The Project Gutenberg eBook, Judith of the Cumberlands, by Alice MacGowan,
Illustrated by George Wright

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Judith of the Cumberlands

Author: Alice MacGowan

Release Date: September 4, 2008 [eBook #26527]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDITH OF THE CUMBERLANDS***

E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 26527-h.htm or 26527-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/6/5/2/26527/26527-h/26527-h.htm)
or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/6/5/2/26527/26527-h.zip)

JUDITH OF THE CUMBERLANDS

by

ALICE MACGOWAN

Author of
"The Wiving of Lance Cleaverage,"
"The Last Word," "Huldah," "Return," Etc.

With Illustrations in Colour by George Wright

[Illustration: "The moonlight flickered on the blade in his hand
as he reeled backward over the bluff" (page 145).]

Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers, New York

Copyright, 1908
by
Alice MacGowan

This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers,
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London

DEDICATION

To my mountain friends, dwellers in lonely cabins, on winding horseback
trails and steep, precarious roads; or in the tiny settlements that
nestle in the high-hung inner valleys; lean brown hunters on remote paths
in the green shadowed depths of the free forest, light-stepping,
keen-eyed, humorous-lipped, hitting the point as aptly with an instance
as with the old squirrel gun they carry; wielders of the axe by many a
chip pile, where the swinging blade rests readily to answer query or
offer advice; tanned, lithely moving lads following the plough, turning
over the shoulder a countenance of dark beauty; grave, shy girls, pail in
hand, at the milking-bars in dawn or dusk; young mothers in the doorway,
looking out, babe on hip; big-eyed, bare-footed mountain children
clinging hand in hand by the roadside, or clustered like startled little
partridges in the shelter of t