THE DEATH OF A LITTLE BLACK CHICKEN
A day has come, still, cold and grey, when you say, "There is snow in
the air," and you are not sorry. The first snow is curiously
attractive. Before, you are a little doubtful as to the season. Is it
late autumn--there are still a few leaves on the beech tree--or has
winter arrived? You would like to know; you object to being in
uncertainty about your seasons. And then the snow comes one night very
softly but very surely, and you wake in the morning to find that the
thing is accomplished--winter has come. Your furs are reached out,
your last thin frock is laid away, your eider-downs are aired, and you
are quite resigned, you have no regrets. The summer brought you
treasures in abundance, scattered largess with prodigal hand. But
winter is no niggard. It gives you branches of trees stripped of their
greenery, but beautiful in their form and shape. You had forgotten
that the apple tree had a delicious crook here, a bend of the knee
there, and a graceful arm with finely-turned wrist held out to its
neighbours in the field in a spirit of friendship. And winter gives
you brown fields--sad, you were about to say, but your pen halts at the
word. They are not sad, they are but resting and waiting. "All things
must rest." Those quiet, brown fields have done their work, they have
yielded great riches, they have given of their best. Now is their
season of peace, and they will be ready after their winter sleep for
more work.
Winter gives you red suns and clear, frosty nights. It gives you the
friendship of little birds who in summer are shy and not to be won.
You are not deceived by their sudden overtures; it is not you, you
know. It is the cocoa-nut hanging in front of the window, and the
crumbs on the lawn, and the succulent bit of mutton-fat suspended from
the apple tree. But you are glad to have them at any price; the tits'
joyful chatter and the wrens' hurried warble, and the clear, sweet note
of the robin enliven the atmosphere. They make no pretence of being
fine musicians, like their sometime friend the thrush; but they say,
"What's the good of being a singer if you keep your mouth or bill shut
for six months in the year?" And I smile behind my hand and partly
agree with them, though I dare not let the thrush hear me. I gave him
a great welcome in the spring, and he would think me faithless were I
now to speak of him disparagingly.
And winter brings in its wake great glowing fires and warm, lamplit
rooms, and a feeling of snug cosiness when the curtains are drawn.
They have pushed my couch close to the fire, for I am a shivery mortal
these days, and from my corner I can see the grey sky, the still, bare
trees, and I can feel the hush in the air which ever precedes the snow.
Anxiously I hope that Dimbie will be home before it comes, for he is
many miles from here--gone at my request to satisfy a longing, a desire
of mine which has been with me for many weeks, which has lain very
close to my heart, and which has now become so insistent that it cannot
be hushed. It has been with me by day, I have whispered it in the long
hours of the night, "How fares the tiny black chicken?" Has it
suffered, lived on since that cruel moment when my bicycle crushed it
to earth, or was its life snatched away from it? If it has lived it
will be a big chicken now. The soft down will have become feathers,
the wee legs will have grown long and thin.
This morning I found courage to voice my request, to tell Dimbie of my
longing. At the first word he started, and his face became set. He
walked to the window and drummed on the panes.
"You don't mind, Dimbie? You'll go for me?" I pleaded.
"But why? Why do you want to know?"
"I cannot tell," I replied. "It may be silly, morbid, but I feel as
though--one or two things might be made clear to me if I knew."
He did not speak for a long time. His back was to me, and I could not
see his face. Presently he said, without looking round, "I'll go. I
cannot refuse you anything, Marg. But I don't like it. The chicken
may be gone."
"Gone?"
"Well--dead."
"And if it is," I said softly, "I shan't mind. I shall know--and be
satisfied."
He came and knelt by the couch.
"But won't you be lonely, girl?"
I shook my head.
"Are you better to-day, sweetheart? Do you think you are any stronger?
That wedding was too much for you."
Each day my dear one abuses poor Jane's wedding. I had been overtired
that night, faint, with a singing in my cars and the sound of many
waters surging around me. And each day also he says, "You are a little
stronger, I think, don't you?" But he does not wait for an answer.
Sometimes it is better to leave a question unanswered.
Oh, my husband, will you ever know, ever understand how much happiness
you have given to me? Before I knew you life was an arid wilderness.
I was but young, but there was always Peter. Afterwards I came to a
garden of roses and lilies set about with the tender green of spring.
And _our_ year! How wonderful it has been! Sorrow came to us, but joy
entered a little later. Sorrow we thrust forth, and joy crept still
closer, and has remained with us even to the end. Sorrow will dog
Dimbie's footsteps for a little season, but joy will triumph over
all--"for here we have no continuing city."
* * * * *
Dimbie came home as the first snowflake brushed the window-pane. In
the firelight he knelt and told me of the strange thing that had
happened. He found the cottage, and as he entered the little chicken
turned over on its side, stretched its legs and died. A child with
golden hair leaned over it and wept bitterly.
"And had it suffered?" I whispered.
He shook his head.
"The woman said not, but it was lamed. The child from the day of the
accident cared for it, tended it, nursed it. It slept in a box in the
kitchen, and became very tame. The woman is a widow, and this little
one the only child."
"Did you tell her of--me?"
"Yes," said Dimbie gently.
I laid my cheek to his, and he stroked my hair in his old, dear
fashion. And we sat thus, and once again told each other the old, old
story of our love. The soft snow brushed the window-pane, the corners
of the room became shadowy and mysterious, and hand in hand we waited
for the light which always follows the darkness.
AN AFTERWORD
The pen has fallen from Marguerite's hand never again to be taken up.
And we who wait for the lifting of the veil find it hard not to
question the why and the wherefore.
Hers was a beautiful, blameless life. Her suffering was borne with a
great patience and cheerfulness, and we cry and cry again, "Why should
this be?"
Jane Renton's philosophy is simple: "God wanted her more than we."
But to me it seems such love as theirs--of husband and wife--should
have been allowed to continue yet a little while longer. Jane says it
will outlast the ages. To Jane has been given a faith, an
understanding which has been withheld from many. Her eyes can see
while ours are blinded with tears.
I have her husband's sanction to give her simple story to the world.
"It may help to brighten the life of some other sufferer, and she would
be glad," I said, and he bowed his head.
The last night of her life was one of silver, as she herself would have
described it, for the moon turned the earth with its soft mantle of
snow into silver sheen. We drew back the curtains and pushed the bed
still nearer to the window. Dimbie's arms pillowed her head. From
unconsciousness she kept creeping back to moments of consciousness, and
she would speak a little. Once she murmured something about a little
black chicken, and always the word "Dimbie" was upon her lips. At the
last we left them alone. By and by Dimbie came out of the room and
passed out into the moonlit night. She would be glad that it was so,
that there was the moonlight, and that while her spirit winged its way
to eternal light there was a reflection of its brightness left for her
Dimbie.
NANTY.
THE END.
* * * * *
A FEW OF
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* * * * *
GROSSET & DUNLAP'S
DRAMATIZED NOVELS
A Few that are Making Theatrical History
MARY JANE'S PA. By Norman Way. Illustrated with scenes from the play.
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CHERUB DEVINE. By Sewell Ford.
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THE CLIMAX. By George C. Jenks.
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A FOOL THERE WAS. By Porter Emerson Browne. Illustrated by Edmund
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* * * * *
A FEW OF
GROSSET & DUNLAP'S
Great Books at Little Prices
CY WHITTAKER'S PLACE. By Joseph C. Lincoln. Illustrated by Wallace
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THE FORGE IN THE FOREST. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated by H.
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THE OPENED SHUTTERS. By Clara Louise Burnham. Frontispiece by
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THE RIGHT PRINCESS. By Clara Louise Burnham.
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THE LEAVEN OF LOVE. By Clara Louise Burnham. Frontispiece by Harrison
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QUINCY ADAMS SAWYER. A Picture of New England Home Life. With
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HALF A CHANCE. By Frederic S. Isham. Illustrated by Herman Pfeifer.
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VIRGINIA OF THE AIR LANES. By Herbert Quick. Illustrated by William
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BRUVVER JIM'S BABY. By Philip Verrill Mighels.
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THE FURNACE OF GOLD. By Philip Verrill Mighels, author of "Bruvver
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THE MESSAGE. By Louis Tracy. Illustrations by Joseph C. Chase.
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THE SCARLET EMPIRE. By David M. Parry. Illustrations by Hermann C.
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A young socialist, weary of life, plunges into the sea and awakes in
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THE THIRD DEGREE. By Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow. Illustrations
by Clarence Rowe.
A novel which exposes the abuses in this country of the police system.
The son of an aristocratic New York family marries a woman socially
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THE THIRTEENTH DISTRICT. By Brand Whitlock.
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THE MUSIC MASTER. By Charles Klein. Illustrated by John Rae.
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DR. LAVENDAR'S PEOPLE. By Margaret Deland. Illustrated by Lucius
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Mrs. Deland won so many friends through Old Chester Tales that this
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OLD CHESTER TALES. By Margaret Deland. Illustrated by Howard Pyle.
Stories portraying with delightful humor and pathos a quaint people in
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HE FELL IN LOVE WITH HIS WIFE. By E. P. Roe. With frontispiece.
The hero is a farmer--a man with honest, sincere views of life. Bereft
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THE YOKE. By Elizabeth Miller.
Against the historical background of the days when the children of
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SAUL OF TARSUS. By Elizabeth Miller. Illustrated by André Castaigne.
The scenes of this story are laid in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome and
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WHEN A MAN MARRIES. By Mary Roberts Rinehart. Illustrated by Harrison
Fisher and Mayo Bunker.
A young artist, whose wife had recently divorced him, finds that a
visit is due from his Aunt Selina, an elderly lady having ideas about
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the motif of the story.
A farcical extravaganza, dramatized under the title of "Seven Days".
THE FASHIONABLE ADVENTURES OF JOSHUA CRAIG. By David Graham Phillips.
Illustrated.
A young westerner, uncouth and unconventional, appears in political and
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"DOC." GORDON. By Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman. Illustrated by Frank T.
Merrill.
Against the familiar background of American town life, the author
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HOLY ORDERS. By Marie Corelli.
A dramatic story, in which is pictured a clergyman in touch with
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KATRINE. By Elinor Macartney Lane. With frontispiece.
Katrine, the heroine of this story, is a lovely Irish girl, of lowly
birth, but gifted with a beautiful voice.
The narrative is based on the facts of an actual singer's career, and
the viewpoint throughout is a most exalted one.
THE FORTUNES OF FIFI. By Molly Elliot Seawell. Illustrated by T. de
Thulstrup.
A story of life in France at the time of the first Napoleon. Fifi, a
glad, mad little actress of eighteen, is the star performer in a third
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SHE THAT HESITATES. By Harris Dickson. Illustrated by C. W. Relyea.
The scene of this dashing romance shifts from Dresden to St. Petersburg
in the reign of Peter the Great, and then to New Orleans.
The hero is a French Soldier of Fortune, and the princess, who
hesitates--but you must read the story to know how she that hesitates
may be lost and yet saved.
HAPPY HAWKINS. By Robert Alexander Wason. Illustrated by Howard Giles.
A ranch and cowboy novel. Happy Hawkins tells his own story with such
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COMRADES. By Thomas Dixon, Jr. Illustrated by C. D. Williams.
The locale of this story is in California, where a few socialists
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The author leads the little band along the path of disillusionment, and
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TONO-BUNGAY. By Herbert George Wells.
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Written with a frankness verging on Rousseau's, Mr. Wells still uses
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A HUSBAND BY PROXY. By Jack Steele.
A young criminologist, but recently arrived in Hew York city, is drawn
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LIKE ANOTHER HELEN. By George Horton. Illustrated by C. M. Relyea.
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THE MASTER OF APPLEBY. By Francis Lynde. Illustrated by T. de
Thulstrup.
A novel tale concerning itself in part with the great struggle in the
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A strong, masculine and persuasive story.
A MODERN MADONNA. By Caroline Abbot Stanley.
A story of American life, founded on facts as they existed some years
ago in the District of Columbia. The theme is the maternal love and
splendid courage of a woman.
* * * * *
BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.
THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. With illustrations by
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THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated.
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THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume So the "Kindred of the
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Charles Livingston Bull.
These stones are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in their
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RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak Wilds,
and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 illustrations,
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* * * * *
FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS
IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS
Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size,
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THE CATTLE BARON'S DAUGHTER. A Novel. By Harold Bindloss. With
illustrations by David Ericson.
A story of the fight for the cattle-ranges of the West. Intense
interest is aroused by its pictures of life in the cattle country at
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inevitable result of fierce contest, of passionate emotion on both
sides, and of final triumph of the inevitable tendency of the times.
WINSTON OF THE PRAIRIE. With illustrations in color by W. Herbert
Dunton.
A man of upright character, young and clean, but badly worsted in the
battle of life, consents as a desperate resort to impersonate for a
period a man of his own age--scoundrelly in character but of an
aristocratic and moneyed family. The better man finds himself barred
from resuming his old name. How, coming into the other man's
possessions, he wins the respect of all men, and the love of a
fastidious, delicately nurtured girl, is the thread upon which the
story hangs. It is one of the best novels of the West that has
appeared for years.
THAT MAINWARING AFFAIR. By A. Maynard Barbour, With 11 illustrations
by E. Plaisted Abbott.
A novel with a most intricate and carefully unraveled plot. A
naturally probable and excellently developed story and the reader will
follow the fortunes of each character with unabating interest * * * the
interest is keen at the close of the first chapter and increases to the
end.
AT THE TIME APPOINTED. With a frontispiece in colors by J. H. Marchand.
The fortunes of a young mining engineer who through an accident loses
his memory and identity. In his new character and under his new name,
the hero lives a new life of struggle and adventure. The volume will
be found highly entertaining by those who appreciate a thoroughly good
story.
THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE. By Mary Roberts Reinhart. With illustrations
by Lester Ralph.
In an extended notice the _New York Sun_ says: "To readers who care for
a really good detective story 'The Circular Staircase' can be
recommended without reservation. The _Philadelphia Record_ declares
that 'The Circular Staircase' deserves the laurels for thrills, for
weirdness and things unexplained and inexplicable.
THE RED YEAR. By Louis Tracy.
"Mr. Tracy gives by far the most realistic and impressive pictures of
the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny that has been available
in any book of the kind * * * There has not been in modern times in the
history of any land scenes so fearful, so picturesque, so dramatic, and
Mr. Tracy draws them as with the pencil of a Verestschagin or the pen
of a Sienkiewics."
ARMS AND THE WOMAN. By Harold MacGrath. With inlay cover in colors by
Harrison Fisher.
The story is a blending of the romance and adventure of the middle ages
with nineteenth century men and women; and they are creations of flesh
and blood, and not mere pictures of past centuries. The story is about
Jack Winthrop, a newspaper man. Mr. MacGrath's finest bit of character
drawing is seen in Hillars, the broken down newspaper man, and Jack's
chum.
LOVE IS THE SUM OF IT ALL. By Geo. Cary Eggleston. With illustrations
by Hermann Heyer.
In this "plantation romance" Mr. Eggleston has resumed the manner and
method that made his "Dorothy South" one of the most famous books of
its time.
There are three tender love stories embodied in it, and two unusually
interesting heroines, utterly unlike each other, but each possessed of
a peculiar fascination which wins and holds the reader's sympathy. A
pleasing vein of gentle humor runs through the work, but the "sum of it
all" is an intensely sympathetic love story.
HEARTS AND THE CROSS. By Harold Morton Cramer. With illustrations by
Harold Matthews Brett.
The hero is an unconventional preacher who follows the line of the Man
of Galilee, associating with the lowly, and working for them in the
ways that may best serve them. He is not recognized at his real value
except by the one woman who saw clearly. Their love story is one of
the refreshing things in recent fiction.
A SIX-CYLINDER COURTSHIP. By Edw. Salisbury Field. With a color
frontispiece by Harrison Fisher, and illustrations by Clarence F.
Underwood, decorated pages and end sheets. Harrison Fisher head in
colors on cover. Boxed.
A story of cleverness. It is a jolly good romance of love at first
sight that will be read with undoubted pleasure. Automobiling figures
in the story which is told with light, bright touches, while a happy
gift of humor permeates it all.
"The book is full of interesting folks. The patois of the garage is
used with full comic and realistic effect, and effervescently,
culminating in the usual happy finish."--_St. Louis Mirror_.
AT THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW. By Gene Stratton-Porter. Author of
"FRECKLES."
With illustrations in color by Oliver Kemp, decorations by Ralph
Fletcher Seymour and inlay cover in colors.
The story is one of devoted friendship, and tender self-sacrificing
love; the friendship that gives freely without return, and the love
that seeks first the happiness of the object. The novel is brimful of
the most beautiful word painting of nature and its pathos and tender
sentiment will endear it to all.
JUDITH OF THE CUMBERLANDS. By Alice MacGowan.
With illustrations in colors, and inlay cover by George Wright. No one
can fail to enjoy this moving tale with its lovely and ardent heroine,
its frank, fearless hero, its glowing love passages, and its variety of
characters, captivating or engaging humorous or saturnine, villains,
rascals, and men of good will. A tale strong and interesting in plot,
faithful and vivid as a picture of wild mountain life, and in its
characterization full of warmth and glow.
A MILLION A MINUTE. By Hudson Douglas. With illustrations by Will
Grefe.
Has the catchiest of titles, and it is a ripping good tale from Chapter
I to Finis--no weighty problems to be solved, but just a fine running
story, full of exciting incidents, that never seemed strained or
improbable. It is a dainty love yarn involving three men and a girl.
There is not a dull or trite situation in the book.
CONJUROR'S HOUSE. By Stewart Edward White.
Dramatized under the title of "THE CALL OF THE NORTH."
Illustrated from Photographs of Scenes from the Play.
_Conjuror's House_ is a Hudson Bay trading port where the Fur Trading
Company tolerated no rivalry. Trespassers were sentenced to "La Longue
Traverse"--which meant official death. How Ned Trent entered the
territory, took _la longue traverse_, and the journey down the river of
life with the factor's only daughter is admirably told. It is a warm,
vivid, and dramatic story, and depicts the tenderness and mystery of a
woman's heart.
ARIZONA NIGHTS. By Stewart Edward White.
With illustrations by N. C. Wyeth, and beautiful inlay cover.
A series of spirited tales emphasizing some phase of the life of the
ranch, plains and desert, and all, taken together, forming a single
sharply-cut picture of life in the far Southwest. All the tonic of the
West is in this masterpiece of Stewart Edward White.
THE MYSTERY. By Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams.
With illustrations by Will Crawford.
For breathless interest, concentrated excitement and extraordinarily
good story telling on all counts, no more completely satisfying romance
has appeared for years. It has been voted the best story of its kind
since _Treasure Island_.
LIGHT-FINGERED GENTRY. By David Graham Phillips. With illustrations.
Mr. Phillips has chosen the inside workings of the great insurance
companies as his field of battle; the salons of the great Fifth Avenue
mansions as the antechambers of his field of intrigue; and the two
things which every natural, big man desires, love and success, as the
goal of his leading character. The book is full of practical
philosophy, which makes it worth careful reading.
THE SECOND GENERATION. By David Graham Phillips.
With illustrations by Fletcher C. Ramson, and inlay cover.
"It is a story that proves how, in some cases, the greatest harm a rich
man may do his children, is to leave them his money." "A strong,
wholesome story of contemporary American life--thoughtful,
well-conceived and admirably written; forceful, sincere, and true; and
intensely interesting."--_Boston Herald_.
* * * * *
THE MASTERLY AND REALISTIC NOVELS OF
FRANK NORRIS
Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.
THE OCTOPUS. A Story of California
Mr. Norris conceived the ambitious idea of writing a trilogy of novels
which, taken together, shall symbolize American life as a whole, with
all its hopes and aspirations and its tendencies, throughout the length
and breadth of the continent. And for the central symbol he has taken
wheat, as being quite literally the ultimate source of American power
and prosperity. _The Octopus_ is a story of wheat raising and railroad
greed in California. It immediately made a place for itself.
It is full of enthusiasm and poetry and conscious strength. One cannot
read it without a responsive thrill of sympathy for the earnestness,
the breadth of purpose, the verbal power of the man.
THE PIT. A Story of Chicago.
This powerful novel is the fictitious narrative of a deal in the
Chicago wheat pit and holds the reader from the beginning. In a
masterly way the author has grasped the essential spirit of the great
city by the lakes. The social existence, the gambling in stocks and
produce, the characteristic life in Chicago, form a background for an
exceedingly vigorous and human tale of modern life and love.
A MAN'S WOMAN.
A story which has for a heroine a girl decidedly out of the ordinary
run of fiction. It is most dramatic, containing some tremendous
pictures of the daring of the men who are trying to reach the Pole * *
* but it is at the same time essentially a _woman's_ book, and the
story works itself out in the solution of a difficulty that is
continually presented in real life--the wife's attitude in relation to
her husband when both have well-defined careers.
McTEAGUE. A Story of San Francisco.
"Since Bret Harte and the Forty-niner no one has written of California
life with the vigor and accuracy of Mr. Norris. His 'McTeague' settled
his right to a place in American literature; and he has now presented a
third novel, 'Blix,' which is in some respects the finest and likely to
be the most popular of the three."--_Washington Times_.
BLIX.
"Frank Norris has written in 'Blix' just what such a woman's name would
imply--a story of a frank, fearless girl comrade to all men who are
true and honest because she is true and honest. How she saved the man
she fishes and picnics with in a spirit of outdoor platonic friendship,
makes a pleasant story, and a perfect contrast to the author's
'McTeague.' A splendid and successful story."--_Washington Times_.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, -- New York
End of Project Gutenberg's Dimbie and I--and Amelia, by Mabel Barnes-Grundy