The Project Gutenberg eBook ofWild Western ScenesThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Wild Western ScenesAuthor: J. B. JonesRelease date: August 1, 2004 [eBook #13077]Most recently updated: December 15, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Curtis Weyant, the Online Distributed Proofreading Teamand The Making of America Project*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD WESTERN SCENES ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Wild Western ScenesAuthor: J. B. JonesRelease date: August 1, 2004 [eBook #13077]Most recently updated: December 15, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Curtis Weyant, the Online Distributed Proofreading Teamand The Making of America Project
Title: Wild Western Scenes
Author: J. B. Jones
Author: J. B. Jones
Release date: August 1, 2004 [eBook #13077]Most recently updated: December 15, 2020
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Curtis Weyant, the Online Distributed Proofreading Teamand The Making of America Project
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD WESTERN SCENES ***
When a work of fiction has reached its fortieth edition, one would suppose the author might congratulate himself upon having contributed something of an imperishable character to the literature of the country. But no such pretensions are asserted for this production, now in its fortieth thousand. Being the first essay of an impetuous youth in a field where giants even have not always successfully contended, it would be a rash assumption to suppose it could receive from those who confer such honors any high award of merit. It has been before the public some fifteen years, and has never been reviewed. Perhaps the forbearance of those who wield the cerebral scalpels may not be further prolonged, and the book remains amenable to the judgment they may be pleased to pronounce.
To that portion of the public who have read with approbation so many thousands of his book, the author may speak with greater confidence. To this class of his friends he may make disclosures and confessions pertaining to the secret history of the “Wild Western Scenes,” without the hazard of incurring their displeasure.
Like the hero of his book, the author had his vicissitudes in boyhood, and committed such indiscretions as were incident to one of his years and circumstances, but nevertheless only such as might be readily pardoned by the charitable. Like Glenn, he submitted to a voluntary exile in the wilds of Missouri. Hence the description of scenery is a true picture, and several characters in the scenes were real persons. Many of the occurrences actually transpired in his presence, or had been enacted in the vicinity at no remote period; and the dream of the hero—his visit to the haunted island—was truly a dream of the author’s.
But the worst miseries of the author were felt when his work was completed; he could get no publisher to examine it. He then purchased an interest in a weekly newspaper, in the columns of which it appeared in consecutive chapters. The subscribers were pleased with it, and desired to possess it in a volume; but still no publisher would undertake it,—the author had no reputation in the literary world. He offered it for fifty dollars, but could find no purchaser at any price. Believing the British booksellers more accommodating, a friend was employed to make a fair copy in manuscript, at a certain number of cents per hundred words. The work was sent to a British publisher, with whom it remained many months, but was returned, accompanied by a note declining to treat for it.
Undeterred by the rebuffs of two worlds, the author had his cherished production published on his own account, and was remunerated by the sale of the whole edition. After the tardy sale of several subsequent editions by houses of limited influence, the book had the good fortune, finally, to fall into the hands of the gigantic establishment whose imprint is now upon its title-page. And now, the author is informed, it is regularly and liberally ordered by the London booksellers, and is sold with an increasing rapidity in almost every section of the Union.
Such are the hazards, the miseries, and sometimes the rewards, of authorship.
J.B.J.
Burlington, N.J.,March, 1856.
CHAPTER I.
Glenn and Joe—Their horses—A storm—A black stump—A rough tumble—Moaning—Stars—Light—A log fire—Tents, and something to eat—Another stranger, who turns out to be well known—Joe has a snack—He studies revenge against the black stump—Boone proposes a bear hunt.
CHAPTER II.
Boone hunts the bear—Hounds and terriers—Sneak Punk, the hatchet-face—Another stump—The high passes—The bear roused—The chase—A sight—A shot—A wound—Not yet killed—His meditations—His friend, the bear—The bear retreats—Joe takes courage—Joe fires—Immense execution—Sneak—The last struggle—Desperation of the bear—His death—Sneak’s puppies—Joe.
CHAPTER III.
Glenn’s castle—Mary—Books—A hunt—Joe and Pete—A tumble—An opossum—A shot—Another tumble—A doe—The return—They set out again—A mound—A buffalo—An encounter—Night—Terrific spectacle—Escape—Boone—Sneak—Indians.
CHAPTER IV.
The retreat—Joe makes a mysterious discovery—Mary—A disclosure—Supper—Sleep—A cat—Joe’s flint—The watch—Mary—The bush—The attack—Joe’s musket again—The repulse—The starting rally—The desperate alternative—Relief.
CHAPTER V.
A strange excursion—A fairy scene—Joe is puzzled and frightened—A wonderful discovery—Navigation of the upper regions—A crash—No bones broken.
CHAPTER VI.
A hunt—A deer taken—The hounds—Joe makes a horrid discovery—Sneak—The exhumation.
CHAPTER VII.
Boone—The interment—Startling intelligence—Indians about—A skunk—Thrilling fears—Boone’s device.
CHAPTER VIII.
Night—Sagacity of the hounds—Reflection—The sneaking savages—Joe’s disaster—The approach of the foe under the snow—The silent watch.
CHAPTER IX.
Sneak kills a sow that “was not all a swine”—The breathless suspense—The match in readiness—Joe’s cool demeanour—The match ignited—Explosion of the mine—Defeat of the savages—The captive—His liberation—The repose—The kitten—Morning.
CHAPTER X.
The dead removed—The wolves on the river—The wolf hunt—Gum fetid—Joe’s incredulity—His conviction—His surprise—His predicament—His narrow escape.
CHAPTER XI.
Mary—Her meditations—Her capture—Her sad condition—Her mental sufferings—Her escape—Her recapture.
CHAPTER XII.
Joe’s indisposition—His cure—Sneak’s reformation—The pursuit—The captive Indian—Approach to the encampment of the savages—Joe’s illness again—The surprise—The terrific encounter—Rescue of Mary—Capture of the young chief—The return.
CHAPTER XIII.
The return—The young chief in confinement—Joe’s fun—His reward—The ring—A discovery—William’s recognition—Memories of childhood—A scene—Roughgrove’s history—The children’s parentage.
CHAPTER XIV.
William’s illness—Sneak’s strange house—Joe’s courage—The bee hunt—Joe and sneak captured by the Indians—Their sad condition—Preparations to burn them alive—Their miraculous escape.
CHAPTER XV.
Glenn’s History.
CHAPTER XVI.
Balmy Spring—Joe’s curious dream—He prepares to catch a fish—Glenn—William and Mary—Joe’s sudden and strange appearance—La-u-na, the trembling fawn—The fishing sport—The ducking frolic—Sneak and the panther.
CHAPTER XVII.
The bright morning—Sneak’s visit—Glenn’s heart—The snake hunt—Love and raspberries—Joe is bitten—His terror and sufferings—Arrival of Boone—Joe’s abrupt recovery—Preparations to leave the West—Conclusion.