By Mary Hartwell Catherwood. THE LADY OF FORT ST. JOHN. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. OLD KASKASKIA. A Novel. 16mo, $1.25. THE CHASE OF ST. CASTIN, and Other Tales. 16mo, $1.25. THE SPIRIT OF AN ILLINOIS TOWN, and THE LITTLE RENAULT. Illustrated. 16mo, $1.25. THE QUEEN OF THE SWAMP, and Other Plain Americans. 16mo, $1.25. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. THE QUEEN OF THE SWAMP And Other Plain Americans BY MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY MARY HARTWELL CATHERWOOD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER NOTE Some of these stories were written more than a dozen years ago. They have been gathered in from the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Bazar, Outing, the Independent, the Delineator, the Chicago Tribune, the late Chicago Graphic, and Lippincott’s Magazine, by courteous permission of the editors; and revised year after year. Many of them embody phases of American life which have entirely passed away, or are yet to be found in secluded spots like eddies along the margin of the nation’s progress. Their honest preservation of middle western experience makes them, at least in the author’s eyes, seem worthy themselves of preservation. The Puritan and the Church of England took possession of the Atlantic seaboard, north and south; and Jesuit and Recollet missionaries carried the cross through Canada and down the Mississippi. But the pioneer evangelist of the Middle West was the Methodist itinerant. CONTENTS OHIO. THE QUEEN OF THE SWAMP 1 THE STIRRING-OFF 29 SWEETNESS 55 SERENA 77 ROSE DAY 106 KENTUCKY. A KENTUCKY PRINCESS 129 INDIANA. THE FAIRFIELD POET 155 T’FÉRGORE 175 ILLINOIS. BEETRUS 235 THE BRIDE OF ARNE SANDSTROM 253 THE BABE JEROME 270 THE CALHOUN FIDDLER 301 A MAN FROM THE SPANISH WAR 320 _The Babe Jerome_, _Rose Day_, _The Bride of Arne Sandstrom_, _The Fairfield Poet_, and _Beetrus_ are reprinted from “Harper’s Bazar,” and _The Queen of the Swamp_ from Harper’s “Christmas,” by permission of the publishers, Messrs Harper & Brothers. OHIO THE QUEEN OF THE SWAMP TIME, 1846 On Christmas Day a large congregation poured from George’s Chapel into the early dusk. Quarterly meeting, which for a week had drawn together, not only the neighborhood, but people from Millersport, Basil, and even Kirkersville, closed that afternoon. The presiding elder and his assistants were wrapping up their throats and joking with each other, for the occasion had been blessed with converts and a fairly liberal collection.