=Appletons’ Town and Country Library= No. 212 PERFECTION CITY PERFECTION CITY BY MRS. ORPEN AUTHOR OF MARGARETA COLBERG, MR. ADOLF, THE CHRONICLES OF THE SID, ETC. [Illustration] NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I.— HOME-COMING OF THE BRIDE 1 II.— UNCLE DAVID 11 III.— SISTER MARY WINKLE 21 IV.— MADAME MOROZOFF-SMITH 27 V.— CORN PLANTING 43 VI.— NON-RESISTANCE 54 VII.— WILLETTE 66 VIII.— MR. PERSEUS 84 IX.— FIRST LESSONS 101 X.— PRACTICAL COMMUNISM 111 XI.— A CHANCE MEETING 125 XII.— THE PRAIRIE FIRE 141 XIII.— THE RESCUE 156 XIV.— COTTERELL “WANTED” 170 XV.— IN QUEST OF NEWS 185 XVI.— HORSE-THIEVES 204 XVII.— A LIFE AT STAKE 219 XVIII.— LYNCH-LAW 237 XIX.— OLIVE MISSING 251 XX.— MADAME’S SYMPATHY 263 XXI.— THE MESSAGE 277 XXII.— OLIVE’S SECOND HOME-COMING 293 XXIII.— CONCLUSION 305 PERFECTION CITY. CHAPTER I. HOME-COMING OF THE BRIDE. “This road isn’t called Perfection Road, is it?” she asked jerkily, as she held tight hold of the edge of the waggon to prevent herself from being pitched head foremost off the seat. She would have laid her head against her companion’s shoulder only that it was square and hard, and she was afraid of getting her temple “stove in,” as the sailors say, by the terrific bumps caused by the wheels going over a big stone or down into a deep rut. She was a bride, and he was bringing her to their new home on the Kansas Prairie. “My poor little pet,” he said tenderly, “it is very rough here. We are going down into Cotton Wood Creek, and these stones were cast up by the last freshet which pretty well washed the road away.”