THE RECLAIMERS
BY MARGARET HILL McCARTER
Author of "VANGUARDS OF THE PLAINS"
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Reclaimers
Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published October, 1918
TO
MAY BELLEVILLE BROWN
CRITIC, COUNSELLOR, COMFORTER
CONTENTS
PART I. JERRY
I. The Heir Apparent
II. Uncle Cornie's Throw
III. Hitching the Wagon to a Star
IV. Between Edens
V. New Eden's Problem
VI. Paradise Lost
PART II. JERRY AND JOE
VII. Unhitching the Wagon from a Star
VIII. If a Man Went Right with Himself
IX. If a Woman Went Right with Herself
X. The Snare of the Fowler
XI. An Interlude in "Eden"
XII. This Side of the Rubicon
PART III. JERRY AND EUGENE—AND JOE
XIII. How a Good Mother Lives On
XIV. Jim Swaim's Wish
XV. Drawing Out Leviathan with a Hook
XVI. A Postlude in "Eden"
XVII. The Flesh-pots of the Winnwoc
XVIII. The Lord Hath His Way in the Storm
XIX. Reclaimed
THE RECLAIMERS
I
JERRY
I
THE HEIR APPARENT
Only the good little snakes were permitted to enter the "Eden" thatbelonged to Aunt Jerry and Uncle Cornie Darby. "Eden," it should beexplained, was the country estate of Mrs. Jerusha Darby—a wealthyPhiladelphian—and her husband, Cornelius Darby, a relative by marriage,so to speak, whose sole business on earth was to guard his wife's wealthfor six hours of the day in the city, and to practise discus-throwingout at "Eden" for two hours every evening.
Of course these two were never familiarly "Aunt" and "Uncle" to thiscountry neighborhood, nor to any other community. Far, oh, far fromthat! They were Aunt and Uncle only to Jerry Swaim, the orphaned andonly child of Mrs. Darby's brother Jim, whose charming girlish presencemade the whole community, wherever she might chance to be. They werecousin, however, to Eugene Wellington, a young artist of mor