Janice Day   By: Helen Beecher Long

JANICE DAY

BY

HELEN BEECHER LONG

ILLUSTRATED BY

WALTER S. ROGERS

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY

SULLY AND KLEINTEICH

All rights reserved

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A NEW FASHIONED GIRL 1

II. POKETOWN 10

III. "IT JEST RATTLES" 22

IV. FIRST IMPRESSIONS 32

V. 'RILL SCATTERGOOD AND HER SCHOOL 43

VI. AN AFTERNOON OF ADVENTURE 56

VII. THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LOST THE ECHO 64

VIII. A BIT OF ROMANCE 73

IX. TEA, AND A TALK WITH DADDY 84

X. BEGINNING WITH A BEDSTEAD 96

XI. A RAINY DAY 109

XII. ON THE ROAD WITH WALKY DEXTER 122

XIII. NELSON HALEY 131

XIV. A TIME OF TRIAL 139

XV. NEW BEGINNINGS 149

XVI. "SHOWING" THE ELDER 159

XVII. CHRISTMAS NEWS 173

XVIII. "THE FLY BY NIGHT" 184

XIX. CHRISTMAS, AFTER ALL! 197

XX. THE TROUBLE WITH NELSON HALEY 210

XXI. A STIR OF NEW LIFE IN POKETOWN 217

XXII. AT THE SUGAR CAMP 226

XXIII. "DO YOU MEAN THAT?" 235

XXIV. THE SCHOOL DEDICATION 241

XXV. THROUGH THE SECOND WINTER 253

XXVI. JUST HOW IT ALL BEGAN 262

XXVII. POKETOWN IN A NEW DRESS 271

XXVIII. NO ODOR OF GASOLINE! 280

XXIX. JANICE DAY'S FIRST LOVE LETTER 290

XXX. WHAT THE ECHO MIGHT HAVE HEARD 302

ILLUSTRATIONS

The quick eye of Janice Day caught sight of this row of nondescripts. (See page 15.) Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

The old violin wailed out the tune haltingly 72

God's world did look bigger and greater from The Overlook. (See page 155.) 154

She just had to raise her eyes and look into his earnest ones. (See page 307.) 306

JANICE DAY

CHAPTER I

A NEW FASHIONED GIRL

"Well! this is certainly a relief from the stuffy old cars," said Janice Day, as she reached the upper deck of the lake steamer, dropped her suitcase, and drew in her first full breath of the pure air.

"What a beautiful lake!" she went on. "And how big! Why I had no idea! I wonder how far Poketown is from here?"

The ancient sidewheel steamer was small and there were few passengers on the upper deck, forward. Janice secured a campstool and sat down near the rail to look off over the water.

The officious man in the blue cap on the dock had shouted "All aboard!" the moment the passengers left the cars of the little narrow gauge railroad, on which the girl had been riding for more than two hours; but it was some minutes before the wheezy old steamer got under way.

Janice was interested in everything she saw even in the clumsy warping off of the Constance Colfax , when her hawsers were finally released.

"Goodness me!" thought the girl, chuckling, "what a ridiculous old tub it is! How different everything East here is from Greensboro. There! we're really off!"

The water hissed and splashed, as the wheels of the steamer began to turn rheumatically. The walking beam heaved up and down with many a painful creak.

"Why! that place is real pretty when you look at it from the lake," murmured Janice, looking back at the little landing. "I wonder if Poketown will be like it?"