"SPARKLING." "FASCINATING." "CHARMING."
A FAIR BARBARIAN.
By Mrs. FRANCES H. BURNETT. One volume 16mo, handsomely bound.
Price $1.00.
"It has a good plot, excellent character-drawing, and the story is told
in delightful style. There is a certain freshness and purity about
Mrs. Burnett's writings that can never lose their charm, and 'A Fair
Barbarian' is among her best productions."--_Boston Post._
"In her latest novel, 'A Fair Barbarian,' we find Mrs. Burnett amid
still other scenes and characters; and here she seems likely to
eclipse, at least as far as popularity is concerned, all her earlier
triumphs. The title of the story is in itself a most happy conception.
The 'Fair Barbarian' is a young American lady who has lived in Nevada,
and who comes upon an English country town with the suggestive name
of 'Slowbridge,' to astonish its inhabitants by an individuality of
character wholly unique.... The raciness of the scenes that attend the
meeting of these parties is indescribable. This American girl is not
an untamed hoiden by any means: she is, on the contrary, true-womanly
in the best sense of the term. She is kind of heart, sympathetic, and
self-respecting,--a really lovely, if a somewhat unconventional person.
She is high-spirited too; and, while she manifests a willingness to
learn the standards of those among whom her lot is temporarily cast,
there is a charming youthful dignity about her which is one of the
best points in her delineation. Of course she finds her lover. Of the
results that attend his wooing, we leave the reader to learn from the
story. The merit of the novel is largely in its admirable purpose, and
the exquisite skill with which it is carried out. It is a refreshing
vindication of the American girl, whom it has been too much the custom
of writers to depreciate of late. Mrs. Burnett knows her well, and does
her ample justice. She knows England too, and we have the benefit of
that knowledge in the types of English character presented.
"Her book is likely, not only to succeed in favor beyond her own
previous productions, but to gain a popularity which none other of
those novels which have treated this phase of the American-girl
question have obtained."--_Boston Journal._
"If a more amusing or clever novelette than 'A Fair Barbarian' has ever
been given the American public, we fail to recall it."--_Pittsburgh
Telegraph._
"The 'Fair Barbarian' is that charming indigenous production of
ours, 'an American girl,' who goes to England, and makes John Bull
open his eyes in surprise, and frequently admiration."--_Louisville
Courier-Journal._
"Mrs. Burnett fascinates her readers without appearing to make an
effort, and plays upon the human heart at will, making it thrill
and vibrate under the magic influence of her genius."--_New Orleans
Democrat._
"We have no hesitation in saying that there is no living writer
(man or woman) who has Mrs. Burnett's dramatic power in telling a
story."--_New-York Herald._
"The brightest and wittiest of Mrs. Burnett's stories."--_Baltimore
Every Saturday._
"A particularly sparkling story, the subject being the young heiress
of a Pacific-slope silver-mine, thrown amid the very proper petty
aristocracy of an English rural town."--_Springfield Republican._
"Mrs. Burnett's new and charming story, which is much different from,
and much better than, 'The Lass of Lowrie's.'"--_Philadelphia Evening
News._
FOR SALE EVERYWHERE.
JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. PUBLISHERS,
=BOSTON.=
_ROUND-ROBIN SERIES._
_Patty's Perversities._
[Illustration: "PERHAPS IT MAY TURN OUT A SONG,
PERHAPS TURN OUT A SERMON."]
BOSTON
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY
1881
COPYRIGHT, 1881,
BY JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved._
_Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery, & Co.,
117 Franklin Street, Boston._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I. MORNING 1
II. "A BIRD IN THE BUSH" 5
III. "A BIRD IN THE HAND" 12
IV. THE PICNIC 20
V. A MISHAP 26
VI. CHIT-CHAT 35
VII. A BUSINESS INTERVIEW 43
VIII. ON THE PIAZZA 49
IX. AN ARRIVAL 55
X. A CHANCE MEETING 61
XI. A BUNDLE OF PAPERS 67
XII. AN AFTERNOON RIDE 73
XIII. AT REHEARSAL 79
XIV. AN ELOPEMENT 86
XV. A CASTLE IN THE AIR 95
XVI. THE CHURCH AT SAMOSET 111
XVII. A CONFIDENCE 121
XVIII. A CHAPTER OF SHREDS AND PATCHES 129
XIX. TOXTETH SEEKS AN ALLY 136
XX. AN OUTBURST 144
XXI. THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN 151
XXII. A MISUNDERSTANDING 156
XXIII. NOTES AND SOUVENIRS 163
XXIV. MRS. SANFORD SPEAKS 171
XXV. CLARENCE SPEAKS 181
XXVI. MULLEN HOUSE 186
XXVII. THE RUSTIC ROAD 194
XXVIII. THE THEATRICALS 199
XXIX. NIGHT-SCENES 206
XXX. THE WOUNDS OF A FRIEND 211
XXXI. AUNT JEFF REMONSTRATES 219
XXXII. HEADS AND TAILS 227
XXXIII. "WHEN SHE WILL, SHE WILL" 233
XXXIV. THE MASKERS 241
XXXV. PETER MIXON 246
XXXVI. MRS. SMITHERS 250
XXXVII. THANKSGIVING 256
XXXVIII. A TEST OF CIVILIZATION 262
XXXIX. THE NIGHT-WATCH 269
XL. CLARENCE AGAIN 275
XLI. OLD MULLEN'S WILL 279
XLII. BOLD PLAY 283
XLIII. CLARENCE IS ANSWERED 289
XLIV. WILL AND EASE 294
XLV. A QUIET WEDDING 297
XLVI. CHRISTMAS 302
PATTY'S PERVERSITIES.
CHAPTER I.
MORNING.
"There is one thing sure," mused Patty Sanford, newly awakened by the
sun's rays which streamed through her honeysuckle-draped casement;
"there is one thing sure,--I shall go to the picnic with whom I like:
else why should I go at all? To-day they will come to invite me.
Burleigh will come, of course; but it is easy to get rid of him. Then
Clarence Toxteth is sure to ask me. How it piques the girls to see me
behind his span! Clarence's span is so nice! It is a pity he isn't--I
mean I wish I liked him better. But he isn't always saying horrid
things, like Tom Putnam. I wonder if Tom will ask me. I do so hope he
will, so I can snub him. I'm sure," she continued to herself, in her
energy raising herself upon her dimpled elbow,--"I'm sure I don't know
anybody who needs snubbing more than he. If he only would come after
Clarence has invited me, that would be fun. He'd manage to come out
superior, though, in some way. He always does; and that's the worst of
him--or the best, I'm not quite certain which. There! Will would say I
was 'moonier than the moon.'--Flossy, Floss!"
"Yes," answered a sleepy voice from the next chamber.
"Are you awake?"
"Well," the voice replied with great deliberation, "not as much as
some."
"You'd better be, then. There are oceans of things to see to to-day."
At that moment was heard from below the voice of Mrs. Sanford, calling
her daughter; and Patty hastily began her toilet for the early
breakfast, already being prepared below by Bathalina Clemens, the maid
of all work.
The company assembled around the breakfast-table consisted, in addition
to Patty, of her father and mother, her brother Will, and a cousin
rejoicing in the euphonious title of Flossy Plant.
Dr. Sanford was a tall, thin-faced gentleman, with deep, kindly eyes,
and slightly-stooping shoulders. He would have been hen-pecked, but for
the fact that he was so fully aware of his wife's peculiarities as to
be able to guard himself against them. He smiled at her vagaries and
gallinaceous ways with a quiet, inward sense of humor.
"Your aunt is a very amusing woman," he once said to Flossy Plant; and,
indeed, it was sometimes difficult for the whole family not to regard
Mrs. Sanford as a species of private Punch and Judy intended for their
especial entertainment.
This morning the worthy lady was discussing the church picnic, to take
place the following day.
"I think," she said impressively, "that picnics are chiefly bugs and
critters; but I suppose it is a duty folks owe to religion to go."
"And to ride there with the gentlemen," put in Flossy, seeing the
twinkle in her uncle's eye.
"But the buggies are so terrible narrow nowadays," Mrs. Sanford
continued, the breadth of her figure giving point to the remark, "that
one is squeezed to death. The last time I rode in one I dreamed, the
next night, that I was a postage-stamp on a letter; and, of course,
that couldn't be a lucky dream."
"Oh, the narrow buggies are the beauty of it!" Flossy retorted: "it
brings you and the gentlemen so close and cosey, you know."
"Flossy Plant!" exclaimed Bathalina Clemens, who was bringing in a
fresh supply of griddle-cakes, and felt called upon, as she frequently
did, to "bear testimony." "Flossy Plant, that is positively indelicate."
"Bathalina Clemens," returned Flossy serenely, "you don't know the very
first principles of indelicacy."
In the general laugh that greeted this sally Mrs. Sanford did not join.
"I don't know what you mean," she said; "but I'm sure it isn't proper.
Besides," she continued, "I have a foreboding in my mind. I put my left
shoe on my right foot this morning, and I doubt something will happen:
besides, I know strangers are coming, for my nose itches; and Bathalina
dropped the dish-cloth last night; and a fork stuck up straight in the
floor this morning."
"I am glad of that," Patty said lightly. "The more people that come
to-day, the better Floss and I shall be pleased, if they come to invite
us to the picnic."
"Flossy," interrupted Mrs. Sanford, "you have spilled your salt. Throw
a pinch over your left shoulder quick. It is strange how careless folks
can be; just the day before a picnic too.--And then," she rambled on,
"there's the cooking. Patty, you'll have to make the cake, and do all
the millinery of the cooking: you ought to have picked over the raisins
before breakfast."
"If I do any thing before breakfast," Flossy said, "I have to have my
breakfast first."
"So do I," Patty laughed; "but I can make up for lost time afterward."