Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664165039

Table of Contents

       To THEODORE ROOSEVELT

       TO THE READER

       THE VIRGINIAN

       I. ENTER THE MAN

       II. “WHEN YOU CALL ME THAT, SMILE!”

       III. STEVE TREATS

       IV. DEEP INTO CATTLE LAND

       V. ENTER THE WOMAN

       VI. EM'LY

       VII. THROUGH TWO SNOWS

       VIII. THE SINCERE SPINSTER

       IX. THE SPINSTER MEETS THE UNKNOWN

       X. WHERE FANCY WAS BRED

       XI. “YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE ME BEFORE WE GET THROUGH”

       XII. QUALITY AND EQUALITY

       XIII. THE GAME AND THE NATION—ACT FIRST

       XIV. BETWEEN THE ACTS

       XV. THE GAME AND THE NATION—ACT SECOND

       XVI. THE GAME AND THE NATION—LAST ACT

       XVII. SCIPIO MORALIZES

       XVIII. “WOULD YOU BE A PARSON?”

       XIX. DR. MACBRIDE BEGS PARDON

       XX. THE JUDGE IGNORES PARTICULARS

       XXI. IN A STATE OF SIN

       XXII. “WHAT IS A RUSTLER?”

       XXIII. VARIOUS POINTS

       XXIV. A LETTER WITH A MORAL

       XXV. PROGRESS OF THE LOST DOG

       XXVI. BALAAM AND PEDRO

       XXVII. GRANDMOTHER STARK

       XXVIII. NO DREAM TO WAKE FROM

       XXIX. WORD TO BENNINGTON

       XXX. A STABLE ON THE FLAT

       XXXI. THE COTTONWOODS

       XXXII. SUPERSTITION TRAIL

       XXXIII. THE SPINSTER LOSES SOME SLEEP

       XXXIV. TO FIT HER FINGER

       XXXV. WITH MALICE AFORETHOUGHT

       XXXVI. AT DUNBARTON

To THEODORE ROOSEVELT

       Table of Contents

      Some of these pages you have seen, some you have praised, one stands new-written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to remind you of their author's changeless admiration.

TO THE READER

       Table of Contents

      Certain of the newspapers, when this book was first announced, made a mistake most natural upon seeing the sub-title as it then stood, A TALE OF SUNDRY ADVENTURES. “This sounds like a historical novel,” said one of them, meaning (I take it) a colonial romance. As it now stands, the title will scarce lead to such interpretation; yet none the less is this book historical—quite as much so as any colonial romance. Indeed, when you look at the root of the matter, it is a colonial romance. For Wyoming between 1874 and 1890 was a colony as wild as was Virginia one hundred years earlier. As wild, with a scantier population, and the same primitive joys and dangers. There were, to be sure, not so many Chippendale settees.

      We know quite well the common understanding of the term “historical novel.” HUGH WYNNE exactly fits it. But SILAS LAPHAM is a novel as perfectly historical as is Hugh Wynne, for it pictures an era and personifies a type. It matters not that in the one we find George Washington and in the other none save imaginary figures; else THE SCARLET LETTER were not historical. Nor does it matter that Dr. Mitchell did not live in the time of which he wrote, while Mr. Howells saw many Silas Laphams with his own eyes; else UNCLE TOM'S CABIN were not historical. Any narrative which