| DROLLS FROM SHADOWLAND BY J. H. PEARCE Author of "Esther Pentreath," "Inconsequent Lives," "Jaco Treloar," &c. NEW YORK MACMILLAN AND CO. 1893. All rights reserved. |
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| The Man who Coined his Blood into Gold | [1] |
| An Unexpected Journey | [15] |
| The Man who could Talk with the Birds | [27] |
| The Pursuit | [39] |
| A Pleasant Entertainment | [49] |
| The Man who Desired to be a Tree | [61] |
| The Man who Had Seen | [73] |
| The Unchristened Child | [85] |
| The Man who Met Hate | [95] |
| The Haunted House | [109] |
| Gifts and Awards | [119] |
| Friend or Foe? | [133] |
| The Fields of Amaranth | [145] |
| The Comedy of a Soul | [155] |
THE MAN WHO COINED HIS
BLOOD INTO GOLD.
The yoke of Poverty galled him exceedingly, and he hated his taskmistress with a most rancorous hatred.
As he climbed up or down the dripping ladders, descending from sollar to sollar towards the level where he worked, he would set his teeth grimly that he might not curse aloud—an oath underground being an invitation to the Evil One—but in his heart the muffled curses were audible enough. And when he was at work in the dreary level, with the darkness lying on his shoulder like a hand, and the candles shining unsteadily through the gloom, like little evil winking eyes, he brooded so moodily over his bondage to Poverty, that he desired to break from it at any cost.
"I'd risk a lem for its weight in gowld: darned ef I wedn'!" he muttered savagely, as he dug at the stubborn rock with his pick.