[Illustration: Lin McLean] A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF CHRISTMAS BY OWEN WISTER AUTHOR OF “LIN MCLEAN” “RED MEN AND WHITE” “THE JIMMYJOHN BOSS” ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY FREDERIC REMINGTON [Illustration: Logo] NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER _&_ BROTHERS PUBLISHERS MCMV Copyright, 1904, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ Published October, 1904. CONTENTS [Illustration: Border] CHAP. PAGE I. Lin’s Money Talks Joy 1 II. Lin’s Money is Dumb 13 III. A Transaction in Boot-Blacking 37 IV. Turkey and Responsibility 50 V. Santa Claus Lin 75 ILLUSTRATIONS [Illustration: Border] Lin McLean _Frontispiece_ “Lin walked in their charge, they leading the way” _Facing p._ 52 “‘This is Mister Billy Lusk’” „ 90 A JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF CHRISTMAS I Lin’s Money Talks Joy [Illustration: Border] [Illustration: Border] The Governor descended the steps of the Capitol slowly and with pauses, lifting a list frequently to his eye. He had intermittently pencilled it between stages of the forenoon’s public business, and his gait grew absent as he recurred now to his jottings in their accumulation, with a slight pain at their number, and the definite fear that they would be more in seasons to come. They were the names of his friends’ children to whom his excellent heart moved him to give Christmas presents. He had put off this regenerating evil until the latest day, as was his custom, and now he was setting forth to do the whole thing at a blow, entirely planless among the guns and rocking-horses that would presently surround him. As he reached the highway he heard himself familiarly addressed from a distance, and, turning, saw four sons of the alkali jogging into town from the plain. One who had shouted to him galloped out from the others, rounded the Capitol’s enclosure, and, approaching with radiant countenance, leaned to reach the hand of the Governor, and once again greeted him with a hilarious “Hello, Doc!” [Illustration: Border]