Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 42870-h.htm or 42870-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42870/42870-h/42870-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42870/42870-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/mildredkeith00finliala MILDRED KEITH * * * * * LIST OF THE ELSIE BOOKS AND OTHER POPULAR BOOKS BY MARTHA FINLEY _ELSIE DINSMORE._ _ELSIE'S HOLIDAYS AT ROSELANDS._ _ELSIE'S GIRLHOOD._ _ELSIE'S WOMANHOOD._ _ELSIE'S MOTHERHOOD._ _ELSIE'S CHILDREN._ _ELSIE'S WIDOWHOOD._ _GRANDMOTHER ELSIE._ _ELSIE'S NEW RELATIONS._ _ELSIE AT NANTUCKET._ _THE TWO ELSIES._ _ELSIE'S KITH AND KIN._ _ELSIE'S FRIENDS AT WOODBURN._ _CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDMA ELSIE._ _ELSIE AND THE RAYMONDS._ _ELSIE YACHTING WITH THE RAYMONDS._ _ELSIE'S VACATION._ _ELSIE AT VIAMEDE._ _ELSIE AT ION._ _ELSIE AT THE WORLD'S FAIR._ _ELSIE'S JOURNEY ON INLAND WATERS._ _ELSIE AT HOME._ _ELSIE ON THE HUDSON._ _ELSIE IN THE SOUTH._ _ELSIE'S YOUNG FOLKS._ _MILDRED KEITH._ _MILDRED AT ROSELANDS._ _MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE._ _MILDRED AND ELSIE._ _MILDRED AT HOME._ _MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS._ _MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER._ _CASELLA._ _SIGNING THE CONTRACT AND WHAT IT COST._ _THE TRAGEDY OF WILD RIVER VALLEY._ _OUR FRED._ _AN OLD-FASHIONED BOY._ _WANTED, A PEDIGREE._ _THE THORN IN THE NEST._ * * * * * [Illustration] MILDRED KEITH BY MARTHA FINLEY (_Martha Farquharson_) Author of "Elsie Dinsmore," "Elsie's Children," "Old-Fashioned Boy," "Our Fred," "Wanted--a Pedigree," etc., etc. "She is pretty to walk with, And witty to talk with, And pleasant, too, to think on." --BRENNORALT New York Dodd, Mead & Company Publishers Copyright, 1876, Dodd, Mead & Company. [Illustration] PREFACE. THE Keith family were relatives of Horace Dinsmore, and as my readers will observe, the date of this story is some seven years earlier than that of the first Elsie book. The journey, and that most _sickly_ season, which I have attempted to describe, were events in my own early childhood. The latter still dwells in my memory as a dreadful dream. Our family--a large one--were all down with the fever except my aged grandmother and a little sister of six or seven, and "help could not be had for love or money." My father, who was a physician, kept up and made his rounds among his town and country patients for days after the fever had attacked him, but was at length compelled to take his bed, and I well remember lying there beside him while the neighbors flocked into the room to consult him about their sick ones at home.