George Cary Eggleston

Excerpt from Love Is the Sum, of It All: A Plantation Romance Three bars of the gate were broken. The gate, in its totality, consisted of five bars, after the custom of orthodox gates. It stood open of necessity. How could it do otherwise, seeing that its diagonal backbone - the board that ran slantwise from its lower left-hand corner to its upper right-hand corner, - had yielded to the persistent persuasions of gravity and had parted in the middle? The young man who stood contemplating the structure was dressed in a loosely careless fashion, though an observant woman, looking him over, would have seen that his carelessly worn garments were made of a superior cloth and fashioned by highly skilled hands. Women observe these things closely. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

From the book:If you open your mouth again, I'll drive my fist down your throat! The young man, or boy rather, - for he was not yet eighteen years old, - who made this very emphatic remark, was a stalwart, well-built youth, lithe of limb, elastic in movement, slender, straight, tall, with a rather thin face, upon which there was as yet no trace of coming beard, high cheek bones, and eyes that seemed almost to emit sparks of fire as their lids snapped rapidly together. He spoke in a low tone, without a sign of anger in his voice, but with a look of earnestness which must have convinced the person to whom he addressed his not very suave remark, that he really meant to do precisely what he threatened. As he spoke he laid his left hand upon the other's shoulder, and placed his face as near to his companion's as was possible without bringing their noses into actual contact; but he neither clenched nor shook his fist. Persons who mention weapons which they really have made up their minds to use, do not display them in a threatening manner. That is the device of bullies who think to frighten their adversaries by the threatening exhibition as they do by their threatening words. Sam Hardwicke was not a bully, and he did not wish to frighten anybody.

Eggleston was a nationally known writer for New York newspapers and magazines, as well as a popular novelist. He was also a native Hoosier. In later life he wrote this autobiography.

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