Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE LAND OF JOY THE LAND OF JOY _By_ RALPH HENRY BARBOUR Youth, with swift feet, walks onward in the way; The land of joy lies all before his eyes.――_Butler._ [Illustration] NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1903 Copyright, 1903, by Curtis Publishing Company Copyright, 1903, by Doubleday, Page & Company Published May, 1903 For My Wife CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I 3 CHAPTER II 18 CHAPTER III 33 CHAPTER IV 49 CHAPTER V 66 CHAPTER VI 86 CHAPTER VII 103 CHAPTER VIII 114 CHAPTER IX 131 CHAPTER X 149 CHAPTER XI 163 CHAPTER XII 185 CHAPTER XIII 198 CHAPTER XIV 216 CHAPTER XV 235 CHAPTER XVI 247 CHAPTER XVII 263 CHAPTER XVIII 280 CHAPTER XIX 300 CHAPTER XX 315 CHAPTER XXI 332 CHAPTER XXII 351 CHAPTER XXIII 367 CHAPTER XXIV 376 CHAPTER XXV 396 CHAPTER XXVI 408 THE LAND OF JOY CHAPTER I John North unlocked the door and threw it open. The study was in semi-darkness and filled with the accumulated heat and fust of the summer. Ghostlike objects took shape before him and resolved themselves into chairs and couches and tables draped with sheets or, as in the case of the low book-shelves, hidden beneath yellowing folds of newspapers. The windows were closed and the shades drawn. At the side casements the afternoon sunlight made hot, buff oblongs on the curtains. He crossed the room impatiently, overturning on the way a waste-basket and sending its contents――old books, battered golf-balls, brass curtain-rings, a broken meerschaum pipe, crumpled letters and invitations dating back to class day――rolling over the rug and beneath the big table. With mutterings of disgust he sent the front windows crashing upward, letting in a rush of fresher air, moist from the newly sprinkled pavement below. At the side casements, however, he drew down the shades again, for Dunster Street was as full of heat and glare as an Arizona cañon.