[Illustration: OLD STONE HOMESTEAD.] THE BLUE-GRASS REGION OF KENTUCKY AND OTHER KENTUCKY ARTICLES BY JAMES LANE ALLEN. ILLUSTRATED [Illustration: (Publisher's logo)] NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS M DCCC XCII Copyright, 1892, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ PREFACE The articles herein reprinted from HARPER'S and _The Century_ magazines represent work done at intervals during the period that the author was writing the tales already published under the title of _Flute and Violin_. It was his plan that with each descriptive article should go a short story dealing with the same subject, and this plan was in part wrought out. Thus, with the article entitled "Uncle Tom at Home" goes the tale entitled "Two Gentlemen of Kentucky;" and with the article entitled "A Home of the Silent Brotherhood" goes the tale entitled "The White Cowl." In the same way, there were to be short stories severally dealing with the other subjects embraced in this volume. But having in part wrought out this plan, the author has let it rest--not finally, perhaps, but because in the mean time he has found himself engaged with other themes. [Illustration: JAMES LANE ALLEN AUTHOR OF "THE KENTUCKY CARDINAL," "THE CHOIR INVISIBLE," "THE REIGN OF LAW," ETC. BOOK NEWS PORTRAIT N VOL. 24. NO. 287, JULY.] CONTENTS PAGE THE BLUE-GRASS REGION 1 UNCLE TOM AT HOME 45 COUNTY COURT DAY IN KENTUCKY 87 KENTUCKY FAIRS 127 A HOME OF THE SILENT BROTHERHOOD 169 HOMESTEADS OF THE BLUE-GRASS 199 THROUGH CUMBERLAND GAP ON HORSEBACK 229 MOUNTAIN PASSES OF THE CUMBERLAND 269 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Old Stone Homestead _Frontispiece_ Blue-grass 5 Sheep in Woodland Pasture 9 Negro Cabins 15 Cattle in a Blue-grass Pasture 21 Hemp Field 25 Tobacco Patch 29 Harrodsburg Pike 33 A Spring-house 41 The Mammy 59 The Cook 65 Chasing the Rabbit 77 The Preacher 81