Produced by Charlene Taylor, Ernest Schaal, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)
[Illustration: "ERSKINE," SHE SAID EAGERLY, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" _Page 91._]
AUTHOR OF "RUTH ERSKINE'S CROSSES"; "ESTER RIED'S NAMESAKE"; "ESTER RIED YET SPEAKING"; "ESTER RIED"; "DORIS FARRAND'S VOCATION"; "DAVID RANSOM'S WATCH"; ETC., ETC.
PANSY TRADE-MARK Registered in U. S. Patent Office.
COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
"ERSKINE," SHE SAID EAGERLY, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" (PAGE 91) _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE "WE WILL GIVE THEM ALL THE SLIP, MY DEAR" 62
AS a matter of fact the name of this story should be: Ruth Erskine Burnham's Son. But there are those living who remember Ruth Erskine and her memorable summer at the New York Chautauqua; and that name is so entirely associated with those four girls at Chautauqua, and their after experiences, that it seems natural to speak of her boy, Erskine, as Ruth Erskine's son; although, of course, he was also Judge Burnham's son.
The day on which she is again introduced to her friends was a dull one in late autumn; the afterglow of sunset was already fading, and the shadows were gathering fast. It was the hour that Erskine Burnham liked best for the piano. He was at that moment softly touching the keys, bringing forth harmonious sounds with the air of one not even hearing them.
He was a handsome boy. The promise of his early life,--during which time the exclamation, "What a beautiful child!" was being continually heard,--was being fulfilled in his boyhood. Friends of his father were fond of assuring Ruth that the boy was his father's image; while her friends were sure that no boy could be more like his mother.
As for Ruth when she saw her son bending over his books, a lock of hair continually dropping over his left eye and being continually flung back with a gesture peculiar to Judge Erskine, she would say:--
As the boy grew older he laughed at all these opinions, and asked his mother if she did not think it would be difficult for a fellow to have any individuality who was strikingly like three people who were all, as nearly as he could make out, strikingly unlike one another.