Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: “Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood period’ forever.”—Page 113.] MOLLY BROWN’S POST-GRADUATE DAYS BY NELL SPEED AUTHOR OF “MOLLY BROWN’S FRESHMAN DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S SOPHOMORE DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S JUNIOR DAYS,” “MOLLY BROWN’S SENIOR DAYS,” ETC., ETC. WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES L. WRENN NEW YORK HURST & COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1914 BY HURST & COMPANY CONTENTS BOOK I. I. The Arrival 5 II. My Old Kentucky Home 22 III. Wedding Preparations and Confidences 36 IV. Burglars 51 V. The Wedding 62 VI. Buttermilk Tact 77 VII. Pictures on Memory’s Wall 100 VIII. All Kinds of Weather 114 IX. Jimmy 143 X. Aunt Clay Makes a Mistake 154 BOOK II. I. Wellington Again 170 II. Levity in the Leaven 189 III. History Repeats Itself 208 IV. A Barrel from Home 223 V. Dodo’s Surprise Party 241 VI. More Surprises 261 VII. Dreams and Realities 269 VIII. The Old Queen’s Crowd 288 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE “Oh, Miss Molly, let’s stay in the ‘beechwood period’ forever” Frontispiece “Hello, girls,” exclaimed Kent, hugging Molly, on one side, and shaking hands with Judy, on the other 10 “Read me the poem yourself. Would you mind?” 218 The two Kentucky girls made a wonderfully charming picture 252 MOLLY BROWN’S POST-GRADUATE DAYS. BOOK I. CHAPTER I.—THE ARRIVAL. “Oh, Judy, almost home! I wonder who will meet us,” cried Molly Brown. “I feel in my bones that you and my family will be as good friends as you and I have always been. You are sure to get on well with the boys.” Judy responded with a hug, thinking, with a happy twinkle in her large, gray eyes, that, if by any chance the rest of the Brown boys could be as attractive as Molly’s brother, Kent, and should find her as fascinating as Kent had seemed to, when she met him in the spring before the college pageant, she bade fair to have an exciting visit in Kentucky.