



Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Mary Meehan, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders











THE CALLING OF DAN MATTHEWS

BY

HAROLD BELL WRIGHT

1909

AUTHOR OF

"THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS"

"THAT PRINTER OF UDELL'S"


_With Illustrations by_

ARTHUR I. KELLER







TO

WILLIAM WILLIAMS, M.D.




CONTENTS

      I. THE HOME OF THE ALLY

     II. A REVELATION

    III. A GREAT DAY IN CORINTH

     IV. WHO ARE THEY?

      V. HOPE FARWELL'S MINISTRY

     VI. THE CALLING OF DAN MATTHEWS

    VII. FROM DEBORAH'S PORCH

   VIII. THE WORK OF THE ALLY

     IX. THE EDGE OF THE BATTLEFIELD

      X. A MATTER OF OPINION

     XI. REFLECTIONS

    XII. THE NURSE FORGETS

   XIII. DR. HARRY'S CASE

    XIV. THAT GIRL OF CONNER'S

     XV. THE MINISTER'S OPPORTUNITY

    XVI. DAN SEES THE OTHER SIDE

   XVII. THE TRAGEDY

  XVIII. TO SAVE A LIFE

    XIX. ON FISHING

     XX. COMMON GROUND

    XXI. THE WARNING

   XXII. AS DR. HARRY SEES IT

  XXIII. A PARABLE

   XXIV. THE WAY OUT

    XXV. A LABORER AND HIS HIRE

   XXVI. THE WINTER PASSES

  XXVII. DEBORAH'S TROUBLE

 XXVIII. A FISHERMAN

   XXIX. A MATTER OF BUSINESS

    XXX. THE DAUGHTER OF THE CHURCH

   XXXI. THE REALITY

  XXXII. THE BARRIER

 XXXIII. HEART'S TRAGEDIES

  XXXIV. SACRIFICED

   XXXV. THE TIE THAT BINDS

  XXXVI. GOOD-BYE

 XXXVII. RESULTS

XXXVIII. A HANDFUL OF GOLD

  XXXIX. THE VICTORY OF THE ALLY

     XL. THE DOCTOR'S GLASSES

    XLI. THE FINAL WORD

   XLII. JUSTICE

  XLIII. THE HOME COMING

   XLIV. THE OLD TRAIL




ILLUSTRATIONS

Drawn by
ARTHUR I. KELLER

WITH THE DOCTOR THE TWO STRANGERS IN CORINTH TOOK DENNY TO HIS HOME

"--YOU MUST BE IN LIFE A FISHERMAN"

A GOOD-BYE CARESS

DAN PLEADED WITH HIM




The Calling of Dan Matthews




CHAPTER I.

THE HOME OF THE ALLY

"And because the town of this story is what it is, there came to dwell
in it a Spirit--a strange, mysterious power--playful, vicious, deadly; a
Something to be at once feared and courted; to be denied--yet confessed
in the denial; a deadly enemy, a welcome friend, an all-powerful Ally."


This story began in the Ozark Mountains. It follows the trail that is
nobody knows how old. But mostly this story happened in Corinth, a town
of the middle class in a Middle Western state.

There is nothing peculiar about Corinth. The story might have happened
just as well in any other place, for the only distinguishing feature
about this town is its utter lack of any distinguishing feature whatever.
In all the essential elements of its life, so far as this story goes,
Corinth is exactly like every other village, town or city in the land.
This, indeed, is why the story happened in this particular place.

Years ago, when the railroad first climbed the backbone of the Ozarks, it
found Corinth already located on the summit. Even before the war, this
county-seat town was a place of no little importance, and many a good
tale might be told of those exciting days when the woods were full of
guerrillas and bushwhackers, and the village was raided first by one
side, then by the other. Many a good tale is told, indeed; for the
fathers and mothers of Corinth love to talk of the war times, and to
point out in Old Town the bullet-marked buildings and the scenes of many
thrilling events.

But the sons and daughters of the passing generation, with their sons
and daughters, like better to talk of the great things that are going to
be--when the proposed shoe-factory comes, the talked-of mills are
established, the dreamed-of electric line is built out from the city, or
the Capitalist from Somewhere-else arrives to invest in vacant lots,
thereon to build new hotels and business blocks.

The Doctor says that in the whole history of Corinth there are only two
events. The first was the coming of the railroad; the second was the
death of the Doctor's good friend, the Statesman.

The railroad did not actually enter Corinth. It stopped at the front
gate. But with Judge Strong's assistance the fathers and mothers
recognized their "golden opportunity" and took the step which the
eloquent Judge assured them would result in a "glorious future." They
left the beautiful, well-drained site chosen by those who cleared the
wilderness, and stretched themselves out along the mud-flat on either
side of the sacred right-of-way--that same mud-flat being, incidentally,
the property of the patriotic Judge.

Thus Corinth took the railroad to her heart, literally. The depot, the
yards, the red section-house and the water-tank are all in the very
center of the town. Every train while stopping for water (and they