The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Friendly Road, by
(AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

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Title: The Friendly Road
New Adventures in Contentment

Author: (AKA David Grayson) Ray Stannard Baker

Posting Date: December 13, 2008 [EBook #2479]
Release Date: February, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRIENDLY ROAD ***

Produced by Aaron Cannon

THE FRIENDLY ROAD

New Adventures in Contentment

By David Grayson (Pseud. of Ray Stannard Baker)

Author of
"Adventure in Contentment,"
"Adventures in Friendship"

Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty

Copyright, 1913, by DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

"Surely it is good to be alive at a time like this."

THE FRIENDLY ROAD

A WORD TO HIM WHO OPENS THIS BOOK

I did not plan when I began writing these chapters to make an entire
book, but only to put down the more or less unusual impressions, the
events and adventures, of certain quiet pilgrimages in country roads.
But when I had written down all of these things, I found I had material
in plenty.

"What shall I call it now that I have written it?" I asked myself.

At first I thought I should call it "Adventures on the Road," or "The
Country Road," or something equally simple, for I would not have the
title arouse any appetite which the book itself could not satisfy. One
pleasant evening I was sitting on my porch with my dog sleeping near me,
and Harriet not far away rocking and sewing, and as I looked out across
the quiet fields I could see in the distance a curving bit of the town
road. I could see the valley below it and the green hill beyond, and
my mind went out swiftly along the country road which I had so recently
travelled on foot, and I thought with deep satisfaction of all the
people I had met on my pilgrimages--the Country Minister with his
problems, the buoyant Stanleys, Bill Hahn the Socialist, the Vedders in
their garden, the Brush Peddler. I thought of the Wonderful City, and of
how for a time I had been caught up into its life. I thought of the
men I met at the livery stable, especially Healy, the wit, and of that
strange Girl o