The Wiving of Lance Cleaverage By Alice MacGowan Author of "Judith of the Cumberlands," "The Last Word," "Huldah," "Return," etc. With Illustrations in Colour by Robert Edwards G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1909 Copyright, 1909 ALICE MacGOWAN The Knickerbocker Press, New York To Emma Bell Miles WHO COULD WITHOUT DOUBT HAVE WRITTEN MUCH BETTER THIS STORY OF HER OWN HOME COUNTRY THE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY The Author CONTENTS I. A Pair of Haggards 1 II. The Up-Sitting 19 III. The Burying 39 IV. A Dance and a Serenade 50 V. The Asking 70 VI. The Wedding 88 VII. Lance's Laurel 104 VIII. The Infare 124 IX. The Interloper 140 X. Poverty Pride 154 XI. "Long Sweetenin'" 168 XII. "What Shall He Have Who Killed the Deer?" 182 XIII. Broken Chords 193 XIV. Roxy Griever's Guest 211 XV. A Stubborn Heart 223 XVI. Lance Cleaverage's Son 237 XVII. The Coasts of the Island 247 XVIII. The Hegira 266 XIX. Callista Cleaverage Goes Home 277 XX. Drawn Blank 293 XXI. Flenton Hands 300 XXII. The Speech of People 309 XXIII. Buck Fuson's Idea 321 XXIV. Silenced 330 XXV. The Flight 340 XXVI. Roxy Griever 345 XXVII. In Hiding 357 XXVIII. The Sheriff Scores 371 XXIX. The Island at Last 377 Illustrations "I was just a-studyin' on the matter." Frontispiece "A Face, Passion-Pale, was Raised to him, and Eager, Tremulous Lips Met his." 66 "You'll Marry us now--or not at all." 98 "He Placed the Instrument in Ola's Grasp." 202 "He Gazed long at Callista's Face on the Pillow." 246 "He Broke off, Staring with Open Mouth." 336 The Wiving of Lance Cleaverage CHAPTER I. A PAIR OF HAGGARDS. NOON of summer in the highlands of Tennessee; the Cumberlands, robed in the mid-season's green, flashed here and there with banding and gemming of waters. The two Turkey Track Mountains, Big and Little, lying side by side and one running so evenly from the other that only the dweller upon them knew where to differentiate, basked in the full glow of a Sabbath morning radiance.