Chapter I: 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.

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

Wet Goods for Sale--Bowling Green 91

Concluding a Bargain 93

Court-house Square, Lexington, Kentucky 97

The "Tickler" 101

The Quack-doctor 105

Auctioning a Jack 109

Lords of the Soil 113

Swapping Horses 117

Gentlemen of Leisure 121

Corn-husking 131

Militia Muster 135

Products of the Soil 139

Cattle at Lexington Fair 143

Harness Horses 147

The Modern Tourney 151

The Judge's Stand--The Finish 155

A Dinner-party 157

The Race-course--The Finish 159

Stallions 163

Mules 165

Office of the Father Prior 177

Within the Gates 181

A Fortnightly Shave 187

The Garden 197

Old Ferry at Point Burnside 233

"Damn me if them ain't the damnedest beans I ever seen!" 237

Moonrise on Cumberland Ridge 239

Cumberland Falls 243

Native Types 247

Interior of a Mountaineer's Home 251

Mountain Courtship 255

A Family Burying-ground 259

A Mountaineer Dame 261

Old Corn-mill at Pineville 265

Map Showing Mountain Passes of the Cumberland 277

Cumberland Gap 281

Ford on the Cumberland 297

Kentucky River from High Bridge 309

THE BLUE-GRASS REGION