Annie Laurie and Azalea
beg to be presented to
Loraine, Catherine, Elizabeth and Bernice
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I | Two and One Make—How Many? | [11] |
| II | Annie Laurie Pace | [30] |
| III | Trial Without Jury | [47] |
| IV | A Rainy Night | [68] |
| V | The Summers | [87] |
| VI | Sunday | [100] |
| VII | The Signal | [119] |
| VIII | The Mystery | [128] |
| IX | The Disbrows | [147] |
| X | Sam | [167] |
| XI | Marching Orders | [181] |
| XII | “The Doll Lady” | [198] |
| XIII | The Long Red Road | [217] |
| XIV | Hi’s Houn’ Dog | [231] |
| XV | The Voice in the Mist | [247] |
| XVI | Good for Evil | [261] |
| XVII | Azalea’s Party | [281] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| Azalea and Carin and Annie Laurie | Frontispiece |
| Carin stood awaiting them, her hands outstretched | [64] |
| Back and forth went her lantern, saying: “All is well! All is well!” | [122] |
| “But you’ve come back, son, to face the music.” | [192] |
| “Come in,” she said in a strange voice | [266] |
CHAPTER I
TWO AND ONE MAKE—HOW MANY?
The long red clay road, winding down from the cabin where the McBirneys lived on their high shelf of Tennyson mountain, was frosted delicately with white, and by the roadside the curious frost flowers lifted their heads, as airy-fine as fern. From the half-hidden cabins all around the semicircle of mountains that skirted the valley of Lee, shafts of smoke arose, showing that the people were about the business of the day. Straight, gray and shadowy these smoke-shafts lifted through the lilac-tinted air; and below in the little town, other shafts of smoke ascended as if in friendly answer.
Azalea McBirney, in her dark riding skirt and bright knitted cap and reefer, came running from the cabin with the manner of a girl very much behindhand.
“Ain’t he there yet, Zalie?” a voice called from the cabin. “Ain’t Jim brought them ponies around yet?”
“No, mother,” Azalea answered over her shoulder, starting toward the stable. “Maybe the ponies have been naughty again. I’ll go see.”