Leerie

  Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.

  Leerie

  Ruth Sawyer

  Leerie]

  LEERIE

  BY RUTH SAWYER

  AUTHOR OF SEVEN MILES TO ARDEN, ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED BY CLINTON BALMER

  "_And O! before you hurry by With ladder and with light, O Leerie, see a little child And nod to him to-night!_"

  GROSSET & DUNLAP NEW YORK PUBLISHERS

  Made in the United States of America

  LEERIE

  Copyright 1920, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America

  _To Lamplighters--the world over_

  CONTENTS

  Chap. Page

  Foreword ix

  I. The Man Who Feared Sleep 3

  II. Old King Cole 40

  III. The Changeling 77

  IV. For the Honor of the San 116

  V. The Last of the Surgical 155

  VI. Monsieur Satan 191

  VII. The Lad Who Outsang the Stars 232

  VIII. Into Her Own 269

  Afterword 306

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  Leerie _Frontispiece_

  Holding him high for Peter to admire _Facing p._ 100

  "The first look I had told me she had gone quite mad" " 216

  "He will require more care, better dressing" " 302

  Foreword

  I like to write stories. Best of all I like to write stories about peoplewho help the world to go round with a little more cheer and good will thanis usual. You know--and I know--there are a few who put into lifesomething more than the bare ingredients. They add a plum here--extraspice there. They bake it well--and then they trim it up like anall-the-year-round birthday cake with white frosting, angelica, and redcherries. Last of all they add the candles and light them so that it glowswarmly and invitingly for all; fine to see, sweet to taste.

  Of course, there are not so many people with the art or the will to dothis, and, having done it, they have not always the bigness of heart topass it round for the others to share. But I like to make it my businessto find as many as I can; and when I am lucky enough to find one I pophim--or her--into a book, to have and to hold always as long as books lastand memory keeps green.

  Not long ago I was ill--ridiculously ill--and my doctor popped me into asanitarium. "Here's the place," I said, "where people are needed to makethe world go round cheerfully, if they are needed anywhere." And so I setabout to get well and find one.

  She came--before I had half finished. The first thing I noticed was theinner light in her--a light as from many candles. It shone all over herface and made the room brighter for a long time after she had left. Thenext thing I noticed was the way everybody watched for her to comeround--everybody turning child again with nose pressed hard against thewindow-pane. It made me remember Stevenson's _Lamplighter_; and for manydays there rang in my ears one of his bits of human understanding:

  And oh! before you hurry by with ladder and with light, O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him to-night.

  Before I knew it I had all the makings of a story. I trailed it throughthe mud of gossip and scandal; I followed it to the highroad of adventureand on to the hills of inspiration and sacrifice. It was all there--ripefor the plucking; and with the good assistance of Hennessy I plucked it.Before the story was half written I was well--so much for the healinggrace of a story and the right person to put in it.

  This much I have told that you may know that _Leerie_ is as true as allthe best and finest things in the world are true. I am only the passer-onof life as she has made it--spiced, trimmed, and lighted with manycandles. So if the taste pleases, help yourself bountifully; there isenough for all. And if you must thank any one--thank _Leerie_.

  RUTH SAWYER.

  LEERIE