"Tecolote Rancho,"
April 13, 1914.

"I have learned
To look on Nature not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The sad, still music of humanity,
Not harsh or grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt,
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is in the lights of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts,
And rolls through all things.

Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains.........
....... And this prayer I make,
Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her. 'Tis her privilege
Through all the years of this one life, to lead
From joy to joy; for she can so inform
The mind that is within us--so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts--that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shalt e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith."

William Wordsworth.

Contents

  1. [His Inheritance]
  2. [The Woman With the Disfigured Face]
  3. [The Famous Conrad Lagrange]
  4. [At the House on Fairlands Heights]
  5. [The Mystery of the Rose Garden]
  6. [An Unknown Friend]
  7. [Mrs. Taine in Quaker Gray]
  8. [The Portrait That Was Not a Portrait]
  9. [Conrad Lagrange's Adventure]
  10. [A Cry in the Night]
  11. [Go Look in Your Mirror, You Fool]
  12. [First Fruits of His Shame]
  13. [Myra Willard's Challenge]
  14. [In the Mountains]
  15. [The Forest Ranger's Story]
  16. [When the Canyon Gates Are Shut]
  17. [Confessions in the Spring Glade]
  18. [Sibyl Andrés and the Butterflies]
  19. [The Three Gifts and their Meanings]
  20. [Myra's Prayer and the Ranger's Warning]
  21. [The Last Climb]
  22. [Shadows of Coming Events]
  23. [Outside the Canyon Gates Again]
  24. [James Rutlidge Makes a Mistake]
  25. [On the Pipe-Line Trail]
  26. [I Want You Just as You Are]
  27. [The Answer]
  28. [You're Ruined, My Boy]
  29. [The Hand Writing On The Wall]
  30. [In the Same Hour]
  31. [As the World Sees]
  32. [The Mysterious Disappearance]
  33. [Beginning the Search]
  34. [The Tracks on Granite Peak]
  35. [A Hard Way]
  36. [What Should He Do]
  37. [The Man Was Insane]
  38. [An Inevitable Conflict]
  39. [The Better Way]
  40. [Facing the Truth]
  41. [Marks of the Beast]
  42. [Aaron King's Success]

Illustrations from Oil Paintings

By

F. Graham Cootes

[Sibyl]

[A curious expression of baffling, quizzing, half pathetic, and wholly cynical, interrogation]

["Well, what do you want? What are you doing here?"]