146
CHAPTER XVI 156
CHAPTER XVII 162
CHAPTER XVIII 167
CHAPTER XIX 174
CHAPTER XX 179
CHAPTER XXI 187
CHAPTER XXII 202
CHAPTER XXIII 210

Part III 223

CHAPTER XXIV 225
CHAPTER XXV 231
CHAPTER XXVI 242
CHAPTER XXVII 248
CHAPTER XXVIII 261
CHAPTER XXIX 270
CHAPTER XXX 282
CHAPTER XXXI 290
CHAPTER XXXII 300
CHAPTER XXXIII 310
CHAPTER XXXIV 324
CHAPTER XXXV 333
CHAPTER XXXVI 342
CHAPTER XXXVII 352
CHAPTER XXXVIII 362
CHAPTER XXXIX 368
CHAPTER XL 379
CHAPTER XLI 387
CHAPTER XLII 400

* * * * *

TO THE OPTIMISTIC REBELS THROUGH
WHOSE TALK AT LUNCHEON THE AUTHOR
WATCHES THE MANY-COLORED SPECTACLE
OF LIFE--GEORGE SOULE, HARRISON
SMITH, ALLAN UPDEGRAFF, F. K. NOYES,
ALFRED HARCOURT, B. W. HUEBSCH.

* * * * *

Part I

THE ADVENTURE OF YOUTH

THE TRAIL OF THE HAWK

CHAPTER I

Carl Ericson was being naughty. Probably no boy in Joralemon was being
naughtier that October Saturday afternoon. He had not half finished
the wood-piling which was his punishment for having chased the family
rooster thirteen times squawking around the chicken-yard, while
playing soldiers with Bennie Rusk.

He stood in the middle of the musty woodshed, pessimistically kicking
at the scattered wood. His face was stern, as became a man of eight
who was a soldier of fortune famed from the front gate to the
chicken-yard. An unromantic film of dirt hid the fact that his
Scandinavian cheeks were like cream-colored silk stained with
rose-petals. A baby Norseman, with only an average boy's prettiness,
yet with the whiteness and slenderness of a girl's little finger. A
back-yard boy, in baggy jacket and pants, gingham blouse, and cap
whose lining oozed back over his ash-blond hair, which was tangled now
like trampled grass, with a tiny chip riding grotesquely on one flossy
lock.

The darkness of the shed displeased Carl. The whole basic conception
of work bored him. The sticks of wood were personal enemies to which
he gave insulting names. He had always admired the hard bark and
metallic resonance of the ironwood, but he hated the poplar--"popple"
it is called in Joralemo