CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| John Gayther's Garden | [3] | |
| I | What I Found in the Sea | [9] |
| Told by John Gayther | ||
| II | The Bushwhacker Nurse | [39] |
| Told by the Daughter of the House | ||
| III | The Lady in the Box | [71] |
| Told by John Gayther | ||
| IV | The Cot and the Rill | [109] |
| Told by the Mistress of the House | ||
| V | The Gilded Idol and the KingConch-shell | [155] |
| Told by the Master of the House | ||
| VI | My Balloon Hunt | [201] |
| Told by the Frenchman | ||
| VII | The Foreign Prince and the Hermit'sDaughter | [223] |
| Told by Pomona and Jonas | ||
| VIII | The Conscious Amanda | [249] |
| Told by the Daughter of the House | ||
| IX | My Translatophone | [279] |
| Told by the Old Professor | ||
| X | The Vice-consort | [307] |
| Told by the Next Neighbor | ||
| XI | Blackgum ag'in' Thunder | [341] |
| Told by John Gayther | ||
ILLUSTRATIONS
| "Are you going to ask me to marry your husband if you should happen to die?" | [Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| The gardener began promptly | [74] |
| "I made him dig up whole beds of things" | [148] |
| The great beast was drawing up his hind legs and was climbing into the car | [214] |
| Miss Amanda listened with the most eager and overpowering attention | [258] |
| And dreamed waking dreams of blessedness | [294] |
| "Do you mean," I cried, "that you would make him a better wife than I do?" | [336] |
| "Abner, did you ever hear about the eggs of the great auk?" | [356] |
[JOHN GAYTHER'S GARDEN]
The garden did not belong to John Gayther; he merely had charge of it. At certain busy seasons he had some men to help him in his work, but for the greater part of the year he preferred doing everything himself.
It was a very fine garden over which John Gayther had charge. It extended this way and that for long distances. It was difficult to see how far it did extend, there were so many old-fashioned box hedges; so many paths overshadowed by venerable grape-arbors; and so many far-stretching rows of peach, plum, and pear trees. Fruit, bushes, and vines there were of which the roll need not be called; and flowers grew everywhere. It was one of the fancies of the Mistress of the House—and she inherited it from her mother—to have flowers in great abundance, so that wherever she might walk through the garden she would always find them.