tures of mountain
life which I might never have known otherwise. My best friends in the
mountains in the neighbourhood of my own home had always been a little
shy of discussing moonshine whiskey and moonshiners; but here I earned a
dividend upon my misfortunes, being more than once taken for a revenue
spy; and in the apologetic amenities of those who had misjudged me, which
followed my explanations and proofs of innocence, I have been shown in a
spirit of atonement, illicit still and "hideout." I have heard old
Jephthah Turrentine make his protest against the government's attitude
toward the mountain man and his "blockaded still." I have foregathered
with the revenuers in the settlements at the foot of the circling purple
ranges, and been shown the specially made axes and hooks they carry with
them for breaking up and destroying the simple appurtenances of the
illicit manufacture. Knowing that Blatch Turrentine's still must have
cost him three hundred dollars, I cannot wonder that a mountain man, a
thrifty fellow like Blatch, should have lingered, even in great danger,
over the project of carrying it with him.

These dwellers in the southern mountain region, the purest American
strain left to us, hold the interest and appeal of a changing, vanishing
type. The tide of enlightenment and commercial prosperity must presently
sweep in and absorb them. And so I might hope that a faithful picture of
the life and manners I have sought to represent in _Judith of the
Cumberlands_ would be the better worth while.

A. Mac G.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Spring 1
II. At "The Edge" 20
III. Suitors 47
IV. Building 64
V. The Red Rose and the Briar 83
VI. The Play-Party 99
VII. Kisses 112
VIII. On the Doorstone 124
IX. Foeman's Bluff 135
X. A Spy 152
XI. The Warning 161
XII. In the Lion's Den 181
XIII. In the Night 199
XIV. The Raid 207
XV. Council of War 221
XVI. A Message 235
XVII. The Old Cherokee Trail 244
XVIII. Bitter Parting 261
XIX. Cast Out 2