CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.Town and Country contrasted, in relation to Vice and Crime.—A Display Party to avoid Bankruptcy.—Gaut Gurley, and other leading Characters, introduced as Actors in this scene of City Life.
CHAPTER II.Retrospect of the life of the Country Merchant, in making Money, to become a "Solid Man of Boston."—Humble Beginnings.—Tempted into Smuggling from Canada in Embargo times, and makes a Fortune, by the aid of the desperate and daring Services of Gaut Gurley.—A Sketch of the Wild Scenes of Smuggling over the British line into Vermont and New Hampshire.—Removal to the City.
CHAPTER III.Gambling (an allegory) invented by the Fiends, and is proclaimed the Premium Vice by Lucifer.—A Gambling Scene between Gaut Gurley and the merchant, Mark Elwood.—The Failure of the latter.—The Refusal of his brother, Arthur Elwood, to help him.—The Surprise and Distress of his Family.
CHAPTER IV.The Downward Path of the Habitual Gambler.—His Family sharing in the
Degradation, and becoming the suffering Victims of his Vices.—The Sudden
Resolve to be a Man again, and remove to an unsettled Country, to begin
Life anew in the Woods.
The moral and intellectual Influences of Forest Life.—Scenery of Umbagog.—Description of Elwood's new Home in the Woods.—The Burning of his first Slash.—His House catches Fire, and he and his Wife engage in extinguishing it, praying for the return of their Son, Claud Elwood, to help them in their terrible strait.
CHAPTER VI.Claud Elwood and his Forest Musings.—Dangerous Assault, and slaying of a
Moose.—Rescue of Gaut's Daughter from the enraged animal.—Strange
Developments.—Incipient Love Scene.—Trout-catching.—Return of Claud and
Phillips (the Old Hunter here first introduced), to aid in saving the
Elwood Cottage from the fire.—The Thunder-shower comes to complete the
conquest of the fire.—The destruction of the King Pine by a Thunderbolt.
Journey up the Magalloway, to bring home the slaughtered Moose.—Love and its entanglements; its Sunshine now, its Storms in the distance.
CHAPTER VIII.Jaunt of Claud and Phillips over the Rapids to the next Great Lake, for
Deer-hunting and Trout-catching.—Rescue of Fluella, the Indian Chief's
Daughter, from Drowning in the Rapids.—Her remarkable Character for
Intellect and Beauty.
The Logging Bee.—The introduction of a New Character in Comical Codman, the Trapper.—The Woodmen's Banquet.—The forming of the Trapping and Hunting Company, to start on an Expedition to the Upper Lakes.
CHAPTER X.Developments of the dark and designing character of Gaut Gurley.—-Tomah, the college-learned Indian.
CHAPTER XI.Mrs. Elwood's Bodings, on account of the connection of her Husband and Son with Gaut and his Daughter.—Her Interview with Fluella.—Claud's Interview with Fluella and her Father, the Chief.—The Chief's History of his Tribe.
CHAPTER XII.Adventures of the Trappers the first day of their Expedition up the
Lakes.—Bear-hunt, Trout-catching, etc.—Introduction of Carvil, an amateur
Hunter from the Green Mountains.
The Trappers' Central Camp on the Maguntic Lake.—Three Stories of most remarkable Adventures in the Woods, told at the Camp-fire by three Hunters and Trappers.
CHAPTER XIV.The Voyage to Oquossah, the farthest large Lake.—The stationing of the
Trappers at different points on the Lake.—The appointment of Gaut as
Keeper of the Central Camp, on the Lake below.—The Results of their Fall's
Operations, and Preparations to return Home.
The Trappers overtaken by a terrible Snow-storm.—Their Suffering before reaching Central Camp.—The discovery that this Camp had been Burnt, and Robbed of their whole Stock of Furs.—Their Providential Escape from Death.
CHAPTER XVI.The Legal Prosecution to Recover their Furs, or punish Gaut, the supposed
Criminal.—The unsatisfactory Result, and Gaut's dark menaces of Revenge.
Gaut's Efforts to get the old Company off into the Forest, on a Spring
Expedition.—All refuse but Elwood and Son, who conclude to go.—Love
Entanglements, and the boding Fears of Mrs. Elwood.
Opening of Spring in the Settlement.—The Trappers fail to Return.—Gaut comes without them.—The Alarm and Suspicions of the Settlers that he has Murdered, the Elwoods.—The Circumstantial Evidence.
CHAPTER XIX.The attempt to Arrest Gaut.—His retreat to a Cave in the Mountain.—His final Dislodgement and Capture, for Trial and Examination.
CHAPTER XX.Retrospect of the Adventures of Gaut and the Elwoods.—The Murder of Mark
Elwood, and the Wounding of Claud, by Gaut.—Claud's life saved by
Fluella.
Gaut's Trial, Sentence, and Imprisonment.—General Denouement of the
Story.—Gaut breaks Jail, escapes, and becomes a desperate Pirate-leader.
Awful Fate of a Pirate Ship.—Gaut's Death.