The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tinder-Box, by Maria Thompson Daviess

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Title: The Tinder-Box

Author: Maria Thompson Daviess

Release Date: February 1, 2005 [EBook #14863]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE TINDER-BOX

[Illustration: "You don't need another vine," I answered mutinously.]

THE TINDER-BOX

BY

MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS

Author of

"The Melting of Molly," "Miss Selina Lue," "Sue Jane," Etc.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN EDWIN JACKSON

NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO.

_Published, November, 1913_

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO HANNAH DAVIESS PITTMAN WHO BLAZED MY TRAIL AND
STILL DOES

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE LOAD 3

II. THE MAIDEN LANCE 26

III. A FLINT-SPARK 48

IV. SWEETER WHEN TAMED? 79

V. DEEPER THAN SHOULDERS OR RIBS 105

VI. MAN AND THE ASAFETIDA SPOON 136

VII. SOME SMOLDERINGS 173

VIII. AN ATTAINED TO-MORROW 211

IX. DYNAMITE 248

X. TOGETHER? 282

ILLUSTRATIONS

"You don't need another vine," I answered mutinously....._Frontispiece_

He stood calmly in the midst of Sallie's family and baggage, both
animate and inanimate 38

"Say, Polk, I let the Pup git hung by her apron to the wheel of your
car" 98

His gray eyes were positively mysterious with interrupted dreams 182

"We must not allow the men time to get sore over this matter of the
League" 218

"Is this right?" he asked 244

"She's our Mother," he said 276

Scrouged so close to his arm that it was difficult for both of them to
walk 280

THE TINDER BOX

CHAPTER I

THE LOAD

All love is a gas, and it takes either loneliness, strength of
character, or religion to liquefy it into a condition to be ladled out
of us, one to another. There is a certain dangerously volatile state of
it; and