1. [The Valleys Stand so Thick with Corn]
  2. [Rebellious Marjorie]
  3. [Der Tag]
  4. [A Tryst]
  5. [The Inevitable]
  6. [Solo]
  7. [Duet]
  8. [Chorus]
  9. [The Book of the Words]
  10. [Discipline! Discipline! Discipline!]
  11. [Enfin!]
  12. [Tom Birnie]
  13. [Albert Clegg]
  14. [Two Sparrows]
  15. [The Explorer]
  16. [The Great Pretend]
  17. [The Undefeated]
  18. [The Old Order]
  19. [The Last Throw]
  20. [Fountain Keep]
  21. [Identities]
  22. [The Mills of God]
  23. [The Soul of Eric Bethune]
  24. [Through]

THE WILLING HORSE

CHAPTER I

THE VALLEYS STAND SO THICK WITH CORN

I

A Sunday at Baronrigg is a chastening experience. It is not exactly a day of wrath—though one feels that it might easily become one—but it is a time of tribulation for people who do not want to go to church—or, if the worst happens, prefer their religious exercises to be brief and dilute.

But neither brevity nor dilution makes any appeal to my friend Tom Birnie.

"I am a member," he announces, as soon as a quorum has assembled at Sunday breakfast, "of the old Kirk of Scotland; and I propose to attend service at Doctor Chirnside's at eleven o'clock. If any of you would care"—he addresses a suddenly presented perspective of immaculate partings, bald spots and permanent waves—"to accompany me, a conveyance will leave here at ten-forty."

"Well, we can't all get in, that's plain," chirps Miss Joan Dexter hopefully. (The table is laid for fourteen.)

"The conveyance," continues the inexorable Tom, "holds twelve inside and four out, not counting the coachman."