THE SCARECROW
AND OTHER STORIES
BY G. RANGER WORMSER
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1918,
BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| The Scarecrow | 1 |
| Mutter Schwegel | 21 |
| Haunted | 37 |
| Flowers | 61 |
| The Shadow | 81 |
| The Effigy | 105 |
| The Faith | 125 |
| Yellow | 147 |
| China-Ching | 163 |
| The Wood of Living Trees | 187 |
| Before the Dawn | 211 |
| The Stillness | 229 |
THE SCARECROW AND
OTHER STORIES
THE SCARECROW
"Ben—"
The woman stood in the doorway of the ramshackle, tumble-down shanty.Her hands were cupped at her mouth. The wind blew loose, whitish blondwisps of hair around her face and slashed the faded blue dress into theuncorseted bulk of her body.
"Benny—oh, Benny—"
Her call echoed through the still evening.
Her eyes staring straight before her down the slope in front of thehouse caught sight of something blue and antiquatedly military standingwaist deep and rigid in the corn field.
"That ole scarecrow," she muttered to herself, "that there old scarecrowwith that there ole uniform onto him, too!"
The sun was going slowly just beyond the farthest hill. The unreal lightof the skies' reflected colors held over the yellow, waving tips of thecorn field.
"Benny—," she called again. "Oh—Benny!"
And then she saw him coming toward her trudging up the hill.
She waited until he stood in front of her.
"Supper, Ben," she said. "Was you down in the south meadow where youcouldn't hear me call?"
"Naw."
He was young and slight. He had thick hair and a thin face. His featureswere small. There was nothing unusual about them. His eyes were deep-setand long, with the lids that were heavily fringed.
"You heard me calling you?"
"Yes, maw."
He stood there straigh