The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Island of Faith, by Margaret E. Sangster

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Title: The Island of Faith

Author: Margaret E. Sangster

Release Date: August 25, 2004 [EBook #13282]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ISLAND OF FAITH ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

The Island of Faith

By MARGARET E. SANGSTER

1921

To M's M and Chance

Contents

I. INTRODUCING--THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE

II. THE QUARREL

III. CONCERNING IDEALS

IV. THE PARK

V. ROSE-MARIE COMES TO THE RESCUE

VI. "THERE'S NO PLACE--"

VII. A LILY IN THE SLUMS

VIII. ANOTHER QUARREL

IX. AND ANOTHER

X. MRS. VOLSKY PROMISES TO TRY

XI. BENNIE COMES TO THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE

XII. AN ISLAND

XIII. ELLA MAKES A DECISION

XIV. PA STEPS ASIDE

XV. A SOLUTION

XVI. ENTER--JIM

XVII. AN ANSWER

XVIII. AND A MIRACLE

XIX. AND THE HAPPY ENDING

I

INTRODUCING--THE SETTLEMENT HOUSE

There is a certain section of New York that is bounded upon the north by
Fourteenth Street, upon the south by Delancy. Folk who dwell in it seldom
stray farther west than the Bowery, rarely cross the river that flows
sluggishly on its eastern border. They live their lives out, with
something that might be termed a feverish stolidity, in the dim crowded
flats, and upon the thronged streets.

To the people who have homes on Central Park West, to the frail winged
moths who flutter up and down Broadway, this section does not exist. Its
poor are not the picturesque poor of the city's Latin quarter, its
criminals seldom win to the notoriety of a front page and inch-high
headlines; it almost never produces a genius for the world to smile
upon--its talent does not often break away from the undefined, but none
the less certain, limits of the district.

It is curious that this part of town is seldom featured in song or story,
for it is certainly neither dull nor unproductive of pl