Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water] THE EARLY BIRD _A Business Man's Love Story_ BY GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER Author of THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1910 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY CONTENTS CHAPTER I A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN II MR. TURNER PLUNGES III A MATTER OF DELICACY IV GREEK MEETS GREEK V MISS JOSEPHINE'S FATHER VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES VII A DANCE NUMBER VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME IX A VIOLENT FLIRT X A PIANOLA TRAINING XI THE WESTLAKES INVEST XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT XIII A RIDE WITH MISS STEVENS XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY XV THE HERO OF THE HOUR XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER ILLUSTRATIONS They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . _Frontispiece_ They waylaid him on the porch Hepseba studied him from head to foot Sam played again the plaintive little air "I don't like to worry you, Sam" "Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens THE EARLY BIRD CHAPTER I WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN ABSOLUTE REST The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his clothes clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in advertisements. Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of the dingy automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and promptly climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by this silent decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay wagon, and a born grump, as promptly and as silently started his machine. The crisp and perfect start, however, was given check by a peremptory voice from the platform. "Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!" As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long and solemn accusation. "Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly. "Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable. "Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr. Stevens of Boston."