PREFACE.
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I may as well confess, what it would be affectation to conceal,
that I am more than pleased with the generous reception accorded
to this story as a serial in the columns of Hearth and Home. It has
been in my mind since I was a Hoosier boy to do something toward
describing life in the back-country districts of the Western States.
It used to be a matter of no little jealousy with us, I remember,
that the manners, customs, thoughts, and feelings of New England
country people filled so large a place in books, while our life, not
less interesting, not less romantic, and certainly not less filled
with humorous and grotesque material, had no place in literature.
It was as though we were shut out of good society. And, with
the single exception of Alice Cary, perhaps, our Western writers
did not dare speak of the West otherwise than as the unreal world
to which Cooper's lively imagination had given birth.
I had some anxiety lest Western readers should take offense at
my selecting what must always seem an exceptional phase of
life to those who have grown up in the more refined regions of
the West. But nowhere has the School-master been received
more kindly than in his own country and among his own people.
Some of those who have spoken kindly of the School-master
and his friends, have suggested that the story is an
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autobiography. But it is not, save in the sense in which every work of
art is an autobiography, in that it is the result of the experience
and observation of the writer. Readers will therefore bear in
mind that not Ralph nor Bud nor Brother Sodom nor Dr.
Small represents the writer, nor do I appear, as Talleyrand said
of Madame de Stael, “disguised as a woman,” in the person of
Hannah or Mirandy. Some of the incidents have been drawn
from life; none of them, I believe, from my own. I should like
to be considered a member of the Church of the Best Licks,
however.
It has been in my mind to append some remarks, philological
and otherwise, upon the dialect, but Professor Lowell's admirable
and erudite preface to the Biglow Papers must be the despair of
every one who aspires to write on Americanisms. To Mr. Lowell
belongs the distinction of being the only one of our most eminent
authors and the only one of our most eminent scholars who
has given careful attention to American dialects. But while I
have not ventured to discuss the provincialisms of the Indiana
backwoods, I have been careful to preserve the true usus loquendi
of each locution, and I trust my little story may afford material
for some one better qualified than myself to criticise the dialect.
I wish to dedicate this book to Rev. Williamson Terrell, D.D.,
of Columbus, Indiana, the Hoosier that I know best, and the
best Hoosier that I know. This is not the place to express
the reverence and filial affection I feel for him, but I am glad of
the opportunity of saying that there is no one to whom Southern
Indiana owes a larger debt. Perhaps my dedication to so
orthodox a man may atone for any heresies in the book.
Brooklyn, December, 1871.
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CONTENTS.
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Chapter I.—A Private Lesson from a Bull-dog 11
Chapter II.—A Spell Coming 23
Chapter III.—Mirandy, Hank, and Shocky 26
Chapter IV.—Spelling down the Master 39
Chapter V.—The Walk Home 56
Chapter VI.—A Night at Pete Jones's 66
Chapter VII.—Ominous Remarks of Mr. Jones 74
Chapter VIII.—The Struggle in the Dark 77
Chapter IX.—Has God Forgotten Shocky? 81
Chapter X.—The Devil of Silence 85
Chapter XI.—Miss Martha Hawkins 92
Chapter XII.—The Hardshell Preacher 101
Chapter XIII.—A Struggle for the Mastery 109
Chapter XIV.—A Crisis with Bud 115
Chapter XV.—The Church of the Best Licks 121
Chapter XVI.—The Church Militant 126
Chapter XVII.—A Council of War 132
Chapter XVIII.—Odds and Ends 137
Chapter XIX.—Face to Face 141
Chapter XX.—God Remembers Shocky 145
Chapter XXI.—Miss Nancy Sawyer 153
Chapter XXII.—Pancakes 156
Chapter XXIII.—A Charitable Institution 162
Chapter XXIV.—The Good Samaritan 170
Chapter XXV.—Bud Wooing 173
Chapter XXVI.—A Letter and its Consequences 178
Chapter XXVII.—A Loss and a Gain 181
Chapter XXVIII.—The Flight 184
Chapter XXIX.—The Trial 191
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Chapter XXX.—“Brother Sodom” 202
Chapter XXXI.—The Trial Concluded 206
Chapter XXXII.—After the Battle 217
Chapter XXXIII.—Into the Light 221
Chapter XXXIV.—“How it Came Out” 224
ILLUSTRATIONS.
By FRANK BEARD.
Standing Guard over Himself. (Tinted) (Frontispiece)
First Acquaintance with Flat Creek. (Tinted) 10
Old Jack Means, the School Trustee. (Tinted) 13
Mirandy Means 27
“`Git a Plenty while you're a Gittin',' says I” 29
Hank Banta's Improved Plunge-bath. (Tinted) 36
Squire Hawkins 44
Jeems Phillips 48
“Next.” (Tinted) 54
Hannah. (Tinted) 58
“You're a purty Gal. a'n't you? You air!” (Tinted) 62
Pete Jones. (Tinted) 68
Bull 75
Shocky 82
Dr. Small and Granny Sanders. (Tinted) 89
Miss Martha Hawkins 93
“We're all Selfish akordin' to my Tell.” (Tinted) 97
“Come, Buck-ah!” 106
Fire and Brimstone 113
Bud 117
The Church of the Best Licks 124
“Come on!” cried Bud 129
The Roan Colt's Best Licks. (Tinted) 150
Miss Nancy Sawyer 154
Potato on One Side 165
“God ha'n't Forgot us, Mother!” 168
Bud Wooing 175
Hannah with a White, White Face. (Tinted) 186
Walter Johnson 204
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FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH FLAT CREEK.
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Eggleston, Edward, 1837-1902 [1871], The Hoosier school-master: a novel. (Orange Judd and Company, New York) [word count] [eaf556].