NEIGHBORHOOD STORIES

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO

“NOW, THIS ONE—WHO’LL BID ON THIS ONE?”

NEIGHBORHOOD
STORIES

BY
ZONA GALE
AUTHOR OF “FRIENDSHIP VILLAGE,” “THE LOVES
OF PELLEAS AND ETARRE,” ETC.


WITH FRONTISPIECE


New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1914

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1912, by The Ridgway Company, and by The Butterick
Publishing Company.

Copyright, 1913, by The Ridgway Company.

Copyright, 1914, by The Ridgway Company, by the Crowell Publishing
Company, and by the McClure Publications, Inc.
———
Copyright, 1914,

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
———
Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1914.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

 
To

THE LITTLE TOWNS

OF

THE TIME TO COME

PREFACE

“When I die,” said Calliope Marsh, “don’t you get anybody that’s alwaystreated me like a dog and put them on the front seat. Make ’em sitback.”

Then she looked at me, her rare and somewhat abashed smile on herface.

“Birds and stars and children and God in the world,” she said, “andhark at me talking like that. Honest, I don’t care where you seat ’em.”

That is like Calliope. And that is like the village. Blunt andsometimes bitter speech there is, and now and again what we gently call“words”; but the faith of my experience is that these are facile, andneed never trouble one. These are born of circumscription, of littleareas, of teasing tasks, of lack of exercise, of that curious minglingwhich we call social life; but any one who takes seriously our faintfeuds or even our narrow judgments does not know and love the MiddleWestern villages, nor understand that seeds and buds are not the norm ofbloom. Instance, if you will, this case and that to show the contrary.But the days of pioneering, when folk drew together in defense, left usa heritage which no isolated instances can nullify. On the whole, we areall friends.

There could be no better basis for the changes that are upon us. Thenew ideals of the great world are here, in our little world. Thoughthere is an impression to t