HOME ONCE MORE
“Oh, father, it looks just the same! There are our mountains that
Colonel Standish and I said good-by to. Oh, daddy, I’ve missed the
mountains so! And there are the foot-hills! Aren’t they green? And see
the flowers on them! Oh, there’s a shooting star! I saw it in the
hollow as we passed. And aren’t the grain fields lovely with the wind
sweeping over them? Oh, father, won’t the girls just love it? And
won’t it be perfectly lovely to have them? I never saw any one so
happy as Carver Standish when he said you had asked him. The Colonel
was smiling all over, too. It will be a regular house-party, won’t it?
And isn’t it wonderful that Aunt Nan’s coming with all of them? Oh,
father, weren’t we happy in Vermont, and isn’t it just the loveliest
thing in all the world that we have grandmother and Aunt Nan for our
very own? I know mother would be happy, don’t you?”
“I’m sure she would be very happy, dear. It’s what we used to hope for
years ago. And I’m the happiest man in all Wyoming to have my little
daughter back, and I’m more glad than ever that I sent her away to
school.”
“Oh, I’m so glad that I can’t help thinking about it. Just think if
I’d never gone, I’d never have known Priscilla—isn’t she dear,
father—or Dorothy, or Mary and Anne, or those dear, funny Blackmore
twins, or Vivian—Vivian seems silly, father, but she isn’t really,
she’s fine underneath, you’ll see—or Miss King, or darling Miss
Wallace—oh, daddy, wasn’t she too dear for anything when she said
good-by? She kissed me twice. It’s selfish to notice, but I couldn’t
help it. She’s one of my very dearest friends. Didn’t you like her
especially?”
“Very much, dear. See, we’re coming nearer. We’ve crossed the creek
bridge. Better put on your hat.”
Fifteen minutes later they had left the dingy little station and were
driving along the country road between fields of waving grain, the
proud Dick being holder of the reins. Virginia plied him with eager
questions.
“Oh, Dick, how is the colt?”
“Fine, Miss Virginia. We put him on the range last month.”
[Illustration: “The road lay at the very base of the green
foot-hills.”]
“And how’s Pedro?”
“He’s fine, too.”
“Have the little collies grown much?”
Dick laughed. “They’re not little any more, Miss Virginia.”
“And how are Alec and Joe and Hannah and Mr. Weeks and William?”
“They’re first-rate, and all anxious to see you.”
Virginia clung closer to her father’s hand. “It seems strange, doesn’t
it, father,” she whispered, her voice breaking, “and—and sad not to
have Jim drive us home?”
For miles they drove across the broad prairies, past grain fields and
through barren, unirrigated stretches. Then at last they turned a bend
in the road, and there before them lay the nearer foot-hills, with the
higher ranges above, and far above all the mountains—still
snow-covered.
“They look really friendly this morning with the sun on them,” said
Virginia, “and they ought to when I love them so, and am coming back
to them.”
They turned again. This time the road lay at the very base of the
green foot-hills, upon which cattle and horses were feeding. On the
side of one of the hills rose a great spruce, and on the ground near
it, Virginia’s quick eyes caught a glow of color.
“Is that—?” she whispered to her father.
“Yes,” he said softly. “That’s where Jim lies. We fenced in the range
for a good distance all around the tree so the cattle couldn’t go
there; and William tended some plants all winter so that he could put
them there early in the spring. They’re all in blossom now, you see.”
Virginia could not speak. She watched the great spruce and the color
beneath it, until they rounded the hill and both were hidden from
sight. Then she put her head against her father’s shoulder, while he,
understanding, held her close. Jim’s absence was the only shadow upon
her home-coming. Nothing would seem the same without him; and now that
he was gone, the girls would never understand why it was that she had
loved him so. If they could only have seen him, then they would have
known!
“You can see home now, little girl,” said her father.
She raised her head eagerly. Yes, there it was—the green wheat fields,
the avenue of tall cottonwoods whose leaves were fluttering in the
wind, the long white ranch-house, from the window of which some one
was waving a red handkerchief.
“Hannah!” cried Virginia, as she waved her own handkerchief in answer.
A few minutes more and they were driving beneath the cottonwoods.
Around the corner of the house bounded the collie dogs, the pups
indistinguishable from their mother, to give them welcome; in the
doorway stood Hannah, her face bright with joy; and by Virginia’s
flower-bed, in which spikes of blue larkspur, reaching to her window,
were brave with bloom, stood William—a new William, with the sadness
and the failures quite gone from his face.
“Oh, William,” cried Virginia, jumping from the carriage, and running
up to him; “Oh, William, it’s next best to having Jim to have you—like
this!”
* * * * *
That afternoon Elk Creek Valley lay bathed in June sunshine. It had
never seemed so beautiful—at least to a certain boy and girl, who
rested their horses on the brow of the Mine, and looked off across a
creek bordered by cottonwoods and merry, laughing quaking-asps, across
a blue-green sea of waving grain, to the distant, snow-furrowed
mountain peaks. Some magpies flew chattering over the prairie and
among the quaking-asps; a meadow lark sang from a near-by tree-stump;
and two cotton-tail rabbits chased each other across the open space
between the creek and the foot-hills, and played hide-and-seek behind
the sage-brush.
“Isn’t it the loveliest place in all the world, Don?” the girl almost
whispered. “I know I’ll not be any happier when I get to Heaven. And
some way the mountains are friendlier than ever. Perhaps because I
love them better now I’m home again.”
“It is lovely,” the boy answered. “The finest country anywhere! I’m
mighty glad you’re home again, Virginia; but the thing I’m most glad
about is, that you aren’t a young lady after all!”
THE END
SIX STAR RANCH
Another success by the author of the wonderful GLAD Books
“Pollyanna: The GLAD Book”
“Pollyanna Grows Up: The Second GLAD Book”
With frontispiece in full color from a painting by R. Farrington
Elwell and six spirited drawings by Frank J. Murch. Bound uniform with
the POLLYANNA books in silk cloth, with a corresponding color jacket,
net $1.25; carriage paid $1.40
The year we published POLLYANNA, THE GLAD BOOK, we published another
book by the same author, but as it is contrary to our policy to issue
two books by one writer in a year, we published the second book under
the pseudonym “Eleanor Stuart.”
As we are not going to publish a new book of Mrs. Porter’s this year,
we have decided to announce the publication of SIX STAR RANCH under
the name of its real author. The success of her previous books is
practically unparalleled in the history of American publishing,
POLLYANNA: THE GLAD BOOK, having already sold 300,000 copies—an
average of more than 100,000 copies for three consecutive years—and
POLLYANNA GROWS UP: THE SECOND GLAD BOOK, having sold nearly 150,000
copies in nine months.
SIX STAR RANCH is a charming story, in the author’s best vein, of a
dear little Texas girl, who plays “the glad game” made famous by
POLLYANNA, and plays it with a charm which will put her on the same
pinnacle, side by side with POLLYANNA.
SYLVIA OF THE HILL TOP
A Sequel to “Sylvia’s Experiment, The Cheerful Book”
By Margaret R. Piper
12mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color, decorative
jacket, net $1.25; carriage paid $1.40
In THE CHEERFUL BOOK Sylvia Arden proved herself a messenger of joy
and cheerfulness to thousands of readers. In this new story she plays
the same rôle on Arden Hill during her summer vacation and is the same
wholesome, generous, cheerful young lady who made such a success of
the Christmas Party. She befriends sick neighbors, helps “run” a
tea-room, brings together two lovers who have had differences, serves
as the convenient bridesmaid here and the good Samaritan there, and
generally acquits herself in a manner which made of her such a popular
heroine in the former story. There is, of course, a Prince Charming in
the background.
“The SYLVIA books should be read by all the exponents of POLLYANNA of
THE GLAD BOOKS,” says Mr. H. V. Meyer of the American Baptist
Publication Society.
THE GIRL FROM THE BIG HORN COUNTRY
By Mary Ellen Chase
12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by R. Farrington Elwell, net
$1.25; carriage paid $1.40
At the beginning of the story, Virginia Hunter, a bright, breezy,
frank-hearted “girl of the Golden West,” comes out of the Big Horn
country of Wyoming to the old Bay State. Then “things begin,” when
Virginia,—who feels the joyous, exhilarating call of the Big Horn
wilderness and the outdoor life,—attempts to become acclimated and
adopt good old New England “ways.”
Few stories reveal a more attractive heroine, and the joyous spirit of
youth and its happy adventures give the story an unusual charm.
“The book has natural characters, fresh incidents, and a general
atmosphere of sincerity and wholesome understanding of girl nature.
Virginia may well become as popular as ‘Miss Billy’ or irresistible
Anne.”—_New York Sun_.
THE VIOLIN LADY
A Sequel to “The Fiddling Girl” and “The Proving of Virginia”
By Daisy Rhodes Campbell
Frontispiece in full color from a painting by F. W. Read, and six
black and white illustrations by John Goss, decorative jacket, net
$1.25; carriage paid $1.40
This new story continues the adventures of the once little Fiddling
Girl and tells of her triumphs and hardships abroad, of her friends,
her love affairs, and finally of Virginia’s wedding bells and return
to America. The previous two books in this series have been pronounced
excellent and uplift stories, but “The Violin Lady” is far ahead of
both in interest and charm.
The press has commented on the author’s previous stories as follows:
“A delightful story told in a charming manner. The Page
Company does a real service indeed in the publication of so
many of these excellent stories.”—_Zion’s Herald, Boston_.
“A thoroughly enjoyable tale, written in a delightful vein of
sympathetic comprehension.”—_Boston Herald_.
MAN PROPOSES
Or, The Romance of John Alden Shaw
By Elliot H. Robinson
12mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color and other
illustrations by William Van Dresser, net $1.25; carriage paid $1.40
The story of John Alden Shaw is in many respects unique. Containing an
enigma of an unusual nature, an odd legal tangle and a deep moral
problem, the plot holds the reader’s attention to the very end. Quite
as interesting as the major theme of the story are the minor
incidents, for the greater part of the action occurs in gay Newport
during “tennis week” and one somewhat unusual feature of the book is
the introduction of several real and widely known characters—chiefly
tennis stars of international reputation—and actual happenings, which
give the tale peculiar realism. As the author is recognized as one of
our leading writers on tennis, the scenes at the famous Casino during
one of the national championships are particularly well drawn.
While primarily a problem love story, Man Proposes is essentially a
book “with a difference.” The heroine is a charming Southern girl,
decidedly American in her ideas, while John is himself a very real
sort of young man, and though possessed of sterling qualities which
bring him victoriously through his great test, is no paragon of
virtues.
“Man proposes, but God disposes!”—Thomas a Kempis.
“Prithee, why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”—_Longfellow_.
As the story unfolds the reader will appreciate the significance of
the above lines.
ANNE’S WEDDING
A Blossom Shop Romance
A Sequel to “The Blossom Shop” and “Anne of the Blossom Shop”
By Isla May Mullins
12mo, cloth decorative, with a frontispiece in full color from a
fainting by Gene Pressler, net $1.25; carriage paid $1.40
This new book continues the story of a delightful Southern family of
unique combinations, which have been introduced to thousands of
interested readers through the two preceding volumes, _The Blossom
Shop_ and _Anne of the Blossom Shop_. The new volume promises to be by
far the most popular of the three—which is saying a good deal—for
these stories, sweet and clean, with their picturesque Southern
setting, have charmed both old and young. In the new volume Anne, May
and Gene, three girls of varying types from lovely Mrs. Carter’s
garden of girls, touch life in new and vital ways which develop
sterling character and set promising and full-blown romance to
stirring.
“There is so much of sunshine in its pages that it sheds its
cheerfulness upon the reader, making life seem brighter and convincing
us that this world is a pleasant place to live in and full of
delightful, kind-hearted people.”—_Boston Times_.