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Title: A Pagan of the Hills

Author: Charles Neville Buck

Release Date: August 20, 2006 [eBook #19089]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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A PAGAN OF THE HILLS

by

CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK

Author of

"The Call of the Cumberlands,"
"The Battle Cry,"
"When Bearcat Went Dry," Etc., Etc.

Frontispiece by George W. Gage

[Frontispiece: Sometimes, in these days, she went to a crest from which
the view reached far off for leagues over the valley.]

New York
W. J. Watt & Company
Publishers
Copyright, 1919, by
W. J. Watt & Company

A PAGAN OF THE HILLS

CHAPTER I

"It's plum amazin' ter heer ye norate thet ye've done been tradin' and
hagglin' with old man McGivins long enough ter buy his logs offen him
and yit ye hain't never met up with Alexander. I kain't hardly fathom
hit noways."

The shambling mountaineer stretched himself to his lean length of six
feet two, and wagged an incredulous head. Out of pale eyes he studied
the man before him until the newcomer from "down-below" felt that, in
the attitude, lay almost the force of rebuke. It was as though he
stood self-convicted of having visited Naples without seeing Vesuvius.

"But I haven't been haggling with Mr. McGivins," he hastened to
remonstrate. "On the contrary we have done business most amicably."

The native of the tangled hills casually waved aside the distinction of
terms as a triviality and went on: "I hain't nuver heered tell of no
man's tradin' in these hyar Kentucky mountains without he haggled
considerable. Why thet's what tradin' denotes. Howsomever what
flabbergasts me air thet ye hain't met up w