In this story we take up John Stevens and his son Robert, the son and grandson of Philip Stevens, whose story was told in "Pocahontas." The object has been to give a complete history of the period and to depict home life, manners and customs of the time in the form of a pleasing story. It remains for the reader to say if the effort has been a success. JOHN R. MUSICK. KIRKSVILLE, MO., August 1st, 1892. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE DUCKING STOOL CHAPTER II. SEEKING BETTER FORTUNE CHAPTER III. THE COLONIES OF THE NEW WORLD CHAPTER IV. THE STORM AND SHIPWRECK CHAPTER V. JOHN STEVENS' CHARGE CHAPTER VI. THE ISLAND OF DESOLATION CHAPTER VII. IN WIDOW'S WEEDS CHAPTER VIII. THE STEPFATHER CHAPTER IX. THE MOVING WORLD CHAPTER X. THE FUGITIVE AND HIS CHILD CHAPTER XI. TYRANNY AND FLIGHT CHAPTER XII. THE DAUGHTER OF A REGICIDE CHAPTER XIII. LEFT ALONE CHAPTER XIV. THE TREASURE SHIP CHAPTER XV. THE ANGEL OF DELIVERANCE CHAPTER XVI. KING PHILIP'S WAR CHAPTER XVII. NEARING THE VERGE CHAPTER XVIII. THE SWORD OF DEFENCE CHAPTER XIX. THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER CHAPTER XX. BACON A REBEL CHAPTER XXI. BURNING OF JAMESTOWN CHAPTER XXII. VENGEANCE WITH A VENGEANCE CHAPTER XXIII. CONCLUSION HISTORICAL INDEX CHRONOLOGY LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: His tired child was at his side uncomplainingly Ducking stool "I'll scratch your eyes out!" Once more he bent over the sleeping children Kieft from the ramparts watched the burning wigwams Stuyvesant The squaw, with a yell of fear, wheeled to fly for her life Blanche could not utter a word of consolation Oliver Cromwell "Peter the Headstrong," unable to control his passion, tore the letter into pieces Tomb of Stuyvesant The door was thrown open, and the boy Robert entered to take a part in the scene His temper flamed out in word "Are you ready?" Sir Henry Vane "Our journey is not one half over!" "You are not lost, if you follow me!" He fell upon his face in the mud and water with his gun under him He flung him down the front steps where he lay in a heap on the ground "Here! Shoot me! 'Fore God, a fair mark!" Ruins of Jamestown The ball struck four or five feet to Robert's left, and in front of him, splashing up a jet of water Map of the period A CENTURY TOO SOON. CHAPTER I. THE DUCKING-STOOL. Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world. --SHAKESPEARE. [Illustration: ducking stool]