The Secret of the Storm Country

Secret of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller White

Project Gutenberg's The Secret of the Storm Country, by Grace Miller White This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Secret of the Storm Country
Author: Grace Miller White
Illustrator: Lucius W. Hitchcock
Release Date: February 8, 2007 [EBook #20548]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE STORM COUNTRY ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: "I CAST THE FIRST STONE," HE SAID SWIFTLY]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SECRET OF THE STORM COUNTRY
BY GRACE MILLER WHITE
AUTHOR OF TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY, ROSE O' PARADISE, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY LUCIUS W. HITCHCOCK
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1916, by Woman's World.
Copyright, 1917, by Woman's World.
Copyright, 1917, by The H. K. Fly Company.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I Lovingly Dedicate this Book to Lil And Arthur Miller
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. The Squatter Folk 9 II. The Coming of Andy Bishop 16 III. Tessibel Meets Waldstricker 25 IV. Tess and Frederick 33 V. A Gossip With "Satisfied" 38 VI. Waldstricker Makes a Proposal 44 VII. Waldstricker and Mother Moll 53 VIII. Tessibel's Marriage 58 IX. The Musicale 64 X. A Victim of Circumstances 72 XI. Frederick Intimidated 80 XII. Making Ready for the Warden 86 XIII. Sandy Proposes to Tess 94 XIV. The Warden's Coming 99 XV. The Search 105 XVI. Tessibel's Secret 112 XVII. Tessibel's Prayer 124 XVIII. A Letter 131 XIX. Its Answer 137 XX. Madelene Complains to Ebenezer 144 XXI. The End of the Honeymoon 149 XXII. The Repudiation 152 XXIII. The Quarrel 159 XXIV. Waldstricker Interferes 164 XXV. The Summons 168 XXVI. The Churching 171 XXVII. Daddy Skinner's Death 182 XXVIII. Young Discovers Andy 189 XXIX. The Vigil 195 XXX. Sandy Comes to Grief 202 XXXI. Waldstricker's Threat 207 XXXII. Helen's Message 211 XXXIII. Hands Stronger Than Waldstricker's 215 XXXIV. Love Air Everywhere the Hull Time 222 XXXV. Boy Skinner 227 XXXVI. Deforrest Decides 232 XXXVII. The New Home 238 XXXVIII. Dinner at Waldstricker's 244 XXXIX. Father and Son 250 XL. Husband and Wife 256 XLI. Tessibel's Discovery 261 XLII. A Man's Arm at the Window 266 XLIII. Sandy's Job 271 XLIV. Sandy's Visit 276 XLV. Andy Vindicated 279 XLVI. Sandy's Courting 286 XLVII. Waldstricker's Anger 294 XLVIII. The Sins of the Parents 302 XLIX. Tessibel and Elsie 311 L. Tessibel's Vision 321 LI. The Christmas Guest 328 LII. The Storm 334 LIII. The Happy Day 339
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page.
"I cast the first stone," he said swiftly Frontispiece
"I will," gritted Waldstricker, in spite of himself interested in the old woman's revelations 30
"I was wonderin' little one, when you say your prayers, if you'd pipe one for me?" 111
"Hush!" he cried, "Haven't you any heart?" 157
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER I
THE SQUATTER FOLK
The lazy warmth of a May afternoon, the spring following Orn Skinner's release from Auburn Prison, was reflected in the attitudes of three men lounging on the shore in front of "Satisfied" Longman's shack. At their feet, the waters of Cayuga Lake dimpled under the rays of the western sun. Like a strip of burnished silver, the inlet wound its way through the swamp from the elevators and railroad stations near the foot of south hill. Across the lake rose the precipitous slopes of East Hill, tapestried in green, etched here and there by stretches of winding white road, and crowned by the buildings on the campus of Cornell University. Stretched from the foot of State Street on either side of the Lehigh Valley track lay the Silent City, its northern end spreading several miles up the west shore of the Lake. Its inhabitants were canalers, fishermen and hunters, uneducated, rough and superstitious. They built their little huts in the simplest manner out of packing boxes and rough lumber and roofed them with pieces of tin and sheet iron. Squatters they were appropriately named, because they paid no attention to land titles, but stuck their shacks wherever fancy indicated or convenience dictated. The people of the Silent City slept by day and went very quietly about their work under the cover of darkness, for the game laws compelled the fishermen to pull their nets at night, and the farmers' chickens were more easily caught, his fruit more easily picked when the sun was warming China.
Summers, their lives were comparatively free from hardships. Fish were plentiful and easy to take; the squatter women picked flowers and berries in the woods and sold them in the city and the men worked occasionally, as the fit struck them. But the winters were bitter and cruel. The countryside, buried deep in snow, made travel difficult. When the mercury shrank timidly into