The _Springfield Republican_ finds in it "a distinct flavor of its own ... the freshness and strangeness of the prairie life."
The _Chicago Inter-Ocean_ finds it "the most dramatic of our American novels ... a drama of direct appeal."
"There runs through the story a vein of pathos that is absolutely pitiful, and makes one think of 'The Mill on the Floss'.... It is a strong, stern, matter-of-fact book. Some of its pages stand out from their sad background of reality like one of Salvato Rosa's pictures.... Many of the situations are as dramatical as any of Bret Harte's."--_St. Joseph Gazette._
"Incomparably the best novel of the year, judged from any standard.... There is a grace, a sympathetic and tender feeling, a delicious sense of humor, that make the book remarkable.--_Brooklyn Union._
End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of the Locks, by Edgar Watson Howe