The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heart of the Blue Ridge, by Waldron Baily

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Heart of the Blue Ridge

Author: Waldron Baily

Release Date: March 30, 2009 [EBook #28454]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF THE BLUE RIDGE ***

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Heart of the Blue Ridge

The Illustrations Shown in this Edition are Reproductions of Scenes
from the Photo-Play of "Heart of the Blue Ridge," with Clara Kimball
Young as the Heroine, Under the Direction of Lewis J. Selznick, to whom
The Publishers Desire to Express Their Thanks and Appreciation for
Permission to Use the Pictures.

[Illustration:
_Clara Kimball Young under the direction of Lewis J. Selznick._
PLUTINA.]

HEART OF THE BLUE RIDGE

BY

WALDRON BAILY

ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES FROM THE PHOTOPLAY,
WITH CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG AS THE HEROINE,
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF LEWIS J. SELZNICK

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1915, by

W. J. WATT & COMPANY

TO

Irving Bacheller

WITH THE APPRECIATION OF THE AUTHOR

Heart of the Blue Ridge

HEART OF THE BLUE RIDGE

CHAPTER I

Where the trail bent over a knoll, Zeke halted, and put down from his
shoulder the hickory cudgel with its dangling valise of black
oilcloth--total of baggage with which he was faring forth into the
world. Then, he straightened himself, and looked back over the way he
had come.

There, to the east, the dusk of night still lay somberly, hardly
touched by the coming dawn. Through the shadows, the mountain masses
loomed formidable and mysterious, vaguely outlined against the deeper
gloom of valleys. The melancholy of the scene seemed a fit setting for
the cottage that rested invisible within the forest, a half-mile
distant from him. In imagination, he saw the withered old woman, his
mother, still standing on the threshold, looking toward him, even as
he looked toward her, her heart warm with love, her every thought a
prayer for his happiness. It was borne in on Zeke once again that she
w