318 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
H J^^V E YOU R E A. r> THE GREAT 
AMERICAN STORY? 
The End of the World. 
J± LOVE 8TOEY. 
By EDWARD EGrG-LESTON, Author of "The hoosier School-Master," etc. 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY-TWO ENGRAVINGS. 
THE NEW SINGING-MASTER. 
" He sings like an owltngale ! '* 
Jonaa Harrison was leaning agaluBt the well- 
curb, talking to Cynthy Ann. He'd been down 
to the store at Brayville, he paid, a llstenin' to 
'em discuss Millerlsm, and seed a new singing- 
master there. 
" Could he sins good ? " Cynthy asked, rather 
to prolong the talk than to get information. 
"Sings like an owlingalc, I reckon. He's 
got more Beals to his ministry a-hanging onto 
his watch-chain than I ever seed. Got a mus- 
tache onto the top story of his mouth some- 
thin' like a tuft of grass on the roof of a ole 
shed kitchen. Peart? Ile'sthepeartest-lookiu' 
c '>»p 1 ovov **Gt>d. But he a'n't no singin'-ma^- 
ter — not ef I'm any jedge of turnips. He 
ivarn't horn to sarve Ma day and generation 
with a tunln'-fork. I think he's a goln' to 
reckon-water a little in these parts, and that 
he'* only a-playln* sinpin'-mnster. lie kin play 
more flddles'n one, you bet a liosa! Says he 
come up here fcr his wholesome, and I cuess 
he did. Think ef he'd a-stald where he was, 
he mout a-suffered a leetle from confinement 
to his room, and that room p'raps not more 
nor five foot by nine, and ruther dim-lighted 
and poor-provisioned, an* not much chance 
fer takin' exercise in the fresh air !" 
" Don't be oncharitable, Jonas, don't. We're 
all mis'able sinners, I s'pose ; and you know 
charity don't think no evil. The man may be 
all right, ef he does wear hair on his lip. 
Charity kivers lots a sins." 
" Ya-as, but charity don't klver no wolves 
with wool. An' ef he a'n't a woolly wolf 
they'd no Bnakea in JarBey.as little llidin* Hood 
said when her granny tried to bite her head 
off. I'm dead sot in favor of charity, and mean 
to gin her my vote at every election, but I a'n't a-goin' 
to have her put a blind-bridle on tome. And whan & man 
comes to Clark township a-wearing straps to his brcecli- 
aloons to keep hisself from leaving terry-iirmy altogether, 
and a-weighttn' hisself down with pewter watch-seaU, 
gold-washed, and a cultivating a crap of red-top hay onto 
his upper lip, and a-lettin* on to be a siugin'-maatcr, I sus- 
picious him. They's too much in the glt-up fer the come- 
out. "Well, here's yer health, Cynthy ! " 
And having made this oracular speech, and quaffed the 
liard limestone water, Jonas hung the clean white gourd 
from which he had been drinking, in its place against the 
well-euro, and started back to the field, while Cynthy Ann 
"•DonH be onehatitabk, Jonas." 
carried her bucket of water into the kitchen, blaming her- 
self lor standing so long talking to Jonas.— From '• The 
End of the World:* 
NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 
Dr. Eggleston, in striking out into the uncouth wilder- 
ness of early " Hoosierdom " for the materials of bis 
talcs, has entered into an emphatically new field, and by 
the production of but two books has achieved lor himself 
indisputable immortality. — Dayton Religious Telescope. 
Mr. Eggleston has opened a new mine in American 
fictitious literature, as distinct as Cooper did in the 
Indian romances, and he has ho fer shown great skill iu 
working it. " The Hoosier School-Master " was a 
decided snecess, and i his new tale ia quite its equal.— 
Central Christian Advocate. 
Dr. Eggleston's new story is the best he 
has written. " The Hoosier School-Master" 
was good, bat The End of the World shows 
a better plot, better character-drawing, and 
more firm and consistent treatment through- 
out The book is exceedingly whole- 
some. The sentiment throughout is pure. 
It contains not one morbid or cynical page. 
It exhibits the passion of love under its 
healthiest manifestation, and treats the rela- 
tions of the sexes in a perfectly normal way. 
.... 'When a hook like this— so full of 
nature and reality, so cheerful and yet so 
reverent, so free from mawkish sentiment 
and poisonous theories — starts out with a 
first edition of ten thousand copies, it is a 
good si^n for our popular literature. It is 
one of the books that the people will be sure 
to read, and they will find in it a perfectly 
innocent and healthy enjoyment. — The 
Independent. 
It is a talc of life iu the Ohio Valley, and, 
cancu N u,„ =torv," is much more. The 
old alluring theme is handled win. b k;ii. ,-.,.,j 
with a genuineness as far as may be fr©m 
affected sentimentality, and oae's interest is 
well wrought up in the rivalry between tho 
simple-minded and honest German, August, 
and the crafty scoundrel and blackleg, Hum- 
phreys. Yet it is as a chapter of virtual 
history that the book is chiefly notable. The 
plot hinges upon the prediction of the end 
of the world, which, according to the Millcr- 
ites, was to be fulfilled on the night of August 
11th, 1843. The scenes of that memorable 
night are depicted with great humor and 
vigor C:U the fascination or the book 
is in its characterization of odd people: 
Jonas, shrewd and irrepressible, with a fund 
of humor at command and a ready tongue 
to give it vent; Cynthy Ann, meekly reli- 
gions, and always on tip-toe against tempta- 
tion ; Mrs. Anderson, the scold, who coerces 
her family with threats of heart-disease; 
the Backwoods Philosopher, who shuts him- 
self up in his castle and utters wisdom at the 
despicable world ; the Steam-Doctor, whose 
special form of quackery is very amusing; 
the Mad-Clerk, the Millerite Preacher, and 
the Village Loafers. These people live and 
move, and the reader, instead of criticising 
Ihe creations of tho artist, becomes ac- 
quaintec 1 with men and women of flesh and blood like 
unto himself. — New York Evening Mail. 
The book is handsome in its make-up, beinc printed 
on thick paper, and embellished with no less than thirty- 
two engravings, all in excellent style, the designs of 
Frank Beard It is a story of Western life, not 
encouuters with Indians and adventures with varmints, 
but of that Western life that ia so much a larger expres- 
sion of our Eastern life as to seem at times as only a 
travesty or - xa-j-geration of our prim New England style. 
—Hartford Evening Post. 
The many delighted readers of "The Hoosier School- 
Master" will find new pleasure in this last and, If 
possible, more fascinating work. — Waslungton, Daily 
Chronicle. 
Pric«, Post-paid, $1.50* 
OEANGE JUDD AND COMPANY, 2<L5 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
