The Windy Hill

Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For a complete list, please see the end of this document . Click on the images to see a larger version. THE WINDY HILL BY CORNELIA MEIGS The Pool of Stars Master Simon's Garden The Steadfast Princess The Kingdom of the Winding Road THE WINDY HILL BY CORNELIA MEIGS New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright , 1921, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published August, 1921. FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK CITY CONTENTS Page I The Beeman 7 II The Seven Brothers of the Sun 26 III John Massey's Landlord 47 IV The Garden Wall 66 V The Ghost Ship 77 VI Janet's Adventure 99 VII The Portrait of Cicely 113 VIII The Fiddler of Apple Tree Lane 127 IX The Fiddler of Apple Tree Lane (Continued) 145 X A Man of Straw 159 XI Three Cousins 173 XII Medford River 195 THE WINDY HILL THE BEEMAN The road was a sunny, dusty one, leading upward through Medford Valley, with half-wooded hills on each side whose far outline quivered in the hot, breathless air of mid-June afternoon. Oliver Peyton seemed to have no regard for heat or dust, however, but trudged along with such a determined stride that people passing turned to look after him, and more than one swift motor car curved aside to give him room. "Want a ride?" inquired one genial farmer, drawing up beside him. "Where are you going?" Oliver turned to answer the first question, meaning to reply with a relieved "yes," but his square, sunburned face hardened at the second. "Oh, I am just going down the road—a little way," he replied stiffly, shook his head at the repeated offer of a lift, and tramped on in the dust. The next man he met seemed also to feel a curiosity as to his errand, for he stopped a very old, shambling horse to lean from his seat and ask point-blank: "Where may you be going in such a hurry on such a hot day?" Oliver, looking up at the person who addressed him and gauging his close-set, hard gray eyes and his narrow, dark face, conceived an instant dislike and distrust of the stranger. He replied shortly, as he had before, but with less good temper:…