Chapter I: Front Matter

The Little Colonel's
Chum: Mary Ware

By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON

Author of "The Little Colonel Series," "Big Brother," "Ole Mammy's Torment," "Joel: A Boy of Galilee," "Asa Holmes," etc.

Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY

L.C. PAGE & COMPANY

BOSTON PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1908_
BY L.C. PAGE AND COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)

* * * * *

_Entered at Stationers' Hall, London_

* * * * *

_All rights reserved_

Made in U.S.A.

Twenty-third Impression, July, 1944 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE COLONIAL PRESS INC., CLINTON, MASS.

To
M.G.J.

Preface

=Dear Boys and Girls Who Are Old Friends of the Little Colonel:=

When I finished the eighth volume of the Little Colonel Stories, The Maid of Honour, I thought I had reached the end of the series, but such a flood of letters came pouring in demanding to know what happened next, that I could not ignore such a plea, and in consequence The Little Colonel's Knight came riding by.

But even with Lloyd married and "living happily ever after" her friends were not satisfied. "You skipped" they complained by the hundreds. "You never told what happened between the time of her engagement and the wedding, and you never told what happened to Betty and Joyce and Mary and Phil and all the rest of them. Even if you haven't time for another book, couldn't you just please write _me_ a little letter and satisfy my curiosity about each character."

Of course I couldn't begin granting all those requests, and finally I was persuaded it would be easier to answer your questions with a new book. So here is Mary Ware, taking up the thread of the story at the first of the skipped places. The time is September, the same September that Betty went away to Warwick Hall to teach and Lloyd began to prepare for her debut in Louisville.

Now this volume covers only one short year, so of course it can not tell you all you want to know. But if you are disappointed because it does not take you to the final milestone, remember that had we gone that far it would have been the end of all our journeying together. And we have it from our _Tusitala_ himself, that best beloved of travellers, for whom in a far island of the sea was dug "a Road to last for ever," that "_to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive_." A.F.J.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. MARY ENTERS WARWICK 1
II. "THE KING'S CALL" 18
III. ROOM-MATES 37
IV. "AYE, THERE'S THE RUB!" 56
V. A FAD AND A CHRISTMAS FUND 81
VI. JACK'S WATCH-FOB 103
VII. IN JOYCE'S STUDIO 125
VIII. CHRISTMAS DAY AT EUGENIA'S 141
IX. THE BRIDE-CAKE SHILLING COMES TO LIGHT 163
X. HER SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY 190
XI. TROUBLE FOR EVERYBODY 205
XII. THE GOOD-BYE GATE 222
XIII. THE JESTER'S SWORD 237
XIV. BACK AT LONE-ROCK 262
XV. KEEPING TRYST 286

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"HER KEEN GRAY EYES SWEPT HIM ONE QUICK LOOK" (_See page_ 4) _Frontispiece_

"LAY BACK UNDER ITS SHELTERING CANOPY WITH A SUPPRESSED GIGGLE" 52

"INSTEAD, IT SEEMED AS IF A SMALL CYCLONE SWEPT THROUGH THE ROOM" 79

"THE GIRLISH FIGURE ENVELOPED IN A LONG LOOSE WORKING APRON" 125

"SHE WAS A FASCINATING LITTLE CREATURE, ALL SMILES AND DIMPLES" 153

"ALL SHE SAW WAS THE TELLER'S WINDOW, WITH A SHREWD-EYED MAN BEHIND ITS BARS" 172

"OUT ON THE PORCH SHE HEARD FROM NORMAN HOW IT HAD HAPPENED" 263

"WHEN SHE DROVE A NAIL IT HELD THINGS TOGETHER" 280

THE LITTLE COLONEL'S CHUM: MARY WARE