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    A Mountain Europa
    A Mountain Europa
    A Mountain Europa
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    A Mountain Europa

    By John Fox, Jr.

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    About this ebook

    Classic western. According to Wikipedia: "Born in Stony Point, Kentucky to John William Fox, Sr., and Minerva Worth Carr, Fox studied English at Harvard University. He graduated in 1883 before becoming a reporter in New York City. After working for both New York Times and the New York Sun, he published a successful serialization of his first novel, A Mountain Europa, in Century magazine in 1892. Two moderately successful short story collections followed, as well as his first conventional novel, The Kentuckians in 1898. Fox gained a following as a war correspondent, working for Harper's Weekly in Cuba during the Spanish-American War of 1898, where he served with the "Rough Riders." Six years later he traveled to Asia to report on the Russo-Japanese War for Scribner's magazine. Though he occasionally wrote for periodicals, after 1904, Fox dedicated much of his attention to fiction. The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (published in 1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (published in 1908) are arguably his most well known and successful works, entering the New York Times top ten list of bestselling novels for 1903, 1904, 1908, and 1909 respectively. Many of his works reflected the naturalist style, his childhood in Kentucky's Bluegrass region, and his life among the coal miners of Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Many of his novels were historical romances or period dramas set in that region."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2018
    ISBN9781455430123
    A Mountain Europa

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      Book preview

      A Mountain Europa - John Fox, Jr.

      A MOUNTAIN EUROPA BY JOHN FOX, JR.

      published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

      established in 1974, offering over 14,000 books

      Westerns by John Fox, Jr.:

      Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories

      Crittenden

      Cumberland Vendetta

      The Heart of the Hills

      Hell fer Sartain and Other Stories

      In Happy Valley

      A Knight of the Cumberland

      The Last Stetson

      The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

      The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

      feedback welcome: info@samizdat.com

      visit us at samizdat.com

      TO JAMES LANE ALLEN

      I.

      II.

      III.

      IV.

      V.

      VI.

      VII.

      VIII.

      IX.

      X.

      XI.

      XII.

      I

      As Clayton rose to his feet in the still air, the tree-tops began to tremble in the gap below him, and a rippling ran through the leaves up the mountain-side.  Drawing off his hat he stretched out his arms to meet it, and his eyes closed as the cool wind struck his throat and face and lifted the hair from his forehead. About him the mountains lay like a tumultuous sea-the Jellico Spur, stilled gradually on every side into vague, purple shapes against the broken rim of the sky, and Pine Mountain and the Cumberland Range racing in like breakers from the north.  Under him lay Jellico Valley, and just visible in a wooded cove, whence Indian Creek crept into sight, was a mining-camp-a cluster of white cabins-from which he had climbed that afternoon. At that distance the wagon-road narrowed to a bridle-path, and the figure moving slowly along it and entering the forest at the base of the mountain was shrunk to a toy.  For a moment Clayton stood with his face to the west, drinking in the air; then tightening his belt, he caught the pliant body of a sapling and swung loose from the rock.  As the tree flew back, his dog sprang after him. The descent was sharp. At times he was forced to cling to the birch-tops till they lay flat on the mountain-side.

      Breathless, he reached at last a bowlder from which the path was easy to the valley below, and he leaned quivering against the soft rug of moss and lichens that covered it.  The shadows had crept from the foot of the mountains, darkening the valley, and lifting up the mountain-side beneath him a long, wavering line in which met the cool, deep green of the shade and the shining bronze where the sunlight still lay.  Lazily following this line, his eye caught two moving shadows that darted jagged shapes into the sunlight and as quickly withdrew them.  As the road wound up toward him, two figures were soon visible through the undergrowth.  Presently a head bonneted in blue rose above the bushes, and Clayton's half-shut eyes opened wide and were fixed with a look of amused expectancy where a turn of the path must bring rider and beast into plain sight.  Apparently some mountain girl, wearied by the climb or in a spirit of fun, had mounted her cow while driving it home; and with a smile at the thought of the confusion he would cause her, Clayton stepped around the bowlder and waited. With the slow, easy swing of climbing cattle, the beast brought its rider into view.  A bag of meal lay across its shoulders, and behind this the girl-for she was plainly young-sat sidewise, with her bare feet dangling against its flank.  Her face was turned toward the valley below, and her loosened bonnet half disclosed a head of bright yellow hair.

      Catching sight of Clayton, the beast stopped and lifted its head, not the meek, patient face he expected to see, but a head that was wrinkled and vicious-the head of a bull.  Only the sudden remembrance of a dead mountain custom saved him from utter amazement.  He had heard that when beasts of burden were scarce, cows, and especially bulls, were worked in ploughs and ridden by the mountaineers, even by the women.  But this had become a tradition, the humor of which greater prosperity and contact with a new civilization had taught even the mountain people to appreciate.  The necessities of this girl were evidently as great as her fear of ridicule seemed small.  When the brute stopped, she began striking him in the flank with her bare heel, without looking around, and as he paid no attention to such painless goading, she turned with sudden impatience and lifted a switch above his shoulders.  The stick was arrested in mid-air when she saw Clayton, and then dropped harmlessly.  The quick fire in her eyes died suddenly away, and for a moment the two looked at each other with mutual curiosity, but only for a moment.  There was something in Clayton's gaze that displeased her.  Her face clouded, and she dropped her eyes.

      G'long, she said, in a low tone.  But the bull had lowered his head, and was standing with feet planted apart and tail waving uneasily. The girl looked up in alarm.

      Watch out thar! she called out, sharply. Call that dog off- quick!

      Clayton turned, but his dog sprang past him and began to bark.  The bull, a lean, active, vicious-looking brute, answered with a snort.

      Call him off, I tell ye! cried the girl, angrily, springing to the ground.  Git out o' the way.  Don't you see he's a-comm' at ye?

      The dog leaped nimbly into the bushes, and the maddened bull was carried on by his own Impetus toward Clayton, who, with a quick spring, landed in safety in a gully below the road.  When he picked himself up from the uneven ground where he had fallen, the beast had disappeared around the bowlder.  The bag had fallen, and had broken open, and some of the meal was spilled on the ground.  The girl, flushed and angry, stood above it.

      Look thar, now, she said.  See whut you've done.  Why'n't ye call that dog off?

      I couldn't, said Clayton, politely.  He wouldn't come.  I'm sorry, very sorry.

      Can't ye manage yer own dog? she asked, half contemptuously.

      Not always.

      Then ye oughter leave him to home, and not let him go round a-skeerin' folks' beastes.  With a little gesture of indignation she stooped and began scooping up the meal in her hand.

      Let me help you, said Clayton.  The girl looked up in surprise.

      You go 'way," she said.

      But Clayton stayed, watching her helplessly. He wanted to carry the bag for her, but she swung it to her shoulder, and moved away.  He followed her around the bowlder, where his late enemy was browsing peacefully on sassafras-bushes.

      You stay thar now, said the girl, and keep that dog back.

      Won't you let me help you get up? he asked.

      Without answering, the girl sprang lightly to the bull's back,  Once only she looked around at him.  He took off his hat, and a puzzled expression came into her face.  Then, without a word or a nod, she rode away. Clayton watched the odd pair till the bushes hid them.

      Europa, by Jove! he exclaimed, and he sat down in bewilderment.

      She was so very odd a creature, so different from the timid mountain women who shrank

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