Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Markus Brenner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE PIGEON TALE BY VIRGINIA BENNETT. [Illustration: Title] ILLUSTRATED BY E. STUART HARDY. _LONDON:_ _NEW YORK:_ ERNEST NISTER. E. P. DUTTON & CO. E.N. No. 2074. [Illustration: Flower ornament] [Illustration: Pigeons] [Illustration: Branch ornament] [Illustration: The boy Laurie with a pigeon] The Pigeon Tale CHAPTER I. Something unusual was about to happen--any one could see that; the tall pine trees swayed and nodded to each other as if whispering together, the leaves blew up against a corner of the fence as though they meant to sweep the old-fashioned brick path clean, and the gate swung to and fro on its hinges as in anticipation of a visitor. In a far-away corner of the United States stood an old farm-house which had put on its company manners and quite left off being an every-day house, though it really never could be called an "every-day" house--it was too old for that. Ever so many children had been born there, and had grown up under its sheltering roof, loved, married and had gone out into the world; it was a _very_ old house, and could have told wonderful stories if any one had listened to them; no, it could not be called an every-day house at all, but to-day it had a look of expectancy quite different from its usual sleepy air. [Illustration: Aunt Laura] The ancient box-hedge by the rose-garden stood like an old soldier at attention, so! The fresh muslin curtains at the window were stiff with starch, they would not stir an inch to the breeze blowing in. The old farm-house was trying to look young again, that was it! To look young again: how many of us can do that, eh! for it was expecting a visitor, a very young visitor indeed, a little boy was coming. He was not an ordinary little boy, or at least the people at the farm-house (Aunt Laura and Uncle Sam) did not think so--because his mother when she was a little girl had gone there for a visit years and years ago, just as he was coming to-day, and she had loved every nook and cranny of the old house as they hoped he would love it, and to those two people, it seemed almost as if she were coming back again, which really couldn't happen, for that was ever so long ago.