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The Sturdy Oak - A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors Samuel Merwin The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sturdy Oak, by Samuel Merwin Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: The Sturdy Oak A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors Author: Samuel Merwin Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8435] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 10, 2003] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STURDY OAK *** Produced by Eric Eldred, David Widger and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team Livros Grátis http://www.livrosgratis.com.br Milhares de livros grátis para download. [Illustration] THE STURDY OAK A composite Novel of American Politics by fourteen American authors: SAMUEL MERWIN HARRY LEON WILSON FANNIE HURST DOROTHY CANFIELD KATHLEEN NORRIS HENRY KITCHELL WEBSTER ANNE O'HAGAN MARY HEATON VORSE ALICE DUER MILLER ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD MARJORIE BENTON COOKE WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE MARY AUSTIN LEROY SCOTT THEME BY MARY AUSTIN The chapters collected and (very cautiously) edited by ELIZABETH JORDAN Illustrations by HENRY RALEIGH NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1917 [Blank-copyright info] PREFACE At a certain committee meeting held in the spring of 1916, it was agreed that fourteen leading American authors, known to be extremely generous as well as gifted, should be asked to write a composite novel. As I was not present at this particular meeting, it was unanimously and joyously decided by those who were present that I should attend to the trivial details of getting this novel together. It appeared that all I had to do was: First, to persuade each of the busy authors on the list to write a chapter of the novel. Second, to keep steadily on their trails from the moment they promised their chapters until they turned them in. Third, to have the novel finished and published serially during the autumn Campaign of 1917. The carrying out of these requirements has not been the childish diversion it may have seemed. Splendid team work, however, has made success possible. Every author represented, every worker on the team, has gratuitously contributed his or her services; and every dollar realized by the serial and book publication of "The Sturdy Oak" will be devoted to the Suffrage Cause. But the novel itself is first of all a very human story of American life today. It neither unduly nor unfairly emphasizes the question of equal suffrage, and it should appeal to all lovers of good fiction. Therefore, pausing only to wipe the beads of perspiration from our brows, we urge every one to buy this book! ELIZABETH JORDAN. NEW YORK. _November_, 1917. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. BY SAMUEL MERWIN II. BY HARRY LEON WILSON III. BY FANNIE HURST IV. BY DOROTHY CANFIELD V. BY KATHLEEN NORRIS VI. BY HENRY KITCHELL WEBSTER VII. BY ANNE O'HAGAN VIII. BY MARY HEATON VORSE IX. BY ALICE DUER MILLER X. BY ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD XI. BY MARJORIE BENTON COOK XII. BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE XIII. BY MARY AUSTIN XIV. BY LEROY SCOTT ILLUSTRATIONS "Nobody ever means that a woman really can't get along without a man's protection, because look at the women who do" It was hard on the darling old boy to come home to Miss Emelene and the cat and Eleanor and Alys every night! "You mean because she's a suffragist? You sent her away for _that!_ Why, really, that's _tyranny!_" Across the way, Mrs. Herrington, the fighting blood of five generations of patriots roused in her, had reinstated the Voiceless Speech. PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS _George Remington_... Aged twenty-six; newly married. Recently returned to his home town, New York State, to take up the practice of law. Politically ambitious, a candidate for District Attorney. Opposed to woman suffrage. _Genevieve_... His wife, aged twenty-three, graduate of Smith. Devoted to George; her ideal being to share his every thought. _Betty Sheridan_... A friend of Genevieve. Very pretty; one of the first families, well-to-do but in search of economic independence. Working as stenographer in George's office; an ardent Suffragist. _Penfield Evans_... Otherwise "Penny," George's partner, in love with Betty. Neutral on the subject of Suffrage. _Alys Brewster-Smith_... Cousin of George, once removed; thirty-three, a married woman by profession, but temporarily widowed. Anti-suffragist. One Angel Child aged five. _Martin Jaffry_... Uncle to George, bachelor of uncertain age and certain income. The widow's destined prey. _Cousin Emelene_.... On Genevieve's side. Between thirty-five and forty, a born spinster but clinging to the hope of marriage as the only career for women. Has a small and decreasing income. Affectedly feminine and genuinely incompetent. _Mrs. Harvey Herrington_.... President of the Woman's Club, the Municipal League, Suffrage Society leader, wealthy, cultured and possessing a sense of humor. _Percival Pauncefoot Sheridan_.... Betty's brother, fifteen, commonly called Pudge. Pink, pudgy, sensitive; always imposed upon, always grouchy and too good-natured to assert himself. _E. Eliot_.... Real estate agent (added in Chapter VI by Henry Kitchell Webster). _Benjamin Doolittle_.... A leader of his party, and somewhat careless where he leads it. (Added in Anne O'Hagan's Chapter). _Patrick Noonan_.... A follower of Doolittle. Time.... The Present. Place.... Whitewater, N. Y. A manufacturing town of from ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants. THE STURDY OAK CHAPTER I BY SAMUEL MERWIN Genevieve Remington had been called beautiful. She was tall, with brown eyes and a fine spun mass of golden-brown hair. She had a gentle smile, that disclosed white, even teeth. Her voice was not unmusical. She was twenty-three years old and possessed a husband who, though only twenty-six, had already shown such strength of character and such aptitude at the criminal branch of the law that he was now a candidate for the post of district attorney on the regular Republican ticket. The popular impression was that he would be elected hands down. His address on Alexander Hamilton at the Union League Club banquet at Hamilton City, twenty-five miles from Whitewater (with which smaller city we are concerned in this narrative), had been reprinted in full in the Hamilton City _Tribune_; and Mrs. Brewster-Smith reported that former Congressman Hancock had compared it, not unfavorably, with certain public utterances of the Honorable Elihu Root. George Remington was an inch more than six feet tall, with sturdy shoulders, a chin that gave every indication of stubborn strength, a frank smile, and a warm, strong handclasp. He was connected by blood (as well as by marriage) with five of the eight best families in Whitewater. Mr. Martin Jaffry, George's uncle and sole inheritor of the great Jaffry estate (and a bachelor), was known to favor his candidacy; was supposed, indeed, to be a large contributor to the Remington campaign fund. In fact, George Remington was a lucky young man, a coming young man. George and Genevieve had been married five weeks; this was their first day as master and mistress of the old Remington place on Sheridan Road. Genevieve, that afternoon, was in the long living-room, trying out various arrangements of the flowers that had been sent in. There were a great many flowers. Most of them came from admirers of George. The Young Men's Republican Club, for one item, had sent eight dozen roses. But Genevieve, still a-thrill with the magic of her five-weeks-long honeymoon, tremulously happy in the cumulative proof that her husband was the noblest, strongest, bravest man alive, felt only joy in his popularity. As his wife she shared his triumphs. "For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health ..." the ancient phrases repeated themselves so many times in her softly confused thought, as she moved about among the flowers, that they finally took on a rhythm--- _"For better or worse, For richer or poorer, For richer or poorer, For better or worse--"_ * * * * * On this day her life was beginning. She had given herself irrevocably into the hands of this man. She would live only in him. Her life would find expression only through his. His strong, trained mind would be her guide, his sturdy courage her strength. He would build for them both, for the twain that were one. She caught up one red rose, winked the moisture from her eyes, and gazed--rapt, lips parted, color high--out at the close-clipped lawn behind the privet hedge. The afternoon would soon be waning--in another hour or so. She must not disturb him now. In an hour, say, she would run up the stairs and tap at his door. And he would come out, clasp her in his big arms, and she would stand on the tips of her toes and kiss away the wrinkles between his brows, and they would walk on the lawn and talk about themselves and the miracle of their love.

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