Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) IN BLUE CREEK CANON BY ANNA CHAPIN RAY AUTHOR OF "HALF A DOZEN BOYS," "HALF A DOZEN GIRLS," ETC. NEW YORK: 46 EAST 14TH STREET THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. BOSTON: 100 PURCHASE STREET COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. _Printed and Electrotyped by_ ALFRED MUDGE & SON, BOSTON. [Illustration: "A quartette of boys and girls were darting about on skates."] If you've wronged him, speak him fair. Say you're sorry and make it square; If he's wronged you, wink so tight None of you see what's plain in sight. When the world goes hard and wrong, Lend a hand to help him along; When his stockings have holes to darn, Don't you grudge him your ball of yarn. * * * * * Stick to each other through thick and thin; All the closer as age leaks in; Squalls will blow, and clouds will frown, But stay by your ship till you all go down! OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. CONTENTS. I. A COUNCIL ON SKATES II. TO WELCOME THE COMING GUEST III. THE EVERETT HOUSEHOLD IV. ON THE CROSS-HEAD V. THE MEETING IN THE WATERS VI. MARJORIE'S PARTY VII. JANEY'S PROPHECY VIII. IN THE DARK IX. CAMPING ON THE BEAVERHEAD X. UP THE GULCH XI. "SWEET CHARITY'S SAKE" XII. HOME WITHOUT A MOTHER XIII. AT THE NINE-HUNDRED LEVEL XIV. THE BEGINNING OF THE OLD STORY XV. MR. ATHERDEN XVI. THE COMPLETED STORY XVII. THE TRAGEDY OF THE UNEXPECTED XVIII. UNDER ORDERS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "A quartette of boys and girls were darting about on skates." "He cautiously moved away a few inches along the beam." "His lamp extended in one hand, while with his other he held his cane, which he was poking about in the soft, sticky mud." IN BLUE CREEK CANON. CHAPTER I. A COUNCIL ON SKATES. A strong southeast wind was blowing up the canon and driving before it the dense yellow smoke which rolled up from the great red chimneys of the smelter. To the east and west of the town, the mountains rose abruptly, their steep sides bare or covered with patches of yellow pine. At the north, the canon closed in to form a narrow gorge between the mountains; but towards the south it opened out into a broad valley, through which the swiftly rushing creek twisted and turned along its willow-bordered bed. A half mile below the town the creek suddenly broadened into a little lake that was now frozen over, forming a sheet of dazzling ice, upon which a quartette of boys and girls were darting about on skates.