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

"'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

BOOK ONE The Child of the Stable Yard

CHAPTER I. The Home Land of Little Jim Hartigan
CHAPTER II. The Strains That Were Mingled in Jim
CHAPTER III. How He Lost His Father
CHAPTER IV. The Atmosphere of His Early Days
CHAPTER V. Little Jim's Tutors
CHAPTER VI. Jim Loses Everythin
CHAPTER VII. He Gets a Much-needed Lesson

BOOK II The Conversion

CHAPTER VIII. The Conversion of Jim
CHAPTER IX. Jim Hartigan Goes to College
CHAPTER X. Escape to Cedar Mountain
CHAPTER XI. A New Force Enters His Life
CHAPTER XII. Belle Boyd
CHAPTER XIII. Preacher Jim's First Sermon
CHAPTER XIV. The Lure of the Saddle
CHAPTER XV. Pat Bylow's Spree
CHAPTER XVI. The New Insurance Agents
CHAPTER XVII. Belle Makes a Decision and Jim Evades One
CHAPTER XVIII. The Second Bylow Spree
CHAPTER XIX. The Day of Reckoning
CHAPTER XX. The Memorable Trip to Deadwood
CHAPTER XXI. The Ordeal
CHAPTER XXII. The Three Religions Confront Him

BOOK III The Horse Preacher

CHAPTER XXIII. Blazing Star
CHAPTER XXIV. Red Rover
CHAPTER XXV. The Secret of Yellowbank Canyon
CHAPTER XXVI. Preparing for the Day
CHAPTER XXVII. The Start
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Finish