THE RED MOUNTAIN 
OF ALASKA. 
CHAPTER I. 
A REMARKABLE LETTER. 
SPACIOUS, comfortable-looking house, in the 
outskirts of one of the largest manufacturing 
towns of Massachusetts; the dining-room is 
brightly lighted, and a wood fire blazes and snaps cheerily 
in the open fireplace, for it is late October, and the even- 
ings are cold. Around the cosey tea-table are gathered 
the family, namely : John Button, Esq., proprietor of the 
celebrated Sheldon Paper Mills ; Mrs. John Button ; Miss 
Florence Button, age fifteen, commonly addressed as 
"Flossie," or "Floss;" and Masters Robert, Hugh, and 
Nathaniel Button, ages respectively seventeen, fifteen, 
and twelve years. Flossie and Hugh, it will be noticed, 
are twins. 
Only three more personages in the town of Sheldon are 
at present sufficiently important to merit an introduction. 
13 
