



Produced by John Hamm





THE GOLDEN ROAD

By L. M. Montgomery


     "Life was a rose-lipped comrade
      With purple flowers dripping from her fingers."
                                        --The Author.


               TO
               THE MEMORY OF
               Aunt Mary Lawson
               WHO TOLD ME MANY OF THE TALES
               REPEATED BY THE
               STORY GIRL




FOREWORD


Once upon a time we all walked on the golden road. It was a fair
highway, through the Land of Lost Delight; shadow and sunshine were
blessedly mingled, and every turn and dip revealed a fresh charm and a
new loveliness to eager hearts and unspoiled eyes.

On that road we heard the song of morning stars; we drank in fragrances
aerial and sweet as a May mist; we were rich in gossamer fancies and
iris hopes; our hearts sought and found the boon of dreams; the years
waited beyond and they were very fair; life was a rose-lipped comrade
with purple flowers dripping from her fingers.

We may long have left the golden road behind, but its memories are the
dearest of our eternal possessions; and those who cherish them as such
may haply find a pleasure in the pages of this book, whose people are
pilgrims on the golden road of youth.





THE GOLDEN ROAD




CHAPTER I. A NEW DEPARTURE


"I've thought of something amusing for the winter," I said as we
drew into a half-circle around the glorious wood-fire in Uncle Alec's
kitchen.

It had been a day of wild November wind, closing down into a wet, eerie
twilight. Outside, the wind was shrilling at the windows and around the
eaves, and the rain was playing on the roof. The old willow at the