Mildred Keith Read online

  MILDRED KEITH

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  LIST OF THE ELSIE BOOKS AND OTHER POPULAR BOOKS

  BY

  MARTHA FINLEY

  _ELSIE DINSMORE._ _ELSIE'S HOLIDAYS AT ROSELANDS._ _ELSIE'S GIRLHOOD._ _ELSIE'S WOMANHOOD._ _ELSIE'S MOTHERHOOD._ _ELSIE'S CHILDREN._ _ELSIE'S WIDOWHOOD._ _GRANDMOTHER ELSIE._ _ELSIE'S NEW RELATIONS._ _ELSIE AT NANTUCKET._ _THE TWO ELSIES._ _ELSIE'S KITH AND KIN._ _ELSIE'S FRIENDS AT WOODBURN._ _CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDMA ELSIE._ _ELSIE AND THE RAYMONDS._ _ELSIE YACHTING WITH THE RAYMONDS._ _ELSIE'S VACATION._ _ELSIE AT VIAMEDE._ _ELSIE AT ION._ _ELSIE AT THE WORLD'S FAIR._ _ELSIE'S JOURNEY ON INLAND WATERS._ _ELSIE AT HOME._ _ELSIE ON THE HUDSON._ _ELSIE IN THE SOUTH._ _ELSIE'S YOUNG FOLKS._

  _MILDRED KEITH._ _MILDRED AT ROSELANDS._ _MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE._ _MILDRED AND ELSIE._ _MILDRED AT HOME._ _MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS._ _MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER._

  _CASELLA._ _SIGNING THE CONTRACT AND WHAT IT COST._ _THE TRAGEDY OF WILD RIVER VALLEY._ _OUR FRED._ _AN OLD-FASHIONED BOY._ _WANTED, A PEDIGREE._ _THE THORN IN THE NEST._

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  MILDRED KEITH

  BY

  MARTHA FINLEY

  (_Martha Farquharson_)

  Author of "Elsie Dinsmore," "Elsie's Children," "Old-FashionedBoy," "Our Fred," "Wanted--a Pedigree," etc., etc.

  "She is pretty to walk with, And witty to talk with, And pleasant, too, to think on." --BRENNORALT

  New YorkDodd, Mead & CompanyPublishers

  Copyright, 1876, Dodd, Mead & Company.

  PREFACE.

  THE Keith family were relatives of Horace Dinsmore, and as my readerswill observe, the date of this story is some seven years earlier thanthat of the first Elsie book.

  The journey, and that most _sickly_ season, which I have attempted todescribe, were events in my own early childhood. The latter still dwellsin my memory as a dreadful dream.

  Our family--a large one--were all down with the fever except my agedgrandmother and a little sister of six or seven, and "help could not behad for love or money."

  My father, who was a physician, kept up and made his rounds among histown and country patients for days after the fever had attacked him, butwas at length compelled to take his bed, and I well remember lyingthere beside him while the neighbors flocked into the room to consulthim about their sick ones at home.

  That region of country is now, I believe, as healthy as almost any otherpart of our favored land. Such a season, it was said, had never beenknown before, and there has been none like it since.

  M. F.

  MILDRED KEITH.