Legends of the WestG.P. Putnam & Company, 1853 - 435 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
accustomed affection amusement animal beautiful became began blood brave brother Johnson cabin canoe character Colburn Colonel Hendrickson companion concealed danger Dangerly daugh dear death delight dreadful Dunois Edgarton Edward Overton endeavoured enemy engaged exclaimed father feelings felt Fennimore fire forest Fort Cumberland gazed gentleman George Lee glance ground habits hand Hark Harpe head heard heart horse hour hunter Indian Kaskaskia Kentucky looked Major Heyward ment Micajah Michel mind Miss Pendleton morning mountains musquito nature negroes neighbours never night occasion party passed path Pedro Garcia person plain prisoners raccoon rendered replied rifle river rock rushed savage scene seemed seen settlements shore side silent soon spirit spot stood stranger thickets thing thought threw tion tomahawk travellers tree trunk turned village Virginia voice warriors whole wild wilderness woods young lady Zedekiah
Popular passages
Page 183 - Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul : let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, "Aha, aha!
Page 34 - His gardens next your admiration call, On every side you look, behold the wall! No pleasing intricacies intervene, No artful wildness to perplex the scene; Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, And half the platform just reflects the other.
Page 29 - Well, that shews you were not raised in Virginia. Time you should see a little of the world, sir ; there's nothing in life equal to a barbecue, properly managed, — a good old Virginia barbecue. — James Hall, ' The Harpe's Head,
Page 86 - His eye was fearless and steady, but it was also artful and audacious, glaring upon the beholder with an unpleasant fixedness and brilliancy, like that of a ravenous animal gloating on its prey. He wore no covering on his head, and the natural protection of thick coarse hair, of a fiery redness, uncombed and matted, gave evidence of long exposure to the rudest visitations of the sunbeam and the tempest.
Page 86 - His face, which was larger than ordinary, exhibited the lines of ungovernable passion, and the complexion announced that the ordinary feelings of the human breast were in him extinguished. Instead of the healthy hue which indicates the social emotions, there was a livid, unnatural redness, resembling that of a dried and lifeless skin. His eye was fearless and steady, but it was also artful and audacious, glaring upon the beholder with an unpleasant fixedness and brilliancy, like that of a ravenous...
Page 223 - ... chase, and wounded him ; and when the latter was asked why, when he found Leiper pursuing him alone, he did not dismount and take to a tree, from behind which he could inevitably have shot him as he approached, he replied that he had supposed there was not a horse in the country equal to the one which he rode, and that he was confident of making his escape. He thought also that the pursuit would be less eager, so long as he abstained from shedding the blood of any of his pursuers. On the arrival...
Page 222 - Leiper, who, nothing daunted, unsheathed his long hunting knife and rushed upon his desperate foe, grappled with him, hurled him to the ground, and wrested his only remaining weapon from his grasp. The prostrate wretch — exhausted with the loss of blood, conquered, but unsubdued in spirit — now lay passive at the feet of his...
Page v - fidelity" because the legends "are founded upon incidents which have been witnessed by the author during a long residence in the western states, or upon traditions preserved by the people, and have received but little artificial embellishment."1" The willingness to eschew the "embellishment of style...
Page v - The sole intention of the tales comprised in the following pages is to convey the accurate descriptions of the scenery and population of the country in which the author resides.
Page ix - It was the search of adventure, rather than of actions at law, that enticed him to the wilderness. The legends of the West, scattered in fragments over the land, were more alluring than imaginary clients or prospective fees.