Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan North Carolina History & Fiction was the original source for the images. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) TRUE AND OTHER STORIES BY GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP AUTHOR OF "AN ECHO OF PASSION," "NEWPORT," ETC. FUNK & WAGNALLS 1884 NEW YORK 10 AND 12 DEY STREET LONDON 44 FLEET STREET _All Rights Reserved_ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by FUNK & WAGNALLS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. CONTENTS. TRUE. CHAPTER I. HER EYES WERE GRAY CHAPTER II. THE DE VINES CHAPTER III. TWILIGHT CHAPTER IV. A VISION CHAPTER V. BIRTHDAY TOKENS CHAPTER VI. A NEW LESSON IN BOTANY CHAPTER VII. THE RACES, AND THE MOTTO CHAPTER VIII. ADELA'S LEGEND CHAPTER IX. LANCE AND SYLVESTER CHAPTER X. THE LIKENESS CHAPTER XI. LANCE RETURNS CHAPTER XII. SYLV'S TROUBLE CHAPTER XIII. LANCE AND ADELA CHAPTER XIV. DENNIE'S TROUBLE CHAPTER XV. ELBOW-CROOK SWAMP CHAPTER XVI. "I LIVE, HOW LONG I TROW NOT" MAJOR BARRINGTON'S MARRIAGE "BAD PEPPERS" THREE BRIDGES. I. THE IMPORTANCE OF A HAT II. FATHER, DAUGHTER, AND--WHO ELSE? III. LISTENING IV. THE THIRD BRIDGE IN EACH OTHER'S SHOES TRUE. CHAPTER I. HER EYES WERE GRAY. It might have been yesterday, but in simple fact it was three hundred years ago, that something happened which has an important bearing on this story of the present. Antiquity is a great discourager of the sympathies: the centuries are apt to weigh like lead on an individual human sentiment. Yet we find it pleasant sometimes to throw off their weight, and thereby to discover that it is a mere feather in the scale as against the beating of a heart. I know that when I speak of Guy Wharton as having been alive and in love in the year 1587, you will feel a certain patronizing pity for him--because he is not alive now. So do I. But then it is possible that you will be interested, notwithstanding--because he was a lover. Would you like to hear what experience he had? I promise not to go through the history of those three hundred years. The story of Guy is merely the starting-point of my narrative.