XVII The Man with the Scythe
XVIII I Start in a Long Way
XIX On the Summit
Epilogue




BOOK ONE

Which is the Story of the Candle and the Compass



CHAPTER I

THE MELON HARVEST


Once upon a time I owned a watermelon. I say once because I never did it
again. When I got through owning that melon I never wanted another. The
time was 1831; I was a boy of seven and the melon was the first of all
my harvests. Every night and morning I watered and felt and surveyed my
watermelon. My pride grew with the melon and, by and by, my uncle tried
to express the extent and nature of my riches by calling me a
mellionaire.

I didn't know much about myself those days except the fact that my name
was Bart Baynes and, further, that I was an orphan who owned a
watermelon and a little spotted hen and lived on Rattle road in a