The Romance of Gilbert Holmes: An Historical Novel

I. A Sweet Lady II. Gilbert Holmes's Account Of Himself III. The Wreck IV. Black Hawk, the Sac King V. The Swath of the Hurricane VI. Love's Ideals VII. Gilbert's Flight VIII. G...

My amiability in youth, coupled with my lack of smartness, caused me to be much set upon by boys more precocious than I, and, in consequence, the quiet of my life was often rude...

Saying which, she started forward, but as she did so the room darkened, and looking up I saw an Indian chief standing in the open door. His face and rugged features, bronzed by...

When at last the sun was well down in the west, and the shadows of the forest ran far into the unkempt prairie, giving its grasses a darker hue, Constance's father came to take...

Thus it was one day in the early spring, when the grasses were fairly started and the trees beginning to sprout, or only the laggards slept, as loth to waken now as they were qu...

"Won't you join me in a glass of wine, Job?" Mr. Seymour went on, observing his action. "You will sleep the better for it. No? Well, I won't urge you; but you will excuse me, I...

"Would it be?" he replied, pleasantly. "People, you know, who are on the lookout for custom strive to present as smart an appearance as possible. Most of the goods merchants kee...

"I have forgotten the particulars, or remember them only vaguely. Tell them to me again, and quickly; and speak the truth as you hope to be saved," Mr. Lincoln interrupted.

"My name appears as attorney in the affidavit, as you ought to know. It is Sylvester Moth, lawyer, and I am here to represent the interests of my client, Miss Jane Holmes, from...

"My sweet child! how glad I am to see you again, and to know you got safely off from that little dragon of a lawyer. I have not thought of anything else since I returned to the...

Of the players, some had the semblance of calmness, others were irritable, some truculent; all observant. The panther about to spring upon his prey could not be more watchful or...

Mr. Lincoln took leave of us the third day, much to the regret of every one, for in so short a time his kindness of heart and the simplicity of his nature had won the regard of...

"Well, I swear I won't, so help me," and he raised his hand as if being sworn. "I'd stop drinkin' first, my little bantam," he added in a lighter mood and as if to clinch the ma...

If it happened that we were on hand too early for cat to bite, we fished for suckers, of which there were great numbers about the mouth of the little bay. It is from this harmle...

Entertained as one bred in the city might be at a play, I neither sought nor desired sleep; but as the storm reached its climax a tremor shook my frame and fear laid hold of me,...

I could set him free, and why not, I asked myself, the sweat starting out all over me at the thought. What wrong would there be in it, for it was as the robber said--Moth had a...

"What would be likely to happen? The posse tied them hand and foot and stood them in a row, and before you could count a hundred, had picked a judge and jury. Others went and cu...

Glancing over my shoulder as I shot under the trees, he stood where I left him, watching and waving me a fond adieu. For a while the cool air and the novelty of my errand buoyed...

"Yes, thank you; I'm a good deal better," I answered, grateful for what she said. For there are no more disagreeable people than those who tell you just how you look when you ar...

"Thank you; and it is good of you to say so. Gilbert has to go away to-night, Blott," she hurried on, "and without any one knowing it, or where he is, and I want you to go with...

Such things as these may seem apart and not of much interest, and very likely that is true enough; but to me they were everything, making up as they did my life when young, as t...

"That is what we all think, but who did take it? That is the question that puzzles every one, for nothing in the room was disturbed, and no one could have entered."

"How could he hide so much money?" I asked, remembering the great stacks of bills my father used to bring home and the trouble mother and he had in secreting them about the house.

[*] The Statesman Gilbert Holmes here refers to was Stephen A. Douglas, called "The Little Giant" because of his sturdy form and the strength of his intellect. Judge Douglas was...

At first the lookers-on thought he was acting, but when, after a moment, he wavered and fell full length on the floor, there was a cry of horror from all present, many women fai...

"Constance, I'm going to get a place on that boat if I can. It's the very thing we've talked about. What happiness to ride up and down the river and see the world, and earn your...

The season, which had been a highly prosperous one for the War Eagle, at last drew to a close, and when, late in October, we left St. Louis on our last trip, travel had ceased,...

Of Mr. Hayward, what shall I say that you may see him as I do, looking back, and not too clearly, through the fast-gathering years of a long life? A man of talent and ambition,...

"The overflow," he was in the habit of saying afterward, "far from proving injurious, is really beneficial in this, that it purifies and sweetens the earth, which would otherwis...

Thus we plighted our troth beneath the great tree, not thinking where we were, nor caring for the storm, which now, indeed, was fast dying away. Soon, however, and as if startle...

The second evening after our departure we were far on our way, stopping for the night at the hut of a lonely trapper hid away among the steep inclines that shelter the perverse...

Some time after our return Mr. Seymour gave a dinner at the Dragon in my honor, but quite informally, so the announcement ran. At the table I sat next to Constance, and, truth t...

Thus it was concluded as we stood holding each other's hands in the shadows of the spreading trees, and it being left to Constance and me, we determined to celebrate our marriag...