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Title: Dwellers in the Hills
Author: Melville Davisson Post
Release Date: August 30, 2009 [EBook #29851]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DWELLERS IN THE HILLS ***
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Dwellers in the Hills
By Melville Davisson Post
Author of "Randolph Mason", "The Man of Last Resort," etc.
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1901
Copyright, 1901
By MELVILLE DAVISSON POST
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO
MY MOTHER
CONTENTS
I.--THE OCTOBER LAND
II.--THE PETTICOAT AND THE PRETENDER
III.--THE PASSING OF AN ILLUSION
IV.--CONCERNING HAWK RUFE
V.--THE WAGGON-MAKER
VI.--THE MAID AND THE INTRUDERS
VII.--THE MASTER BUILDERS
VIII.--SOME REMARKS OF SAINT PAUL
IX.--CHRISTIAN THE BLACKSMITH
X.--ON THE CHOOSING OF ENEMIES
XI.--THE WARDENS OF THE RIVER
XII.--THE USES OF THE MOON
XIII.--THE SIX HUNDRED
XIV.--RELATING TO THE FIRST LIARS
XV.--WHEN PROVIDENCE IS PAGAN
XVI.--THROUGH THE BIG WATER
XVII.--ALONG THE HICKORY RIDGES
XVIII.--BY THE LIGHT OF A LANTERN
XIX.--THE ORBIT OF THE DWARFS
XX.--ON THE ART OF GOING TO RUIN
XXI.--THE EXIT OF THE PRETENDER
DWELLERS IN THE HILLS
CHAPTER I
THE OCTOBER LAND
I sat on the ground with my youthful legs tucked under me, and the
bridle rein of El Mahdi over my arm, while I hammered a copper rivet
into my broken stirrup strap. A little farther down the ridge Jud was
idly swinging his great driving whip in long, snaky coils, flicking now
a dry branch, and now a red autumn leaf from the clay road. The slim
buckskin lash would dart out hissing, writhe an instant on the hammered
road-bed, and snap back with a sharp, clear report.
The great sorrel was oblivious of this pastime of his maste
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