Front matter
Reading edition
Illustrated by Thomas Fogarty
The Macmillan Company
1904
CONTENTS
THE MERRY ANNE
CHAPTER I—DICK AND HIS MERRY ANNE
CHAPTER II—THE NEW MATE
CHAPTER III—AT THE HOUSE ON STILTS
CHAPTER IV—THE CIRCLE MARK
CHAPTER V—BURNT COVE
CHAPTER VI—THE RED SEAL LABEL
CHAPTER VII—DRAWING TOGETHER
CHAPTER VIII—THE EVENING OF THE SAME DAY
CHAPTER IX—THE CHASE BEGINS—THURSDAY MORNING
CHAPTER X—THURSDAY NIGHT—THE GINGHAM DRESS
CHAPTER XI—THURSDAY NIGHT—VAN DEELEN'S BRIDGE
CHAPTER XII—THE MEETING
CHAPTER XIII—WHISKEY JIM
CHAPTER XIV—HARBOR LIGHTS
CHAPTER XIV—IN WHICH BEVERIDGE SURPRISES HIMSELF
THE MERRY ANNE
Dear H. K. TV.:
This tale dedicates itself to you as a matter of right. For we grew up together on the bank of Lake Michigan; and you have not forgotten, over there in Paris, the real house on stilts, nor the miles we have tramped along the beach, nor, I am sure, the grim old life-saver on the near Ludington, and his sturdy scorn for our student life-savers at Evanston. And the endless night on Black Lake, with Klondike Andrews at the tiller and never a breath of wind, we shall not forget that. Once we differed: I failed to tempt you into a paddle in the Oki, one fresh spring day three years ago; but then, your instinct of self-preservation always worked better than mine, as the adventure in the Swampscott dory will recall to you.
But, after all, these doings do not make up the reason why the story is partly yours; nor do the changes in the text that sprang from your friendly comment. I will tell you the real reason.
Early, very early, one summer morning, you and I stood on the wheel-house of the P'ere Marquette Steamer No. 4—or was it the No. 3—a few hours from Milwaukee. The Lake was still, the thick mist was faintly illuminated by the hidden sun. Of a sudden, while the steamer was throbbing through the silence, a motionless schooner, painted blue, with a man in a red shirt at the wheel, loomed through the mist, stood out for one vivid moment, then faded away.
That schooner was the Merry Anne; and the man at the wheel was Dick Smiley. What if he should some day chance upon this tale and declare it untrue? know better, for we saw it there.