The Early Bird

The Early Bird, by George
Randolph Chester

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Chester This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
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Title: The Early Bird A Business Man's Love Story
Author: George Randolph Chester
Illustrator: Arthur William Brown
Release Date: September 14, 2006 [EBook #19272]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
EARLY BIRD ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: They stopped and had a drink of the cool water]

THE EARLY BIRD
A Business Man's Love Story
BY
GEORGE RANDOLPH CHESTER

Author of
THE MAKING OF BOBBY BURNIT

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ARTHUR WILLIAM BROWN

INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT 1910
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I

A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN II MR. TURNER PLUNGES III A
MATTER OF DELICACY IV GREEK MEETS GREEK V MISS
JOSEPHINE'S FATHER VI MARASCHINO CHOCOLATES VII A
DANCE NUMBER VIII NOT SAM'S FAULT THIS TIME IX A
VIOLENT FLIRT X A PIANOLA TRAINING XI THE WESTLAKES
INVEST XII ANOTHER MISSED APPOINTMENT XIII A RIDE
WITH MISS STEVENS XIV MATRIMONIAL ELIGIBILITY XV
THE HERO OF THE HOUR XVI AN INTERRUPTED PROPOSAL
XVII SHE CALLS HIM SAM! XVIII A BUSINESS PARTNER

ILLUSTRATIONS
They stopped and had a drink of the cool water . . . Frontispiece
They waylaid him on the porch
Hepseba studied him from head to foot
Sam played again the plaintive little air
"I don't like to worry you, Sam"
"Excuse me!" stammered Mr. Stevens

THE EARLY BIRD
CHAPTER I
WHEREIN A VERY BUSY YOUNG MAN STARTS ON AN
ABSOLUTE REST
The youngish-looking man who so vigorously swung off the train at
Restview, wore a pair of intensely dark blue eyes which immediately
photographed everything within their range of vision--flat green
country, shaded farm-houses, encircling wooded hills and all--weighed

it and sorted it and filed it away for future reference; and his clothes
clung on him with almost that enviable fit found only in advertisements.
Immediately he threw his luggage into the tonneau of the dingy
automobile drawn up at the side of the lonely platform, and promptly
climbed in after it. Spurred into purely mechanical action by this silent
decisiveness, the driver, a grizzled graduate from a hay wagon, and a
born grump, as promptly and as silently started his machine. The crisp
and perfect start, however, was given check by a peremptory voice
from the platform.
"Hey, you!" rasped the voice. "Come back here!"
As there were positively no other "Hey yous" in the landscape, the
driver and the alert young man each acknowledged to the name, and
turned to see an elderly gentleman, with a most aggressive beard and
solid corpulency, gesticulating at them with much vigor and
earnestness. Standing beside him was a slender sort of girl in a green
outfit, with very large brown eyes and a smile of amusement which was
just a shade mischievous. The driver turned upon his passenger a long
and solemn accusation.
"Hollis Creek Inn?" he asked sternly.
"Meadow Brook," returned the passenger, not at all abashed, and he
smiled with all the cheeriness imaginable.
"Oh," said the driver, and there was a world of disapprobation in his
tone, as well as a subtle intonation of contempt. "You are not Mr.
Stevens of Boston."
"No," confessed the passenger; "Mr. Turner of New York. I judge that
to be Mr. Stevens on the platform," and he grinned.
The driver, still declining to see any humor whatsoever in the situation,
sourly ran back to the platform. Jumping from his seat he opened the
door of the tonneau, and waited with entirely artificial deference for Mr.
Turner of New York to alight. Mr. Turner, however, did nothing of the
sort. He merely stood up in the tonneau and bowed gravely.

"I seem to be a usurper," he said pleasantly to Mr. Stevens of Boston. "I
was expected at Meadow Brook, and they were to send a conveyance
for me. As this was the only conveyance in sight I naturally supposed it
to be mine. I very much regret having discommoded you."
He was looking straight at Mr. Stevens of Boston as he spoke, but,
nevertheless, he was perfectly aware of the presence of the girl; also of
her eyes and of her smile of amusement with its trace of
mischievousness. Becoming conscious of his consciousness of her, he
cast her deliberately out of his mind and concentrated upon Mr. Stevens.
The two men gazed quite steadily at each other, not to the point of
impertinence at all, but nevertheless