THE COPPERHEAD BY HAROLD FREDERIC. IN THE VALLEY. Illustrated by Howard Pyle $1.50 THE LAWTON GIRL. 12mo, paper, 50 cents; cloth $1.25 SETH'S BROTHER'S WIFE. 12mo $1.25 THE COPPERHEAD. 12mo $1.00 THE COPPERHEAD BY HAROLD FREDERIC NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1893 COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. ABNER BEECH 1 II. JEFF'S MUTINY 17 III. ABSALOM 35 IV. ANTIETAM 47 V. “JEE'S” TIDINGS 63 VI. NI'S TALK WITH ABNER 76 VII. THE ELECTION 90 VIII. THE ELECTION BONFIRE 106 IX. ESTHER'S VISIT 115 X. THE FIRE 133 XI. THE CONQUEST OF ABNER 146 XII. THE UNWELCOME GUEST 158 XIII. THE BREAKFAST 172 XIV. FINIS 182 THE COPPERHEAD CHAPTER I ABNER BEECH It was on the night of my thirteenth birthday, I know, that the old farm-house was burned over our heads. By that reckoning I must have been six or seven when I went to live with Farmer Beech, because at the time he testified I had been with him half my life. Abner Beech had often been supervisor for his town, and could have gone to the Assembly, it was said, had he chosen. He was a stalwart, thick-shouldered, big man, with shaggy dark eyebrows shading stern hazel eyes, and with a long, straight nose, and a broad, firmly shut mouth. His expansive upper lip was blue from many years of shaving; all the rest was bushing beard, mounting high upon the cheeks and rolling downward in iron-gray billows over his breast. That shaven upper lip, which still may be found among the farmers of the old blood in our district was, I dare say, a survival from the time of the Puritan protest against the mustaches of the Cavaliers. If Abner Beech, in the latter days, had been told that this shaving on Wednesday and Saturday nights was a New England rite, I feel sure he would never have touched razor again.