Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan 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 LUCKY PIECE A TALE OF THE NORTH WOODS BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE AUTHOR OF "THE VAN DWELLERS," "THE BREAD LINE," "THE GREAT WHITE WAY," ETC. _FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR_ NEW YORK THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906 COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY _This Edition Published March, 1906_ [Illustration: _He climbed down carefully and secured his treasure._] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PROLOGUE 1 1 BUT PALADINS RIDE FAR BETWEEN 6 2 OUT IN THE BLOWY WET WEATHER 18 3 THE DEEP WOODS OF ENCHANTMENT 34 4 A BRIEF LECTURE AND SOME INTRODUCTIONS 48 5 A FLOWER ON A MOUNTAIN TOP 66 6 IN THE "DEVIL'S GARDEN" 80 7 THE PATH THAT LEADS BACK TO BOYHOOD 99 8 WHAT CAME OUT OF THE MIST 115 9 A SHELTER IN THE FOREST 134 10 THE HERMIT'S STORY 148 11 DURING THE ABSENCE OF CONSTANCE 166 12 CONSTANCE RETURNS AND HEARS A STORY 183 13 WHAT THE SMALL WOMAN IN BLACK SAW 193 14 WHAT MISS CARROWAY DID 208 15 EDITH AND FRANK 219 16 THE LUCKY PIECE 233 EPILOGUE 250 THE LUCKY PIECE PROLOGUE There is a sharp turn just above the hill. The North Elba stage sometimes hesitates there before taking the plunge into the valley below. But this was late September. The morning was brisk, the mountains glorified, the tourists were going home. The four clattering, snorting horses swung into the turn and made straight for the brow--the stout, ruddy-faced driver holding hard on the lines, but making no further effort to check them. Then the boy in the front seat gave his usual "Hey! look there!" and, the other passengers obeying, as they always did, saw something not especially related to Algonquin, or Tahawus, or Whiteface--the great mountains whose slopes were ablaze with autumn, their peaks already tipped with snow--that was not, indeed, altogether Adirondack scenery. Where the bend came, at the brink, a little weather-beaten cottage cornered--a place with apple trees and some faded summer flowers. In the road in front was a broad flat stone, and upon it a single figure--a little girl of not more than eight--her arm extended toward the approaching stage, in her hand a saucer of berries.