Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net ERSKINE DALE—PIONEER BY JOHN FOX, JR. ERSKINE DALE—PIONEER THE HEART OF THE HILLS THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME CRITTENDEN. A Kentucky Story of Love and War THE KENTUCKIANS AND A KNIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND A MOUNTAIN EUROPA AND A CUMBERLAND VENDETTA CHRISTMAS EVE ON LONESOME, HELL-FER-SARTAIN AND IN HAPPY VALLEY BLUE GRASS AND RHODODENDRON, Outdoor Life in Kentucky CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS [Illustration: The third stayed behind a moment, bowed over her hand, and kissed it] ERSKINE DALE PIONEER BY JOHN FOX, JR. ILLUSTRATED BY F. C. YOHN CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS NEW YORK 1920 Copyright, 1919, 1920, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS Published September, 1920 ILLUSTRATIONS The third stayed behind a moment, bowed over her hand, and kissed it Frontispiece “The messenger is the son of a king” 36 “I don’t want nobody to take up for me” 56 “Four more days,” he cried, “and we’ll be there!” 100 “That is Kahtoo’s talk, but this is mine” 132 The sword blades clashed, Erskine whipping back and forth in a way to make a swordsman groan 168 “Make no noise, and don’t move” 238 To his bewilderment he found Barbara at his mother’s bedside 256 ERSKINE DALE—PIONEER I Streaks of red ran upward, and in answer the great gray eye of the wilderness lifted its mist-fringed lid. From the green depths came the fluting of a lone wood-thrush. Through them an owl flew on velvety wings for his home in the heart of a primeval poplar. A cougar leaped from the low limb of an oak, missed, and a shuddering deer streaked through a forest aisle, bounded into a little clearing, stopped rigid, sniffed a deadlier enemy, and whirled into the wilderness again. Still deeper in the depths a boy with a bow and arrow and naked, except for scalp-lock and breech-clout, sprang from sleep and again took flight along a buffalo trail. Again, not far behind him, three grunting savages were taking up the print of his moccasined feet.