You Never Know Your Luck

You Never Know Your Luck,
The Story Of A Matrimonial
Deserter, entire

The Project Gutenberg EBook You Never Know Your Luck, Parker,
Complete
#115 in our series by Gilbert Parker Copyright laws are changing all
over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country
before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project
Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print,"
and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the
bottom of this file. Included is important information about your
specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can
also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and
how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: You Never Know Your Luck, Complete [BEING THE STORY
OF A MATRIMONIAL DESERTER]
Author: Gilbert Parker
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6288] [Yes, we are more than

one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 5,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YOU
NEVER KNOW YOUR LUCK, ENTIRE***

This eBook was produced by David Widger

YOU NEVER KNOW YOUR LUCK
[BEING THE STORY OF A MATRIMONIAL DESERTER]
By Gilbert Parker

CONTENTS:
Volume 1. PROEM I. "PIONEERS, O PIONEERS" II. CLOSING THE
DOORS III. THE LOGAN TRIAL AND WHAT CAME OF IT IV.
"STRENGTH SHALL BE GIVEN THEE" V. A STORY TO BE
TOLD
Volume 2. VI. "HERE ENDETH THE FIRST LESSON" VII. A
WOMAN'S WAY TO KNOWLEDGE VIII. ALL ABOUT AN
UNOPENED LETTER IX. NIGHT SHADE AND MORNING
GLORY X. "S. O. S." XI. IN THE CAMP OF THE DESERTER
Volume 3. XII. AT THE RECEIPT OF CUSTOM XIII. KITTY
SPEAKS HER MIND AGAIN XIV. AWAITING THE VERDICT XV.
"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM" XVI. "'TWAS FOR
YOUR PLEASURE YOU CAME HERE, YOU GO BACK FOR
MINE" XVII. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT? EPILOGUE

INTRODUCTION
This volume contains two novels dealing with the life of prairie people

in the town of Askatoon in the far West. 'The World for Sale' and the
latter portion of 'The Money Master' deal with the same life, and 'The
Money Master' contained some of the characters to be found in 'Wild
Youth'. 'The World for Sale' also was a picture of prairie country with
strife between a modern Anglo-Canadian town and a French-Canadian
town in the West. These books are of the same people; but 'You Never
Know Your Luck' and 'Wild Youth' have several characters which
move prominently through both.
In the introduction to 'The World for Sale' in this series, I drew a
description of prairie life, and I need not repeat what was said there. 'In
You Never Know Your Luck' there is a Proem which describes briefly
the look of the prairie and suggests characteristics of the life of the
people. The basis of the book has a letter written by a wife to her
husband at a critical time in his career when he had broken his promise
to her. One or two critics said the situation is impossible, because no
man would carry a letter unopened for a long number of years. My
reply is: that it is exactly what I myself did. I have still a letter written
to me which was delivered at my door sixteen years ago. I have never
read it, and my reason for not reading it was that I realised, as I think,
what its contents were. I knew that the letter would annoy, and there it
lies. The writer of the letter who was then my enemy is now my friend.
The chief character in the book, Crozier, was an Irishman, with all the
Irishman's cleverness, sensitiveness, audacity, and timidity; for both
those latter qualities are characteristic of the Irish race, and as I am half
Irish I can understand why I suppressed a letter and why Crozier did.
Crozier is the type of man that comes occasionally to the Dominion of
Canada; and Kitty Tynan is the sort of girl that the great West breeds.
She did an immoral thing in opening the letter that Crozier had
suppressed, but she did it in a good cause--for Crozier's sake; she made
his wife write another letter, and she placed it again in the envelope for
Crozier to open and see. Whatever lack of morality there was in her act
was balanced by the good end to the