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The Happy Isles

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The Happy Isles

_The Happy Isles_ _The Dust Flower_ _The Thread of Flame_ _The City of Comrades_ _Abraham's Bosom_ _The Empty Sack_ _Going West_ _The Side of the Angels_

The Happy Isles

[Illustration: "THEY'LL SAY I STOLE HIM. IT'LL BE TWENTY YEARS FOR ME"]

Author of "The Empty Sack," "The Inner Shrine," "The Dust Flower," etc.

With Illustrations by John Alonzo Williams

Publishers Harper & Brothers New York and London MCMXXIII

Copyright, 1923 By Harper & Brothers Printed in the U.S.A.

"They'll Say I Stole Him. It'll Be Twenty Years for Me" _Frontispiece_

"That's a Terr'ble Big Wad for a Boy Like You to Wear" _Facing p._ 158

Mrs. Ansley Took Him as an Affliction " 362

Many a green isle needs must be In the deep wide sea of misery, Or the mariner, worn and wan, Never thus could voyage on, Day and night, and night and day....

At eight months of age his only experience of life had been one of well-being. He was fed when hungry; he slept when sleepy; he woke when he had slept enough. When bored or annoyed or uneasy he could cry. If crying brought him attentions it was that much to the good; if the effort was thrown away it did no one any harm. Even when least fertile of results it was a change from the crowing and gurgling which were all he had to distract him when left to his own company.

Though his mind worked in co-operation with the subconscious more than with the conscious, it worked actively. In waking minutes there was everything to observe and register.

His intimate needs being met, there were the phenomena of light and darkness. He knew not only the difference between them, but in a general way when to expect the turn of each. He knew that light brought certain formalities, chiefly connected with his person, and that darkness brought certain others. The reasons remained obscure, but the variety was pleasing.