pensation for the hardships of the
backwoods?

And just at that point in the argument Beacon Hill received its name and
significance. From its top a watcher could view the road leading to
Hillcrest, and by a well-directed signal give warning to any chance
wrongdoer on the St. Ange side. Many a culprit had thus been aided in
his plans of escape before Justice, striding over the western hill, bore
down upon the town.

Beautiful, unappreciated St. Ange! The trees grew, and the scar was
healed. The soft, pine-laden breezes touched with heavenly fragrance the
dull-faced women, the pathetic children, and the unambitious men.
Everything was run down and apparently doomed, until one day the endless
chain which encompasses the world, in its turning dropped the Golden
Bead of Love into St. Ange! Down deep it sank to the bottom of the
crucible. Jude Lauzoon was blinded by it and stung to life; Joyce
Birkdale through its power came into the heritage of her soul. Jock
Filmer by its magic force was shorn of his poor shield and left naked
and unprotected for Fate's crudest darts. John Gaston, working out his
salvation in his shack hidden among the pines, was burnt by the divining
rays that penetrated to his secret place and spared him not. And then,
when things were at their tensest, Ralph Drew came and tuned the
discordant notes into sweet harmony. St. Ange became in time a home for
many whom despair had marked for its own; a Sanctuary for devoted
service.

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ILLUSTRATIONS

"You've got the winning cards, my girl ... It's all in the
playing now" Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

"Once I went so far as to go up there with my gun" 76

That pictured Mother and Child were moulding Joyce's character 114

Presently he opened his eyes ... and there sat the girl of
his dreams near him 188

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JOYCE OF THE NORTH WOODS

CHAPTER I

The man lying flat on the rock which crusted Beacon Hill raised his head
with a snake-like motion, and then let it fall back again upon his
folded arms. His body had not moved; it seemed part of the stone and
moss.

The midsummer afternoon was sunny and hot, and the fussy little river
ra