Chapter I: Front Matter

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

--Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.

--Bold text has been enclosed in equal signs: =bold text=.

THE BELIEVING YEARS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO
SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO

THE BELIEVING YEARS

BY

EDMUND LESTER PEARSON

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1911

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1910,
BY THE OUTLOOK COMPANY.

COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY THE OUTLOOK COMPANY.

COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1911.

_Norwood Press_
_J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co._
_Norwood, Mass., U.S.A._

To
EDMUND CARLTON PEARSON
(1841-1897)

"E'en as he trod that day to God so walked he from his birth,
In simpleness and gentleness and honor and clean mirth."

NOTE

A number of the incidents described in this book have been used in a series of stories published in _The Outlook_. To The Outlook Company my thanks are due for their courteous permission to retell these stories in an altered form.

E. L. P.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. MR. COLBURN 1

II. THE OLD TOWN 12

III. MAGIC 26

IV. NAPOLEON JONES 40

V. A RUN ON THE BANK 57

VI. HORACE 71

VII. THE GREAT DAY 82

VIII. THE GREEN CHEST 98

IX. WHITE PEACOCKS 113

X. THE FLIGHT 130

XI. UP LIKE A ROCKET 147

XII. SUSY 160

XIII. ARMA PUERUMQUE CANO 177

XIV. WHEN MY SHIP COMES IN 195

XV. THE LUCKY-BUG 209

XVI. WEST INJY LANE 223

XVII. THEIR UNACCOUNTABLE BEHAVIOR 240

XVIII. THE SIEGE OF AUNTIE MERRILL 256

XIX. ENTERTAINING ALICE 269

XX. WHILE THE EVIL DAYS COME NOT 282

THE BELIEVING YEARS