A Hoosier Chronicle

A Hoosier Chronicle

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Title: A Hoosier Chronicle
Author: Meredith Nicholson
Release Date: February 22, 2005 [EBook #15138]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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By Meredith Nicholson
A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations. THE SIEGE OF THE
SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
COMPANY Boston and New York

A HOOSIER CHRONICLE
"Dreams books, are each a world and books, we know, Are a
substantial world, both pure and good; Round these, with tendrils
strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow"
Wordsworth in Personal Talk

[Illustration: SYLVIA AND PROFESSOR KELTON]
A HOOSIER CHRONICLE
MEREDITH NICHOLSON
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F.C. YOHN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
_Published March 1912_

TO
EVANS WOOLLEN, ESQ.
The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes
in the twisting; that the State must follow and not lead the character and
progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and
they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of
government which prevails is the expression of what cultivation exists
in the population which permits it. The law is only a memorandum. We
are superstitious, and esteem the statute somewhat; so much life as it
has in the character of living men is its force.
EMERSON: Politics.

CONTENTS
I. My LADY OF THE CONSTELLATIONS 1 II. SYLVIA GOES
VISITING 20 III. A SMALL DINNER AT MRS. OWEN'S 39 IV. WE
LEARN MORE OF SYLVIA 62 V. INTRODUCING MR. DANIEL
HARWOOD 79 VI. HOME LIFE OF HOOSIER STATESMEN 89 VII.
SYLVIA AT LAKE WAUPEGAN 113 VIII. SILK STOCKINGS
AND BLUE OVERALLS 136 IX. DANIEL HARWOOD RECEIVES
AN OFFER 152 X. IN THE BOORDMAN BUILDING 168 XI. THE
MAP ABOVE BASSETT'S DESK 193 XII. BLURRED WINDOWS
212 XIII. THE WAYS OF MARIAN 225 XIV. THE PASSING OF
ANDREW KELTON 246 XV. A SURPRISE AT THE COUNTRY
CLUB 257 XVI. "STOP, LOOK, LISTEN" 271 XVII. A STROLL
ACROSS THE CAMPUS 288 XVIII. THE KINGDOMS OF THE
WORLD 297 XIX. THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 321 XX.
INTERVIEWS IN TWO KEYS 350 XXI. A SHORT HORSE SOON
CURRIED 374 XXII. THE GRAY SISTERHOOD 393 XXIII. A

HOUSE-BOAT ON THE KANKAKEE 403 XXIV. A
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY BALL 418 XXV. THE LADY OF
THE DAGUERREOTYPE 439 XXVI. APRIL VISTAS 460 XXVII.
HEAT LIGHTNING 474 XXVIII. A CHEERFUL BRINGER OF BAD
TIDINGS 497 XXIX. A SONG AND A FALLING STAR 511 XXX.
THE KING HATH SUMMONED HIS PARLIAMENT 534 XXXI.
SYLVIA ASKS QUESTIONS 542 XXXII. "MY BEAUTIFUL ONE"
560 XXXIII. THE MAN OF SHADOWS 570 XXXIV. WE GO BACK
TO THE BEGINNING 591 A POSTSCRIPT BY THE CHRONICLER
602

ILLUSTRATIONS
SYLVIA AND PROFESSOR KELTON Frontispiece WHOEVER
WROTE THAT LETTER WAS TROUBLED ABOUT SYLVIA 284
A SUDDEN FIERCE ANGER BURNED IN HER HEART 458
SYLVIA MUST KNOW JUST WHAT WE KNOW 556
_From drawings by F.C. Yohn_

A HOOSIER CHRONICLE

CHAPTER I
MY LADY OF THE CONSTELLATIONS
Sylvia was reading in her grandfather's library when the bell tinkled.
Professor Kelton had few callers, and as there was never any certainty
that the maid-of-all-work would trouble herself to answer, Sylvia put
down her book and went to the door. Very likely it was a student or a
member of the faculty, and as her grandfather was not at home Sylvia
was quite sure that the interruption would be the briefest.
The Kelton cottage stood just off the campus, and was separated from it
by a narrow street that curved round the college and stole, after many
twists and turns, into town. This thoroughfare was called "Buckeye
Lane," or more commonly the "Lane." The college had been planted
literally in the wilderness by its founders, at a time when Montgomery,

for all its dignity as the seat of the county court, was the most colorless
of Hoosier hamlets, save only as the prevailing mud colored everything.
Buckeye Lane was originally a cow-path, in the good old times when
every reputable villager kept a red cow and pastured it in the woodlot
that subsequently became Madison Athletic Field. In those days the
Madison faculty, and their wives and daughters, seeking social
diversion among the hospitable townfolk, picked their way down the
Lane by lantern light. An ignorant municipal council had later, when