271

XX. MARY ISABEL'S CHIMNEY 289

XXI. THE FAIRY WORLD OF CHILDHOOD 307

XXII. THE OLD SOLDIER GAINS A GRANDDAUGHTER 326

XXIII. "CAVANAGH" AND THE "WINDS OF DESTINY" 341

XXIV. THE OLD HOMESTEAD SUFFERS DISASTER 355

XXV. DARKNESS JUST BEFORE THE DAWN 369

XXVI. SPRAY OF WILD ROSES 381

XXVII. A SOLDIER OF THE UNION MUSTERED OUT 389

AFTERWORD 400

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ILLUSTRATIONS

Isabel Clintock Garland, A Daughter of the Middle Border
Frontispiece

Zulime Taft: The New Daughter Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Miss Zulime Taft, acting as volunteer housekeeper
for the colony 104

At last the time came when I was permitted to take my
wife--lovely as a Madonna--out into the sunshine 287

The old soldier loved to take the children on his knees
and bask in the light of the fire 304

Entirely subject to my daughter, who regarded me as a
wonderful giant, I paid tribute to her in song
and story 322

That night as my daughters "dressed up" as princesses,
danced in the light of our restored hearth, I forgot
all the disheartenment which the burning of the
house had brought upon me 368

The art career which Zulime Taft abandoned after our
marriage, is now being taken up by her daughter
Constance 400

To Mary Isabel who as a girl of eighteen still loves
to impersonate the majesty of princesses 402

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A DAUGHTER OF THE MIDDLE BORDER

BOOK I

CHAPTER ONE

My First Winter in Chicago

"Well, Mother," I said as I took my seat at the breakfast table the
second day after our Thanksgiving dinner, "I must return to Chicago. I
have some lectures to deliver and besides I must get back to my
writing."

She made no objection to my announcement but her eyes lost something o