ERIS
BY
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
AUTHOR OF “THE FLAMING JEWEL,” “THE LITTLE RED
FOOT,” “THE SLAYER OF SOULS,” “IN SECRET,”
“THE COMMON LAW,” ETC.
NEW 
YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
ERIS. I
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
MY FRIEND
HARRY PAYNE BURTON
ERIS
ERIS
CHAPTER I
THE baby was born at Whitewater Farms about ninein the morning, April 19, 1900. Two pure-breedcalves,—one a heifer, the other a bull,—were dropped thesame day at nearly the same hour.
Odell came in toward noon, heard these farm items fromhis foreman, Ed Lister.
For twenty years Odell’s marriage had been childless.He had waited in vain for a son,—for several sons,—andnow, after twenty sterile years of hardship, drudgery, anddomestic discord, Fanny had given him a girl.
He stood in silence, chewing the bitter news.
“Awright,” he said, “that’s that! Is Queen doin’ good?”
Whitewater Queen was doing as well as could be expectedand her fourth heifer-calf was a miracle of Guernseybeauty.
“Awright! Veal that danged bull-caaf. That’s WhiteChief’s second bull outa White Rose. I’m done. We’lltake her to Hilltop Acres next time. And that’s that!”
He dusted the fertiliser and land plaster from his patchedcanvas jacket:
“It blowed some,” he said. “I oughta waited. Cost mefive dollars, mebbe. I thought it might rain; that’s why.It’s one dum thing after another. It allus comes like that.”
He scraped the bottom of his crusted boots against theconcrete rim of the manure pit.
[8]A bitter winter with practically no snow; dry swamps;an April drouth; a disastrous run of bull-calves with nomarket,—and now, after twenty years, a girl baby!
How was a man going to get ahead? How was he tobreak even? Twenty years Odell had waited for sons tohelp him. He should have had three or four at work bythis time. Instead he was paying wages.
“I guess Fanny’s kinda bad,” remarked the foreman.
Odell looked up from his brooding study of the manure.
“I dunno,” continued the foreman; “another Doc is here,too. He come with a train nurse n’hour ago. Looks kindabad to me, Elmer.”
Odell gazed stupidly at Lister.
“What other Doc?” he demanded.
“Old Doc Benson. Doc Wand sent Mazie for him.”
Odell said nothing. After a moment or two he walkedslowly toward the house.
In the kitchen a neighbour, one Susan Hagan, a g