Project Gutenberg's The Preacher of Cedar Mountain, by Ernest Thompson Seton

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Title: The Preacher of Cedar Mountain
A Tale of the Open Country

Author: Ernest Thompson Seton

Illustrator: Clarence Rowe

Release Date: October 22, 2009 [EBook #30313]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PREACHER OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN

A TALE OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

BY ERNEST THOMPSON SETON

FRONTISPIECE BY CLARENCE ROWE

Garden City New York
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1917

_Copyright, 1917, by_
Ernest Thompson Seton

_All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian_

[Illustration: "'You must choose between us. Is it Belle or Blazing
Star?'"]

PREFACE

Most of the characters in this tale are from life, and some of the main
events are historical, although the actual scenes and names are not
given. Many men now living will remember Fighting Bill Kenna and the
Horse Preacher, as well as the Fort Ryan races. These horse races are
especially well known and have been described in print many times. I did
not witness any of them myself, but listened on numerous occasions when
they were described to me by eye-witnesses. My first knowledge of the
secret try-out in Yellowbank Canyon was given to me years ago by Homer
Davenport, the cartoonist, with permission to use the same.

But all of these more or less historic events are secondary to the
intent of illustrating the growth of a character, whose many rare gifts
were mere destructive force until curbed and harmonized into the big,
strong machine that did such noble work in the West during my early days
on the Plains.

ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.

CONTENTS

Preface

BOOK I THE CHILD OF THE STABLE YARD

I. The Home Land