’LENA RIVERS by MRS. MARY J. HOLMES AUTHOR OF “TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE,” “ENGLISH ORPHANS,” “DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT,” “MARIAN GRAY,” “ETHELYN’S MISTAKE,” “CAMERON PRIDE,” “EDNA BROWNING,” “WEST LAWN,” “EDITH LYLE,” ETC., ETC. MDCCCXCVII. Contents PREFACE. CHAPTER I. ’LENA. CHAPTER II. JOHN. CHAPTER III. PACKING UP. CHAPTER IV. ON THE ROAD. CHAPTER V. MAPLE GROVE. CHAPTER VI. THE ARRIVAL. CHAPTER VII. MALCOLM EVERETT. CHAPTER VIII. SCHEMING. CHAPTER IX. FIVE YEARS LATER. CHAPTER X. MR. AND MRS. GRAHAM. CHAPTER XI. WOODLAWN. CHAPTER XII. MRS. GRAHAM AT HOME. CHAPTER XIII. MABEL. CHAPTER XIV. NELLIE AND MABEL. CHAPTER XV. MRS. LIVINGSTONE’S CALLS AND THEIR RESULT. CHAPTER XVI. CHRISTMAS GIFTS. CHAPTER XVII. FRANKFORT. CHAPTER XVIII. THE DEPARTURE. CHAPTER XIX. THE VISIT. CHAPTER XX. A FATHER’S LOVE. CHAPTER XXI. JOEL SLOCUM. CHAPTER XXII. THE DAGUERREOTYPE. CHAPTER XXIII. THE LETTER AND ITS EFFECT. CHAPTER XXIV. JOHN JR. AND MABEL. CHAPTER XXV. THE BRIDAL. CHAPTER XXVI MARRIED LIFE. CHAPTER XXVII. THE SHADOW. CHAPTER XXVIII. MRS. GRAHAM’S RETURN. CHAPTER XXIX. ANNA AND CAPTAIN ATHERTON. CHAPTER XXX. THE RESULT. CHAPTER XXXI. MORE CLOUDS. CHAPTER XXXII. REACTION. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE WANDERER. CHAPTER XXXIV ’LENA’S FATHER. CHAPTER XXXV. EXCITEMENT AT MAPLE GROVE. CHAPTER XXXVI. ARRIVAL AT WOODLAWN. CHAPTER XXXVII. DURWARD. CHAPTER XXXVIII. CONCLUSION. PREFACE. If it be true, as some have said, that a _secret_ is safer in a _preface_ than elsewhere, it would be worse than folly for me to waste the “midnight oil,” in the manufacture of an article which no one would read, and which would serve no purpose, save the adding of a page or so to a volume perhaps already too large. But I do not think so. I wot of a few who, with a horror of anything savoring of _humbug_, wade industriously through a preface, be it never so lengthy, hoping therein to find the _moral_, without which the story would, of course, be valueless. To such I would say, seek no further, for though I claim for “’Lena Rivers,” a moral—yes, half a dozen morals, if you please—I shall not put them in the preface, as I prefer having them sought after, for what I have written I wish to have read. Reared among the rugged hills of the Bay State, and for a time constantly associated with a class of people known the wide world over as _Yankees_, it is no more than natural that I should often write of the places and scenes with which I have been the most familiar. In my delineations of New England character I have aimed to copy from memory, and in no one instance, I believe, have I overdrawn the pictures; for among the New England mountains there lives many a “Grandma Nichols,” a “Joel Slocum,” or a “Nancy Scovandyke,” while the wide world holds more than one ’_Lena_, with her high temper, extreme beauty, and rare combination of those qualities which make the female character so lovely.