THE PRODIGAL VILLAGE A Christmas Tale _By_ IRVING BACHELLER _Author of_ THE LIGHT IN THE CLEARING A MAN FOR THE AGES, Etc. INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1920 AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS COPYRIGHT 1920 IRVING BACHELLER _Printed in the United States of America_ PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTURERS BROOKLYN, N. Y. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I WHICH INTRODUCES THE SHEPHERD OF THE BIRDS 1 II THE FOUNDING OF THE PHYLLISTINES 18 III WHICH TELLS OF THE COMPLAINING COIN AND THE MAN WHO LOST HIS SELF 68 IV IN WHICH MR. ISRAEL SNEED AND OTHER WORKING MEN RECEIVE A LESSON IN TRUE DEMOCRACY 91 V IN WHICH J. PATTERSON BING BUYS A NECKLACE OF PEARLS 103 VI IN WHICH HIRAM BLENKINSOP HAS A NUMBER OF ADVENTURES 117 VII IN WHICH HIGH VOLTAGE DEVELOPS IN THE CONVERSATION 137 VIII IN WHICH JUDGE CROOKER DELIVERS A FEW OPINIONS 146 IX WHICH TELLS OF A MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE LITTLE COTTAGE OF THE WIDOW MORAN 163 THE PRODIGAL VILLAGE CHAPTER ONE WHICH INTRODUCES THE SHEPHERD OF THE BIRDS The day that Henry Smix met and embraced Gasoline Power and went up Main Street hand in hand with it is not yet forgotten. It was a hasty marriage, so to speak, and the results of it were truly deplorable. Their little journey produced an effect on the nerves and the remote future history of Bingville. They rushed at a group of citizens who were watching them, scattered it hither and thither, broke down a section of Mrs. Risley's picket fence and ran over a small boy. At the end of their brief misalliance, Gasoline Power seemed to express its opinion of Mr. Smix by hurling him against a telegraph pole and running wild in the park until it cooled its passion in the fountain pool. In the language of Hiram Blenkinsop, the place was badly "smixed up." Yet Mr. Smix was the object of unmerited criticism. He was like many other men in that quiet village--slow, deliberate, harmless and good-natured. The action of his intellect was not at all like that of a gasoline engine. Between the swiftness of the one and the slowness of the other, there was a wide zone full of possibilities. The engine had accomplished many things while Mr. Smix's intellect was getting ready to begin to act. In speaking of this adventure, Hiram Blenkinsop made a wise remark: "My married life learnt me one thing," said he. "If you are thinkin' of hitchin' up a wild horse with a tame one, be careful that the tame one is the stoutest or it will do him no good."