Produced by Al Haines [Frontispiece: "Hezekiah"] The Siege of The Seven Suitors BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS AND REGINALD BIRCH BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1910 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published October 1910_ TO THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL MY DEAR GOVERNOR:--It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this tale. Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the bailiffs. Sincerely yours, M. N. MACKINAC ISLAND, _August_ 10, 1910. CONTENTS I. MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED II. THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE III. I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH IV. WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM V. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY VI. I DELIVER A MESSAGE VII. NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE VIII. CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK IX. I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST X. MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES XI. I PLAY TRUANT XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES XIII. I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS XIV. LADY'S SLIPPER XV. LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK XVI. JACK O' LANTERN XVII. SEVEN GOLD REEDS XVIII. TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS XIX. THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL XX. HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS I MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED