Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the lovely original illustrations in colour. See 53250-h.htm or 53250-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53250/53250-h/53250-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53250/53250-h.zip) THE GOLDEN AGE [Illustration: “ONCE MORE WERE DAMSELS RESCUED, DRAGONS DISEMBOWELLED.....”] THE GOLDEN AGE by KENNETH GRAHAME With Illustrations in Colour by R. J. E. Moony New York: John Lane Company London: John Lane, the Bodley Head Toronto: Bell & Cockburn: MCMXIV Copyright, 1899, By John Lane Copyright, 1904, By John Lane CONTENTS PAGE PROLOGUE: THE OLYMPIANS 3 A HOLIDAY 13 A WHITE-WASHED UNCLE 29 ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS 39 THE FINDING OF THE PRINCESS 53 SAWDUST AND SIN 67 ‘YOUNG ADAM CUPID’ 79 THE BURGLARS 93 A HARVESTING 107 SNOWBOUND 121 WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT 133 THE ARGONAUTS 143 THE ROMAN ROAD 161 THE SECRET DRAWER 179 ‘EXIT TYRANNUS’ 193 THE BLUE ROOM 205 A FALLING OUT 225 ‘LUSISTI SATIS’ 239 ILLUSTRATIONS “Once more were damsels rescued, dragons disembowelled....” _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE “... He was always ready to constitute himself a hostile army or a band of marauding Indians” 6 “‘Where’s Harold?’ I asked presently. ‘Oh, he’s just playin’ muffin-man as usual’” 16 “When at last the atmosphere was clear of his depressing influence, we met despondently in the potato-cellar” 34 “Instead of active ‘pretence,’ with its shouts and its perspiration, how much better—I held—to lie at ease and pretend to one’s self, in green and golden fancies” 40 “... And then, my cheek on the cool marble, lulled by the trickle of water, I slipped into dreamland out of real and magic world alike” 64 “‘Now we’ll go on,’ began Charlotte once more” 70 “Edward led the race home at a speed which one of Ballantyne’s heroes might have equalled but never surpassed” 88 “This overland route had been revealed to us one day by the domestic cat, when hard pressed in the course of an otter-hunt” 104