobstructed view. 
 
 "Mrs. Perry is off again," he said. "I hope 
 she's not in any trouble."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 41 
 
 "Come," Helen answered. "The others are 
 all rushing up there. I hope she's not hurt." 
 And they pushed on rapidly. 
 
 "Dolly, "Mrs. Perry had said. "Dolly!" She 
 spoke loudly, but she dared not take her eyes 
 from the track to turn her head, so her call was 
 quite inaudible to any one riding in the rear. 
 
 "Dolly!" she repeated. "Dorothy Alden!" 
 
 This time Dr. Van Gruder heard her and came 
 to her side. He had found her too absorbed in 
 managing her wheel to talk, so he had dropped 
 behind a little and fallen into conversation with 
 Dorothy. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked anxiously, for Mrs. 
 Perry's tone was strained. 
 
 She turned her head slightly, but not her eyes, 
 as she answered, 
 
 "Where's Dolly? I want Dolly. " 
 
 At Dr. Van Gruder 's call, Dorothy came up on 
 the other side. 
 
 "What is it? What is the matter, auntie?" 
 
 "Nothing, only I'm going to dismount. You 
 won't run into me; will you?" 
 
 "Oh, no; I'll hold back. Are you tired?" 
 
 "No; but I want to get off. Keep out of my 
 way, and don't let those men run over me." 
 
 Mystified, but obedient, Dorothy dropped back. 
 
 Three times, Mrs, Perry bent forward in her
 
 42 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 saddle, awaiting the proper moment to dismount. 
 Three times, her courage failed her, and she 
 assumed a perpendicular position once more. 
 The third time, her bicycle lurched to one side, 
 and Dr. Van Gruder barely escaped a collision. 
 The next moment, she was standing in the road, 
 bending over her front wheel. 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 "Did you fall?" 
 
 "Spill yourself, mother?" 
 
 "Are you much hurt?" 
 
 Six people were standing grouped about her, 
 and, from far down the road, Helen's voice came 
 floating up to them, clear and long-drawn, 
 
 "Is she badly hurt?" 
 
 Mrs. Perry straightened herself up and looked 
 about her at the excited group. Then she began 
 to laugh uncontrollably. 
 
 "Why you dear children," she said, when she 
 could find her voice; "I didn't suppose I should 
 frighten you. I only stopped to look at my 
 cyclometer." 
 
 This time, Dr. Van Gruder helped her to 
 mount without asking her permission. The road 
 was wider here, and Roy and Edith, Billy and 
 Dorothy were riding along side by side. Helen 
 and Philip Rand had dropped back again and 
 were talking busily.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL.. 43 
 
 "What do you think of him?" Boy asked, 
 cautiously lowering his voice. 
 
 "Who?" Dorothy inquired, regardless of 
 grammar. 
 
 "Band, of course." 
 
 "I think he's preposterous," she answered. 
 "I don't want to bias the feelings of anybody 
 else, but he seems to me as much out of his ele- 
 ment as a a codfish would be in a school of 
 pollywogs." 
 
 "Your illustration does you credit, Dolly," 
 Mr. Merrick observed approvingly. "It sug- 
 gests a homely, rustic training that is in wonder- 
 ful harmony with your environment. If you had 
 said a turkey in a canary cage, you might have 
 improved it, though." 
 
 "You're not fair to the man, Dolly," Boy pro- 
 tested. "You haven't given him a chance to 
 show himself. Helen is getting on with him 
 capitally." 
 
 "That proves nothing. Helen would get on 
 capitally with anybody. She's that kind. I'm 
 not." 
 
 "I like Band," Billy said deliberately. "He's 
 a good fellow, even if he isn't very pretty. My 
 only fear is that we shan't be able to live up to 
 him." 
 
 Boy shrugged his shoulders.
 
 44 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Phil is no prig. He's one of the popular 
 men of our class." 
 
 "That settles it," Dorothy interposed de- 
 murely. 
 
 "Yes, but I shall be sorry I asked him, if 
 you're all of you going to turn a cold shoulder to 
 him. He is a good fellow, as Billy says, and I 
 want him to have a good time of it. He's at a 
 disadvantage here, the only stranger of the lot." 
 
 "But you haven't asked my opinion," said 
 Edith. "I truly like Mr. Rand, and I intend to 
 make myself agreeable to him. What are his 
 fads, Roy? I must prepare myself to talk with 
 surpassing intelligence, else I shan't succeed in 
 making him budge from Helen's side." 
 
 "Look at him and then judge for yourself," 
 Dorothy said, laughing. "You'll have to talk of 
 briefs and wills and things, dear. That will 
 show your ignorance. He'll peer down at you 
 through his spectacles till you begin to feel 
 small; then he'll walk off and leave you. I 
 know, for I tried it, last night." 
 
 "Yes," Billy added; "when I appeared on the 
 scene, Dolly had just inquired whether a brief 
 was the thing the judge read to the jury. You 
 can't blame the man, if he departed to smile 
 unseen. It's not safe to talk shop, Dolly, unless 
 you know the trade."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 45 
 
 "Maybe not," she answered unabashed; "but 
 I had to say something, and I didn't dare talk 
 about anything I knew, for fear he'd think me 
 flippant. I believe he makes me so." 
 
 "Try him on something else, next time, 
 Dolly," Eoy advised. "Best of all, get him to 
 play for you, and you'll forgive him all his sins. 
 I'm sorry none of you like him ; I thought he'd 
 fit into this crowd." 
 
 "Oh, I like him," Mr. Merrick returned, 
 clasping his hands meekly before him. "I in- 
 tend to cultivate his acquaintance, and I think I 
 shall converse with him upon the subject of cre- 
 mation." 
 
 ' ' Hsh 1 ' ' Edith said. ' ' Here they come. ' ' 
 
 "That man is predestined to be a judge of the 
 supreme court, Billy," Dorothy whispered. "I 
 can fancy myself shivering in the dock, or what- 
 ever they call the coop where they put the pris- 
 oners, and him, all wig and spectacles, sitting in 
 judgment upon me. Come, let's coast down this 
 hill, if we can manage not to run over auntie." 
 And together they went sliding away down the 
 long slope.
 
 46 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 V. 
 
 IT was delightful, that night, to sit over their 
 supper and discuss the events of the day. Later, 
 when they gathered in the upper piazza of the 
 little country hotel, the talk still remained gen- 
 eral, though Dorothy, in her place between Billy 
 and the doctor, was unusually silent. 
 
 "What's the row, Dolly?" Eichie inquired at 
 length, from his seat on the rail. 
 
 "Bow, Eichie? What do you mean?" 
 
 "What makes you so mum? We aren't used 
 to it in you, and it makes us anxious." 
 
 "Me? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking of 
 my sins." 
 
 "You'll have to make a night of it, then," 
 Eichie remarked philosophically. 
 
 Mr. Eand had been watching her. 
 
 "MissAlden is growing sleepy," he said, smil- 
 ing. "Come and walk a little till you get waked 
 up. This piazza is apparently endless." 
 
 He had risen and stood at her side, looking 
 down at her benignly. It had occurred to him 
 that, at) his hostess and a comparative stranger,
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 47 
 
 he owed her this slight mark of attention. 
 Dorothy hesitated; then she rose and stood be- 
 side him. 
 
 "I am afraid you'll find me a stupid compan- 
 ion, "she said apologetically. "It always makes 
 me dull to be out of doors, all day long." 
 
 Billy proposed cards, and the others went in- 
 side. Dorothy could see them gathered about 
 the table in the stiff little parlor, and secretly 
 she rather envied them. However, she had felt 
 Roy's chagrin, that morning, at the general atti- 
 tude toward his friend, and she resolved to atone 
 for her recent neglect. But what should she 
 talk about? In silence, they paced the piazza two 
 or three times. Mr. Band was looking down at 
 the top of the little brown head beside him, with 
 a quiet amusement. At least, she would not 
 bore him with her garrulity. 
 
 "Roy says that we must hear you play," she 
 said suddenly. 
 
 The subject was unexpected. Rand shrugged 
 his shoulders slightly. 
 
 "It's nothing. I only play a little, now and 
 then, to amuse myself. Do you care for music, 
 then?" 
 
 "Passionately, but only as an outsider. "Lit- 
 tle Sally Waters and London Bridge is Falling 
 Down are the limit of my own accomplish-
 
 48 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 ments. I mastered those, years ago, before I 
 had reached the critical stage." 
 
 "You must give me the benefit of them, some- 
 time," he responded, laughing. "You -would 
 have enjoyed the orchestra we had in camp, last 
 year. We had a banjo and a zither and a man- 
 dolin and a guitar, all played by amateurs, and 
 no two of us knew the same tune. When we did 
 succeed in finding one we all dared to attempt, 
 Koy always insisted on accompanying us on the 
 comb, and his variations were as unique as the 
 rest of the performance." 
 
 "I've heard Koy play the comb. We usually 
 ask him to do it when we think burglars are 
 about ; it serves as an alarm to drive them away. 
 One night, he attempted the Marsellaise, and it 
 was so realistic that my old French grammar 
 danced on its shelf. But tell me, isn't our trip 
 going to be a success?" 
 
 "Surely. Mrs. Perry is doing finely. Twenty 
 miles is a good beginning for her. Where do we 
 go next?" 
 
 "That is to be voted on, to-night." 
 
 "But I thought you were captain of this expe- 
 dition." 
 
 "Only in getting it together and starting it. 
 Now I leave you all to decide each day's run. 
 Are you and Miss Eastmanegoing to load, to- 
 morrow?"
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 49 
 
 The calm way in which she took it for granted 
 that they were to ride together suddenly piqued 
 him. 
 
 "Unless I am to be allowed to ride with you," 
 he replied. 
 
 "With me? I am afraid you are too late, Mr. 
 Rand. I've promised to ride with Dr. Van 
 Gruder, to-morrow, and then with Eichie, all the 
 rest of the week. You know I am responsible 
 for Richie's coming, and I can't leave him to die 
 of neglect." And she laughed up in the face of 
 her companion. 
 
 "But couldn't he survive, if you let me have 
 one day?" he urged. There was a tone in her 
 voice, an expression in her eyes which called up 
 a vague, half-formed memory, and it puzzled 
 him. 
 
 "Oh, no; he'd never live through it," she 
 said, gravely shaking her head; "Richie and I 
 are the best of friends, and it would never do 
 for me to disappoint him. Aunt Evelyn said to- 
 night that, next to Dr. Yan Gruder, she felt that 
 she would rely on you in an emergency," she 
 added artlessly. "Really, Mr. Rand, I am quite 
 waked up now. Don't let me keep you from the 
 others any longer." 
 
 "Don't go in," he said hastily. "It is ever so 
 much cooler out here, and truly I don't love
 
 50 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 games. ' ' She gave him a charming smile of good- 
 fellowship. 
 
 "What a bond of sympathy! I abhor them, 
 and I never play, if I can get out of it. Whist 
 is my especial trial, and I was in four whist 
 clubs, last winter. I won a great reputation by 
 occasionally trumping my partner's ace, do you 
 know? They couldn't believe it was mere inat- 
 tention, so they set it down to some deep-laid 
 plan, too intricate for them to fathom." 
 
 Rand threw back his head and laughed. His 
 laugh was deep and full-toned, and she liked it. 
 She liked him better, all and all, in this half- 
 light. He seemed less formidable. 
 
 "Have you a patent on the method?" he 
 asked. "Even I might gain renown in some 
 such way as that. And what do you do when 
 trumps fail?" 
 
 "Throw a king on each ace, as long as they 
 hold out, and so on down the line," she an- 
 swered promptly. "My invention never fails 
 me, and I contrive to win glory from compara- 
 tively simple methods. Ask Helen, to-morrow, 
 and she will tell you I'm one of the best players 
 in town." 
 
 "Bother Helen to-morrow!" Mr. Band re- 
 marked sotto voce. 
 
 However, he rode with Helen on the next day
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 51 
 
 and the next. It was Dorothy's doing, and it 
 was Dorothy alone who saw the little questioning 
 look in Mr. Eand's eyes, whenever she stood 
 waiting for her cavalier. She liked him better 
 since their talk, the other night; woman-like, 
 she knew that he had liked her, and that he was 
 waiting for his chance to ride all day at her side. 
 However, she was finding her time absorbed by 
 Billy Merrick and the doctor, and she had no in- 
 tention of foregoing Billy's jovial companionship 
 or Dr. Van Grader's more mature attention, for 
 the sake of Philip Band. 
 
 On the morning of the third day, when they 
 came out from breakfast, Edith contrived to 
 place herself at Band's side. Bichie was going 
 the rounds, armed with an oil can, and there was 
 a confused babble of conversation while they 
 waited for the start. Band had been watching 
 for Dorothy. She had been the last one to come 
 out of the house, and Dr. Van Gruder had met 
 her at the steps, with a manifest air of proprie- 
 torship. Band turned to the girl at his side. 
 
 "Miss Merrick, aren't you going to let me 
 ride with you, to-day?" 
 
 She smiled assent, just as Boy rolled up her 
 wheel. 
 
 "I should be delighted. Boy, may Mr. Band 
 and I lead? I am longing for a spin, this morn- 
 ing, and it is so hard to do it in line."
 
 52 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 Edith rode as she did everything else she at- 
 tempted, perfectly. Some women seem born to 
 excel in everything they undertake. Unless 
 their sense of humor is keen enough to balance 
 this quality, they are usually more or less intol- 
 erable. With Edith, the sense of humor was in 
 evidence, however, and one felt inclined to for- 
 give her her perfections. As Mr. Rand mounted 
 and rode off at her side, suiting his pace to the 
 rhythm of her strong, steady strokes, he won- 
 dered that he had not noticed her riding until 
 that moment. She sat in her saddle with the 
 fearless grace of a young Indian, while Helen 
 rode like a beautiful statue and Dorothy like a 
 healthy, rollicking boy. 
 
 At the foot of a long hill, Dorothy and the 
 doctor joined them, and they dismounted to- 
 gether, to walk up the slope. Band had pos- 
 sessed himself of Edith's wheel, and walked be- 
 tween them at her side. The doctor stretched 
 out his hand toward Dorothy 's bar. 
 
 "Never," she saidgayly, swerving to one side, 
 out of his reach, as she spoke. "I'm much ob- 
 liged, Dr. Van Gruder; but that is something 
 I never allow. I am very independent, you 
 know." 
 
 "But why?" he asked, smiling down at her as 
 she raised her eyes to his with the frank fearless-
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 53 
 
 ness of a boy. "You might let me do that little 
 for you. The hill is long, and even twenty-three 
 pounds will pull, in time. Besides, I balance 
 better, that way. See how easily Mr. Baud is 
 walking." 
 
 Dorothy shook her head. 
 
 "Edith can do as she pleases; but I cling to 
 my wheel. When I first went out on the road, 
 Roy gave me a few points of very good advice. 
 His text was that, if a woman rides, she must act 
 like a rider, not a woman, that she must take 
 care of her own wheel, never encroach on the 
 right of way and never demand favors because 
 she is a woman. It was Spartan training; but 
 I've always been grateful for it." 
 
 "It's a good idea in theory," the doctor said 
 thoughtfully, as he stroked his mustache. "I'm 
 not sure that I don't approve it in practice ex- 
 cept in this present instance. An hysterical 
 woman on a wheel, who expects to have the 
 whole road given up to her, is worse than a hen 
 about knowing her own mind. I had one run 
 into me, once." 
 
 "And the consequence was?" Dorothy asked, 
 for there came a sudden amused light in the 
 doctor's brown eyes. 
 
 "She broke my wheel, also her own nose. 
 Naturally, I attended her for nothing, and in the
 
 54 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 end she sued me for damages. That was some 
 time ago ; but it has given me a lasting fear of a 
 half -trained woman." 
 
 "That is more tragic than Mr. Band's adven- 
 ture," Dorothy said. 
 
 Rand, who was walking just ahead of her, 
 halted as he heard his name. 
 
 "I beg your pardon. Did you speak to me?" 
 
 "Only of you," she answered. "I was saying 
 to the doctor that his adventure was greater than 
 yours, the one that you told, the other night." 
 
 "Greater, but not half so romantic," the doc- 
 tor added. "It's never romantic for the woman 
 to have the broken nose. We men are expected 
 to do all the suffering." 
 
 "As exemplified in Mr. Rand and myself," 
 Edith observed. "How independent you are, 
 Dolly, and how warm I" 
 
 The words jarred a little on both the men. 
 Dorothy was flushed and the little rings of hair 
 lay damp on her face, while Edith was the pic- 
 ture of unruffled serenity. Mr. Rand was con- 
 scious of a momentary longing to give back his 
 companion's wheel, and Dr. Van Gruder laid his 
 hand on Dorothy's bicycle. 
 
 She laughed, with no trace of ill-nature toward 
 her friend. 
 
 "Please don't, Dr. Van Gruder. I always
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 55 
 
 turn scarlet on the slightest provocation ; it is 
 no sign that I am tired." And she resolutely 
 maintained her grasp. 
 
 Two days later, as they dismounted at the door 
 of a little country hotel, Boy came to Edith's 
 side. 
 
 "How long is this thing going on?" he asked 
 abruptly. 
 
 "What thing?" Edith looked up at him in 
 affected innocence. 
 
 "You know what I mean. Biding with Band, 
 the whole time. What's the row, Edith? Have 
 I done anything you don't like?" His frank 
 young face wore an anxious look. 
 
 "You done anything? No; of course not. 
 Why?" 
 
 "What makes you go off with Band, every 
 day, then?" he demanded rather sulkily. 
 
 "How foolish you are, Boy!" she answered 
 with a little tone of superiority. "Why shouldn't 
 I ride with Mr. Band?" 
 
 "Because you know I want you to ride with 
 me." 
 
 Edith laughed outright. 
 
 "You are as inconsistent as the rest of them, 
 Boy. Only a few days ago, you were scolding 
 because we didn't pay sufficient attention to the 
 man. Now, when I am trying desperately hard
 
 56 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 to play the agreeable to him, you glower. 
 Aren't you somewhat difficult to suit?" 
 
 "Oh." Light was beginning to dawn on 
 Boy's mind. "Well, leave him to Helen and 
 Dolly. He can ride alone, for all I care ; but to- 
 morrow you are going to bring up the rear with 
 me." 
 
 "But I thought you had asked him, and now 
 you didn't want to have him neglected," she 
 said demurely. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mr. Merrick was holding a similar 
 conversation with Dorothy. 
 
 "Bother the doctor!" he said jovially. 
 
 "But I like him," she persisted. 
 
 "That old man? What for?" 
 
 "Hush!" she said hastily. "He'll hear you, 
 Billy." 
 
 "No matter. He is a patriarch, and he might as 
 well be told of the fact. I myself, with these clear 
 blue eyes of mine, saw three white hairs in the 
 left-hand end of his mustache. Then the crow's- 
 feet will come, Dolly, round his pretty eyes, and 
 he'll be a grizzley old coon before we know it." 
 Billy's voice had dropped to a hollow murmur. 
 "Depend upon it, Dolly, we shall bring him 
 home sadly changed and aged." 
 
 "What nonsense, Billy ! Because he is older 
 than you and has a little more sense, you are 
 jealous of him."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 57 
 
 "Rand is older than I, and he has vastly more 
 sense," retorted the young man unexpectedly; 
 "and yet, I'm not in the least jealous of him. I 
 say, Dolly, are you or are you not going to ride 
 with me, to-morrow?" 
 
 -"Why can't we all ride together?" she asked. 
 
 "You know that is impossible, where the roads 
 are so narrow." 
 
 "But I really think you ought to ride with 
 auntie occasionally. She's a new rider, and 
 older than the rest of us. She may be sensitive. ' ' 
 
 "Eand'll take her. Let him. He's the good 
 one." 
 
 "Poor Aunt Evelyn!" 
 
 "No; I don't mean that, of course. We all 
 adore Mrs. Perry, you know. But confound it! 
 Dorothy Alden, when are you going to ride with 
 me again?" 
 
 "Now you are coming to the point, Billy." 
 She nodded approvingly, as she took off her 
 sailor hat and fanned herself. 
 
 "When are you going to ride with 
 me?" 
 
 "When you ask me. " 
 
 "But I have, over and over again." 
 
 "No, you haven't; you've only grumbled at 
 me because I didn't." 
 
 "Will you ride to-morrow?"
 
 58 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "I can't, Billy." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because Dr. Van Gruder asked me first." 
 
 "As I remarked before, bother the doctor! 
 Will you ride, the next day?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "All right. Now don't you forget it." And 
 he walked away, to put up her wheel and his 
 own.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 59 
 
 VL 
 
 THE question of rain had in no way entered 
 into Dorothy's plans, and she was much an- 
 noyed, the next morning, to waken and listen to 
 the steady drip, drip of the rain on the window. 
 She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed to stare 
 out at the dreary gray landscape. Then ruth- 
 lessly she waked her aunt. 
 
 "Aunt Evelyn Perry," she said; "if you'll be- 
 lieve me, it's raining!" 
 
 "What of it?" replied Mrs. Perry drowsily. 
 
 The answer was not altogether satisfactory. 
 Neither was it soothing to Dorothy's feelings to 
 see Mrs. Perry roll over on the other side and 
 straightway fall to sleep again. Dorothy had a 
 momentary longing to stick a pin into her aunt, 
 a long and rusty hat pin in preference. Then 
 she resigned herself to the inevitable and, an early 
 start being out of the question, she settled her- 
 self for another nap. 
 
 For a week, now, they had had glorious 
 weather, without a cloud to darken their wan- 
 derings. They had ridden or halted to rest at
 
 60 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 will, sometimes spending the whole middle of 
 the day at a country farm, where they coaxed the 
 housewife into giving them a share of her dinner, 
 then continuing their journey in the cool of late 
 afternoon and riding on and on through the long 
 summer twilight. From day to day, they formed 
 new plans, wandering in whatever direction the 
 mood led them, and making long detours to 
 avoid bad stretches of road or to reach an occa- 
 sional cinder path. 
 
 And now fate, in the shape of a rainy day, had 
 overtaken them in the least of country hotels, an 
 inn so small and so unfrequented that the unex- 
 pected arrival of nine guests had thrown the 
 whole place into wild confusion. The table was 
 limited in its equipment, original in its serving, 
 while the parlor was simply furnished in ancient 
 haircloth with the added luxury of an upright 
 piano of dubious ancestry. Yet, strange to say, 
 Dorothy was the only one to lament, when they 
 finally came together for a late breakfast. 
 
 "What's the matter with this, I'd like to 
 know?" Billy Merrick remarked cheerfully, as 
 he wrestled with his beefsteak. "We can put in 
 a very comfortable time here, Dolly. We shan't 
 starve in a day, and I know Mrs. Perry wants to 
 lie up for repairs." 
 
 "Hush, you saucy boy I" she commanded. "I
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 61 
 
 have passed my novitiate, for my cyclometer says 
 I've ridden over a hundred miles." 
 
 "And over various other things," Eichie sup- 
 plemented. "The rest of you were too far 
 ahead, yesterday, to see her sail into a flock of 
 hens. They scattered, all but one. She stayed." 
 
 "Kichie, I command you to be still," Mrs. 
 Perry protested, laughing. 
 
 "Eichie, I'll stand treat for a pound of candy, 
 if you'll tell the rest," Billy added. 
 
 "The hen rested," said Eichie, with a chuckle. 
 "She was glad to, when mother picked herself 
 up from on top of her. 'Twas the flattest hen 
 I've seen in many a long day." 
 
 "But what shall we do all day?" Dorothy 
 asked. 
 
 "I humbly suggest that we adjourn to the 
 piazza, first of all, and clean our wheels," Eoy 
 observed. "You girls needn't come. "We can 
 give them all a thorough overhauling." 
 
 "Not for me," said Dorothy. "I clean my 
 own wheel, and so does every other woman on 
 this trip. Come, girls, if you've finished break- 
 fast." 
 
 A busy hour followed. Eoy and Billy brought 
 out the wheels, and they all fell to work, rub- 
 bing, pumping and oiling, amid a ceaseless buzz 
 of chatter and repartee. As they finally turned
 
 63 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 to go into the house once more, Roy glanced up 
 at Dorothy. 
 
 "I don't want to be personal, Dolly, or to hurt 
 your feelings ; but I'd advise you to go in and 
 hold sweet communion with a cake of soap. 
 Your face and hands aren't exactly immaculate. " 
 
 "Yours either," she retorted gayly. "Now 
 we girls are going in to prink and to gossip 
 about you. We shall be invisible till dinner, so 
 you must amuse yourselves as best you can." 
 
 Dorothy was artful. By dinner time, the men 
 had discovered that life without the everlasting 
 feminine was flat, stale and unprofitable. When 
 the girls, fresh and rested after a cosy morning 
 together, came down to dinner, they were greeted 
 with an eagerness for their society which boded 
 an enjoyable afternoon, in spite of the weather. 
 As soon as they went into the parlor, the cheer- 
 less place quickly took on a cosy, homelike look. 
 Dr. Van Gruder had ransacked the house for a 
 half-dozen comfortable seats, the girls had pro- 
 duced stray bits of embroidery from some mys- 
 terious source, and together they settled down in 
 a sociable group. 
 
 "Really, this isn't half-bad," Edith said, as 
 she threaded a long needleful of silk, then paused 
 to inspect a black stain on her forefinger. 
 
 "The work, or the smutch?" inquired her
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 63 
 
 brother from his place at Dorothy's elbow. 
 "They're neither of them anything to brag of, 
 Edith." 
 
 "The black is a proof of honest toil," she said, 
 waggling her finger at him. "It is indelible, 
 too, to my sorrow. I tried in vain to get it off." 
 
 "It will wear off," Dr. Van Gruder suggested 
 consolingly. 
 
 "If we only had something to read," Helen 
 said; "I should be quite content. Roy, don't 
 you think you could find something in this be- 
 nighted town? It won't hurt you to swim out 
 and see." 
 
 "Agricultural papers and a hymnbook or 
 two," Koy answered. "I'm too comfortable to 
 stir. Why didn't you girls put in some books?" 
 
 "How did we know it would rain?" Edith re- 
 plied, rescuing her little silver scissors from his 
 hands. "We'll lay in a supply, at the next town 
 where there's a book store, and be ready for any 
 emergency. Mrs. Perry, haven't you anything?" 
 
 "Tell us 'bout when you were a little girl," 
 Billy demanded. 
 
 "It's far back in the remote past, Billy, too 
 far for my memory to reach," she said. "How- 
 ever, I shall soon get back there again, if I 
 ride." 
 
 There was a pause. Then Dr. Van Gruder 
 said hesitatingly,
 
 64 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "I've a pocket edition of Browning here, if 
 any of you care for him." 
 
 Helen's face lighted. 
 
 "Get it, please," she urged; "and read to us. 
 No one should read Browning aloud who doesn't 
 know him well." 
 
 "I don't love Browning, Billy, " Dorothy whis- 
 pered under cover of the talk, as the doctor went 
 out of the room. "I never know what he means, 
 and I'd a great deal rather tell scare stories. I 
 want some excitement or other." 
 
 The doctor came back, after a few moments, 
 with a little brown book, somewhat shabby and 
 worn, in his hand. As they settled themselves 
 to listen, he deliberately placed his chair oppo- 
 site the window where Dorothy was sitting, 
 opened the book and began to read. He quickly 
 gained their attention and held it, for he read 
 well, with no apparent effort or striving for 
 effect, yet giving to each word a new meaning 
 and value, till the familiar Hues took on fresh 
 life. Only two of his hearers held themselves 
 aloof from his spell, and both of them, strange to 
 say, were watching Dorothy intently, as she plied 
 her needle more and more irregularly, then let her 
 work fall into her lap and sat with her eyes fixed 
 on the frank, manly face before her, as uncon- 
 cious of self as a rapt child. Those two were 
 Mrs. Perry and Philip Band.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 65 
 
 "Read something more, Dr. Van Gruder," 
 Helen urged, as at length he closed the book. 
 "Is The Last Bide there? Read just that." 
 
 He looked up, and involuntarily his gaze rested 
 upon Dorothy, instead of turning to the speaker. 
 
 "Do you know it?" 
 
 She shook her head silently. Without her 
 knowing exactly why, his reading had moved 
 her strangely. 
 
 He opened the book again. 
 
 "It is here," he said to Helen. Then once 
 more he looked up at Dorothy before he began 
 to read. His cheeks showed a deeper tinge of 
 red under their healthy brown, and his eyes 
 seemed to have grown dark and lustrous. Eand, 
 who knew the poem, moved uneasily in his 
 place. 
 
 As Dr. Van Gruder read on, his voice grew 
 lower and lower, yet so vibrant and distinct that 
 not a syllable was lost. Once only he raised his 
 eyes from the page to Dorothy's face, as he came 
 to the closing lines, 
 
 "What if we still ride on, we two, 
 With life forever old yet new, 
 Changed not in kind but in degree, 
 The instant made eternity, 
 And heaven just prove that I and she 
 Ride, ride together, for ever ride?"
 
 66 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Poor Kobert!" Mrs. Perry said to herself, 
 as she watched him. 
 
 Slowly, as the clamor of thanks rose around 
 her, Dorothy pulled herself together again. As 
 she did so, her eyes met those of Dr. Van Gru- 
 der. She was annoyed to feel her color come, 
 still more so to discover that Mr. Band was 
 watching them both. She turned to him a little 
 imperiously. 
 
 "Beally, doctor," the incorrigible Billy was 
 drawling; "I had no idea that a mere sawbones 
 could read poetry so nicely. That last was very 
 pretty, and so appropriate to oui- condition, if he 
 had only added a clause in regard to an occa- 
 sional rainy day." 
 
 "Please play to us, Mr. Band," Dorothy said, 
 breaking in upon Billy's nonsense. 
 
 The young man hesitated. Dorothy's tone 
 was a shade too authoritative to be quite to his 
 liking. 
 
 Boy crossed the room and threw himself down 
 at full length on the slippery haircloth sofa res- 
 cued from the so-called office. 
 
 "Go on, Phil," he said. "I want the girls to 
 hear you, and I don't mind it, myself. Play that 
 Hungarian thing I like, first. Then, if you bore 
 me, I'll go to sleep." 
 
 Philip Band shrugged his shoulders.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEBL. 6? 
 
 "Beally, Deming, you flatter me," he re- 
 marked, as he rose and opened the piano. 
 
 Strange to say, it was in tune and of no dis- 
 agreeable tone. Eand sat down and ran his 
 hands over the keys in a moment's improvisa- 
 tion; then he broke into the wild Slavonic 
 dance for which Roy had called. At the end of 
 his first phrase, a half-stifled murmur of surprise 
 ran around the room. Roy had kept his secret 
 well. They had expected to hear the usual 
 stiffly correct playing of the gentlemanly ama- 
 teur. Instead of that, it was a master who sat 
 before them. Under his firm, slender fingers, 
 the piano spoke, and their nerves answered. 
 Then his hands dropped from the keys, and he 
 turned to face them. Dorothy's face was glori- 
 fied. 
 
 "You never told us," she said impetuously, 
 tarting up from her chair and moving forward 
 to the piano. 
 
 He laughed a little at her tone of reproach. 
 
 "Why should I? There is nothing to tell. " 
 
 "Nothing? It is the one gift of all; and we 
 were treating you like a mere everyday man, not 
 an artist." 
 
 "But I'm not. I'm nothing but a man and a 
 law student. ' ' 
 
 "But surely this will be your profession?"
 
 68 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 He shook his head, though his face had lighted 
 at her praise. 
 
 "No; I don't like the life. This is too slight, 
 anyway, to be worth giving up everything for. 
 I've been fond of music ever since I was almost 
 a baby, and I shall probably go on playing for 
 my friends and studying a little from time to 
 time." 
 
 "Yes; but don't stop now," she interrupted 
 with childish impatience. "You must tell me 
 about it all sometime, but we can talk on the 
 road, when we haven't a piano. Please go on 
 playing." 
 
 He sat smiling up at her, pleased at her de- 
 light in his music, studying her face, still 
 haunted by that vague resemblance to he knew 
 not what. For the moment, the girl was bril- 
 liantly beautiful as she stood there beside him, 
 her lips half-parted, her cheeks flushed and her 
 eyes shining brightly. Then he turned back to 
 the piano, took off hia glasses and laid them on 
 the rack. 
 
 "It's a whim of mine," he explained to 
 Dorothy, with rather a shame-faced smile. "I'm 
 uncommonly nearsighted, you know; and I al- 
 ways fancy that I play better if I don't see 
 things too clearly. They get between me and 
 the music."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 69 
 
 She nodded, and dropped into a chair near the 
 piano. 
 
 "Is there anything you particularly want?" 
 he asked. 
 
 "Phil is settling down to work in earnest," 
 Koy said in a low voice to Edith. "He's as sen- 
 sitive as a girl about his music, and Dolly's 
 praise has stirred him all up. Let him alone 
 and let him choose his own subject. I've heard 
 him play before, and I know his mood. By the 
 time he's struck three notes, you can see that 
 he's a master." 
 
 A hush came over the room, for Band had 
 begun the little improvising which in his better 
 moods invariably preceded his playing in earn- 
 est. Suddenly the piano spoke again; he was 
 playing Beethoven with a breadth of understand- 
 ing, a firmness of interpretation too rare in this 
 nervous, fidgetty end of the century. 
 
 For an hour, he sat at the piano, where he 
 made a striking picture. Too absorbed in his 
 theme to admit of any self-consciousness, his 
 tall, thin figure took on a certain dignified grace, 
 while his face, now bent thoughtfully over the 
 keys, now raised slightly, was ennobled by his 
 art until his hearers forgot to question its claims 
 to absolute beauty. He wandered from subject 
 to subject, from mood to mood. They heard the
 
 70 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 dainty Peer Gynt dance of Grieg; they heard 
 scraps of Chopin, cold and flashing as crystal 
 beads, gay Spanish dances, majestic strains of 
 the old German masters of music and tender 
 minor refrains by the men of to-day whose fame 
 is only waiting to be confirmed by the years to 
 come. Then, as the climax of it all, he played 
 the piano part of the great A Major Concerto 
 by Liszt. 
 
 "He played it with an orchestra, one night 
 last winter," Koy told the others afterward. "It 
 was something to remember, too. Shame that 
 he isn't going to do anything with it, when he 
 might go a-starring, as easily as not." 
 
 At the end of the Liszt, Rand paused and 
 started to leave the piano. Then he shook his 
 hair off from his forehead with a little impatient 
 gesture of his head, and dropped into the simple 
 air of Fair Harvard. This was too much for 
 Billy. 
 
 "Come off there, Rand!" he called. "You 
 play like a syrup ; but that's no reason you should 
 forget that I'm a Yale man." 
 
 Mr. Rand looked laughingly back over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "It's not a case of college feeling, Merrick," 
 he answered. "I don't take to this because I'm 
 a loyal son of Harvard. It struck me, one day,
 
 THE LITTLE BLIKD GOD A-WHEEL. 71 
 
 that the thing had undeveloped possibilities, and 
 I like to play it, once in a while, to see what I 
 can do with it." 
 
 "Go on, please, Mr. Band," Dorothy urged. 
 "It will be like Dr. Van Gruder's reading Brown- 
 ing, putting new life into hackneyed phrases." 
 
 The doctor looked his gratitude, while Billy 
 observed, 
 
 "A double-barrelled compliment, Dolly! You 
 are improving, really. That wasn't half bad, 
 for a rainy afternoon." 
 
 "It is all owing to the potent influences at 
 work about me, Billy," she answered. "Under 
 the spell of Mr. Band's playing and the doctor's 
 reading, we all shall develop new and unexpected 
 artistic powers. I almost expect to hear you 
 burst forth in song. ' ' 
 
 "Heaven forbid!" remarked Boy piously. 
 "Go on, Phil; don't stop. Having brought 
 forth my trump card, I wish it to do me credit." 
 
 But the spell was broken. Mr. Band had 
 already risen and put on his glasses again. 
 
 "I've had the floor long enough," he said, as 
 he crossed the room and dropped into a chair at 
 Mrs. Perry's side. "It's time that some one 
 else took his turn. " And not all their remon- 
 strances could induce him to play again. 
 
 Late that same evening, Dorothy chanced to
 
 72 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 be passing through the hall, on her way back to 
 her room after a good-night call on Helen and 
 Edith. At the head of the stairs, she paused 
 and listened. Down in the parlor, alone and in 
 the dim light, Philip was playing once more, 
 tender and quaint cradle songs, plaintive sere- 
 nades. Then, all at once, he took up the strain 
 of Fair Harvard just where he had been inter- 
 rupted, hours before. Under his masterly touch, 
 the simple melody was transformed. It seemed 
 to her that it was weighted with a nameless 
 longing and unrest, with that vague dissatisfac- 
 tion, too elusive for words, which comes at times 
 to every one not deaf to the calls of his higher 
 nature. The last phrn.se hesitated, faltered for 
 an instant, then went firmly on to its close, as if 
 with a sudden promise of fulfilment and peace. 
 The Liszt Concerto was nothing, in comparison 
 with his interpretation of this simple, time-worn 
 air. 
 
 He left the piano and came into the hall so 
 silently and abruptly that he found her there, 
 leaning on the upper rail. 
 
 "Thank you; Mr. Rand," she said, with a 
 gentleness which he had never known in her till 
 then. 
 
 "I had no idea that anyone heard, " he an- 
 swered in the same tone. "I supposed that I
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 73 
 
 was playing to myself; but I'm glad if you cared 
 for it." 
 
 For a moment they stood there, she bending 
 down from above in the shadow, he looking up 
 at her with the strong light falling full upon his 
 earnest young face. Then, 
 
 "Good-night," she said softly, and stole away 
 to her room to lie awake for a long hour, won- 
 dering why it was that the uneventful day had 
 seemed to her so strangly exciting.
 
 74 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 vn. 
 
 THE next morning dawned clear and bright, 
 with a fresh breeze which promised to help in 
 drying up the mud. By ten o'clock, Roy and 
 Philip Band, who had ridden out on a tour of 
 inspection, came back with the report that the 
 roads were in fair condition, and that, by riding 
 slowly, it would be possible to make a start. 
 Half an hour later, the procession left the little 
 hotel, in high glee at escaping from their unde- 
 sirable halting place. 
 
 "Only," Dorothy said to Mr. Rand, just as 
 they were ready to start; "only I am afraid we 
 sha'n't find another piano, to-night. Now that 
 you have shown us what you can do, we shall be 
 insatiate in our demands." 
 
 "No fear of that," he said, smiling, as he re- 
 luctantly gave place to the doctor. "I shall 
 only demand one favor in return." 
 
 "And that?" she asked lightly. "I promise 
 to grant it." 
 
 "That I may ride with you, the first day that 
 you're not already spoken for," he returned.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 75 
 
 "Day after to-morrow, then," she answered. 
 "That is a small reward for your playing to us 
 so long. ' ' 
 
 "Dorothy," Edith said, joining them; "are 
 we going to Westford, to-day?" 
 
 "Yes, I think so. Why?" 
 
 "Family duty," she answered. "My mother 
 has an old uncle there, and she told me, if we 
 went near him, to be sure to call on him. He's 
 endlessly old and endlessly cranky ; but I sup- 
 pose Billy and I ought to hunt him up." 
 
 "Speak for yourself, Edith," Billy observed. 
 "I've not the least intention of going to see the 
 old fellow." 
 
 "Billy, you must," his sister expostulated. 
 
 "Not if I know myself. I'm afraid of vener- 
 able uncles; they always cut one off with a shill- 
 ing. You go, Edith, and take Dolly with you, 
 and then the family honor will be preserved, and 
 I shall be left to riot with the boys, whilst." 
 
 "How far is it to Westford?" Dorothy asked. 
 
 Dr. Van Gruder went back into the house to 
 inquire, and there followed a hasty discussion. 
 
 It was finally decided to take the ten-mile run 
 to Westford, dine there and explore the town 
 while Edith and Dorothy went to make their visit 
 of duty ; then to go on twelve miles farther to 
 the next town, to spend the night.
 
 76 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 They were all in an unusually hilarious mood, 
 that morning. Their day of enforced idleness 
 had made them eager to be on the road once 
 more, and they started out gayly, laughing and 
 talking and darting about the road with an utter 
 disregard of order and decorum. For miles, the 
 road was like a level floor, hard and close-packed 
 by the recent rain, comparativelj' free from 
 treacherous mud. Two miles out of Westford, 
 Dorothy started forward abruptly to Edith's side. 
 
 "Come," she said gayly to the doctor; "you 
 and Mr. Eand follow us, and we girls will race 
 till we come to the town." 
 
 Helen had dropped back to speak to Mrs. 
 Perry, but Edith quickly responded to the chal- 
 lenge. Side by side, the girls flew off down the 
 road, at first in a silence only broken by the 
 steady click, click of their cyclometers; then, as 
 the race went on, laughing and breathless. The 
 contest was a close one, for Dorothy's faster 
 pedaling was matched by Edith's higher gear, 
 and Dorothy was not ten feet ahead when they 
 swept around a corner and suddenly found them- 
 selves on one of the main streets of the busy little 
 town. Mr. Eand and the doctor were following 
 them at their leisure, far back up the road, and 
 the girls dropped into a more decorous pace as 
 they went along the main street.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEBL. 77 
 
 "How much more muddy it is here!" Dorothy 
 said, as her wheel veered suddenly. 
 
 "Horrible," Edith answered. "It must be 
 from the heavy shade of the trees, I think. Now 
 it remains to be seen how we are to find my 
 uncle." 
 
 "Wait till after dinner," Dorothy advised. 
 "I'm half-starved, after our race. Besides, we 
 must prink a little. There's nothing like mak- 
 ing a good impression on the old man. He may 
 make you his heir, you know. What's his 
 name?" 
 
 "Nathan Granger, called Uncle Nathan Eliph- 
 alet in the family annals," Edith answered. 
 "Isn't it a pretty name? Dorothy Alden, I can't 
 ride another inch in this mud, without falling 
 over. I'm going to dismount." 
 
 ' ' Do it, then. I prefer to ride. ' ' And Dorothy 
 swept on. 
 
 Accordingly, Edith dismounted and, on the 
 tips of her little brown shoes, walked toward the 
 high, grassy curb. It took all her energy to 
 lift her wheel up to the walk, for she was out of 
 breath and the curb was steep. Twice she at- 
 tempted it; twice she was forced to let the wheel 
 drop back. A third time, she was more success- 
 ful. Her bicycle reached the sidewalk, but the 
 forward wheel, coated with thick brown mud,
 
 78 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 came into violent collision with the immaculate 
 trouser leg of a pompous old man who was pass- 
 ing by. 
 
 "Oh, I beg your pardon!" Edith exclaimed, 
 aghast at what she had done. 
 
 She jerked her bicycle hastily backward. As 
 she did so, her foot slipped in the muddy gutter, 
 she sat down with a bump on the rear wheel and, 
 with her heels abjectly in the air, Edith Merrick, 
 the graceful and conventional member of the 
 party, slowly spun around upon this improvised 
 pedestal. 
 
 The old man heard the crash, and his expres- 
 sion of indignation changed to one of malign sat- 
 isfaction. He took a step forward, as if to speak 
 to her; but Mr. Band was already at her side, so 
 he went on his way and left his fair assailant to 
 get out of her predicament as best she might. 
 
 Edith's escapade formed the theme of the din- 
 ner-table, that day, and she was forced to endure 
 merciless teasing from her brother and Roy, 
 while even Mr. Eand went so far as to suggest 
 that she looked before she leaped, the next time 
 an old man was on the horizon. 
 
 "Old people are brittle, too, Miss Merrick, " 
 Dr. Van Gruder added, as his contribution to 
 the round robin of good advice. "They are lia- 
 ble to break when you least expect it. I really
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 79 
 
 think you ought to bear this in mind ; it may 
 save you a lawsuit for damages." 
 
 "His bones were all right; but his feelings 
 were terribly lacerated," Mr. Rand returned. 
 "I am sorry to say he showed temper, even about 
 a little matter like that." 
 
 "Shall we walk, or shall we go on our wheels, 
 Dolly?" Edith asked, as they were setting out, 
 after dinner. 
 
 "Ride, of course," Dorothy answered. "We 
 can't make calls of state in this kind of a cos- 
 tume. How we'd look!" 
 
 "You are so little, you look like a promising 
 infant, my dear," Edith said, as she buttoned 
 her gloves and settled her sailor hat. "It is only 
 myself that I am worrying about." 
 
 It had been with an air of deference that the 
 clerk at the hotel had answered their inquiries 
 regarding Nathan Eliphalet's home. The girls 
 understood his manner, when they entered the 
 great gateway, for the house and grounds were 
 by far the most impressive of any they had seen 
 in the town. The stately building with its row 
 of lofty pillars across the front, the broad, well- 
 kept lawn and the carefully trimmed shrubbery 
 all gave evidence of a rich, conservative taste. 
 The effect was further increased by the massive 
 doorway, the stately hall, and by the trim figure
 
 80 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WUEEL. 
 
 of the old housekeeper who admitted them and 
 went to call her master. 
 
 "He's a bachelor, you know," Edith said in a 
 stage whisper, as soon as they were left alone ; 
 "and mother says he is immensely rich, only the 
 estate is all entailed." 
 
 "Oh!" And Dorothy tiptoed to the mirror 
 above the mantel and straightened her hat, tilted 
 by the breeze. 
 
 A step on the stairs warned her in time, and 
 she flew back to her chair just as an old man 
 came into the room, a pompous old man whose 
 immaculate blue-gray trouser leg was barred with 
 a long stripe of half-dried mud. 
 
 There was a pause. Edith was speechless 
 from horror, Dorothy from an hysterical desire 
 to laugh. The old man halted magisterially just 
 inside the threshold, and was eying them as he 
 might have done a pair of travel-stained tramps. 
 At length he spoke. 
 
 "You wished to see me, I think." 
 
 His voice was rich and husky, a port-wine sort 
 of voice, and his cheeks were crossed by a net- 
 work of little scarlet veins which only intensified 
 the whiteness of his mutton-chop whiskers. He 
 looked a very impressive old man, as he stood 
 there with one hand thrust into the bosom of his 
 satin-faced frock coat.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 81 
 
 Edith's usual presence of mind appeared to 
 have forsaken her. She had the manner of a 
 naughty child caught with stolen lumps of sugar 
 in her hand. 
 
 "I'm I am Edith Merrick," she faltered. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 The old man crooked his diserigaged hand at 
 the back of his ear. The action in itself was dis- 
 concerting. It was doubly disconcerting to 
 stand shouting one's own name in a strange 
 house where the very walls, for all she knew, 
 might be wainscoted with ears. At the fourth 
 repetition, he heard her and echoed her name 
 correctly, though with no sign that he had ever 
 heard it before. 
 
 "My mother is Elizabeth Merrick. She was 
 Elizabeth Parker," Edith called lustily. "This 
 is my friend, Miss Dorothy Alden." 
 
 The old man turned to Dorothy and gave a 
 comprehensive glance at her trim little figure 
 and her short skirts. Then he stepped forward 
 and genially patted her on the shoulder. 
 
 "How do you do, my dear?" he said benignly. 
 "Is your mamma pretty well?" 
 
 Dorothy choked suddenly. "When she emerged 
 from her handkerchief, the old man and Edith 
 were sitting on the sofa, in a full tide of gossip, 
 and Edith was shouting family details with a
 
 82 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 vehemence which paid eloquent tribute to the 
 soundness of the family lungs. 
 
 "But how came you here?" Nathan Eliphalet 
 asked at length, as they rose to go. 
 
 "We're on a riding trip," Edith answered; 
 "and we stopped at the hotel for dinner." 
 
 "Not you girls alone?" 
 
 "Oh, no; there are nine of us, and Miss 
 Alden's aunt is keeping us in order." 
 
 "That's it, and you are stopping to rest your 
 horses." The old man nodded slowly to him- 
 self, as if he were settling the matter to his own 
 satisfaction. "I am glad there are a few people 
 left who have the sense to go driving. The world 
 seems to have gone daft, just now, over these 
 modern velocipede things, and even women are 
 beginning to ride." 
 
 Edith was opening her mouth to speak, when 
 she caught Dorothy's energetic signals to be 
 silent. She held her peace, and the old man 
 went on, warming up to his subject as he pro- 
 ceeded. 
 
 "No refined woman would ever consent to ride 
 one of these, of course. And yet, it is surpris- 
 ing the number of them one sees. I wish there 
 were a law against it. Why, dear me!" And 
 Nathan Eliphalet fixed his piercing eye on Edith 
 until she quailed. "One of them actually ran
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 83 
 
 into me on the sidewalk, to-day. " He paused for 
 a reply. 
 
 "How horrible!" Dorothy shouted, coming to 
 the relief of her friend. "Such things ought to 
 be put a stop to." 
 
 "That's where you're right, little woman," he 
 answered, nodding at her approvingly. "I was 
 glad to see her fall down in the mud ; it served 
 her right, it served her right. She was bold and 
 awkward, and it served her right." 
 
 "Were you seriously hurt, sir?" Dorothy 
 asked, turning one quick glance on her friend 
 who sat silent and blushing. 
 
 "Not seriously, a mere temporary inconven- 
 ience," he answered rather testily. "But you 
 may depend upon it, if I ever meet the young 
 woman again, I shall take measures to have her 
 suppressed." 
 
 "Like the guinea pigs in Alice," Dorothy ob- 
 served in a swift aside to Edith who mustered 
 courage to ask, with an air of deep interest, 
 
 "What did she look like, uncle?" 
 
 "Um-m. " The old man surveyed her through 
 half-closed lids. "She was about your size, I 
 should say ; but not at all like you. She was 
 older and more forward than I hope my little 
 niece will ever be. Must you go? Well, come 
 and see the old gentleman again, and bring your 
 little friend with you."
 
 84 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 With an old-fashioned courtesy as ceremonious 
 as it was inconvenient, he went with them to the 
 door where he dismissed them with a paternal 
 benediction and stood watching them, as they 
 went away down the walk. Half-way to the 
 gate, Dorothy whispered, 
 
 "What shall we do, Edith? Have you the 
 courage to get out our wheels?" 
 
 "No. Isn't it a mercy that we put them be- 
 hind the bush at the gate, instead of taking them 
 to the steps? I wish he'd go in." 
 
 "Hasn't he gone?" 
 
 Edith gave a hasty glance over her shoulder. 
 
 "No; he's there, watching us. Old thing!" 
 
 "Just suppose he had known he was harboring 
 the eneray within his walls! But what are we to 
 do, Edith?" 
 
 Edith strode resolutely through the gateway, 
 without vouchsafing a glance toward the bicycles 
 which stood in the opening between two great 
 syringa bushes. Then she turned back to the 
 piazza, waved her hand and disappeared down 
 the street. 
 
 "I'm going to the hotel, Dolly," she said 
 breathlessly, as she quickened her pace. "We 
 must get out of his way as soon as we can, or the 
 old sinner will have me arrested yet. We'll send 
 Roy back for the wheels, and then we must leave
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 85 
 
 Westford. We mustn't tell Billy, for he would 
 tease me till the end of time, and spread the 
 story through the whole family circle." 
 
 "It's a mercy that Billy didn't go with us," 
 Dorothy said, with a fresh burst of laughter. 
 "Did you ever hear such a situation? He took 
 us for a promising pair of babes off for a vaca- 
 tion, and he waxed positively affectionate, when 
 we came away." 
 
 "What if he should come to the hotel to see 
 us off ?" Edith quickened her pace in alarm at 
 the prospect. Just before they reached the 
 hotel, she turned to Dorothy. "Dolly Alden," 
 she said solemnly; "this ic a most eccentric ex- 
 perience, the most eccentric I have ever had. 
 Promise me one thing. Philip Band shall never 
 know it. It would be the death blow to my 
 dignity." 
 
 And Dorothy promised.
 
 86 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 vm. 
 
 NOT the most devoted lover of the wheel has 
 any conception of its possibilities, until he has 
 ridden by moonlight. In the matter-of-fact light 
 of day there is a pleasure in the motion which is 
 perhaps equalled by no other form of exercise. 
 By night, in the soft white light which alter- 
 nately veils and reveals the landscape, the fasci- 
 nation is increased ten-fold, and amounts to a 
 species of intoxication. Best of all are the cold, 
 clear nights of the November moon, nights when 
 the ground rings hard under one's feet, when 
 the brilliant light comes down through the leaf- 
 less trees and reflects back from the earth with 
 the vivid whiteness of fallen snow, and the breeze 
 sweeps down across one's back, to help on the 
 flying wheel. Then the blood leaps in the veins 
 and the brain throbs in time to the beat of the 
 pedals. A half-hour of such riding is worth 
 days of ordinary placid existence. 
 
 The night of the full moon came, and the 
 young men were loud in their demands for an 
 evening ride, a request which the girls were not
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 8? 
 
 slow to echo. Mrs. Perry alone hesitated, not 
 on grounds of ohaperonage, but on those of ath- 
 letics. She had long since reached the point 
 where she could hold her own with the rest of 
 them by day, and her occasional misadventures 
 were becoming those of any rider, and not the 
 result of inexperience. The night, however, 
 seemed to her to be filled with unknown terrors, 
 with dangers which lurked in the dim light to 
 wreck her courage and her wheel. But the 
 young people carried the day, and the plan was 
 adopted. Dr. Van Gruder had promised to ride 
 within call, and she felt that she could rely on 
 his protection. It was decided that the usual 
 afternoon run should be omitted and, instead, a 
 short morning run should be followed by a long 
 rest before resuming the journey after an early 
 supper. 
 
 The morning was fraught with adventures. In 
 the first place, Mrs. Perry came into collision 
 with a cow which, grazing by the roadside, had 
 pronounced opinions in regard to the right of 
 way. Then Helen fell into a prickly bed of bur- 
 docks and Richie, following her too closely, 
 swerved to one side so suddenly that he lost his 
 balance and came down in an ignominious pile 
 directly on top of her. As a final source of ex- 
 citement, when at last they halted for dinner,
 
 88 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 Dorothy and Dr. Van Gruder were nowhere to 
 be seen. 
 
 They had been bringing up the rear of the pro- 
 cession, and no one had remembered seeing them 
 since they had joined in the general merriment 
 at Richie's downfall. There was a confused 
 babble of surprise and consternation, and Philip 
 Band even suggested the advisability of riding 
 back to look for them. Roy scoffed at the idea. 
 
 "They are all right for they both carry tools. 
 Dolly has a level head, and the doctor can be 
 trusted to manage the affair alone. It can't be 
 anything worse than a puncture, anyway, and 
 we couldn't help that. They'll be here before 
 long." 
 
 However, Mrs. Perry was becoming thoroughly 
 uneasy when, an hour later, the truants rode 
 down the street and dismounted at the door. 
 Dorothy's head was up; she looked happy and 
 bright, as well as very much amused over the 
 situation. 
 
 "We lost our way, auntie," she called blithely 
 to Mrs. Perry who had come out on the upper 
 piazza to greet them. 
 
 "Lost your way! But how?" Edith asked, 
 from the steps below. 
 
 "Try it yourself and see. You all rode away 
 from us, and we took a wrong turn, that's all."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 89 
 
 "You'd better have a compass, next time, doc- 
 tor, " Billy said, as be sauntered up to the 
 group. 
 
 "I should have forgotten to use it," the doc- 
 tor answered, taking Dorothy's wheel from her. 
 "Miss Alden entertained me too well. I was so 
 absorbed in her conversation that I quite forgot 
 the road." 
 
 Dorothy gave him a mocking bow, as Roy ob- 
 served, 
 
 "We were sure it was either sudden death or a 
 puncture. Next time, we shall put you in the 
 middle of the line, to prevent any fresh acci- 
 dents. We have waited dinner for you now till 
 we are on the verge of starvation. Gome in di- 
 rectly, and don't stop to prink." 
 
 Up-stairs, the girls were lying down after din- 
 ner, alternately dozing for a few minutes and 
 then rousing again to chatter over the events of 
 the morning. Mrs. Perry was writing letters in 
 her room, and Billy, Eichie and the doctor had 
 ridden away to explore the town. Down-stairs in 
 the office, Roy threw aside a week-old paper and 
 rose, yawning and stretching. Outside, he 
 heard the regular beat of a footfall, accompanied 
 by a low whistling. He went to the door and 
 looked out. Philip Rand was pacing up and 
 down the piazza, his hands in the side pockets of
 
 90 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 his coat and his cap on the back of his head, 
 His face was grave and intent. Without a word, 
 Roy joined him and fell into step at his side. 
 For several minutes, the two men marched up 
 and down, shoulder to shoulder, with a precision 
 only born of long custom. Then Eoy broke the 
 silence. 
 
 "Well, Phil?" he said interrogatively. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Something is wrong," he went on, looking 
 up into the moody face of his friend with one of 
 his frank, boyish smiles. "You needn't tell me, 
 unless you want to, though, old man." 
 
 "That's all right," Rand said hastily. 
 
 "What's up?" 
 
 "Your cousin." 
 
 "Dolly? What has she been doing now?" 
 Roy's face suddenly grew anxious. 
 
 "Nothing. It isn't anything she's done; it's 
 it's herself." 
 
 Roy whistled thoughtfully. 
 
 "You're speaking in oracles, Phil. I can't 
 make head nor tail of your utterances. If Dolly 
 has been in mischief, I'll lecture her." 
 
 Rand stopped abruptly, and fell to biting the 
 end of his mustache. 
 
 "The fact is, Deming," he broke out sud- 
 denly; "I think I'd better get out of this thing
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 91 
 
 before well, while I can. You asked me here 
 as your friend, and I don't want to take any un- 
 fair advantage of my position." 
 
 In his turn, Boy halted and looked his friend 
 full in the face. Then light dawned on him. 
 He pushed his hands deep into his pockets and 
 resumed his tramp. 
 
 "Moses!" he said. "And you mean it's 
 Dolly?" 
 
 Band nodded. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Oh, nothing; only I should have supposed it 
 would be one of the others, Helen or Edith. 
 Dolly's not the kind." 
 
 "Why not?" Band asked again. 
 
 "She's too much another fellow, that's all. 
 She's a splendid girl, Phil, but she hasn't an 
 ounce of sentiment in her whole body. It's all 
 right, only I can't see how she ever happened to 
 hit you that way." 
 
 "Neither can I." He laughed a little fool- 
 ishly. "Now look here, Boy, you are my host 
 and I don't want to play the sneak. You know 
 me pretty well, and all about me. Shall I go off 
 in the morning, or may I stay?" 
 
 "Stay, of course, old man. I don't know 
 what your chances may be, but stay and take 
 them. Dolly is like my own sister and hang
 
 92 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 it, Phil! You ought to know I'd rather have 
 you for a brother than anybody else." 
 
 Band laid his hand on his friend's shoulder, 
 and they took a few turns in silence. Then he 
 spoke again. 
 
 "You're a good fellow, Boy, and I wish it 
 might be. I know it is rather sudden, and I 
 suppose I haven't much chance. Still, I think 
 I'll try what there is. Do you happen to know 
 whether there is any one in ahead?" 
 
 Boy dhook his head. 
 
 "Dolly keeps her own council. Billy would 
 like the place, but I have an idea that he won't 
 get it. All you can do is to make the most of 
 the situation. You've a strong pull in your 
 music. She adores it, and it will do the busi- 
 ness, if anything can." 
 
 Philip Band's lip curled slightly. 
 
 "That's not what I want," he said quietly. 
 "She must take me for myself, not because I 
 happen to have a little talent in some line or 
 other. But don't let me misunderstand you, 
 Boy, for it's a serious matter to me. Knowing 
 my feelings as you do, are you giving me your 
 permission to stay in this party and, if I can, to 
 win your cousin's love?" 
 
 "My hand on it, Phil, and if I can ever help 
 you along, I'll do it. But," his face grew sud-
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 93 
 
 denly wistful; "but, I say, old man, if you 
 don't come out the way you want to, it needn't 
 make any difference between us; need it?" 
 
 "We're too good friends for that," Rand an- 
 swered briefly. "When men go through an ex- 
 perience like ours, their friendship isn't lightly 
 broken, Deming. But what about your aunt?" 
 
 "Aunt Evelyn?" 
 
 "No; Mrs. Alden. She is more formidable." 
 
 "Leave her tome," Roy predicted confidently. 
 "I can manage her and Aunt Evelyn, too. She 
 is the more important one to be considered first. " 
 
 Meanwhile, Dr. Van Gruder had ridden up to 
 the side door of the hotel and, going into the 
 office, he sent a message up to Mrs. Perry's 
 room. Five minutes later, they were sitting 
 side by side in the little parlor. 
 
 "I was sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Perry," he 
 had said, as she came into the room; "but I felt 
 that it was necessary to have a talk with you 
 soon, and I didn't know when we might have 
 another chance." 
 
 Mrs. Perry looked at him in surprise. She 
 was struck by the gravity of his tone, by the 
 serious look on his face. 
 
 "No need to make an apology, Robert," she 
 said kindly. "You know I am always glad to 
 talk to you."
 
 94 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Even about this?" he asked, laughing un- 
 easily. "Mrs. Perry, what am I to do about 
 your niece?" 
 
 Mrs. Perry started slightly. She had expected 
 this, but not so soon. 
 
 "About Dorothy?" 
 
 "Yes." His brown eyes met hers frankly. 
 "Miss Alden has come to be the one woman in 
 the world to me. Have I your permission to try 
 to make her care for me?" 
 
 She watched him thoughtfully. The color was 
 coming and going in his cheeks, and his right 
 hand, lying on his knee, shook a little. Other- 
 wise there was nothing to show the nervousness 
 with which he was awaiting her reply. 
 
 "Does Dorothy know?" she asked at length. 
 
 "I thought best to speak to you first," he re- 
 plied quietly. 
 
 "It is better. Thank you, Robert; this is like 
 you." 
 
 "And when the time comes, may I speak to 
 her?" 
 
 His eyes met those of Mrs. Perry again. She 
 held out her hand to him. 
 
 "Robert, nothing would delight me more. 
 You know I am fond of you, very fond, and I 
 honestly believe j r ou are the one man living who 
 can make the child develop most broadly."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 95 
 
 "Thank you," he said a little unsteadily, as 
 he rose and took her hand. "She is so young 
 and away from home, so I wasn't willing to let 
 this go on any further, without telling you where 
 the case stood. It would have been taking an 
 unfair advantage of your hospitality." 
 
 "Have you any idea how she feels about it?" 
 Mrs. Perry inquired, as she sat looking up at 
 him and reflecting that her niece would go far to 
 find a truer, more manly suitor. 
 
 His face fell. 
 
 "I was going to ask you that question, " he 
 returned. 
 
 "I have no idea," Mrs. Perry said frankly, 
 after a moment's thought. "I know she likes 
 you and enjoys being with you ; but whether it 
 is in the way you mean I can't tell. Dolly is a 
 child yet, much younger even than her years, 
 and I think it has never occurred to her that she 
 has a heart. It may take you a long time, 
 Robert. You will have to be very patient with 
 her, but I think your chances are good." 
 
 "There is no one else, then?" 
 
 "I think not. In fact, I am quite sure. Billy 
 and she have always been the best of friends ; 
 but there isn't a scrap of sentiment about it, not 
 on her side, anyway. Billy is a good boy, but 
 he never would satisfy her, and their relation is
 
 96 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 just about what it was, ten or twelve years ago, 
 when they used to share each other's bananas." 
 
 "And there is no one else? Merrick wouldn't 
 strike me as being a formidable rival." 
 
 "I don't know of anybody. Do you?" 
 
 "Only Kand," he suggested hesitatingly. 
 
 Mrs. Perry laughed with the air of one dis- 
 missing a ridiculous possibility. 
 
 "No fear there, Kobert. Roy has been com- 
 plaining to me because Dolly doesn't like Lira at 
 all, and only speaks to him when her conscience 
 too actively reproaches her for neglect of a 
 guest. I can't see just why she doesn't like 
 him, I confess. He's a good fellow and a gen- 
 tleman, and all of Roy's friends owe him a debt 
 we can never repay." 
 
 "Then do I understand you?" the doctor said, 
 unconsciously paraphrasing the words which 
 Philip Eand had just spoken. "Am I at liberty 
 to try to win the love of your niece?" 
 
 Mrs. Perry rose and stood beside him. 
 
 "Yes, Robert," she said gently; "you are. 
 In every way, I believe you to be the man I 
 would choose for my little girl and, if the time 
 ever comes that I can help you, I promise to do 
 it." 
 
 And Dorothy, up-stairs, was combing out her 
 Wavy brown hair, while she wondered idly why
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 97 
 
 Billy Merrick had ridden with Helen for the past 
 three days, and half resolved to claim his escort 
 for the evening. Billy was always so jolly and 
 outspoken, not tiresomely sentimental and given 
 to personal conversation, like other men. Then, 
 quite inconsequently, she hummed a few bars of 
 Fair Harvard while she fastened the doctor's W. 
 T. pin on the lapel of her jacket. "No man 
 knoweth the heart of a maid," for the simple 
 reason that, at certain times, it serves merely as 
 a convenient receptacle for contradictions.
 
 98 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 IX. 
 
 IT was later than they had intended when they 
 set out, that evening. A series of unforeseen 
 delays had kept them running back and forth 
 from their rooms to the road in front of the 
 hotel where their wheels were resting against 
 the long row of posts. By the time they were 
 really started, the sun was sinking in a bank of 
 purple and carmine clouds, while low in the east 
 lay the full moon, white as a morning vapor. 
 Their road lay along the crest of a low line of 
 hills bordering the river valley, and, from point 
 to point, they could catch glimpses of the shin- 
 ing water which glowed scarlet in the reflection 
 of the setting sun. 
 
 Philip and Dorothy were leading. It was the 
 first time they had ridden together, for one 
 chance after another had always prevented Mr. 
 Band from gaining the place at her side. To- 
 night, however, as they had lingered on the 
 piazza, she had paused near him and entered into 
 a little aimless conversation which had easily 
 allowed him to ask the right to act as her escort.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 99 
 
 Rather to his surprise, she had accepted his 
 company with frank pleasure, as if she had been 
 hoping for it; and, as they rode away side by 
 side, both of them looked quite content with 
 what the world had to offer them. 
 
 Dorothy's choice, however, had not been far 
 to seek. For the moment, she was tired of 
 Billy's nonsense and longed for a quieter com- 
 panion. Dr. Van Gruder had been claimed by 
 her aunt, Eoy was with Edith and Richie would 
 have been worse than Mr. Merrick. That left 
 only Philip Rand at her service; but she was 
 rather glad of the chance which had thrown 
 them together. For the past few days, she had 
 found that, quiet and unassuming as he was, yet 
 he watched her moods and was quick to under- 
 stand and to answer them. Moreover, since the 
 day he had played to them, his music had made 
 him a sort of hero in her eyes, not a personal 
 hero, but one to revere from afar. 
 
 Philip himself had found it hard to analyze 
 the charm the girl had for him. She was abso- 
 lutely foreign to all his preconceived notions of 
 what a woman should be. By turns, she was an 
 irrepressible child and a self-willed woman ; occa- 
 sionally she seemed to him more like a frank, 
 outspoken boy than the normal society girl. 
 She was continually astonishing him with her
 
 100 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 swift alternations of mood. At such times, he 
 used to escape to Helen with a sense of relief. 
 Helen's life was like a placid stream; Dorothy's 
 was like a chattering mountain brook where 
 whirlpool and fall, rapid and still reach follow 
 each other in quick succession. Helen was very 
 restful, and yet, from his place at her side, Philip 
 used to turn his eyes often toward the lithe little 
 figure and bright face darting this way and that 
 among the party. 
 
 For the first two or three miles, they talked of 
 everything or nothing. From time to time, 
 Dorothy turned to look up at the tall figure be- 
 side her, with a certain feeling of admiration. 
 He was riding along with his hands thrust into 
 the side pockets of his coat and his cap far on 
 the back of his head. She was slowly coming to 
 like his face; it was true and good, and his 
 smile was peculiarly winning. 
 
 At the top of a little hill, she dismounted. 
 
 "See how far back of us the others are!" she 
 said. "We'll wait for them here, and watch the 
 sunset for luck." 
 
 "How do you mean?" he asked. 
 
 "Don't you know? Whichever one of us is 
 the last to see it, as it goes down out of sight, 
 has his wish." 
 
 He looked at her eager face, and his color 
 came.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 101 
 
 "Must we tell our wishes?" 
 
 "Oh, no; for then we should lose them. One 
 can only wish in perfect silence, or the spell is 
 broken. Now wish." 
 
 "I've already done it," he said, as he shook 
 back his hair from his forehead and pulled his 
 cap forward to shut off the dazzling scarlet rays. 
 
 "It will be a warm day, to-morrow," she ob- 
 served. "Just look at that color of the sun; and 
 isn't the moon perfect?" 
 
 "I decline to be lured into taking my eyes off 
 the sun," he answered, laughing. "Your plot 
 is failing, Miss Alden, for I am determined to 
 attain my wish." 
 
 "Mere childish superstition," she replied 
 gayly. "I had supposed you were above such 
 nonsense, Mr. Band. Any way, it's not fair. 
 You are above me, so much taller that you can 
 see the sun long after it is out of my sight." 
 
 With perfect gravity, he dropped down on 
 one knee beside her. 
 
 "Is this better?" he asked. "It puts me on 
 rather a lower plane than you." 
 
 Dorothy looked down at him for an instant. 
 Then she glanced hastily over her shoulder. 
 
 "Do get up, Mr. Kand. If Aunt Evelyn 
 should come in sight at this particular moment, 
 she would be so horrified at the picture that she 
 would be sure to ride over you."
 
 102 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 He rose to his feet and pulled off his cap with 
 a flourish. 
 
 "Congratulate me, Miss Alden. I have my 
 wish." 
 
 Dorothy whirled round abruptly. The sun 
 had dropped out of sight. 
 
 "What flagrant trickery!" she said, with mock 
 indignation. "I am so unused to having people 
 at my feet that you threw me off my guard and 
 so gained your wish." 
 
 Mr. Rand smiled to himself at her words. 
 
 "Yes," he said quietly; "it is an omen. But 
 you haven't congratulated me." 
 
 Dorothy was rolling her wheel out into the 
 road, for the others were close behind. She 
 turned back to him. 
 
 "Wait," she said gayly; -"wait till your wish 
 is fulfilled. Then I will congratulate you, and 
 not till then." 
 
 "What is all this by-play?" Eoy asked, join- 
 ing them. 
 
 "Mr. Rand has been wishing for fame and for- 
 tune and has gained his wish by petty fraud," 
 Dorothy answered, with a laughing glance at her 
 companion. "What makes you so slow, Roy? 
 We thought we had lost you." 
 
 "Aunt Evelyn had a catastrophe," he re- 
 turned.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 103 
 
 "Anything serious?" 
 
 "No; she only ran into a rut and spilled her- 
 self. It shook all her hair down, and the girls 
 had to get off and help her find the missing pins. 
 I do wish you women would put yourselves to- 
 gether a little tighter, Doll. You are always 
 losing your hats, or your buttons, or your some- 
 thing. " 
 
 "That's impertinent, Koy," she retorted good- 
 naturedly. ""We are so busy looking out for our 
 helpless brothers that we haven't any time to see 
 to ourselves. Do you realize that we kept this 
 assembly waiting quarter of an hour, to-night, 
 while I mended a tear in your coat pocket?" 
 
 Koy prudently retreated to Edith's side, and 
 Philip and Dorothy were alone once more. Far 
 back in the rear of the line, they could hear 
 Billy Merrick's jovial ha ha. It was always like 
 the sound of water splashing down over a stone, 
 so hearty and round and ringing. Dorothy 
 laughed in sympathy. 
 
 "Billy is as good as a tonic to us all," she 
 said. "I defy anyone to have the blues, when 
 he is within reach." 
 
 There was a moment of silence. Then she 
 spoke again, and her voice was gentler. 
 
 "Mr. Band, are you willing to talk about your 
 music? There are so many things I want to ask 
 you."
 
 104 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Ask what you like," he returned quickly, as 
 he rode a little closer to her side. 
 
 "It surprised us all so much, she went on 
 slowly. "Koy never told us anything but the 
 bare fact that you played. I suppose he wanted 
 to keep his secret till the right time. It was 
 glorious, too. Aren't you going to make it your 
 real profession?" 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "I think not." 
 
 "But why? You could succeed, I know." 
 
 "Thank you for saying it; but perhaps you 
 overestimate my gift." 
 
 The moon had changed from white to yellow. 
 In its clear light, he could see her face raised to 
 his, as pure and earnest as the face of a child. 
 Their eyes met, held each other for a moment; 
 then he said, with a perfect frankness which sur- 
 prised even himself, 
 
 "Yes, I know I should succeed; at least, they 
 tell me so. I love it, too, better than anything 
 else, but it's not the life for me." 
 
 "I don't see why not," she urged. 
 
 "It would have to be concert work. I could 
 never stand it to teach. I can't fancy anyone 
 voluntarily drumming technical details into the 
 brain of an amateur whose only ambition is to 
 play 'Angels' Whispers' or 'Strings of Pearls.' 
 That is what it would amount to."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 105 
 
 "But not the concert work," she said. 
 
 He looked at her again ; then he fixed his eyes 
 on the road far ahead of him, as he said slowly, 
 
 "It's not the life for a man, Miss Alden. At 
 best, it's a loose, irregular sort of an existence, 
 homeless and friendless. Besides, if a man is to 
 play well, he has to be in a sort of artistic delir- 
 ium, half the time. He lives on his nerves and 
 plays with them, if he is to produce any sort of 
 an emotional effect on his audience ; and I'm not 
 so sure we were intended to make ourselves tem- 
 porary maniacs, for the sake of using the small 
 gifts we may happen to have." 
 
 "Is it necessary to take it so intensely?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "I played the Liszt Concerto once, with an 
 orchestra back of me," he returned, with the air 
 of a man making a confession. "I was su- 
 premely and insanely happy, while it lasted. 
 The next day, I was a mental wreck, and I wasn't 
 fit to live with for a week. Before that, I had 
 cherished a vague notion of at least a year of 
 music; but I gave it up. I saw what it was 
 going to cost me." 
 
 "But it is too bad to give up such music, just 
 to be a lawyer," she said regretfully. "Any- 
 body can study law; only a favored few can 
 Play."
 
 106 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "If I can keep my law, I can also keep my 
 music. If I keep my music, I must lose my 
 law." 
 
 She smiled at the quibble. 
 
 "You can, but not the world." 
 
 "The world doesn't lose much. Besides, my 
 best playing is done for my friends. Up to this 
 time, Roy has been my best listener. I always 
 feel sure he will understand what I am trying to 
 get at, and that is a wonderful inspiration, some- 
 how. 'Tisn't the friends who criticize or praise 
 us that help us; it is the ones who know we are 
 after something good, and urge us to keep on 
 trying for it." He pulled himself up abruptly, 
 fearful lest he had spoken too freely of himself. 
 
 Dorothy had been watching him intently, 
 stirred by the vague consciousness that she was 
 listening to someone who had gone deeper into 
 the secret of life than she, in her quiet girlish 
 existence, had ever reached. It was as if he had 
 taken her by the hand and led her to a hilltop 
 whence she could gain a broader view of the 
 horizon than any she had known before. 
 
 "Thank you," she said gently. "I never 
 realized before what it all stood for. We only 
 see the glamor of the footlights and hear the ap- 
 plause and are excited by the tremendous power 
 of the music, and we forget the man. I had
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 107 
 
 never heard anyone play as you did, till the 
 other day, and I see the difference. The others 
 played to a crowd of strangers. You knew each 
 one of us, and you made it more personal. Was 
 that it?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "You've got it. But, after all, there are days 
 when I long for the other thing, the footlights 
 and all that. It would be such fun to try it and 
 see if I could succeed. Sometimes I play like a 
 handorgan." 
 
 She smiled at his words. Then abruptly she 
 changed the subject. 
 
 "Mr. Band, there is something else I want to 
 say, now that we are alone. I have never told 
 you how grateful we all are for what you did for 
 Roy, last summer." 
 
 "What was that?" he asked absently, his 
 mind still fixed on the questions involved in his 
 music. 
 
 She looked up at him sharply. She thought 
 his innocence was feigned, and the suspicion 
 jarred upon the ideal she was forming of his 
 character. 
 
 "When you saved his life," she returned, with 
 a shade of coldness in her tone. 
 
 "Oh! I beg your pardon. I wasn't noticing 
 what you said. That was nothing at all."
 
 108 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Perhaps not to you, but a great deal to us," 
 she said sharply. "Roy said all the men de- 
 clared that they never saw a finer act in their 
 lives." He laughed a little scornfully. 
 
 "Then the men were idiots of small experi- 
 ence. Any one of them would have done the 
 same thing, only I happened to be nearer Roy. 
 We were swimming a race, you know, and he 
 had a bad cramp. I thought it was all up with 
 him, when I got him ashore." 
 
 "And yet," Dorothy went on boldly; "after 
 carrying him through half a mile of water, you 
 were the one to run to the next camp for a doc- 
 tor, instead of leaving it to the others who were 
 fresh. It's no use, Mr. Band; you can't deny 
 that we owe it to you that Roy is here, to-night. " 
 
 "It was my one chance, you know," he re- 
 sponded, smiling. "Fate was in it, and in my 
 favor. I had been admiring Roy from afar for 
 years, and we never seemed to come any closer 
 together. The fact is, I went into that camping 
 party just because he was in it. The rest of the 
 fellows weren't my crowd at all; but it did the 
 work I meant it to, and Roy and I have been 
 chums ever since." Dorothy held out her hand 
 to him with the frank, free cordiality of an un- 
 conscious boy. 
 
 "I am so glad," she said impulsivelj'. "I
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A.-WHEEL. 109 
 
 know it was foreordained from the beginning 
 that you should go on this trip with us. Roy's 
 friends are mine, for he is just like my own 
 brother. I was only a baby, when he came to 
 our house to live, and we were never separated 
 till he went to college. I remember how I cried 
 then, because I was afraid I had lost him for- 
 ever." 
 
 "That's not Roy," Rand retorted quickly. 
 "He's tremendously loyal to his friends, and 
 and I begin to hope it may run in the family." 
 
 The brilliant white light lay all about them, 
 upon the road stretching on before them, upon 
 the vague outlines of the mist resting above the 
 river and upon their intent young faces. For a 
 second time, that night, their eyes met and held 
 each other's gaze for an instant. Then Dorothy 
 said, in a low voice which sounded scarcely 
 natural, even to herself, 
 
 "Perhaps; I'm not sure. Shall we ride back 
 to meet the others?"
 
 110 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 THE moonlight ride was voted a perfect suc- 
 cess, when they all met at breakfast, the next 
 morning. As all successes should be, it was also 
 unique. Two or three attempts to repeat it 
 were frustrated by the heavy clouds that hid the 
 moon, for several evenings to come, so the one 
 night stood out by itself in the memories of them 
 all, while, to two of their number, it had a pecul- 
 iar significance, strong, yet too intangible for 
 words. 
 
 It was to Eichie's suggestion that they owed 
 their sunrise ride, a few days later, llichio was 
 not sentimental by nature. He had the emotional 
 development of the average boy, which is by no 
 means great; and his suggestion was prompted, 
 not so much by a longing for the matin songs of 
 the birds and the rosy flush of dawn, as by a 
 base desire to get Billy and Boy out of their 
 beds at an unholy hour of the night. 
 
 "But, don't you see," he said at the supper 
 table; "you've none of you any idea how fine it 
 is. It's so fresh and dewy and cool, and then
 
 THE LI'RTLB BLIND GOD A-WHEBL. Ill 
 
 the sun pops up and, the first thing you know, 
 everything is awake." 
 
 Roy laid down his knife and fork and applaued 
 him loudly. 
 
 "Bravo, kid! You'll be a poet, some day. 
 You ought to have mentioned the twittering kine 
 and the bleating milkmaids, but that's very well 
 for a first effort." 
 
 "Might I inquire," Mr. Merrick asked; 
 "whether Richie takes these facts from his own 
 personal observation, or whether he has skimmed 
 the cream from the literary pans of our minor 
 poets?" 
 
 "Of course I know it, myself," he returned 
 indignantly. 
 
 "How?" his mother asked meaningly. 
 
 "Same as any other fellow, I suppose." 
 
 "Then it is by the light of faith, supplemented 
 by your observations on the morning of the 
 Fourth of July. That is the only day in the 
 year that you're not late to breakfast." 
 
 "After all," Dorothy said; "why wouldn't it 
 be a good idea to try it? It must be beautifully 
 cool and pleasant, and it would make a variety." 
 
 Billy's groan was echoed by Roy, Dr. Van 
 Gruder tried to looked resigned and Mr. Rand 
 fixed his eyes on his plate in the apathy of 
 despair.
 
 112 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 "That's rough on us, Dolly," Roy said at last, 
 privileged to grumble a little, by reason of his 
 relationship. "It's not fair to drag us out of 
 our little beds at What time is it light, these 
 days, Richie?" 
 
 "About four," Richie returned oracularly. 
 
 "Oh, Lord! And you'd spoil a man's whole 
 sleep, and pull him up in the night, the middle 
 of the night, just to see the sun rise. That's 
 barbarous." 
 
 "Put it to vote, Dolly," Helen suggested. 
 
 The vote was taken. Richie and the girls 
 were aye; Billy, Roy and the doctor were long 
 and loud in proclaiming their nays. Numbers 
 carried it, however, and they fell to discussing 
 their plans. 
 
 "Why can't you girls go alone, and let us 
 sleep?" Billy suggested in one final outburst of 
 protest. "You won't need protection by broad 
 daylight, and we'd catch you before dark." 
 
 Dorothy turned on him a rebuking glance. 
 
 "That's sneaky, Billy. I thought better of 
 you. Besides, it won't be broad daylight when 
 we start, and we might have an accident on the 
 road." 
 
 "Go ahead, then." And Billy munched his 
 bread and butter resignedly. 
 
 "If we've got it to do," Roy said; "the sooner
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 113 
 
 it's over, the better. Let's take it, to-morrow; 
 then we can sleep it off at once." 
 
 "How prosaic you are!" saidEdith. "Itwill 
 be beautiful, with the dew and the birds and the 
 smoke coming out of kitchen chimneys." 
 
 "And the general clammy feeling of the early 
 morning," the doctor supplemented. "Speak- 
 ing as a mere physician and not a poet, I advise 
 you to dress warmly, or you'll fall a prey to a 
 most prosaic cold." 
 
 "How are we going to wake up?" Mr. Rand 
 inquired. "I won't promise to be on hand, 
 unless I am called." 
 
 "I'll see to that," Richie volunteered. 
 
 "You!" came in a chorus of scorn, for Richie 
 was not prone to early rising. 
 
 "I myself, alone and unaided. I promise to 
 wake you in plenty of time. How long do you 
 fellows need, to dress?" 
 
 "Nobody will feel inspired to make an elabo- 
 rate toilet at that hour of the morning," Mrs. 
 Perry said. "Be sure you are warmly dressed, 
 and leave the rest till we stop for breakfast." 
 
 Billy pushed back his chair from the table. 
 
 "Richie and bedroom candles at four in the 
 morning! Please, ma'am, I think I'll go by-low 
 now." And he sauntered out of the room. 
 
 It was still dark, the next morning, when
 
 114 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 Richie was stirring. At first, he crept noise- 
 lessly through the door connecting his room with 
 the one occupied by Roy and Mr. Rand, and 
 paused there for a few minutes. Then he went 
 on into the doctor's room, and to Billy's. Five 
 minutes later, he came back to his room again, 
 stepped out into the hall and began thumping on 
 the doors. 
 
 "Go 'way," he heard Roy say sleepily. 
 
 At Dr. Van Gruder's door, he was hailed with 
 the question : 
 
 "What time it is, Richie?" 
 
 "Time to get up." 
 
 "But it's so dark," Billy's voice wailed from 
 the next room. 
 
 "Can't help that. You'll have to hustle, if 
 we're to get out of town before sunrise." 
 
 They hustled accordingly, and, fifteen minutes 
 later, a heavy-eyed, carelessly-dressed knot of 
 people were gathered in the dining-room, sip- 
 ping the coffee which had been thoughtfully 
 ordered by the doctor, over night. 
 
 "What time is it, anyway?" Helen asked, as 
 she set down her cup. 
 
 Roy looked at his watch. 
 
 "You blasted kid!" he stormed. 
 
 "What? What's the matter?" 
 
 Roy held up his watch grimly.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 115 
 
 "It's just three o'clock," he said. "Richie, 
 you ought to be flayed." 
 
 Eichie put on a look of injured innocence, as 
 he too drew out his watch. 
 
 "It is half-past four by this," he returned. 
 "I thought we had overslept. Yours must be 
 'way off, Roy." 
 
 "Richie Perry, did you really rout us out of 
 bed an hour ahead of time?" his mother de- 
 manded. 
 
 "How could I know my watch was going to 
 gain ? It must be right, too, for here's the coffee 
 ready." 
 
 "What time did you order it?" Mrs. Perry 
 asked, turning to the doctor. 
 
 "Half-past four," he answered. 
 
 But the maid interposed. 
 
 "The young man said as that wouldn't be 
 early enough. He gave me a extra fee and told 
 me to make it by now, so yous needn't be hur- 
 ried." 
 
 Roy and Billy fell upon the boy and led him 
 away, kicking and struggling, to receive justice. 
 The others sat down in the chilly parlor and tried 
 not to yawn in the faces of their companions, 
 while they waited for day. There was no espe- 
 cial use in going back to bed for the single 
 hour. That would only involve the pang of 
 early rising, a second time in one morning.
 
 116 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 The day seemed hours old to them all when 
 Richie, who had in some way escaped with his 
 life, came to tell them it was time to start. 
 
 "I've had a fine nap," he proclaimed. "You 
 missed it in not following my example. Your 
 wheels are ready. I just saw Mr. Band oiling 
 them. Come along. " 
 
 If it had been cheerless in the parlor, outside 
 it was even worse. The morning was gray and 
 raw, and a heavy fog shut down about them, 
 drenching them like a fine rain. 
 
 "Surely it is going to storm," Edith said, 
 drawing back again under cover of the piazza. 
 
 "It's always so before sunrise, in these river 
 towns." 
 
 "Do you know anything about it, Richie?" 
 his mother asked a little sternly. "We none of 
 us care to get caught in the rain." 
 
 "That's what the hostler said," Richie an- 
 swered, in no wise abashed. "You can ask him, 
 if you don't want to take my word for it." 
 
 Mr. Rand looked at the little barometer hang- 
 ing from his watch chain. 
 
 "I think you are safe in risking it, Mrs. Perry. 
 This is fairly accurate." 
 
 "You are a true friend, Mr. Rand," Dorothj' 
 said gayly. "Richie and I are not going to lose 
 our ride. Come, all of you, and I predict that 
 you will be repaid."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 117 
 
 "With the doctor and Richie beside her, she set 
 off down the road, and, after a little murmuring, 
 the others followed. For the first half-hour, con- 
 versation languished. It was so much easier for 
 them all, under the circumstances, to yawn than 
 to talk, that there was comparatively little effort 
 on the part of any of them to be social. Even 
 Dorothy's usual chatter was hushed. The poetic 
 glamor of the dawn she had found lacking, and 
 she was struggling to conceal the disappoint- 
 ment she felt. Then, behind her, there came a 
 crash. 
 
 "Oh, confound it all!" she heard Billy say. 
 "How can a man help slipping up? This road 
 is as soggy as a last night's potato. I wonder if 
 Dolly is enjoying herself." 
 
 "Do go and ask her," Helen said. "It is 
 bad, Billy; I don't see how it could be much 
 worse. I wish you would see if Dolly feels as 
 guilty as I do." 
 
 As Billy joined her at the head of the proces- 
 sion, Dr. Van Gruder fell back a little and left 
 them to lead the way. 
 
 The morning was still gray, though the band 
 of cloud in the east was brightening and flushing 
 to a rosy pink, while the mist slowly gathered 
 itself into gray bundles of cloud which huddled 
 against the sides of the hills. Then, for a few
 
 118 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 moments, even the forced and desultory conver- 
 sation was hushed. It was as if the world were 
 waiting in silence, on the eve of some great 
 event. Eedder and redder grew the clouds until 
 the flush rose to the zenith and was reflected 
 back again on the tattered streamers of mist. 
 The hush deepened about them, and, from the 
 very midst of it, the sun shot up above the hori- 
 zon and they were riding in a golden world. 
 
 "By Jove!" Billy's voice was unusually quiet. 
 "I believe it pays, after all, Dollj'. " 
 
 "Doesn't it? I had no idea it would be so 
 fine. I've read about the hush that comes just 
 before the dawn, but I never knew what it meant. 
 Now look up there." And she pointed to the 
 little flakes of mist that were sliding up the sides 
 of the hills and vanishing into the air. 
 
 Just back of them, Mr. Band's rich baritone 
 voice was humming a strain of Haydn, 
 
 "Now vanish before the holy beams 
 The gloomy shades of ancient night." 
 
 Dorothy turned her eager young face back to 
 him. 
 
 "It might have been written for this," she 
 said. 
 
 "You know it, then?" 
 
 "Of course, and I love it. I shall never hear it
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 119 
 
 again, without thinking of this morning's 
 ride. " 
 
 "Of which end of it?" he asked, smiling, as 
 he rode up beside her. 
 
 "That's too bad to remind me of the past. 
 The starting was horrible; but that was Kichie's 
 work. I had no share in it. The last half-hour 
 has been enough to atone even for that." 
 
 Meanwhile Edith, seizing her opportunity, 
 had rushed forward to her brother's side. 
 
 "Billy Merrick," she said excitedly; "what 
 ails your legs?" 
 
 "My what?" he asked in surprise. 
 
 "Tour legs. They don't match, and Mr. 
 Rand's are just as bad. What have you boys 
 been doing?" 
 
 Billy stared at her, as if mystified by her ques- 
 tion. Then he bent forward to stare down at his 
 legs so suddenly that he nearly lost his balance. 
 
 "Well, I am blest!" he said, as he righted 
 himself. "I don't see howl did it. I left them 
 all right." 
 
 "Mr. Band's are the same way," Edith said. 
 "How came you to do such a silly thing?" 
 
 Billy shot on ahead, turned about and rode to 
 the rear, turned again and came back to Edith's 
 side. He was shaking with suppressed laughter. 
 
 "They've all got it, Edith, the doctor and all.
 
 120 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 It's that imp of a Richie, I'm ready to bet any 
 amount. Let's call a halt and break the news to 
 them gently." 
 
 At Billy's command, they dismounted and 
 stood in the road, wondering at the cause of the 
 delay. 
 
 "Gentlemen," he said blandly; "may I ask 
 you, as a personal favor, that you observe your 
 ankles?" 
 
 Four heads bent forward; four shouts rang 
 out on the air. In some mysterious manner, the 
 shaggy plaid stockings had become mismated 
 during the night, and, in the gray dawn, no one 
 had discovered the fact. Now, however, the 
 garish light of day shone upon eight mismated 
 legs. Billy wore one of Roy's scarlet and brown 
 stockings and one of the doctor's sober brown 
 plaid. Roy's left leg was decorated with Billy's 
 gaudy tartan, his right with a dull gray check; 
 while Mr. Rand, whose taste in dress was 
 markedly quiet, eclipsed them all with a striking 
 combination of the tartan and the scarlet and 
 brown. 
 
 Roy was the first to speak. 
 
 "Oh, I say, this is awful! How are we going 
 to sort ourselves out?" 
 
 "How did you ever do it?" Dorothy asked. 
 
 Without a word, Billy pointed at Richie who
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 121 
 
 stood leaning on his saddle and laughing till his 
 very lashes were wet. 
 
 "Kichie, you didn't!" 
 
 Dr. Van Gruder interposed. "I move that his 
 confession and punishment be delayed. Just 
 now, I care more for breakfast than I do for jus- 
 tice. That can come later. We can't be more 
 than a mile from Planter's." 
 
 "But how are we going to get there?" Billy 
 asked with unconscious pathos. 
 
 "On our wheels." 
 
 "Like this? We'd have all the little hood- 
 lums yelling at us." 
 
 "Planter's, from what I hear, isn't a metrop- 
 olis to support many hoodlums," the doctor said. 
 
 "And nobody will notice it," Helen added. 
 
 But Mr. Band protested. 
 
 "I'm rather afraid I should be mobbed," he 
 said, as he turned himself about for inspection. 
 "The rest of you might manage to escape com- 
 ment; but I really do object to riding up to a 
 strange hotel and dismounting on such a pair of 
 legs as this." 
 
 There was a pause. Then Roy pointed to a 
 thicket of bushes not far away. "If 3 r ou girls 
 don't mind riding on ahead, I think we might 
 be able to convert that into a temporary dress- 
 ing-room and adjust matters a little. We'll
 
 122 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 overtake you before you get to Planter's ; or, if 
 we don't, you can order breakfast." Then he 
 turned to Richie. "And I advise yo\i to eat your 
 fill, my son," he added; "for I warn you that 
 this is the last breakfast you will ever live to 
 enjoy." 
 
 And as the girls rode away down the hill, the 
 four men stacked their wheels against a con- 
 venient tree, and retired to the safe shelter of 
 the bushes.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 123 
 
 XI. 
 
 "DOROTHY ALDEN," Edith said indignantly one 
 day, as she picked herself up from the road; "it 
 strikes me that it is about time for you to fall. 
 You are the solitary member of this expedition 
 who hasn't bitten the dust, and you are becom- 
 ing positively vainglorious over the fact." 
 
 Dorothy laughed. 
 
 "It shows the superior training given by Roy, 
 Edith. Do you suppose I am going to bring 
 disgrace upon his head?" 
 
 "Come off there, Dollj'!" Richie observed. 
 "Pride goeth before destruction, you know. If 
 you once begin to brag, you'll be the next 
 victim." 
 
 "Then you'll all waggle your heads and say, 
 'I told you so,' " she retorted gayly. "Besides, 
 Dr. Van Gruder hasn't fallen yet; have you, 
 doctor?" 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 "Candor compells me to confess that I have, 
 Miss Alden. I went down in the mud, the day 
 you and Miss Merrick were calling on Nathan
 
 124 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 Elipbalet. I swore the others to secrecy, and I 
 shouldn't have confessed now, if I hadn't been 
 afraid of Kichie's betraying me." 
 
 "Of all the slanders "Eichie was beginning 
 indignantly, when Roy interrupted him. 
 
 "Shut up, kid, and let your elders talk. As 
 Dorothy's teacher, I feel it my duty to tell you 
 that she had her proper supply of falls for the 
 next ten years. Her learning to ride was a mere 
 nothing; but when she began to go out on the 
 road, she made up for lost time. She was a holy 
 terror, I tell you. Remember the day you up- 
 set the baby carriage, Doll ? I shall never forget 
 that woman's face." 
 
 "I am fast losing my memory for trifles," 
 Dorothj- asserted, as she stood leaning on her 
 wheel. "Richie, I wish you'd refresh it. You 
 are historian of this expedition. How many 
 falls have we had?" 
 
 "Editorial we," Dr. Van Gruder added. "Go 
 on, Richie; don't let them frighten you out of 
 it." For Mrs. Perry was shaking her head at 
 her young son. 
 
 Richie steadied his bicycle with his foot and 
 dived into his pocket, whence he produced a 
 shabby notebook. 
 
 "Let's see," he said, as he whisked over the 
 leaves to find the place. "Plain falls: mother,
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 125 
 
 thirteen ; Roy, seven ; Billy, six ; I, five ; Helen, 
 four; Edith, two, and Dr. Van Gruder, one. 
 Collisions: mother, a hen, a cow and a man; 
 Edith, a baby and a pig; Roy, me and a hay 
 wagon, and Mr. Rand, a scissor-grinder. Total 
 falls, thirty-eight. Total collisions, eight. Not 
 half bad for three weeks." 
 
 "Then Miss Alden is the one discreet member 
 of the party," Rand observed. "I had hoped 
 that Richie had forgotten the scissor-grinder, ao 
 that I could share the honors." 
 
 Richie tapped his book knowingly. 
 
 "I don't forget. I write up 'the tale of your 
 lives for a sheltered people's mirth,' every night 
 at bedtime; and it will go down to posterity as 
 an ideal bit of history-making. Come ahead, 
 Dolly; I'm sick of hanging around here. We'll 
 go on, and let the rest come when they get 
 ready." 
 
 The two cousins stared off at full speed, leav- 
 ing the others to mount at their leisure. 
 
 "It rattles Edith to fall," Richie said with a 
 chuckle, as soon as they were out of hearing. 
 "She turned, quick as could be, to see if Roy 
 was looking, and then she scrambled up. She 
 rides awfully well, Doll; but you're ahead of 
 her." 
 
 "Helen is the best rider of us all, " Dorothy 
 said.
 
 126 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 The boy sniffed scornfully. 
 
 "Helen isn't in it at all. She's been off four 
 times." 
 
 "I don't mean that. She's the most graceful 
 one." 
 
 "I call sticking to your saddle grace," he re- 
 turned bluntly. "You can ride with all the 
 fancy fixin's you want; but unless you sit tight, 
 you're no use as a rider. You are worth ten of 
 her, Dolly." 
 
 "I wish some one else thought so, too, little 
 coz." 
 
 "Who?" he asked suspiciously. 
 
 "Oh, nobody in particular," she returned eva- 
 sively. "It was a general longing for apprecia- 
 tion ; that was all. ' ' 
 
 Richie turned sideways in his saddle, with one 
 knee thrown across the handle bar. 
 
 "What's the matter, Dorothy? You act sort 
 of down on your luck. Anybody been stepping 
 on your toes?" 
 
 "On mine? Oh, no; they don't dare. They 
 are afraid I might step back, you know. Tell 
 me, Richie," she added quite inconsequently ; 
 "do you know whether Mr. Band is going to ride 
 with Helen, to-morrow?" 
 
 "Id' know. Why?" 
 
 "Nothing; only I was wondering. I am half-
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A -WHEEL. 12? 
 
 afraid Edith thinks he isn't polite enough to 
 her," she added, with heightened color. 
 
 "Edith has Roy. They ride together, the 
 whole time, same as Dr. Van does with you. 
 It's as much as a fellow can do to get a look at 
 you, these days." And he stared admiringly up 
 at his cousin, who was his heroine. 
 
 "Never mind, Richie; we'll make up for it 
 when we get home, " she said caressingly, for the 
 boy's affection for her was one of the pleasant 
 things of her life. "I have all these people on 
 my hands now. They are my guests, you see, 
 after a fashion, and I have to look out for them 
 all. I don't know what I should have done 
 without you, though," she added, swerving until 
 she was close at his side, and linking her arm 
 within his. 
 
 It was an old trick of theirs, and they rode on 
 together for a mile or more. Then the track 
 narrowed, and Richie dropped behind. 
 
 "Bah!" Dorothy said suddenly. "Here comes 
 a man, Richie, and he has the right of way. 
 Why couldn't the track be on the other side?" 
 
 "Make him do the turning," Richie sug- 
 gested. 
 
 "That's not my habit," she said proudly, as 
 she turned out to let him pass. The man was 
 young and susceptible, and Dorothy looked uu-
 
 128 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 usually bright and attractive. Accordingly, he 
 yielded his right to the track and also veered to 
 the left. 
 
 Dorothy's color came. This tacit assumption 
 of masculine superiority nettled her. It seemed 
 to her as much as to say that the man considered 
 her incompetent to turn. A second time, she 
 turned to the right, this time passing tbe middle 
 of the road in her effort to get by the irritat- 
 ingly courteous stranger. At the same instant, 
 he too turned to avoid her. There came a crash, 
 and Dorothy and the stranger lay side by side in 
 the road. 
 
 She was stunned and shaken by her fall, and 
 it was a moment before she attempted to rise. 
 Then she became conscious of Mr. Rand's face 
 bending over her. 
 
 "Are you hurt?" he asked anxiously. 
 
 "Not a bit. I only hope I didn't kill the 
 man," she answered, laughing a little hyster- 
 ically. 
 
 "He ought to be hurt, for running you 
 down," Rand said vengefully, as he helped her 
 to her feet and lifted her wheel. 
 
 "He didn't. I suspect I ran him down," she 
 returned. "Is my wheel broken?" 
 
 "Only a twist to the bar. I can straighten 
 that easily enough."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 129 
 
 But Dorothy had turned to the stranger and 
 was holding out her hand, with a charming air 
 of good-fellowship. 
 
 "You're not hurt, nor your wheel broken? I 
 am so glad. I am very penitent for having run 
 into you; but raally, you know, you shouldn't 
 yield your right of way to a woman, it makes 
 her feel so inferior." 
 
 The man rode away, and the others sur- 
 rounded Dorothy, talking, questioning, pitying, 
 laughing. As they mounted once more, Band 
 deserted Helen and took his place at Dorothy's 
 side. Under its tan, his face had lost a little of 
 its color. 
 
 "How did you do it?" he asked. 
 
 "What? Bun into him?" Dorothy laughed 
 at the recollection. "Wasn't he astonished?" 
 
 "But how did it happen?" 
 
 "He was trying to turn out for me, when it 
 was my place to turn out for him. Do you 
 think I was going to stand that?" 
 
 "I think you are a very reckless young 
 woman," he said brusquely. 
 
 "But I wasn't going to let him treat me like 
 an inferior being," she expostulated. "If I 
 ride, I expect to be accepted on equal terms with 
 other riders." 
 
 "You don't expect anything of the kind," he
 
 130 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 retorted. He was frightened at the risk she had 
 run and irritated at her coolness, so his voice and 
 manner were more masterful than he realized. 
 
 Dorothy turned on him an amused glance. 
 
 "Truly, Mr. Hand, I don't see that you need 
 feel called upon to lecture me," she returned, 
 without a trace of ill-nature. 
 
 "Perhaps not; but I don't intend to see you 
 run the risk of being killed, just on account of 
 your headstrong desire to have your own way." 
 
 This time, Dorothy lost her temper. She 
 looked up at him with arched eyebrows and 
 curling lips. 
 
 "Mr. Band," she said quietly; "I wish you 
 would tell me what right you have to speak to 
 me in this tone." 
 
 Recalled to himself, he saw that he had made 
 a mistake. Man-like, in his embarrassment, he 
 blundered still more. 
 
 "I haven't any right," he said glumly. "You 
 needn't have reminded me of that, Miss Alden. 
 I only took advantage of the privilege we all 
 have, that of trying to prevent our friends from 
 breaking their necks." 
 
 "Did it ever occur to you," she asked tartly; 
 "that I learned to ride, and had ridden several 
 miles before we ever met?" 
 
 "That's no reason you should be childish," he
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 131 
 
 answered. "You ran a great risk, just now, and 
 men have been killed in that "way, often enough. 
 If Roy hasn't the sense to warn you, I have." 
 
 She turned and deliberately surveyed the man 
 beside her Her face was flushed, and her eyes 
 sparkled angrily. 
 
 "I am grateful for your good opinion, Mr. 
 Rand," she said, with cutting emphasis. "Some 
 day, I may be grateful for your good advice. In 
 the meantime, if you will excuse me, I think I 
 will ride with my cousin. Richie!" 
 
 "Hullo!" And Richie was at her side. 
 
 "Shall we finish our ride together?" she 
 asked. "Excuse us, Mr. Rand." And they left 
 him to go back to Helen's side. 
 
 There chanced to be a piano in the hotel, that 
 night, and Roy promptly demanded music. The 
 others eagerly joined in the request, all but 
 Dorothy and Billy. In the intervals of his play- 
 ing, Rand could hear their light talk and laugh- 
 ter, as they paced the piazza outside. His music 
 was almost painful in its intensity ; but it was in 
 vain. The one of them all to whom it was ad- 
 dressed, was deaf to his wordless apology or, 
 hearing it, chose to disregard it. At last, he 
 dropped into Fair Harvard; but at the third 
 line, he paused, then rose abruptly and left the 
 piano.
 
 132 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "And you know, Billy," Dorothy had said 
 with incautious emphasis, just as she passed the 
 open window; "the man actually had the impu- 
 dence to tell me I was childish." 
 
 Late that evening, he met Dorothy in the hall. 
 She would have passed him, but he detained her. 
 
 "I was a beast, Miss Alden," he said peni- 
 tently; "but aren't you going to forgive me?" 
 
 She raised her brows. 
 
 "What for?" she inquired blandly. 
 
 He was no match for her woman's wiles. 
 
 "For for why, for telling you what I 
 thought," he answered rather tactlessly. 
 
 "Oh, you mean for scolding me, on the road?" 
 
 He nodded silently. 
 
 "I'd like to be friends again," he added. 
 
 "Dear me!" Dorothy's tone was perfect in its 
 courtesy, yet so cold that he felt like shivering. 
 "I don't know why you should go back to a lit- 
 tle thing like that. I haven't given it another 
 thought." 
 
 Rand shrivelled. He felt infinitely small be- 
 side this self-possessed young woman. His 
 pleasant brown eyes grew troubled, and his lips, 
 under his mustache, twitched a little. 
 
 "I'm sorry," he said after a pause. "Good- 
 night." 
 
 "Good-night," she echoed, and she ran lightly
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 133 
 
 up 5 the stairs. On the landing, she paused and 
 bent over the banisters. "Oh, Mr. Rand," she 
 called back; "it's too bad; but Mr. Merricksays 
 I promised to ride with him, to-morrow. I had 
 forgotten all about it ; but of course I must keep 
 my engagement. Good-night."
 
 134 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 xn. 
 
 FOB the next few days, Dorothy sent Mr. Band 
 to Coventry. To be sure, the road was smoothed 
 with all the tact of which she was mistress ; but 
 still it was an uncomfortable experience. "When 
 they were thrown together, her courtesy was 
 faultless; at other times, she disregarded him 
 entirely, and Band was forced to admit that he 
 preferred her disregard to her courtesy. Her 
 manner now was icily punctilious, without any 
 of the pleasant frankness with which, of late, she 
 had been accustomed to meet him. He had re- 
 buked her as he would have done a naughty 
 child; she had received the rebuke with the 
 resentment of a haughty woman. 
 
 ""What's the row between you and Dolly, old 
 man?" Koy asked, when they were in their 
 room, the second night. "You are all out of the 
 running, and the doctor is making his record 
 now." 
 
 Band threw himself down on the bed and 
 glared up at his friend.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 135 
 
 "Only another instance of masculine tact. I 
 said the wrong thing to her, trampled on her, in 
 fact, and naturally she didn't like it." 
 
 "Anything serious?" Eoy asked, looking up 
 from the shoe he was unlacing. 
 
 "No yes at least, I undertook to give her 
 some advice, and she didn't accept it gratefully." 
 
 "Did you ever see the woman who did?" 
 
 "No; I don't know that I ever did." 
 
 "Well then, don't expect perfection of Dolly. 
 
 "She's a hot-tempered little mortal, and you 
 probably tried to lord it over her. Now let her 
 alone, and she'll come round." 
 
 "Unless the doctor gets in ahead," Band sug- 
 gested grimly. 
 
 Eoy whistled thoughtfully. 
 
 "He may. He's a rival you can't afford to 
 despise, and I suspect Aunt Evelyn would back 
 him up." 
 
 Band sat up abruptly. 
 
 "You do?" 
 
 "Mind you, I don't know anything about it. 
 I don't even know that he has any such idea in 
 his noddle. He's a good fellow, though, and a 
 presentable one, handsome and with a general 
 notion of how to put on his clothes." 
 
 "I suppose that counts for a good deal with a 
 girl like Miss Alden," Band said disconsolately.
 
 136 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "With any girl, for the matter of that. It's 
 no use denying that he is a likable sort of fellow; 
 but I don't think he'll cut any more ice with 
 Dolly than you do." 
 
 "I hope not; but I don't quite see what to do 
 next." 
 
 "Do nothing," Roy advised him. Let her 
 alone and wait till your turn comes. A little 
 neglect, now and then, is good for a girl. Try 
 it and see." 
 
 Their promised month of wandering had drawn 
 to a close and August had come. The goldenrod 
 was fringing the roadsides, and their noontide 
 rest was taken in time to the whirr of the locust, 
 the hottest of all the sounds of the summer. For 
 the most part, however, the weather had been in 
 their favor. Few storms and little intense heat 
 had come to them ; and the days had been rare 
 when they had been unable to make their regular 
 run. Their way had led them through busy 
 towns and over quiet country roads, roads where 
 they had stopped to pick berries by the wayside, 
 or huddled together to avoid a passing drove of 
 cows. They had ridden in the valleys along the 
 edge of placid rivers ; they had followed the crest 
 of the hills, toiling up one side for the sake of 
 coasting down on the other. Back and forth, 
 they had gone zigzagging through the heart of
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 13? 
 
 lovely New England, coming in touch with the 
 simple life about them at many a point. Not 
 one of them, from quiet Helen to irrepressible 
 Billy, but was broadened and elevated by the 
 month of wandering hand in hand with Mother 
 Nature. 
 
 It was more than a week, now, since they had 
 reluctantly turned their faces homeward. Once 
 they had turned them about, their consciences 
 were appeased, and they fell to loitering along 
 the road like children returning to school. 
 Helen's family at Newport were clamoring for 
 her coming, and Mrs. Merrick wrote resignedly 
 of her houseful of guests and her futile efforts to 
 entertain them, in the absence of the young peo- 
 ple who obstinately refused to be hurried home. 
 
 "Let 'em keep," Billy said, with unfilial lack 
 of interest in his duties as host. "They can 
 wait, or come again. We sha'n't get off again 
 in a hurry, and I mean to make the most of it." 
 
 "Trump up some excuse, unavoidable delay, 
 or something of that kind," Mr. Band suggested 
 lazily. 
 
 "I never lie," Billy clasped his hands at the 
 back of his head. "I'll tell you what, Band, if 
 you'll get yourself smashed up, so we have to 
 wait for you to recover, I'll foot all your doctor's 
 bills."
 
 J38 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Go on, Rand," the doctor added unexpect- 
 edly. "That is the most lucid idea Merrick has 
 ever had." 
 
 "Don't, Billy," his sister protested. "It is 
 too much within the limits of possibility for jok- 
 ing." 
 
 Eand rose and lifted his cap. 
 
 "Thank you," he said quickly. "I am grate- 
 ful for your unconscious tribute to my riding." 
 
 They had been storm-bound, all that day; but 
 it cleared at night, and thoy had gathered on the 
 piazza to watch the sunset and to discuss the 
 possibility of its being dry enough for an early 
 start in the morning. Suddenly Richie broke in 
 upon the conversation. 
 
 "Look here, you fellows, what's the matter 
 with having a piazza dance? Here comes an 
 orchestra." He pointed to a dejected Italian 
 dragging a street piano along the road. 
 
 In an instant, Roy was over the rail and at the 
 man's side. There was an interchange of some 
 loose silver, much lively gesticulation, and then 
 Roy drew his prize to the rail. 
 
 "It plays two hymns, a waltz and a wedding 
 march," he said. "Shall we make the dago 
 grind?" 
 
 "Go ahead." And Billy seized his sister and 
 pranced away, without waiting for the dolorous
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 139 
 
 strains which the man proceeded to evoke. 
 "Hurry up, old man! Vite! Too muchee slow ! 
 Allegretto! Confound it, can't you grind 
 faster?" 
 
 The man smiled and continued his dirge. 
 
 "Oh, say, this is awful!" Roy groaned. "Show 
 him how, Phil. You're the musician." 
 
 Band laughed. He was dancing with Helen 
 whose tall, lithe figure was able to triumph over 
 even the awkwardness of waltzing in a short 
 skirt. 
 
 "Keally, you flatter me," he said. "I can't 
 be expected to compete with a professional, you 
 know." 
 
 Dorothy turned to the doctor who stood beside 
 her, waiting for a more inspiring strain. 
 
 "Let's try it, Dr. Van Gruder," she said. 
 "I've always wanted to play, and I think even I 
 could manage to turn a crank." 
 
 "Come back, Dolly," Billy wailed. "I was 
 just thinking that perhaps I'd ask you to 
 dance, by and by." 
 
 "Too late," she called over her shoulder. 
 "We are going to make music for you." And, 
 followed by the doctor, she ran lightly down the 
 steps. 
 
 They took turns in playing, grinding now 
 fast, now slow, and performing a series of experi-
 
 140 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 mental symphonies until the owner of the piano 
 was half wild with anxiety for the fate of his 
 treasure. Mrs. Perry, from her seat by the rail, 
 watched them with pleasure, and told herself 
 that her dearest wish was about to be fulfilled. 
 
 Afterwards, when the Italian was dismissed and 
 the group, breaking into couples, tramped up 
 and down the broad piazza which forms the one 
 comfortable spot in most country hotels, she still 
 kept her eye upon them, and she answered 
 Band's efforts at conversation in a distrait and 
 incoherent fashion. 
 
 Philip Band rode with Mrs. Perry, the next 
 day, and Dorothy brought up the rear with Dr. 
 Van Gruder. There was something in his char- 
 acter which always made the girl appear at her 
 best when she was with him. She was gentler, 
 more serious, and yet she always met him with the 
 same bright frankness she showed to Roy and to 
 Richie. From the first day of their trip until 
 the present hour, she had found him always the 
 same kindly friend and the pleasant companion, 
 and there was never a dearth of subjects for con- 
 versation between them. 
 
 Three or four miles out of town, the road 
 dipped down into the valley and ran along beside 
 the track of a trolley line near the water's edge. 
 Here the mud was deeper, no sandy soil, but a
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 141 
 
 thin, watery clay, treacherous as quicksand. 
 They rode slowly, guarding against any possible 
 slip, and already the leaders were rising from 
 the valley to the firmer ground beyond, when 
 Dr. Van Gruder saw his companion's wheel give 
 the sudden sidewise lurch which is the inevitable 
 forerunner of a bad fall. He sprang to catch 
 her, but it was too late. She righted herself; 
 but, in doing it, she turned her bicycle sharply 
 to one side, the rear wheel caught in the nearer 
 rail and she was thrown violently down upon the 
 stones of the track. 
 
 With a sharp cry which startled them all, the 
 doctor sprang from his wheel and rushed to her 
 side. Stunned by the fall, she lay for a moment 
 with her eyes half closed. Then she started to 
 rise. As she tried to raise herself on her left 
 hand, she cried out with pain, her head dropped 
 back against the doctor's knee and Dorothy 
 Alden fainted away. 
 
 When she came to herself, she was lying on a 
 couch improvised from the coats of the men, and 
 Dr. Van Gruder was on one knee beside her. 
 She raised her eyes dully, smiled up at him and 
 tried to speak. 
 
 "Wait till you are a little stronger," he said 
 kindly, "You're better; but don't try to talk 
 yet."
 
 142 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 She turned her head and saw the others stand- 
 ing anxiously beside her. Quite in the back- 
 ground, Philip Rand was nervously biting his 
 mustache. 
 
 "I've had a fall which eclipses you all in 
 glory," she said faintly; "and the fate has over- 
 taken me that Billy was invoking on Mr. Band. 
 I think my wrist is hurt." 
 
 Her voice was weak, but she spoke with a trace 
 of her old spirit. The doctor admired her pluck, 
 as he bent down and raised her left hand. There 
 was something reassuring in his steady touch, 
 and she bore the swift examination without an 
 outcry to show the twinges of pain. 
 
 "It's a sprain," he said then. "It's not a bad 
 one, Miss Alden ; but it may lay you for up a 
 few days. ' ' 
 
 She made a grimace of disgust. 
 
 "And I can't ride? What will you do?" 
 
 "Resign ourselves to the inevitable, and wait 
 till you can go on," said Billy consolingly. "I 
 must say, Dolly, you've good grit." 
 
 "'Tisn't so bad. I was a goose to faint," she 
 said, as she sat up and tried to arrange her hair, 
 loosened by her fall. She spoke bravely, but her 
 lips were white. 
 
 The doctor watched her anxiously, as he still 
 bent over her, bandaging her slender wrist.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 143 
 
 "Band," he said briefly, without raising his 
 eyes; "we can't be over three miles from town. 
 I wish you'd ride back and tell the people to get 
 a room ready. Roy, you scour the country for 
 somebody to drive Mrs. Perry and Miss Alden 
 in. You and Merrick can lead their wheels, and 
 I'll ride near them, to look out for her on the 
 road." 
 
 "Really, Dr. Van Gruder, it's not necessary to 
 make so much trouble," she protested. "I am 
 better already." 
 
 He smiled down at her, and she was at a loss 
 to interpret the look in his brown eyes. 
 
 "I am going to watch you for a day or two, 
 and make you mind me, " he said gently. "If 
 3'ou are quiet for a little while, you'll gain time 
 in the end. When we get in town, if you like, 
 you can send for another doctor. ' ' 
 
 She looked up at him with a slight expression 
 of reproach. 
 
 "Do you think 1 don't trust you?" she asked. 
 
 Abruptly Philip Band turned away and 
 mounted his wheel.
 
 144 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 xm. 
 
 IT was rather a pale and worn-looking Dorothy 
 who sat on the piazza, the next noon, receiving 
 the congratulations of her friends upon her reap- 
 pearance among them. On her arriving at the 
 hotel, the day before, the doctor had promptly 
 ordered her to bed, to rest from the shock of her 
 fall, and she had remained in her room till late, 
 the next morning. Her wrist was still painful 
 and she had slept but little, so, although the 
 doctor had pronounced the sprain a slight one, 
 she had a look of semi-invalidism quite different 
 from her usual bright self. 
 
 Towards noon, her aunt had helped her to 
 dress, and the doctor had come to look at her 
 wrist. Then, leaning on his arm and feeling 
 curiously weak about the knees, she had gone 
 out to the sunny piazza. Dr. Van Gruder set- 
 tled her as comfortably as he could, then he went 
 away in pursuit of a drug store where he could 
 have some liniment concocted for her use. Ten 
 minutes after he had gone, Philip Band stepped 
 out on the piazza.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 145 
 
 Half hidden in the depth of her great ohair, 
 Dorothy called to him. 
 
 "Mr. Band." 
 
 He started ; then he came to her side. 
 
 "Are you better?" he asked anxiously. 
 
 "Oh, yes; it wasn't much, and the doctor is 
 so good. But I want to thank you for coming to 
 our relief, yesterday. I heard the doctor order 
 you off, and I was too faint to rebel, or to thank 
 you when we were here. You were so quick in 
 sending out the carriage, and it was much more 
 comfortable than any Boy could have found in 
 the neighborhood." 
 
 He had taken her hand, and he stood looking 
 down at her with the pity a mastiff might have 
 felt for an injured kitten. He felt very big and 
 awkward beside her, and her frank cordiality, 
 while it assured him that her displeasure was 
 withdrawn, yet left him dumb. 
 
 "Sit down and talk to me," she said, with a 
 little inviting gesture toward the chair at her 
 side. "That is, unless you have something bet- 
 ter to do. Where are the others?" 
 
 Band took the proffered seat. 
 
 "They went off to survey the town, after Dr. 
 Van Gruder had solemnly assured them that you 
 would be invisible till night." 
 
 "The sinner! But I'm glad they have gone.
 
 146 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 I don't want to be a drag on you, even for these 
 few days. Why aren't you with them?" 
 
 He flushed at her direct question. Then he 
 answered it no less directly. 
 
 "Because I preferred to hang around here, on 
 the chance of your appearing sooner. I had 
 given you up, though, and was going off in sheer 
 disgust." 
 
 "And I stopped you? It was too bad of me; 
 but lam rather glad you didn't go. I was tired 
 of being left to myself." 
 
 He slid down in his chair and arranged his 
 long legs in a comfortable knot, as if he had sud- 
 denly resolved upon a longer stay than he had at 
 first intended. 
 
 "And the wrist?" he asked. 
 
 "It is better." 
 
 "Does it hurt you much?" he asked pitifully, 
 looking at it as it lay in her lap. 
 
 "Hardly any, and I think it's not going to 
 last. My only worry is about my riding again. 
 I don't want to keep you here in this stupid 
 place." 
 
 "The people in the office say there are any 
 number of pretty rides about here, and they can 
 spend a week in exploring them, as well as not." 
 
 At his use of the word they, Dorothy looked 
 up inquiringly.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL, 147 
 
 "And what about you?" 
 
 "Me?" He blushed. "It's an honest fact, 
 Miss Alden, I am getting tired of riding and am 
 glad to take the chance to lie off for a few days." 
 
 As usual, he had made a false step. Dorothy 
 looked up at him a little in displeasure. 
 
 "Tired of our party? Really, Mr. Band, you 
 are frank, at least. I am sorry it has been such 
 a bore. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, confound it!" he blurted out desper- 
 ately. "I always say the wrong thing to you, 
 Miss Alden. I didn't mean that, at all; but I 
 was afraid you wouldn't like it, if I said point 
 blank that I'd rather stay here and talk to you 
 than ride with the others." 
 
 Dorothy was mollified at his words. Her eyes 
 lighted mischievously; but she said, with per- 
 fect gravity, 
 
 "Yes, I should have been displeased at any 
 such statement. It savors of either bad taste or 
 flattery, and I don't like either of them. We'll 
 consider it left unsaid, and change the subject." 
 
 For an instant, as he met her sidelong glance, 
 he longed to catch the little hand on the arm of 
 the chair beside him and, holding it close, press 
 it to his lips. It was so good to be restored to 
 favor again, and her mood was so gentle and 
 winning that he felt a sort of intoxication in the
 
 148 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A -WHEEL. 
 
 moment. Dorothy, however, was too practical, 
 too far removed from sentiment to look with 
 Tavor upon any such demonstration. She was 
 simply meeting him as she might have met scores 
 of other men; there -was nothing to show her 
 preference for his society. 
 
 "Dr. Van Gruder says, if I am careful, I can 
 ride again in a few days," she was saying. 
 
 "You don't need to use your left hand at all; 
 do you?" he inquired, with the assumption of a 
 most unromantic interest in details. 
 
 "I'm not sure. Of course I ride with one 
 hand, more or less ; but it is a question whether 
 I can keep it up." 
 
 "Let me teach 3*ou," he said eagerly. 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "Just by riding with you for an hour or two, 
 and giving an occasional touch to steady your 
 bar. You will find it much easier than you 
 think." 
 
 "Thank you," she said. "I shall be ever so 
 grateful; and if we can do that, perhaps Dr. Van 
 Gruder will let me try it soon." 
 
 There was something infinitely cosy in the 
 tone in which she said we. Philip loaned for- 
 ward in his chair and watched her face. Already 
 she looked brighter than when she had first come 
 out to the piazza.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 149 
 
 "You're very good to stay here with me," she 
 said suddenly. "I was horribly cross when you 
 found me. I never was ill for a whole day in my 
 life before, and I find I don't enjoy it; but you 
 are slowly talking me out of my bad temper." 
 
 Their eyes met, his intently, hers merrily. 
 There was a prolonged silence; then Dorothy 
 said abruptly, 
 
 "I wish you'd tell me more about your little 
 romance, Mr. Kand. " 
 
 He colored to the roots of his hair, for his 
 thoughts just then were fixed upon his romance 
 of that very hour of which, as yet, he dared not 
 tell her. 
 
 "What one?" he asked. 
 
 "How fickle you are ! I mean the one you told 
 us about, the night we met, the girl who rescued 
 you from her horse's hoofs." 
 
 "I had actually forgotten it." 
 
 "Poor little girl!" Dorothy's tone was whim- 
 sically pitiful. 
 
 "Oh, no; that's not fair. She was very good 
 to me, and I remember lying awake over her, 
 half the night. It is only that later events have 
 been more potent, as far as my memory is con- 
 cerned. " 
 
 "Thank you. That's very nice of you, Mr. 
 Band, for you had a perfect recollection of her
 
 150 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 when you started on this expedition. What was 
 she like?" 
 
 Eand closed his eyes thoughtfully. He ap- 
 peared to be ransacking the corners of his mem- 
 ory. 
 
 "She was small, smaller even than you, and 
 she had big eyes, blue, I think, and a lot of 
 fluffy yellow hair." 
 
 Dorothy leaned back and surveyed him quiz- 
 zically through half-closed lids. 
 
 "Yellow?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes, I'm sure it was yellow." 
 
 "And her eyes were blue?" 
 
 "Yes. Why?" 
 
 "Oh, nothing; only I had a sort of precon- 
 ceived notion that she was dark. Don't you ever 
 get such ideas about people, how they look and 
 all that, before you have ever seen them?" 
 
 "Why, I don't know that I do," he said 
 thoughtfully. "I suppose that is the difference 
 between a man and a woman." 
 
 "Perhaps. But tell me more about her. lam 
 interested in this heroine of yours," 
 
 "I don't recall much. Please remember that I 
 had just had rather a narrow escape, and that her 
 horse had done his best to make a wreck of my 
 nose. In my callow youth, I was much more 
 absorbed in wondering whether my eye was put
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 151 
 
 out than I was in studying the charms of my 
 preserver." 
 
 "Poor boy!" Dorothy said suddenly. "I 
 don't know that I wonder at his being hazy as to 
 the color of her eyes. " 
 
 "I do remember oue thing," he went on, 
 laughing at the recollection; "that she drove re- 
 markably well for so young a girl, and that I was 
 rather frightened at the way she rattled me over 
 the ground, going home. I was ashamed to tell 
 her; but my heart stood still, every time we 
 whisked round a corner, and I felt that sudden 
 death lurked in every gutter." 
 
 "She probably had no notion of the fact," 
 Dorothy said merrily. "It is to be hoped you 
 hadn't a long way to go." 
 
 He sighed sentimentally. 
 
 "Long in miles, but all too short in time. 
 She treated me like an angel, and I'm not so 
 sure, now I look back, that she didn't rather 
 enjoy the situation. I know I felt the romance 
 of it to a wonderful extent, and in all my letters 
 for a month, I alluded to her as The Unknown, 
 always in large capitals." 
 
 Dorothy leaned back in her chair and laughed 
 immoderately. She seemed to derive a peculiar 
 amusement from the situation. 
 
 "And then?" she asked.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "She drove up to the door of my hotel with a 
 vast flourish, and I scrambled out of the carriage. 
 I confess I was so embarrassed that I caught my 
 toes in the robe and sprawled horribly. Then 
 she drove away to her own hotel, and I saw her 
 no 'more. For a week, my nose was a mass of 
 plaster, and I was not a sight for the eyes of my 
 brother man. Then I started out to see if I 
 could get any trace of her; but I could never 
 find out so much as her name." 
 
 "You'll probably meet her again, some day," 
 Dorothy suggested. 
 
 "Probably. I wonder if we shall recognize 
 each other." 
 
 "I am afraid your data are rather meagre to 
 lead to a recognition," she said. "Let me see: 
 blue eyes, golden hair and good driving on the 
 one hand ; on the other, a broken nose. All in 
 all, I think she will have the advantage. She 
 will know you; you'll not know her, unless you 
 have psychic thrills, or something of that kind." 
 
 "I'm afraid I'm not given to that sort of 
 thing," he returned regretfully. "I've always 
 wanted to meet her again, I confess, for I have 
 an idea that I was rather a cubby youth, and 
 didn't half thank her. Really, you see, she 
 was very good to pick me up and carry me 
 home."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 153 
 
 "I don't really see how she could have done 
 much less, '' Dorothy said thoughtfully. "Vir- 
 tue was doubtless its own reward, and she prob- 
 ably felt your gratitude by intuition." 
 
 "Maybe," he said ; "but still, I shall never be 
 quite content until I have seen her again." 
 
 "And yet you just said you had forgotten 
 her," she returned teasingiy. 
 
 "That was merely superficial. From time to 
 time, I forget all about it; but there is always a 
 lurking consciousness that I was once very much 
 indebted to a stranger, and that I hope some day 
 we may meet again." 
 
 He had risen, and stood leaning against a pil- 
 lar in front of her. Dorothy rested her head 
 against the back of her chair and looked up at 
 him steadily. He looked happier than he had 
 done for several days before, whether at the past 
 memory or because of the present hour, she was 
 at a loss to tell. 
 
 "That's very laudable of you, Mr. Rand," she 
 said. "I am glad to see you so loyal to those 
 who have befriended you. You've no idea how 
 interested I have been in your story. It has 
 passed the time wonderfully, for here come the 
 others. And now I want you to promise me 
 something." 
 
 "What is that?" he asked quickly.
 
 154 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "That I may know the end of the story, if it 
 ever does end." 
 
 "How do you mean?" 
 
 "If you ever do meet her, I want you to prom- 
 ise you'll let me know about it, and how you 
 came to recognize each other, after all this time. " 
 
 Suddenly his face lighted. 
 
 "Is that a permission for me to write to you, 
 then?" 
 
 She smiled at him frankly. 
 
 "Yes; that is, if 3'ou ever do meet her. You 
 may never do it; and yet I have an idea that you 
 will, some day. It is too incomplete, without 
 the finale. If you ever do meet, remember that 
 you have promised to tell me at once." 
 
 "Very well," he answered, as Billy Merriclc 
 came leaping up the steps. "I will."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 155 
 
 XIV. 
 
 No one but Dorothy herself appeared to repine 
 at the delay which she had caused, and the next 
 few days passed rapidly. Fate had been good 
 to them in choosing to delay them in a pleasant 
 place with many delightful rides in the neigh- 
 borhood, and the young people spent the morn- 
 ings in exploring them, coming back to enliven 
 the dinner table with merry tales of adventure. 
 They wandered through highroads and byroads, 
 discussed the crops with elderly farmers and in- 
 vaded country kitchens, on the childish plea of 
 a drink, lured thither by the enticing odors of 
 frying nutcakes or baking pies. They even oc- 
 cupied one of the front pews at a rustic wedding, 
 leaving their bicycles stacked outside, to the 
 manifest wonder of the bride when she drove up 
 in the family carryall. 
 
 Billy and Helen were usually together on these 
 rides. They had always been the best of friends, 
 and of late, now that Dorothy was at home and 
 absorbed by Dr. Van Gruder, Billy had fallen
 
 156 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-\VHEEL. 
 
 into the habit of betaking himself to Helen for 
 consolation. His heart was not seriously in- 
 jured. The friendship between Dorothy and 
 himself had been on a most unsentimental basis, 
 and there had been no break in their old rela- 
 tions. It was only that the young man was 
 slowly realizing that he was no longer the first; 
 and, like the philosophical youth he was, he 
 turned his jovial attentions in another direction 
 where they would be more sure of appreciation. 
 
 It was after one of these morning rides that 
 Roy and Edith, who had been the last to appear 
 at the dinner table, had the air of feasting upon 
 heavenly manna and beatified pastry, rather 
 than the normal food of hungry mortals. As 
 soon as Dorothy had gone to her room, Edith 
 had burst in upon her, without the customary 
 formality of knocking. 
 
 "Oh, Dolly, I'm so happy!" And she cast 
 herself upon her friend's neck. 
 
 Dorothy felt her cheek wet with tears, and she 
 patted her shoulder consolingly. She was some- 
 what astonished at the outburst and at a loss to 
 explain the situation, so she took refuge in sym- 
 pathetic silence. 
 
 "So perfectly happy!" Edith reiterated chok- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Are you, dear? I'm so glad." Dorothy
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 157 
 
 knitted her brows above the bent head of her 
 friend. She knew that it was unlike Edith to be 
 hysterical, yet the true state of the case never 
 once dawned upon her. 
 
 "Happier than I ever expected to be, or than I 
 ever deserved to be!" Edith proclaimed, in an 
 emotional crescendo. 
 
 It occurred to Dorothy that the conversation 
 was not making any marked progress. She was 
 too much afraid of saying the wrong thing, how- 
 ever, to venture a question, so she only re- 
 marked, 
 
 "There, there, dear!" And she rubbed her 
 cheek against that of Edith. 
 
 "He's so good, so glorious!" Edith sobbed 
 explosively. 
 
 Dorothy's lower jaw dropped. She began to 
 fear for her friend's sanity. 
 
 "Who?" she asked feebly. 
 
 Edith raised her head and stared at her. 
 
 "Why, Boy, of course. Did you ever doubt it 
 for one single minute?" she said indignantly. 
 
 Then Dorothy understood. 
 
 "I am so glad, dear," she said. "Tell me all 
 about it." 
 
 Side by side, the two girls dropped down on 
 the edge of the bed. 
 
 "It was to-day," Edith said, as she wiped her
 
 158 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 eyes. "Don't think I'm a goose, Dolly; but I 
 was so surprised, and I'm so happy." 
 
 "You said that before, Edith." And Dorothy 
 atoned for her teasing with a kiss. 
 
 "Yes, I know I did; but I am," she said a lit- 
 tle incoherently. "You see, I've alwaj'S liked 
 Roy better than anybody else, better than the 
 whole world put together, but I never supposed 
 he cared for me. To-day I found out that he 
 does." 
 
 "Yes, dear. So you and Roy are really en- 
 gaged, and we shall be sisters." 
 
 "N no," Edith said doubtfully. "It isn't 
 exactly engaged, for we are so young and he isn't 
 through studying. But we love each other, you 
 know, so we can wait, and we are going to write 
 home about it, to-day. He was so splendid, and 
 he's going to write to papa, and all. Oh, Dolly, 
 you don't half know how good he is. Nobody 
 does." 
 
 "But just you, " Dorothy supplemented. "I'm 
 so glad, Edith, and I know you both are going 
 to be so happy." 
 
 "I had to tell you, Dorothy, before anybody 
 else, " Edith said tearfully. "I thought you'd 
 understand, more than the others." 
 
 "Me?" Dorothy gave a short laugh of utter 
 surprise. "I really don't know much about it
 
 LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 159 
 
 from my own experience, Edith; but I am very 
 fond of Roy and you too. Eoy is just like my 
 op-n brother, and you and I have always been 
 such intimate friends." 
 
 The next morning at breakfast, Dr. Van Gru- 
 der suggested an all-day picnic at a little lake, 
 ten miles distant. For the past week, on one 
 pretext or another, he had hardly left the hotel. 
 Business letters which imperatively demanded to 
 be written, slight repairs needed on his wheel 
 and even that purely feminine excuse, a sudden 
 headache, had conspired to keep him from join- 
 ing the others on their morning rides. Once 
 they were out of sight, however, he usually ap- 
 peared to Dorothy and they spent long mornings 
 together, idly talking, walking or reading aloud. 
 He had such an off-hand way of placing himself 
 at her service, that she rarely realized it, during 
 the time that they were together. At night, 
 however, when she was in her own room, she 
 usually looked back upon the day with a feeling 
 of gratitude to the man who was giving up his 
 time to her entertainment. Less openly, but no 
 less thoughtfully, Eand was watching her, in 
 these days. He usually rode with the others in 
 the mornings, because he could think of no valid 
 excuse for abandoning them ; but, for the rest of 
 the day, he was near Dorothy's side, quick to see
 
 160 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 her wishes and to carry them out with a quiet 
 and a lack of self-assertion which was inexpres- 
 sibly pleasant to her. He assumed nothing; he 
 only asked the right to give her a little occa- 
 sional help, for the most part of so slight a 
 nature that it escaped the notice of the others, 
 although it assured the girl of his steady, 
 kindly watchfulness. 
 
 "Now do listen to my plan," Dr. Van Grucler 
 said, for the fourth time breaking in upon tho 
 tide of conversation. "Miss Aldeu muut be very 
 tired of staying here, and it will be two or three 
 days yet before she can ride again. They say 
 that Sunset Lake is a beautiful place with fine 
 boating. I've bespoken a carriage and some 
 lunch. What do you say to riding over there 
 for the day, and having me drive out with Miss 
 Alden?" 
 
 Dorothy flushed scarlet, as she met Philip 
 Rand's appealing eyos. Then she turned to the 
 doctor. 
 
 "You're all so good to me," she said impul- 
 sively. "Thank you so much for my share in 
 the invitation." 
 
 An hour later, they were on the road. The 
 others had gone on out of sight, for Dr. Van 
 Cruder was letting the horse take his own time. 
 
 "It is too pleasant a day to hurry," Dorothy
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 161 
 
 had said, as he took up the -whip. "Let him 
 walk a little, Dr. Van Gruder. It is almost our 
 last chance to loiter. As soon as I can ride 
 again, we must hurry home, for the summer is 
 nearly over." 
 
 "It has been a wonderful summer to me," he 
 said, half to himself. 
 
 "Hasn't it to us all? It has been one of the 
 happiest experiences I've ever known, and I be- 
 lieve all my life will be the better for it." 
 
 She had the dreamy look and tone of a con- 
 tented child. Dr. Van Gruder looked down at 
 her, started to speak, then checked the question 
 termbling on his lips. Something told him it 
 was too soon, that it would be better to wait yet 
 a little longer. 
 
 "It was a blessed inspiration on your part, 
 asking me to join your party," he said lightly. 
 "You have little idea what a rest this has been 
 for a busy professional man. It has done me 
 more good than a dozen trips to Europe." 
 
 "I'm afraid I mustn't take too much credit for 
 it, " Dorothy answered with unexpected candor. 
 "Aunt Evelyn suggested you, in the first place, 
 and I didn't half want you. I was afraid of 
 you." 
 
 "Are you sorry now that I came?" he asked 
 quickly, as the longing look came back into his 
 brown eyes.
 
 162 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 She laughed, as she held up her wrist. 
 
 "What an ideal You know I have come to 
 regard you as by far the most important member 
 of the party. I don't know what I should have 
 done, if you hadn't been with us." 
 
 "Is that the most personal satisfaction you 
 can give me?" he said, trying to meet her eyes. 
 
 She avoided his gaze. 
 
 "It is a personal matter to me, I assure you," 
 she said merrily, as a sudden turn in the road 
 brought them upon Roy and Edith who had 
 lagged far behind the others, and who guiltily 
 swerved far apart at their approach. 
 
 The lake was beautiful, the lunch excellent, 
 and the conversation flew up and down the im- 
 provised table In the general move to the 
 boats which followed the meal, Band turned to 
 Dorothy. 
 
 "Isn't it almost my turn?" he asked appeal- 
 ingly. 
 
 "How do you mean?" she said. 
 
 "May I iake you out rowing? It is so long 
 since we've had a chance to talk." 
 
 "Not even at dinner?" she returned. 
 
 "That counts for nothing, in all that non- 
 sense." 
 
 "I'm so sorry, "she said gently; "but Dr. Van 
 Cruder asked me before."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 163 
 
 He faced her. 
 
 "Are you sorry?" he demanded. 
 
 Her eyes fell before his, but already he 
 repented. 
 
 "Forgive me," he said quickly. "I had no 
 right to ask you such a question." 
 
 They were silent for a moment, as they walked 
 on, side by side. Dorothy felt that it was better 
 to break the pause. 
 
 "When are you going to play to me again?" 
 she asked. "It is ever so long since I have heard 
 you. There is a piano at the hotel, you know." 
 
 "If you care for it, I will play whenever you 
 say," he replied briefly. 
 
 "If I care! I thought you knew me better 
 than that. Will you play, to-night?" 
 
 He nodded; then, raising his cap, he shook 
 back his hair with his old, characteristic gesture. 
 "If you wish." 
 
 "It must be a request programme," she went 
 on; "and it must end with Fair Harvard." 
 
 "Why?" he asked quickly. 
 
 "Because I like it, it has so much in it, when 
 you play it, so much more than I ever dreamed." 
 
 "I wonder if you can interpret it," he said, 
 more to himself than to his companion. 
 
 "Is that a challenge?" she asked, smiling up 
 at his intent face. "I think I can interpret it, 
 at least, a little of it. "
 
 164 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked. 
 
 "Is it this : that to you it stands as the expres- 
 sion of some great longing, you don't know just 
 what; but when you get it, you will be quite 
 satisfied, and then you won't play Fair Harvard 
 any more?" 
 
 He started a little at her words, and watched 
 her fixedly for a moment. Then, 
 
 "Yes," he said slowly; "you have it, but only 
 in part."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 165 
 
 XV. 
 
 THREE days later, they were once more a-wheel, 
 this time upon their homeward journey. Dorothy 
 and Mr. Band had spent the morning of the pre- 
 vious day in riding lazily about the town, and it 
 was with a feeling of perfect professional satis- 
 faction that Dr. Van Gruder pronounced it safe 
 for his patient to resume her journey. Other- 
 wise, he was not so sure of his satisfaction. It 
 was not altogether a pleasure to him to watch 
 Rand's skill in helping Dorothy to guide her 
 wheel over slippery places, nor to see his evident 
 rapture in his task. 
 
 Philip himself was perfectly content, that first 
 day. In her delight at being able to ride once 
 more, Dorothy was in her sweetest, blithest 
 mood, and she accepted his services in a way 
 that sent the blood leaping through his veins. 
 Riding more slowly than the others, they were 
 Jeft to themselves, the greater part of the time, 
 and they talked incessantly, of the roads and of 
 music, of Roy's new happiness which had be- 
 come an open secret in the party, of Dorothy's
 
 166 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 own accident and of Mrs. Perry's haste to be at 
 home in time to meet her husband on his return 
 from his foreign trip. The subjects were as im- 
 personal as could be expected, yet it was one of 
 the days when everything takes on a more or less 
 personal tone, and the mental condition of one 
 or the other of the talkers can give color to a 
 whole conversation. 
 
 Philip played to them, that evening, and his 
 playing was a revelation, even to Eoy. For the 
 once, he did not take off his glasses; but, in- 
 stead, he sat with his head turned slightly, so 
 that from time to time he could watch Dorothy 
 who lay back in a great easy chair beside the 
 piano. 
 
 "Now please play Fair Harvard," she said, as 
 he started to rise. 
 
 He looked at her with a curious intentness. 
 
 "If I do," he said, after a little pause; "it 
 will be for the last time." 
 
 "Why?" She sat up and looked at him in 
 surprise. 
 
 "I have a feeling that my wish is coming to 
 the test soon," he replied, in a voice so low that 
 it was inaudible to everyone but herself. "If 
 it is granted, I shall not need to play it again ; 
 otherwise, I shall not have the heart to try it." 
 
 Her eyes fell before his, and her smile was a 
 little forced.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 167 
 
 "What a gloomy outlook for us!" she said, 
 with an attempt at lightness. "If that is to be 
 the result of your wishing, I hope you will here- 
 after be satisfied with the existing state of affairs. 
 We can't afford to be deprived of your best 
 effort; can we, Dr. Van Gruder?" she added, as 
 the doctor dropped into the chair at her side. 
 
 Her whole face had brightened at his coming, 
 so he felt that he could afford to be magnani- 
 mous to his rival who still sat on the lumpy piano 
 stool, swinging himself to and fro and noise- 
 lessly touching the keys. 
 
 "We've all of us been loud in our praises of 
 your skill, to-day, Rand," he said genially. 
 
 "You don't know anything about it," Dorothy 
 interrupted. "Wait till you are incapacitated, 
 and then send for Mr. Band to help you along. 
 It is really preferable to riding alone ; it removes 
 all personal responsibility and makes you feel 
 perfectly secure in dangerous places." 
 
 "Phil," Boy called to him from across the 
 room; "why don't you go to giving bicycle les- 
 sons at summer resorts? There's money in it, 
 and a chance for fame and newspaper paragraphs, 
 if you go at it in the right way." 
 
 "Hold us up at first, till we can ride alone, 
 and then play to us to teach us the rhythm of 
 motion," Mrs. Perry suggested.
 
 168 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 "Like this?" He swung himself around to 
 the piano and burst into one of the favorite 
 waltzes of the day. 
 
 It was meant only as a momentary bit of 
 mockery, for he resolutely adjured all such types 
 of music, and this stray dance air which had 
 caught his ear was of the most trivial descrip- 
 tion. Too late, he realized his mistake, for Dr. 
 Van Gruder had turned to Dorothy. 
 
 "Are you too tired to give me one turn, Miss 
 Alden?" 
 
 "What does iny medical adviser say?" she re- 
 turned, laughing. 
 
 "He says 'Come. ' " 
 
 "Very well." And she rose. 
 
 Over his shoulder, Philip watched them. 
 Personally, he cared little for dancing; but he 
 was forced to admire Dr. Van Gruder as he swept 
 round the room with little Dorothy on his arm. 
 How well they looked together, and how happy! 
 The doctor's brown face was all aglow as it bent 
 over the girl who was smiling up at him, while 
 she listened to his words. The chords came 
 crashing angrily from under Philip's fingers. 
 Ho\v handsome and alert he was, with his rich 
 complexion and his strong, compact figure! 
 Once more he saw them smiling into each other's 
 eyes, and he turned away, to be confronted with
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 169 
 
 his own face and figure reflected in the mirror 
 hanging beside the piano. He looked at it 
 steadily for a moment, at the tall thin figure and 
 the grave young face; then he cast another 
 glance backward at the doctor, as if making a 
 mental contrast between them. His time /alt- 
 ered, rallied, faltered again and stopped, as he 
 rose from the piano amid the remonstrances of 
 his friends. 
 
 "I'm afraid I can't play any more, Merrick," 
 he said, as Billy caught him by the arm. "I've 
 a beastly headache, to-night, and if you'll excuse 
 me, I think I'll get out where it is cooler." 
 
 As he turned to leave the room, he was met by 
 Dorothy, still leaning on the doctor's arm. 
 
 "I'm so sorry," she said pitifully. "I am 
 afraid you are tired out with holding me up. 
 Cau't I do something for you, or the doctor?" 
 
 "Nothing, thank you. I shall be all right in 
 the morning. " And he left them abruptly and 
 went out to the piazza. 
 
 Eoy joined him there. 
 
 "Come out in the square, old man," he said, 
 coming up to the corner where his friend sat and 
 laying a hand upon his shoulder. "We can talk 
 better there." 
 
 "There's not much to say, " Rand said drearily ; 
 but he rose and followed his friend.
 
 J70 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "I knew what broke you up, Phil," Roy said, 
 when they were out of hearing of the house. 
 "It was enough to make you wild. I can't see 
 what Dolly is up to. It's evident that the doc- 
 tor is off his head, but I can't quite make out 
 about her. She's not a girl to flirt, and I 
 shouldn't suppose he'd be a man she would take 
 to." 
 
 "I'm afraid she does," Eand said bitterly. 
 "Why not? Look at him and look at me, and 
 then wonder which way a girl would choose, if 
 you can. He's a gentleman, and he has some 
 brains; but his looks are enough to carry his 
 point, if he were a dunce and a boor." 
 
 "That's not fair to Dolly," Roy retorted. 
 "She is too much of a girl to be caught by eyes 
 and a complexion. Besides, on your own show- 
 ing, the fellow has his merits. And yet, I 
 wouldn't give up, Phil. We've a week more be- 
 fore we get home and you just hang on till the 
 engagement is announced. Have you ever said 
 anything to Dolly?" 
 
 Rand shook his head. 
 
 "You idiot! How can you expect her to act? 
 She can't say she loves you, until you ask her." 
 
 Roy spoke with the arrogance of the newly- 
 engaged man ; but his friend drew back. 
 
 "There hasn't been a chance for me to say 
 anything."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 171 
 
 "Chance ! Make it. Besides, you had chances 
 enough, to-day." 
 
 "It would have done no good. She isn't ready 
 for it, and if I speak too soon, I shall lose every- 
 thing." 
 
 Koy whistled. 
 
 "Maybe you know better that I do, old man." 
 
 "I do, in this case. The chances are against 
 me at best, Roy; but I'll not give in quite yet." 
 
 "I wish I dared tackle her, myself," Roy said 
 discontentedly; "but I should onlj' make a mess 
 of things. It is a mess, Phil, do what you will, 
 and yet somehow I don't give up hope. I've 
 known Dolly for j'ears, and I know it would be 
 just like her to go mooning on from one day to 
 another, without an idea that either of you cared 
 a fig for her. She's not self-conscious, and Billy 
 and I have spoiled her for any sentiment. She 
 may wake up, all of a sudden, to find that she is 
 all over in love with you. Since Edith and I 
 have done it, I want you to try it more than ever. 
 I'm fond of Dolly; but I'll be hanged if I don't 
 give her a lecture, if she jilts you." 
 
 The comfort was meagre; but it was at least 
 heartily given, and both men went to bed feeling 
 the better for their talk. Philip Rand passed a 
 sleepless night, but Roy was soon dreaming as 
 tranquilly as if the next day were not to bring 
 forth great events.
 
 172 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 It was a perfect morning for riding and they 
 set out early, Richie leading with his mother, 
 and Dorothy following between Mr. Band and 
 the doctor. They kept closer together than 
 usual, all that morning. The roads were as 
 smooth as a floor, and they could ride, four and 
 five abreast, whenever the conversation became 
 more general. Towards noon, there came a sud- 
 den outcry, 
 
 "Where's Helen?" 
 
 "Where is Billy?" 
 
 "When did you see them last?" 
 
 "How long since they were here?" 
 
 They dismounted to \vait for the truants; but 
 no truants came. They sat down by the road- 
 side till they were tired; then they sauntered 
 about the fields, picking the late wild flowers and 
 eating elderly blackberries. Tbe moments 
 dragged by, and still no one came. 
 
 "I believe they're hiding somewhere," Richie 
 said at length. "Let's call for them." 
 
 They did call again and again, but no answer 
 came. Mrs. Perrj' began to be seriously alarmed. 
 
 "I do wish you boys would ride back to look 
 for them," she said. "We're not afraid to be 
 left here, and I do feel very anxious. Something 
 serious may have happened, like Dolly's fall, and 
 they may need you."
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 173 
 
 "Let me stay with you," Dr. Van Gruder and 
 Mr. Eand offered in the same breath. 
 
 For a moment, Mrs. Perry looked from one to 
 the other, hesitating. Then she committed a 
 fatal error. 
 
 "Eobert, I think you'd better go," she said. 
 "If it should be an accident like Dolly's, they 
 may "want you. If Mr. Eand is willing to aiay 
 with us, perhaps I should feel less nervous." 
 
 Eegretfully Dr. Van Gruder looked back at 
 Dorothy. Then he mounted his wheel and fol- 
 lowed the others down the road, while Philip 
 stretched himself out at his ease on the moss at 
 Mrs. Perry's side. 
 
 "I don't suppose it's anything serious," she 
 said nervously. "I know it is foolish, but 
 Dorothy's accident has upset me." 
 
 "It upset me, too," Dorothy said gravely, as 
 she offered Philip a handful of checkerberries 
 she had just gathered. "Once or twice it camo 
 near upsetting Mr. Eand." 
 
 "When was that?" he asked, helping himself 
 from her outstretched hand. 
 
 "Yesterday," she replied. "Wasn't it fun, 
 riding together ? I quite regret that I am past 
 needing your support. It was so much more 
 exciting when I expected to knock you over at 
 any moment. That reminds me, my front tiro
 
 174 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 is flabby. Are you willing to pump it? I can't 
 use a pump yet, you know." 
 
 Side by side, they strolled away to look at the 
 wheel. 
 
 Meanwhile, the exploring party was rushing 
 on at full speed, and, as the miles increased, even 
 the men in their turn became nervous. The 
 road was perfectly direct, so there was no op- 
 portunity for the missing couple to have taken a 
 wrong turn, and so lost their way. Evidently 
 some accident had befallen them; but whether it 
 was a puncture or something more serious, no 
 one could determine. 
 
 Bushing noiselessly on, too excited to talk, 
 they swept suddenly around a bend of the road. 
 Richie was far in the lead and, as his eyes fell 
 upon the scene before him, he leaped headlong 
 from his wheel and exclaimed : 
 
 "Well, I'll be jiggered!" 
 
 Drawn up beside the road was Helen's wheel, 
 and on the ground near by lay that of Billy, a 
 wreck. The spokes v-ere sprangling in every 
 direction, and the chain dangled dejectedly from 
 the sprockets. It was enough to break the heart 
 of any bic3 r cle lover; but Helen and Billy ap- 
 peared to be quite consoled. Helen sat on a log 
 by the roadside, with her head on Billy's shoul- 
 der, his arm about her waist, and both their
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 175 
 
 faces wore a look of rapture which could come 
 from but one cause alone. 
 
 At Richie's exclamation, she sprang up and 
 began jerking some leaves from a bush beside 
 her ; but it was too late. Already the others had 
 borne down upon them, and stood before them 
 in an excited group. 
 
 Billy sat still and survey them benignly. 
 
 "I say, you're too late to be in it at all, you 
 fellows," he said calmly. "Helen bowled me 
 over, a while ago. She's busted my wheel all to 
 smithereens, but " he paused to smile up at her 
 blissfully; "but she's made up for it by mend- 
 ing my heart."
 
 176 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THK catastrophe to Billy's wheel delayed them 
 for three days, golden days to Helen and Billy, 
 blissful daj's to Eoy and Edith, but anxious ones 
 to Mrs. Perry. In starting upon the trip, no 
 vision of such wholesale love-making had come 
 into her brain. She had had an idea of the state 
 of the doctor's feelings, and she had cherished a 
 faint hope that Dorothy might respond ; but of the 
 others she had never thought. Her conscience 
 was clear. In every possible way, she had ful- 
 filled her function as chaperon, yet here she was, 
 on the eve of her return, posessed with fear at 
 the thought of confronting the row of excited 
 parents. Moreover, here was her niece appar- 
 ent^ as far as ever from finding out either the 
 mind of the doctor, or her own mind in regard 
 to him. Truly, it was a discouraging situation 
 for a chaperon. 
 
 Billy and Helen had been out for a walk, one 
 aiternoon of their enforced halt, and Billy was in 
 unusual spirits on his return.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 177 
 
 "Got a conundrum for you," he remarked, as 
 he sat down to supper. 
 
 "What is it?" Dorothy asked. 
 
 "Don't encourage him," his sister begged. 
 
 "This isn't for you, Edith; yours will come 
 next." And Billy smiled at her in malign satis- 
 faction. 
 
 "Mine? What do you mean, Billy?" 
 
 "Oh, you wait. Are you ready for my conun- 
 drum? Helen helped me on it, and we think it 
 is very good." 
 
 "Let her go, Billy," aaid Roy resignedly. 
 
 "Now then, attention! Why is," Billy waved 
 his fork; "why is a good saddle like a good 
 cow? Give it up?" 
 
 "Yes, anything to get it over." 
 
 "You're jealous, Eoy. Can any of you guess 
 it?" 
 
 There was a pause. Then Billy proclaimed, 
 
 "Because they're both short-horns. I think 
 that's rather good, myself." 
 
 "Oh, Billy, don't disgrace the family," Edith 
 urged him. "I wish you'd try to talk sense." 
 
 "Can't; it's not of my ilk," he answered. "I 
 don't know just what ilk means, but it soundeth 
 sweet to mine ear. Now, sister mine, I have a 
 conundrum for you alone." 
 
 "What is it?" she asked.
 
 178 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "That's the conundrum," he replied; "almost 
 as much a one as the age of this chicken. They 
 must have a special breed here, to be at once so 
 small and so tough. Why is this fowl like a 
 depraved street urchin?" 
 
 "Billy Alerrick, your brains have gone to your 
 head." 
 
 "My brain," he corrected gravely. "Did you 
 ever notice that the plural of that word is never 
 used in a respectful sense? A man has a mighty 
 brain, or he hasn't any brains. Edith, have you 
 guessed your conundrum?" 
 
 "You haven't deigned to tell me what it is." 
 
 "Oh, no; I quite forget to mention it. Well, 
 whom have I seen, this afternoon?" 
 
 "The funny man of the local paper." 
 
 Billy frowned. 
 
 "I wasn't asking you, Rand." 
 
 ' ' How should I know ? Tell me, Billy, ' ' Edith 
 said. 
 
 "Think of it a little. " And he smiled encour- 
 agingly at her. "It was a friend of yours who 
 asked for you." 
 
 "Oh, who was it?" she asked. "I can't guess, 
 when we know so many people. Man, woman, 
 or child?" 
 
 "Man." 
 
 "Old or young?"
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 179 
 
 "Old." 
 
 "Married or single?" 
 
 "Single. It was" Billy paused to emphasize 
 the effect "Nathan Eliphalet. Well, what are 
 you looking at Dolly for?" 
 
 "Is is he here?" Edith asked in consterna- 
 tion. 
 
 "He is." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "I saw him at the Eastern House. We went 
 in there to look around, and I saw the old fellow's 
 name in the register. He came in, just then, so 
 I introduced myself. He's a fine old fellow, 
 too; isn't he, Helen?" 
 
 "How long is he going to stay here, Billy?" 
 Edith asked anxiously. 
 
 "He says he goes, to-morrow. He remem- 
 bered you, and asked for your little friend. 
 That means you, Dolly. He said he would come 
 here, this evening, to call on us; but he is going 
 out to dinner." 
 
 "What is he doing here, so far from home?" 
 
 "'Tisn't so far. He's here on business. 
 Funny I should have run across the old boy. 
 But why the dickens didn't you girls tell him 
 what sort of a trip we were taking? He seemed 
 surprised and a good deal interested, asked all 
 about your riding, and all that."
 
 180 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 Edith and Dorothyexchanged ominous glances. 
 As soon as they could reasonably do so, they ex- 
 cused themselves and fled to their own room for 
 a council of war. What passed between them 
 was never known; but a chambermaid brought a 
 message to Mrs. Perry, a little later, to the effect 
 that they were unusually tired and had gone to 
 bed. 
 
 Without them, the evening dragged percep- 
 tibly. Up-stairs, the girls had lain down between- 
 the sheets, ready to counterfeit sleep, in case of 
 any invasion from the enemy. Down-stairs, the 
 situation was more comfortless. Billy and Helen 
 were entertaining each other in one corner, 
 Richie yawned in another, while Dr. Van Gruder 
 and Mr. Rand talked by fits and starts to Mrs. 
 Perry who, to tell the truth, was as much bored 
 by their absent-minded efforts at conversation as 
 they themselves were. She dimly suspected that 
 Dorothy's departure, that evening, was due to 
 some fresh complication between the two men, 
 and she began to wish that they would either 
 speak out and end the situation, or else take the 
 first train for home, the next morning. She was 
 becoming heartily out of patience with them both, 
 and she was fast coming to feel that even Philip 
 Rand for a nephew would be better than this 
 present state of uncertainty.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEBL. 181 
 
 She gained some slight degree of comfort, the 
 next morning, in seeing the doctor pacing up and 
 down the piazza, with Dorothy at his side. 
 However, it was before breakfast, and a little re- 
 flection showed her that no man is likely to make 
 love on an empty stomach, and that romance does 
 not flourish at eight o'clock in the morning. 
 Later, Dr. Van Gruder went off for a long walk, 
 and Dorothy shut herself into her room, saying 
 that she must write some letters. Mrs. Perry 
 reconsidered the situation, and decided that 
 there might be something in it, after all. 
 
 Tho next morning, bright and early, they were 
 to start for home. Unless some fresh accident 
 occurred to delay them, it was expected that they 
 would finish the run in about three days. They 
 were to push on as rapidly as might be, for Mr. 
 Perry's steamer was due, and the doctor's 
 patients were clamorous for his return. Only 
 three days more! Much had happened in the 
 past two months ; much might still happen even 
 in the remaining three days. 
 
 They spent the afternoon sitting on the 
 balcony of the hotel, talking over the whole trip, 
 listening to Richie's history, laughing at the 
 tales of their individual misadventures. If 
 Dorothy was a little more quiet than usual, in 
 the general merriment, it escaped the notice of
 
 182 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 the others. The doctor looked a little flushed 
 and excited, but it might have been only the 
 heat of the August afternoon. 
 
 As they were separating, to go to their rooms 
 before supper, a clerk came out of the office to 
 them. 
 
 "Miss Edith Merrick?" he said inquiring!}'. 
 
 "I am Miss Merrick," Edith answered, a little 
 surprised at the question. 
 
 "I thought you had gone out, so I did not try 
 to find you," the man said apologetically. "This 
 note was sent here for you, just after dinner." 
 He held out a large, square envelope. 
 
 "For me? How strange! I don't know any- 
 body here." And Edith looked at it wonder- 
 ingly. "Where do you suppose it came from?" 
 
 "You may possibly find out if you open it, 
 Edith," Billy suggested kindly. 
 
 "Thank you, Billy. It might be a good 
 thing." And she tore open the envelope. 
 
 She glanced at the signature of the letter 
 within, and unfolded a filmy enclosure. Then 
 the color rushed to her face, and she began to 
 laugh hysterically. 
 
 "It's only a joke," she said, when she could 
 speak. "Excuse me for being so rude. I would 
 show it to you all, if I could." 
 
 Ten minutes later, she knocked at Dorothy's 
 door. Dorothy opened it.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 183 
 
 "What was it, Edith?" she asked. 
 
 "The tragedy of the unexpected." 
 
 "Nathan Eliphalet?" 
 
 "Yes; but how did you know?" 
 
 "I felt it in my bones," Dorothy answered 
 oracularly, laying down her hairbrush. "Aren't 
 you going to show it to me?" 
 
 "Of course, only " 
 
 "Only what?" 
 
 "Only Billy has made a mess of it, and I don't 
 quite know what to do." 
 
 "About what?" 
 
 "About this." Edith held out the flimsy bit 
 of paper. 
 
 Dorothy seized it. 
 
 "Edith McKenzie Merrick! A check for three 
 hundred dollars! Has the old man taken leave 
 of his senses?" 
 
 "Wait till you have read this." And Edith 
 offered her the letter. 
 
 It was written in a stiff, old-fashioned hand, 
 and Dorothy read it slowly, pausing to study 
 over occasional words. 
 
 "My DEAR NIECE: Your brother, William Mer- 
 rick, did me the honor of calling on me at my 
 hotel, this afternoon. I noted with much pleas- 
 ure his promptness in waiting upon me, and I 
 was glad to make his acquaintance. In the
 
 184 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A- WHEEL. 
 
 course of his conversation, he informed me of 
 the nature of the trip you are taking, and of the 
 fact that you were already riding upon a bicycle 
 at the time you favored me with a call. I was 
 much surprised to learn this, because my mem- 
 ory, usually excellent for such details, assures 
 me that you made no mention of this fact, al- 
 though it might easily have transpired in the 
 course of our own conversation upon that occa- 
 sion. In fact, I have a distinct recollection 
 that, at that time, I expressed myself strongly 
 upon the subject, and mentioned the temporary 
 inconvenience I was suffering, from the clumsi- 
 ness of one such rider. 
 
 "And this gives me the opportunity, to say 
 how sincerely I regret that a niece of my own 
 should adopt a means of travel so beneath the 
 dignity of herself and of all our family. I sin- 
 cerely hope that this may be the last time she 
 may avail herself of the use of her velocipede, 
 and that, the next time she favors me with a call, 
 it may be in a manner more suited to the usages 
 of polite womanhood. With that end in view, 
 my dear niece, I take the liberty of enclosing my 
 check for a small amount. From this, it would 
 gratify me to have you defray the expenses of 
 your return home by rail, and then devote the 
 remaining sum to the purchase of a saddle horse 
 upon which you may take your daily exercise in 
 a more seemly fashion. 
 
 "I have the honor, my dear niece, to be, 
 "Verj' respect'y y'rs, 
 
 "NATHAN ELIPHALET GRANGES. "
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 185 
 
 There was a pause, a long one. 
 
 "Well?" said Edith, with an aocent of in- 
 quiry. 
 
 "Well," said Dorothy, with au accent of 
 finality. 
 
 "What shall I do about it?" 
 
 "I'd send it back to him by return mail," 
 Dorothy said hotly. Then she relented. "No, 
 though, I'm not so sure about it. I believe, 
 Edith Merrick, if I were in your place, I'd write 
 and thank him, and tell him I had put it away 
 to buy my wedding clothes."
 
 186 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 xvn. 
 
 Is was the last afternoon of their trip, and 
 already the sun was lowering towards the hori- 
 zon. It had been one of the golden days of the 
 year, when the late summer, in the full glory of 
 its ripening life, appears to stand still to enjoy 
 the perfection of its own accomplished beauty. 
 
 "I believe this will always be the most beauti- 
 ful day of my life, " Dorothy had said enthusias- 
 tically, as she mounted for her afternoon ride 
 The enthusiasm came from the very depths of 
 her girlish nature; but she had little idea how 
 truly she had spoken. 
 
 The excitement of the day seemed to have 
 entered into her. Her eyes were shining, and her 
 whole face was radiant, yet she could have given 
 no reason for her exhilaration. It was there and 
 it possessed her. That was all. 
 
 Without waiting for the others, she and Richie 
 had mounted and dashed away down the village 
 street, crossing the road from side to side, dart- 
 ing down side streets and up other side streets, 
 and frolicking like a pair of puppies. Dr. Van
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 187 
 
 Gruder smiled to himself as he looked after them. 
 She was so healthy and happy, so free from the 
 airs and graces of her kind! his brown eyes 
 deepened and softened with the happy dreams 
 which were beautifying his whole life, just then. 
 
 Outside the town, he overtook her. 
 
 "May I come, too?" he called as he drew near. 
 
 "Of course, if you won't be too dignified," 
 she answered blithely. 
 
 "I promise," he returned. "Dignity has no 
 place, to-day. I am madly, absurdly happy over 
 our whole journey. To-morrow, I must turn my 
 back upon it, and be a sober doctor once more." 
 
 "And on me?" she inquired. 
 
 "Surely, you know better than that, "he re- 
 plied. 
 
 "I am so glad; aren't you, Eichie? I was 
 afraid the doctor would refuse to recognize us in 
 polite society. Tell me, Dr. Van Gruder," she 
 asked rashly; "has this trip left one single thing 
 to be desired?" 
 
 "Yes, one." 
 
 She blushed at his tone; but she rallied 
 quickly. 
 
 "I am scrry; but, if that is all, you ought to 
 be content." 
 
 "Content is always a relative matter." 
 
 "Also a matter of relatives," she retorted.
 
 188 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 "Ask Roy. But don't expect me to talk sense, 
 to-day, Dr. Van Gruder. I feel as if I were mak- 
 ing the most of a happy dream, just before time 
 to be waked up from it." 
 
 "So do I," he said slowly; "only I am hoping 
 never to be waked." 
 
 "Roy," Edith said suddenly, as they rode 
 along; "what a strange experience this has 
 been!" 
 
 "What do you mean, little girl?" he asked, 
 looking down at her with the air of proprietor- 
 ship which sat so well upon him. 
 
 "Us, "she said tersely; "you and I, and Billy 
 and Helen. This trip has made some wonderful 
 changes for us all." 
 
 "For me, dearest," he said gently. "I never 
 dared hope for so much." 
 
 She smiled at him. 
 
 "You are a silly old boy, Roy; but it's rather 
 nice to have you make a goose of yourself. Bnt I 
 was the most surprised about Billy and Helen. 
 I always supposed it would be Dorothy." 
 
 "Edith," Roy asked abruptly; "you're a 
 woman, and you ought to see through things 
 more than I can. What do you think of Dolly ?" 
 
 "In what way?" Edith said, watching 
 Dorothy's active figure, far ahead of them. 
 
 "Is she flirting?" Roy asked, still more 
 abruptly
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 189 
 
 "That's not Dorothy Alden," Edith answered 
 scornfully. "And yet," she added; "I have 
 sometimes wondered, myself. It doesn't seem 
 as if any girl could be unconscious of the way 
 those men look at her; but I believe she is." 
 
 "Then youdon'tthink anything has happened 
 yet?" 
 
 "You mean with the doctor?" 
 
 Roy nodded. 
 
 "They acted rather queer yesterday, and again 
 that day just before we left Harrison. It might 
 be anything or nothing." 
 
 "I think Dorothy would have told me, if they 
 really were engaged," Edith said thoughtfully; 
 "and yet, it may come at any moment. They 
 have been riding together, all the afternoon." 
 
 "Poor Phil!" 
 
 Edith looked up at Key's overcast face. 
 
 "It is a fact, then, that he wants her?" 
 
 "I've no right to give him away, even to you, 
 little girl; but he said so, long ago." 
 
 Edith rode on in silence. Suddenly she spoke 
 again. 
 
 "Koy Deming, I'm going to give the man one 
 last chance. It will be his last, if we get home, 
 this evening. I like him. I have, from the first, 
 and it's my belief that Dolly does too, more than 
 she knows, I like the doctor; but there is more
 
 J90 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 to Phil, as you call him, and I want him to get 
 Dorothy Alden." 
 
 "By Jove, Edith, you'll be a trump, if you can 
 work it! How will you manage it?" 
 
 "Get them together, and then leave them to 
 talk it out. I know the look in his eyes, Roy. 
 He can't keep still much longer. I think he'd 
 have spoken before, but she hasn't let him come 
 near her for two days. That's what it needs, 
 that you and I should play Providence for them. " 
 She looked up at him with her face glowing, her 
 head erect. 
 
 "How will you do it," Roy asked again, after 
 an expressive pause. 
 
 "I'll ride forward and capture him; you go 
 and perform the like kindly deed for your aunt. 
 If they rebel, we'll ride into them and upset 
 them. Those two children must be left alone." 
 
 Dorothy was still at the head of the line, with 
 Dr. Van Gruder beside her, when Edith's voice 
 disturbed their dialogue. 
 
 "Dr. Van Gruder, I am so sorry to interrupt 
 you; but there is a hill ahead, and you promised 
 to show me how to brake with my foot. I can't 
 manage it alone, and I shall have to ask for a lit- 
 tle instruction." 
 
 With reluctant courtesy, he joined her, as she 
 dashed off in the lead.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A -WHEEL. 191 
 
 "We'd better go quite far ahead, I think," 
 she said ingenuously. "Then we sha'n't get in 
 the way of the others. I warn you that I am 
 very stupid about it, so your patience needs to 
 be great." 
 
 A moment later, Philip Band came up beside 
 Dorothy. 
 
 "My last chance," he said, smiling; "so I am 
 going to make the most of it." 
 
 "Your last chance?" she echoed. "But I 
 thought you were going to stay with Eoy till you 
 go back together." 
 
 "I hardly think so, " he answered. "Koy is 
 very hospitable, but I mustn't stay too long." 
 
 "I am sorry. I had hoped we should have a 
 great many rides together; but at least we have 
 had so much to be thankful for. Oh, what a 
 hill ! I am sorry, Mr. Band, but I shall have to 
 dismount and walk down. My wrist isn't strong 
 yet, and I don't dare trust it too far. No; don't 
 get off. lean overtake you. " 
 
 But he was already standing in the road. He 
 took possession of her wheel in a way that left 
 her no opportunitj' to rebel. 
 
 "I am not so sure that I am thankful," he 
 said, going back to her former words after they 
 had walked a little way in silence. "This has 
 left me much to wish for."
 
 192 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 Startled at bis paraphrase of the doctor's 
 words, she looked up at him. He was bending 
 slightly toward her, and his breath came and 
 went quickly. Under his brown mustache, his 
 lips were a little unsteady; but his e.ves were 
 looking steadily down into her own. 
 
 "How do you mean?" she said faintly, for she 
 felt the sway of his personality, and yet she 
 scarcely knew what was before her. 
 
 "Dorothy Dolly." Philip's voice was very 
 gentle, as he spoke her name. "Do I need to 
 tell you? It is my old wish, the one I dared not 
 tell you in the sunset, even when I won it from 
 you." 
 
 She was walking on, as if in a dream, her eyes 
 still looking up into the depths of his own. She 
 wondered vaguely why she had never noticed till 
 then the real beauty and manliness of his face; 
 but it never occurred to her to speak. She 
 dropped her eyes again. 
 
 "Dorothy," his voice was pleading now; 
 "surely you know what I ara trying to tell you. 
 I have waited so long, dear." 
 
 Above them, on the top of the hill, they heard 
 Roy's voice calling, 
 
 "You're all right, Aunt Evelyn. Put on lots 
 of brake and let her go."
 
 THE LITTLE BUND GOD A-WHEEL. 193 
 
 "Am I to have my wish, dear? It means so 
 much to me." Silence again. Then, right in 
 their ears came a succession of shrieks from Mrs. 
 Perry, 
 
 "Oh, get away! Get away! Get away quick! 
 I'm coming! I can't stop it! I shall hit you! 
 There!" And she swept down upon them, 
 crashing into Dorothy's wheel and landing in a 
 dusty heap beside them, just as the girl turned 
 her ratiiant face upward to the waiting eyes 
 above her. 
 
 "Yes, Phil," she whispered. 
 
 When Mrs. Perry was once more mounted on 
 her wheel acd riding steadily along, they 
 dropped back of the others a little, to enjoy their 
 new-found happiness apart from prying eyes. 
 They talked little. It was enough to ride on, 
 side by side, in the perfect understanding of 
 their love. At last, Dorothy spoke. 
 
 "Doesn't it seem as if it had been always, 
 Phil?" 
 
 He smiled, but he shook his head. 
 
 "I have a very vivid recollection of the past 
 two weeks, Dolly. You and the doctor have led 
 me a life of it." 
 
 Dorothy looked up with startled eyes. 
 
 "What does Dr. Van Gruder have to do with 
 it, Phil?"
 
 194 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 
 
 ' "Very much, for I was terribly afraid he 
 would carry you off before my very eyes. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "He never asked me. I like him ever so 
 much, just as I do Roy and Billy; but," she 
 hesitated; "I believe I have always loved you, 
 Phil." 
 
 "Always, dear?" 
 
 She smiled mischievously. 
 
 "Let me tell you a story. Once there was a 
 girl with brown hair, not yellow, and brown 
 eyes, Phil, not blue ones. Once upon a time 
 she went to drive, and a young man on a bicycle 
 ran into her and bumped his nose. So she took 
 him into her carriage and drove him home, 
 thereby frightening him very badly. Are you 
 following me, Philip Rand?" 
 
 He was staring at her in astonishment. 
 
 "And you knew it all the time?" he asked. 
 
 "You told me, you know," she returned, 
 laughing. "Besides, didn't you say you wanted 
 to meet her again, and that you would tell me, 
 as soon as you did meet her. You have broken 
 your plighted word, sir." 
 
 Half an hour later, they came out of the 
 shadow of a pine grove, and paused in the late 
 sunshine to look at the world around them.
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND GOD A-WHEEL. 195 
 
 "Our last ride," Dorothy said. "Our wan- 
 derings are over, and home is in sight." 
 
 Philip bent over her and took her hand. 
 
 "Look down there, dearest," he said gently. 
 "Everything looks all golden before us, and 
 now I shall never play Fair Harvard any more." 
 
 THE END.
 
 Father Stafford 
 
 By 
 
 ANTHONY HOPE, 
 
 The Most Remarkable of Mr. Hope's 
 
 Neely's Prismatic Library. 
 
 GHt Top, 50 cents. 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE : " This story is in the genuine Hope style and fol 
 &at reason will be widely read." 
 
 PUBLIC LEDGER, PHILADELPHIA : " ' Father Stafford ' is extremely clew 
 a bold privateer venturing upon the high seas." 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE : " It is a good story, the strong parts o 
 which are the conflict between love and conscience on the part of a young Angli- 
 can priest. The charm of the book, however, lies in the briskness of the dialogue, 
 which is as finely finished as any of Hope's novels." 
 
 NASHVILLE BANNER : " ' Father Stafford ' is a charming story. The whoia 
 book sustains the reputation that Anthony Hope has made, and adds another 
 proof that as a portrayer of character of sharp distinctness and individuality h 
 has no superior." 
 
 EVENING WISCONSIN : " A write' of great merit. . . . Mr. Hope's 
 work has a quality of straightforwardness that recommends it to readers who 
 have grown tired of the loaded novel." 
 
 PHILLIPSBURGH JOURNAL : " This is considered by his critics to be one ot 
 ihe strongest, most beautiful and interesting novels Mr. Hope has ever written 
 There is not a dull line in the entire volume. 
 
 VANITY, NEW YORK : " A very interesting narrative, and Mr. Hope tells 
 the story after that fashion which he would seem to have made peculiarly his 
 own." 
 
 KANSAS CITY JOURNAL : "There is something more than the romance of 
 'he action to hold the reader's mind. It is one of the author's best productions.'' 
 
 EVERY SATURDAY, ELGIN, ILL.: "Anthony Hope is a master of dialogue, 
 and to his art in this particular is due the enticing interest which leads the readev 
 in from page to page." 
 
 HICJIREW STANDARD : " The strife bet/ween the obligation of a vow of cell 
 
 oacy and the promptings of true love are vividly portrayed in this little < book 
 
 . . It contains an admirable description of English country life and is wefl 
 
 written." 
 
 BOSTON DAILY GLOBE : " It has enough of the charm of th author'* 
 thought and style to identify it as characteristic, and make it very pleasing." 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue. New Y
 
 A Journey to Venus. 
 
 By Q. W. POPE. 
 
 Paper, 250. 
 
 Neely*s Popular Library with full page illustrations. 
 
 Lovers of Jules Verne will gladly welcome 
 this remarkable volume. Many have declared 
 that Dr. Pope has even outdone the French 
 master at his own art. At any rate the narrative, 
 is written with an air of candor that almost com- 
 pels a blind belief in its truth, although the ad- 
 ventures which befall the daring travelers to the 
 glorious planet are staggering in the extreme. 
 Books of this character, while written with a 
 considerable latitude, contain many features of 
 deepest interest, showing how far science has 
 gone in its eager quest for the truth in relation 
 with our neighboring planets, we may never 
 know the truth with regard to Mars and Venus 
 and Jupiter, but that is no reason we may not 
 speculate and endeaver to lift the veil that hangs 
 Dver those bright worlds that glow and sparkle 
 in the heavens. "A Journey to Venus" is an 
 extraordinary volume in many ways, and will 
 veil repay a careful perusal. 
 
 PBr sa!ft everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 *6 Queer Street. London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New Yc?5
 
 Petronilla, the Sister. 
 
 By Emma Homan Thayer. 
 
 Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 Mrs. Thayer's art books have made for her a 
 world-wide reputation as a writer, and an illustra- 
 tor of the wildflowers of America. ' ' Petronilla " 
 is her first novel, and we can honestly recommend 
 it as a most delightful story indeed. The gifted 
 writer paints human loves and vanities with much 
 the same dexterity she has exhibited as an artist in 
 delineating the delicate hues of the modest wild- 
 flowers she so fondly worships. We take pleasure 
 in recommending so chaste and interesting a story 
 to the public. In this day of erotic literature such 
 a book is doubly welcome, and " Petronilla " is of 
 such a character as to hold the reader's attention to 
 the last page. The scenes are laid in New York 
 City, with a bright and spicy visit on a ranch in the 
 mountains of Colorado, a region in which the writer 
 is evidently at home. The illustrations, some forty 
 in number, partly by the author, and ably abetted 
 by the well-known artist, Remington W. Lane, add 
 piquancy to the letterpress. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of prlca. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York
 
 The Passing of Alix. 
 
 By MRS. MARJORIE PAUL, 
 
 Neely's Popular Library Paper, 250: 
 
 Newspaper comment may in some minds 
 count for little in settling the value of a novel, 
 but it at least shows the drift of public opinion. 
 Nothing but praise has been spoken of "The 
 Passing of Alix." To show the general trend of 
 this commendation we beg leave to publish a 
 single literary notice from a prominent jo arnal : 
 
 ' ' A capital little book, that of Mrs. Marjorie Paul, just the light, 
 breezy sort one delights in reading when swinging idly in a 
 zephyr-tossed hammock in the early fall days, or before the crack- 
 ling wood fire of the winter hearth of a country house. Doubtless 
 many a copy will find its way into the satchel or handbag of 
 tourist and commercial traveler, to whom the weighty novel, writ- 
 ten with the evident intention of reforming this wicked and 
 ignorant world, seldom appeals." 
 
 " It is a story of a sensational character, but clean in thought 
 \nd pathetic in its conclusion. It is the story of a woman, and a 
 jood one. It contains nothing that is sensational, but is full of 
 human interest, and holds the attention of the reader from start 
 to finish. Besides telling the story, it teaches a lesson, but doe* 
 lot sermonize. It is a book, in fact, which will interest all, and 
 :arnishes the very best sort of light reading." 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York-
 
 The Honor of a Princess. 
 
 By F. KIMBALL SCRIBNER. 
 
 Neely's Prismatic Library. 
 Gilt top, 50c. 
 
 A new novel, "The Honor of a Princess," by 
 a new writer, F. Kimball Scribner, has easily 
 won the approbation of the lovers of romance, 
 dealing as it does with the adventures of two 
 Englishmen during the latter years of the reign 
 of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 From first to last the story is filled with ac- 
 tion. Falling under the displeasure of the Virgin 
 Queen, Harold Martant, an English Catholic, 
 makes his escape to France, accompanied by an 
 old retainer of his House, a veteran of the days 
 of Drake and Frobisher. On the advice of a 
 certain Captain V T on Francius, a former leader 
 of a Free Company, the refugees accompany him 
 to Schleswig and enter the service of the young 
 king of that country, whose title to the throne 
 is disputed by a nobleman of the kingdom. 
 
 The story, which is charmingly told in the 
 simple language of a soldier of the period, treats 
 of the adventures of Martant and his compan- 
 ions while in the service of the Royal House of 
 Schleswig. Though a new writer, the author's 
 name is not unknown to the literary world, he 
 being a member of the well-known family of 
 Charles Scribner's Sons, publishers. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 06 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York.
 
 PAOLA CORLETii, 
 
 THE FAIR ITALIAN. 
 
 By ALICE HOWARD HILTON, 
 
 Author of "A Blonde Creole." 
 Neely's Popular Library, paper 250. 
 
 This is a charming romance of life in Italy 
 and New Orleans of a pretty Italian maid, 
 daughter of a Neapolitan nobleman, who elopes 
 with the lover of her choice, a poor musician, 
 and being hounded by the emissaries of a disap- 
 pointed suitor, in conjunction with her angry 
 father ? they start for America, settling in the 
 famous French Quarter of New Orleans. 
 
 The story is sweet and pure, and full of ex- 
 ceeding pathos the descriptive bits of old New 
 Orleans, with its Jackson Square and St. Louis 
 Cathedral, opposite, are clever pictures of the 
 Creole City of the past. Since Cable has ceased 
 his admirable novels of these interesting people, 
 the public will undoubtedly welcome an addition 
 to Creole literature from the pen of one so 
 thoroughly conversant with the subject as 
 Hilton. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or Bent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TF.NN'YSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 aA Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York
 
 Kerchiefs to Hunt Souls. 
 
 By M. AMELIA FYTCHE. 
 
 Neely's Popular Library. 
 
 Of late years writers have found it necessary 
 ,o attract the eye of the passing public toward 
 their work by giving it some striking title. Un 
 fortunately in many instances these remarkable 
 names serve only that purpose, and have little or 
 no application for the story. This can hardly 
 be said of Miss Fytche's new Dook, " Kerchiefs 
 to Hunt Souls." If for no other reason, this 
 book should certainly arouse considerable curi- 
 osity on account of the remarkable title, which 
 the author has, she confesses, dug out of the Bible, 
 in order to stamp the peculiar features of her 
 story. It is a book well worth reading, and one 
 we cordially recommend to all who enjoy a good 
 story when based upon those great morals that 
 govern the world. There is a promise of even 
 better things to come from this talented writer 
 % Kerchiefs to Hunt Souls" has aroused con- 
 siderable newspaper controversy from Maine to 
 California, which fact is in itself enough to stamp 
 the book one of more than ordinary ability, since 
 space is too valuable to be wasted on trash ir 
 the estimation of the modern editor. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Oueeo Street, London 114 Fifth Avenue. Nw*
 
 IN THE QUARTER. 
 
 By ROBERT W, CHAHBERS, 
 
 Author of " The King in Yellow." 
 
 Neely's Prismatic Library. 
 
 50 cents. 
 
 A new novel by the author of that wonderful book, " The King in Yellow," 
 is an event of considerable importance to the reading public ; nor will a perusal 
 of " In the Quarter " disappoint those critics who have predicted such a glorious 
 future for Robert W. Chambers. As the title would indicate, the story deals with 
 life in the Quartier Latin, in Paris, where the merry art students live and move 
 and have their being, and over which the halo of romance ever hangs ; a pecul- 
 iar people with whom we have spent many an entrancing hour in company with 
 such volumes as " Trilby " and " A King in Yellow." 
 
 PRESS NOTICES: 
 
 BOOK BUYER, New York: " It is a story of a man who tried to reconcile 
 irreconcilable facts. . . Mr. Chambers tells it with a hap_py choice of words, 
 thus putting ' to proof the art alien to the artists.' . . It is not a book for the 
 unsophisticated, yet its morality is high and unmistakable." 
 
 BROOKLYN CITIZEN : " Full of romantic incidents." 
 BOSTON COURIER : " Interesting novel of French life." 
 
 BOSTON TRAVELER : " A story of student life written with dash and surety 
 of handling." 
 
 BOSTON TIMES: "Well written, bright, vivid; the ending is highly dra- 
 matic." 
 
 NEW YORK SUNDAY W9RLD : " Charming story of Bohemian life, with its 
 bouyancy, its romance, and its wild joy of youth . . vividly depicted in this 
 graceful tale by one who, like Daudet, knows his Paris. Some pages are exquis- 
 itely beautiful." 
 
 PHILADELPHIA BULLETIN: ** Idyllic charming. Mr. Chambers' story is 
 ielicately told." 
 
 NEW YORK EVENING TELEGRAM : " It is a good story in its way. It is 
 jood in several ways. There are glimpses of the model and of the grisette all 
 aainty enough. The most of it might have come from so severe a moralist as 
 George Eliot or even Bayard Taylor." 
 
 NEW YORK COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER: "A very vivid and touchingly told 
 story. The tale is interesting because it reflects with fidelity the life led by cer 
 tain sets of art students. A genuine romance, charmingly told." 
 
 CONGREGATION A LIST. Boston: "Vivid, realistic. There is much of no- 
 bility in it. A decided and excellent moral influence. It is charmingly writt 
 from cover to cover." 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New Yorfc
 
 UTOPIA. 
 
 By FRANK ROSEWATER. 
 
 Neely's Popular Library. 
 Paper, 250. 
 
 When one ventures to write upon that puz 
 zle of the day, a solution of the capital and laboi 
 problem, together with their relations to each 
 other, it is necessary that the subject be thor- 
 oughly studied in advance, since it presents many 
 peculiar points that demand close attention. 
 Mr. Rosewater is a journalist who has been 
 given rare opportunities for seeing beneath the 
 surface. He also possesses the gift or faculty 
 for describing what he desires to paint in glow- 
 ing language. " Utopia " may seem far-fetched 
 in many minds, but candor compels us to admit 
 that it is what we are all seeking after, though 
 with but scant hope of ever finding it. Those 
 who are interested in the labor question will find 
 much to commend in this book just as Edward 
 Bellamy's " Looking Backward " stirred those 
 vho longed for a condition of affairs wherein 
 svery man, woman, and child will pass under the 
 control of the State. "Utopia" is winning nev 
 friends every day. 
 
 For tale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON ftjEELY, Publisher, 
 Queen Street, London ; a 4 Fifth Avenue. New York
 
 L* 
 ire 
 
 and 
 
 Sermons 
 
 of 
 
 David 
 
 Swing 
 
 Octavo Cloth, 425 Pages, $1.50; Paper, 50 cents. 
 
 This work has been carefully compiled by the 
 daughter of the great divine, Helen Swing Starring. 
 
 It consists mainly of his corrected sermons chosea 
 by himself and arranged for publication before his death. 
 
 It also contains the memorial discourses and tributes 
 of Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, Dr. Em/1 G. Hirsch, Dr. H. 
 W. Thomas, Rev. Frederick A. Noble, D.D., and Dr. 
 Thomas C. Hall, together with the funeral sermon 
 delivered by Dr. John Hen:ry Barrows. 
 
 A biographical sketch is given, presenting the more 
 prominent features in the life of the great scholar. 
 
 A plate engraving of Prof. Swing appears as a 
 frontispiece. 
 
 The book is printed throughout on heavy enameled 
 paper, and no expense has been spared to make it ir, 
 every way a worthy souvenir of the grand character to 
 which it relates. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, tension, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York
 
 Remarks by Bill Nye. 
 
 THE 
 FUNNIEST 
 
 OF 
 BOOKS. 
 
 "It will cure the bhv : 
 quicker than the doctor anc 
 at half the price." New 
 York Herald, 
 
 Over 500 Pages. 
 Fully Illustrated. 
 
 Cloth, $1.50 ; Paper, 
 
 LAUGH AND GROW FAT. 
 
 .i. collection of the best writings of this great author, most 
 profusely illustrated, with over 500 pages. It is the funniest of 
 books. Bill Nye needs no introduction. The mention of th 
 book is enough. 
 
 " I have passed through an earthquake and an Indian out. 
 oreak, but I would rather ride an earthquake without saddle 01 
 bridle, than to bestride a successful broncho eruption." Bill Nyt 
 'Age brings caution and a lot of shop- worn experience 
 purchased at the highest market price. Time brings vain re 
 pjrets and wisdom teeth that can be left in a glass of water ovs> 
 .;.ght." Bill Nye. 
 
 FROM THE PEN OP BILL NYE. 192 PAGES FAPER, 8*; 
 AKD HUMOR. BY NYE AND SILEY. PAPER, 25<. 
 
 Per sale everywhere, or ssnt post-paid on receipt of prici. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NCELY, Publisher. 
 06 Quw.n Street \ nndoo. U4 Fifth Avenyft, Kr
 
 One of Earth's Daughters* 
 
 By ELLEN ROBERTS. 
 
 Neely's Popular Library. 
 
 Paper, 25c* 
 
 There have been books which secured a 
 tremendous sale through the bitter attack oi 
 newspaper critics; while others succeeded 
 through the host of favorable comments that 
 greeted their appearance in the arena of public 
 estimation. Faint praise accomplishes nothing 
 indeed, it is never deserved. The verdict 
 of these experienced critics has been unusually 
 favorable toward " One of Earth's Daughters," 
 and we feel justified in offering it to our 
 patrons as a story well worth reading, which 
 cannot be said of all the novels launched upon 
 the public these days by enterprising publishers. 
 It is a genuine pleasure to come across a book 
 so carefully and conscientiously written, and in 
 which the characters fulfil their destinies. A 
 vein of love drifting through the whole fabric 
 leavens it without any erotic tendencies. Taken 
 in all, " One of Earth's Daughters" is a very read* 
 able little volume, and shows commendable dis 
 cernment on the part of the publisher. Tht 
 world is always better for such moral books. 
 
 for ial everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of p'ioe. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York,
 
 Two Strange Adventures. 
 
 By KINAHAN CORNWALUS. 
 
 Neely's Popular Library. 
 Paper, 25c 
 
 This book is well calculated to please readers of adventnu 
 since there is not a dry chapter from cover to cover. In man;, 
 ways it is impossible enough for Jules Verne, and yet through 
 the whole runs a delicate yet charming thread of love seldom to 
 be found in the works of tha* French master of adventurous 
 fiction. Those who pick up the volume will hardly be satisfied 
 until they reach the end. Mr. Cornwallis has written many 
 charming stories in verse, the most popular being his "Conquest 
 of Mexico and Peru" and the patriotic " Song of America and 
 Columbus," which latter fitly graced the period of our World's 
 Fair. "Two Strange Adventures" met with such a hearty wel- 
 come that the first edition was immediately exhausted. 
 
 By MISS MUHLBACH. 
 
 Translated by MARY J. SAFFORD. 
 Cloth, gilt top, soc. 
 
 This is one of the most charming tales from the pen of the 
 celebrated German novelist. It gives many side lights to the 
 story of Napoleon in the height of his power, and would prove 
 interesting even to those who have never admired the genius of 
 the great Bonaparte. The translation by Miss Safford leaves 
 nothing to be desired, since it could not be improved. For year? 
 she has stood in the leading rank of translators, with a charm of 
 expression wholly her own. "A Conspiracy of the Carbonari' 
 has proven very popular in this neat form so well adapted to the 
 pocket and satchel, and eagerly sought after by the traveling 
 public. 
 
 For ale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELV, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London. :i4 Fifth Avenue, New York.
 
 The 
 
 Invasion of New York. 
 
 A Romance of the Coming Conflict with 
 Spain and Japan. 
 
 By J. H. PALMER. 
 
 NZEIY'S POPTTLAB IIBBABY. 
 Cloth, $1.00; Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 No one could have written this startling little volume 
 but an officer in the United States navy, or at least a citi- 
 zen of Washington thoroughly at home in all naval 
 .natters. With prophetic vision the able writer has seen 
 what would be the probable early moves upon the chess- 
 board of war, should hostilities open between our own 
 country and those of Spain and Japan ; and while 
 weaving a romance he takes occasion to point out the 
 weakness of our defenses both on the Atlantic and 
 Pacific coasts. If it serve no other purpose than to 
 arouse the people to the necessity of prompt and ener- 
 getic action in rendering their great ports invulnerable 
 to an attack from hostile battle ships and cruisers, the 
 mission of this marvelously interesting little volume will 
 have been fulfilled. The destruction of San Francisco 
 by Japanese war vessels is vividly portrayed ; and the 
 description of the appearance of the formidable Spanish 
 Armada before New York, while our fleet is hunting 
 along the coast of Cuba for the enemy, will doubtless 
 cause a shiver of apprehension to creep over timid read 
 ers, since the prospect is, they may some fine morning 
 awaken to actually hear the thunder of hostile guns 
 beyond Coney Island. It is a very readable book and 
 bound to meet with a heavy sale. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of pric*. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 06 Queen Street* London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York,
 
 Novels of Willis Steefl. 
 
 In A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD the reader is led through 
 
 many strange adventures, while a vein of love arouse? 
 the interest of the fair sex. Mr. Steell has shown more 
 than ordinary power in describing Western scenes. Foi 
 many years to come the region from the Rockies to thf 
 Pacific must be the home of romance. The century be 
 fore us is destined to be marked by stupendous discover 
 ies in the treasures of the earth, and stories of mining 
 must always commend themselves to the eager public. 
 
 ISIDRA, THE PATRIOT DAUGHTER OF MEXICO, 
 The land of the Montezumas has always been invested 
 rith a halo of romance ever since the days when the 
 Spanish invader, Cortez, swept over the country with 
 his conquering army of treasure seekers. This interest, 
 instead of waning as the years pass by, rather increases. 
 New knowledge of Mexico but whets our eagerness to 
 learn more of her strange people, their methods of living, 
 and the vast treasures that lie sealed under her mountain 
 ledges. " Isidra " is written by one who is thoroughly 
 at home in his subject. It is a charming tale of love 
 and adventure under the Mexican flag, and one cannot 
 read the romance without learning many interesting 
 things in connection with our neighbors over the border 
 
 ISIDRA. Paper, 5O cents. 
 
 A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD. Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or se~t post-paid on receipt of pric*. 
 
 P. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London- 114 Fifth Avenue, New Yorik.
 
 2P 4MERK4N 
 HISTORY. 
 
 HEW REVERSIBLE HISTORICAL CHART. 
 
 POLITICAL AND UNITED STATES 
 MAP COMBINED. 
 
 Chronological Discoveries, Explorations, Inventions, and 
 Important Events. A Brief History of the World's 
 Columbian Exposition. Area and Population of States 
 and Territories, with Census of 189Q. Area and Popu- 
 lation of Foreign Countries Compared with the United 
 States. 
 
 Better than an Encyclopedia. Printed in 11 Beautiful Colors. 
 
 THE ONLY CENSUS MAP PUBLISHED. 
 
 A. Double Wall Map, 5 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 10 inches, 
 mounted on rollers top and bottom, ready to hang. 
 
 !** TBTI I C H w many Presidents we hay* had and politics of each. 
 I * tL.UO What art Geore Washinton reresented. What Presi- 
 
 What party George Washington represented. What Presi- 
 dents died while In office. How many Presidents served two terms. Which 
 candidate rec ived the largest number of votes and was defeated. When each 
 political party was organized. How many Congresses hay* convened and the 
 political complexion of each. The number of Statw In the United States, and 
 the one having the most miles of railroads. How many Political Parties have 
 existed In the united States. 
 
 A COMPLETE HISTORY OF OUR GOVERNMENT BY ADMINIS- 
 
 TRATIONS, POLITICAL PARTIES AND CONGRESSES, 
 
 FROM WASHINGTON TO HARRISON. 
 
 The latest United States Map, printed In colors, covers the entire back, and 
 la the best published. It alone sells for $5.00. The Complete Reversible Map, 
 (printed on both sides) Is 3 feet 10 Inches by 5 feet ( Inches, mounted on rollers 
 top and bottom, with tapes on side. These two maps sell separately for $10.00. 
 
 This map should be in every library, office and school, and Is well worth the 
 price. 
 
 THIS GREAT DOUBLE MAP 
 
 to sent by express, prepaid, and safe delivery guaranteed, to any addren In the 
 United States. It can be mailed but It Is much safer by express. Name your 
 nearest express office. 
 
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 or mall, and safe delivery and perfect satisfaetton'guaranteed or 
 
 MONEY REFUNDED. 
 
 PRICE, $5.00. AGENTS WANTED. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, 
 
 CHICAGO. PUBLISHER. NEW YORK.
 
 EVEN AS YOU AND I 
 
 By 
 BOLTON HALL. 
 
 Author of **Who Pays Your Taxes?" "Equitable 
 Taxation/* "Stories for Little Citizens/* Etc. 
 
 Neely's Prismatic Library, Cloth, Gilt Top, 5o cento. 
 
 HE circulation of this book will 
 probably depend upon the number 
 of men and women who are in 
 search of a religion ; not of a new 
 religion, but of the oldest religion, made ap- 
 plicable and applied to personal, social and 
 political life. Thu second part of the book is 
 prefaced by a letter of Tolstoy's to the author, 
 endorsing his view of life. 
 
 The allegories which form the first part show 
 how in ordinary life, as Oliver Shreiner puts it, 
 greatness is to take the common things of life and 
 to walk truly among them; happiness is a great 
 love and much serving; holiness is an infinite 
 compassion for others. 
 
 There is an introduction by Ernest Howard 
 Crosby, which is a complete sketch in itself. 
 
 For sale everywhere, ci sent post-paid on receipt of pns. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, Lcnd^- -14 Fifth Avenue. New York*
 
 The Strolling Piper 
 of Brittany, 
 
 BY 
 
 John W. Harding, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A BACHELOR OF PARIS." 
 Cloth, $1.25; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 Mr. Harding writes with a masterly pen, and the 
 pictures he gives us of lowly life in Brittany, among the 
 humble peasants, are the faithful delineations of a born 
 artist. It is a rare pleasure to spend some hours in hie 
 company and look upon these scenes through his magic 
 glass. Besides, the story has a deep sympathetic strain 
 that revives memories of his earlier work, of which one 
 critic wrote : 
 
 "'A Bachelor of Paris/ by J. W. Harding, is one of 
 the latest numbers in Neely's attractive Prismatic Library v 
 and bids fair to win fresh laurels for that charming collec- 
 tion of tales. George du Maurier has given us glimpse? 
 of student life, and created so intense a desire on the 
 part of the reading public to learn more of artist life in 
 Paris, that other writers have hastened to take advantage 
 Df this demand. 'A Bachelor of Paris ' calls for nothing 
 but praise, and the eye is charmed by the attractive covei 
 of the work, as well as the mind satisfied with the we r i 
 told tale within." 
 
 A BACHELOR OF PARIS, Fully illustrated; gilt top, SOt, 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of priae. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 Queen Street. London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York
 
 THE MALACHITE CROSS 
 
 By FRANK H. NORTON. Paper, 250. 
 
 This book has received columns of reviews on account of *tS 
 fonderfully sensational character, and a few extracts may wrv 
 ;o indicate its general character. 
 
 3. T. Herald " 'The Malachite Cross,' b^ Frank H. Norton, published by F. 
 Tennyson Neely, is an exceptionally entertaining and well-written hook. Un 
 like too many writers of the present day. the author has taken the <ro".ble to 
 construct a skilful and original plot, the result being that the reader's interest 
 is sustained from beginning to end. A quaint and somewhat weird stDry it is, 
 with m:uiy strong passages and a sufficiently dramatic finale. The characters 
 portrayed are lifelike, and the incidents described are novel and picturesque 
 Altogether ' The Malachite Cross ' is a book which lovers of fiction will find 
 it well worth their while to read." 
 
 Clizdbeth, y. J., News " When I took up the copy of 'The Malachite Cross, 
 by Frank H. Norton, it recalled to my mind the many happy hours spent in 
 the company of its accomplished and many-sided author, both in London and 
 in New York. When I first made Frank Norton's acquaintance he was en- 
 
 Siged on the London edition of the New York Herald, one of Jas. Gordon 
 ennett's enterprises which did not succeed, though I could never quite see 
 the reason why, except on general principles, for one could hardly expect to 
 see an edition of the London 'limes pay in New Yorkl But to return to 
 Frank Norton, who is a newspaper man to the tips of his fingers. He had 
 just come back from the Continent, where he had been on New York Herald 
 business, and never did I meet an American as enthusiastic about his environ- 
 ment over there, so appreciative of historical London, or so delighted with its 
 artistic, literary, and intellectual life. But Norton is what many newspaper 
 men are not ; he is a man of literary taste and culture. I was then deep in a 
 MV- f eighteenth century English literature, and many were the delightful 
 talks < chad on the men of Goldsmith's and Dr. Johnson's time, with whose 
 works he was thoroughly familiar and at home. Later on when I visited Amer- 
 ica, it was through him that I saw much of the newspaper side of New York, 
 ana met many men prominent in the newspaper world. Of late years he has 
 devoted himself close_ly to the study of astrology, and has quite recently pub- 
 lished in the magazines some important and startling articles on this fasci- 
 nating subject. His own contributions to literature have not been insignifi- 
 cant. What American schoolboy does not know his ' Days of Daniel Boone,' 
 one of the best historical stories for boys we have ? The present book is a 
 romance of two countries, and the scene is laid in New York and Paris. It 
 is a tale of magic, mystery, and necromancy, turning upon the potent force* 
 ladden in an ancient heirloom in the form 01 a Malachite cross. It is dra- 
 n.atic, and holds the reader with its powerful interest and exciting incident. 
 Coming from so practised a pen it is needless to say it is well written." 
 
 '-ampton, N. Y. " 'The Malachite Cross,' by Frank H. Norton, published by 
 .1 i :ip Herald F. Tennyson Neely, 114 Fifth Avenue, Nenv York City : 5oc, 
 A story of Paris, France, and southwestern Europe of a half century or more 
 ;:gx>, intrigue, plot and weird adventure are met with in every pr.ge. The au- 
 t.ior's description of places, his delineation of character, weaving and un- 
 r:velmg of plot and general vigorous treatment of the political and social 
 questions of the forties renders this story interesting, although it is at time* 
 ;:o intensely dramatic and sensational as to seem almost improbable. How- 
 ever, none but a very discerning critic will raise this point, and with the gen- 
 eral public we predict a good run for this book." 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of prict 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 Queen Sts?et, Lonuos. JM Fifth Avenue N*"* Yorn.
 
 Latest Novels of 
 
 ST. GEORGE RA1HBCRNE, 
 
 Author of DOCTOR JACK." 
 
 In " A Bar Sinister," St. George Rathborne has hinged the leading dramatic 
 features of his romance upon a remarkable decision of a New York judge, 
 whereby a man was declared to have committed I'tgamy with one wife, and which 
 strange charge was borne out by the laws of the State. The scene of action ia 
 transferred from beautiful Naples, under the shadow of Vesuvius, to the wonder- 
 land of Peru, where, amid the towering Andes, the various interesting characters 
 work out their destiny. 
 
 " Masked in Mystery, A Romantic Story of Adventure und^r Egyptian 
 Skies," is another of those readable, up-to-date romances of foreign travel and 
 strange intrigues, from the pen of St. George Rathborne, who has given the 
 reading public many bright tales of American pluck and heroism the world over, 
 among which we recall his " Doctor Jack "and a volume recently issued called 
 14 Her Rescue from the Turks." 
 
 " Her Rescue from the Turks," by St. George Rathborne, is the very latest 
 romance of foreign adventure, written by the well-known author of " Doctor 
 Jack," The field chosen could hardly have been more timely, since the eyes o! 
 the whole civilized world are at present turned toward the Orient, and armed 
 Europe might be compared to an arch of which Turkey is the keystone. This 
 jtory is rapid in action, with a vein of comedy illuminating the whole. 
 
 Uniform editions, cloth, $1.00; paper, 5 oc. 
 SQUIRE JOHN. 
 A SON OF MARS. 
 A BAR SINISTER. 
 A GODDESS OF AFRICA. 
 MASKED IN MYSTERY. 
 HER RESCUE FROM THE TURKS. 
 
 Par sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of pried 
 
 P. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 96 Queen Street, London-. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York
 
 A Fascinating Sinner. 
 
 By "DELTA." 
 
 Neely's Popular Library Paper, 350. 
 
 This is certainly one of the brightest and 
 nost sparkling travesties ever written upon 
 modern " society " in England. There is not a 
 dull line in it, and the author has handled the 
 various characters with rare skill, giving us such 
 strong delineations that we have no difficulty in 
 recognizing counterfeit resemblances of people 
 to be met with in other walks of life besides the 
 "four hundred." It is the story of a luxurious 
 and high-spirited young woman, who, married to 
 an English nobleman, gives the worthy man 
 serious cause for anxiety. Her luxurious tastes, 
 her greedy desire to make the most of life, and 
 the colloquial animation of the narrative give an 
 agreeable raciness to this bright and cheery book 
 that is full of constant sparkle and brightness. 
 It will not require more than ordinary penetra- 
 tion to discover that the author paints her char- 
 acters and introduces colloquial arguments with 
 a distinct and commendable purpose in view. 
 The moral of the book is so manifest that it can 
 hardly fail of its purpose with the general reader. 
 It is evidently no amateur hand that guides these 
 various characters to their destiny, but one long 
 practiced in the art of catering to the great pub- 
 lic of omnivorous readers. 
 
 For sale everywhere, or sent post-paid on receipt of price. 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher, 
 90 Queen Street, London. 114 Fifth Avenue, New York.
 
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 The Charlatan. Robert Buchanan and Henry Murray. 
 Burkett's Lock. M. G. McClelland. 
 The Land of Promise. (Illustrated.) Paul Bourget. 
 Hypnotism. (Illustrated.) Jules Claretie. 
 Facing the Flag. Jules Verne. 
 The Fallen Race. (Illustrated.) Austyn Gran villa. 
 The Disappearance of Mr. Derwent. Thomas Cobb. 
 Sacrificed Love. (Illustrated.) Alphonse Daudet. 
 The One Too Many. Mrs. E. Lynn Lynton. 
 The New Man at Rossmere. Mrs. J. H. Walworth. 
 At Market Value. Grant Allen. 
 A Daughter of the King. Allen. 
 A Monk of Grata. (Illustrated.) E. Phillips Oppen- 
 helm. 
 
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 THE AMERICAN 
 
 Cricket Annual I Golf Guide 
 
 FOR 1898. 
 
 Compiled and Edited by JEROME FLANNERY. 
 
 CONTENTS : 
 PHILADELPHIANS' TOUR IN ENGLAND, by A. M. WOOD 
 
 ( With full sccrcs of all matches flayed) 
 
 TOUR OF P. F. WARNER'S TEAM, by JEROME FLANNKRY 
 
 ( With full scores of all matches) 
 
 PKILADELPHIAN CRICKET, by FORDHAM MORGAN 
 CRICKET IN NEW ENGLAND, by WILL ROFFK 
 THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT, by W. FENWICK 
 CRICKET IN THE WEST, by JOSEPH G. DAVIS 
 CANADIAN CRICKET, by JOHN E. HALL 
 CRICKET FOR WOMEN, by EDITH C. HAZEN 
 
 GOLF IN 1897, 
 
 By H. L. FITZPATRICK, (Golf Editor, "The Sun," New York.) 
 
 Records and Averages of the chief Cricket Clubs of the United 
 States and Canada; Centuries of 1897; Secretaries of 1898; Canada 
 vs. United States; Laws of Cricket; Rules of Golf; Golf Clubs 
 and Secretaries of the United States, etc. 
 
 GOLF RECORDS OF THE SEASON. 
 
 "The book is invaluable to golfers and cricketers who desire 
 to keep informed of the progress of these pastimes." 
 
 Price 50 cents ; or, handsomely bound in cloth, $f .00 
 Sent, postage paid, on receipt of price by 
 
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 Phrases, etc. 
 
 A Dictionary of the Grammatical Uses of Prepositions. 
 
 A Dictionary of Prepositions Discriminated. 
 
 A Dictionary of Homonyms. 
 
 A Dictionary of Hompphonous Words. 
 
 A Dictionary of Classical Quotations from Ancient and 
 Mo_dern Languages, and of Foreign Phrases. 
 
 A Dictionary of Abbreviations and Contractions used 
 in writing and printing, 
 
 An Etymological Dictionary of Prefixes and Postfixes 
 from the Greek, Latin and Saxon tongues, and all 
 of the important words derived from the Hebrew, 
 Greek and Latin Languages. 
 
 A Dictionary of words distinguished by their various 
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 A Dictionary of mistakes made in ordinary conversa- 
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 A Dictionary of contractions and of the plurals of all 
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