The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dick's Desertion, by Marjorie L. C. Pickthall

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Title: Dick's Desertion
A Boy's Adventures in Canadian Forests

Author: Marjorie L. C. Pickthall

Release Date: September 26, 2010 [EBook #34002]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DICK'S DESERTION ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Illustration: Cover art]

[Frontispiece: "The great branch torn from a neighbouring maple told
all the tale."--_p._ 20]

DICK'S DESERTION

A Boy's Adventures
in Canadian Forests

A TALE OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF ONTARIO

By

MARJORIE L. C. PICKTHALL

WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS

Toronto:

The Musson Book Company, Limited.

1905

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

I. IN THE HEART OF THE WOODS
II. THE FALL OF THE TREE
III. FRIENDS INDEED
IV. A DAY IN THE WOODS
V. A BACKWOODS CHRISTMAS
VI. THE CALL OF THE FOREST
VII. A MESSAGE FROM THE WANDERER
VIII. A WOOD'S ADVENTURE
IX. ON THE PRAIRIE
X. IN THE GRIP OF THE STORM
XI. BACK TO STEPHANIE
XII. TO A GOODLY HERITAGE

ILLUSTRATIONS

"The great branch torn from a neighbouring maple told all the
tale." . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

"'If I had fifty rivers and fifty canoes, I could not leave Stephanie.'"

"They began to sing the old carols their mother had taught them long
before."

"He flung out his arm, circled with savage ornaments--flung it out with
a wild gesture, and began to speak."

"He held out a tiny package, wrapped in birch-bark, with an inquiring
glance towards her."

"'For pity's sake, let me alone!' Dick pleaded. 'Go on and leave me.'"

"'Dick! Dick! Where are you?'"

DICK'S DESERTION:

A Boy's Adventures in Canadian Forests.

CHAPTER I.

In the Heart of the Woods.

It was early fall, and all the world was golden. Golden seemed the
hazy warmth of the sky; golden were the willow leaves and the delicate
foliage of the birches; even the grass, pale from the long heat of the
summer, had taken on a tinge of the all-pervading colour. Far as the
eye could reach, the woods and uplands we