CHAPTER I. Squire Hawkins and His Tennessee Land--He Decides to Remove to Missouri
CHAPTER II. He Meets With and Adopts the Boy Clay
CHAPTER III Uncle Daniel's Apparition and PrayeR
CHAPTER V Adoption of the Little Girl Laura--Arrival at Missouri--Reception by Colonel Beriah Sellers
CHAPTER VI Trouble and Darkness in the Hawkins Family--Proposed Sale of the Tennessee Land
CHAPTER VII Colonel Sellers at Home--His Wonderful Clock and Cure for Rheumatism
CHAPTER VIII Colonel Sellers Makes Known His Magnificent Speculation Schemes and Astonishes Washington Hawkins
FRONTPIECE COL. SELLERS FEEDING HIS FAMILY ON EXPECTATIONS 1. CONTEMPLATION 2. THE SQUIRE's HOUSE S. THE U. S. MAIL 4. OBEDSTOWN MALES 5. HURRYING 6. THE SQUIRE'S KITCHEN 7. “FOR GOODNESS SAKE SI” 8. THE LAST COG WHEEL 9. GONE UP 10. TAIL PIECE 11. THE ORPHANS LAST GIFT 12. MRS HAWKINS AND CLAY AT THE GRAVE OF HIS MOTHER 13. “CHILDREN, DAR'S SUMFIN' A COMIN 14. “HEAH I IS, LORD, HEAH I IS!” 15. TAIL PIECE 16. NOT ENCOURAGED 17. SHE'S GAINING 18. “BY THE MARK TWAIN!” 19. FAST TOGETHER 20. ONE OF THE VICTIMS 21. THE PROCESSION--FORWARD MARCH! 22. THE HAPPY WIFE 23. LAURA 24. READY TO SELL 25. STOCK RISING 26. A FAMILY COUNCIL 27. TAIL PIECE 28. ATTEMPTED CORNER IN SPECIE 29. A BRILLIANT IDEA 30. BIG THINGS SHOWN UP 31. COL. SELLERS BLOWING BUBBLES FOR WASHINGTON 32. GEN BOSWELL'S OFFICE 33. TAIL PIECE 34. CONSOLATION 35. THE DYING FATHER 36. TAIL PIECE
June 18--. Squire Hawkins sat upon the pyramid of large blocks, called the “stile,” in front of his house, contemplating the morning.
The locality was Obedstown, East Tennessee. You would not know that Obedstown stood on the top of a mountain, for there was nothing about the landscape to indicate it--but it did: a mountain that stretched abroad over whole counties, and rose very gradually. The district was called the “Knobs of East Tennessee,” and had a reputation like Nazareth, as far as turning out any good thing was concerned.
The Squire's house was a double log cabin, in a state of decay; two or three gaunt hounds lay asleep about the threshold, and lifted their heads sadly whenever Mrs. Hawkins or the children stepped in and out over their bodies. Rubbish was scattered about the grassless yard; a bench stood near the door with a tin wash basin on it and a pail of water and a gourd; a cat had begun to drink from the pail, but the exertion was overtaxing her energies, and she had stopped to rest. There was an ash-hopper by the fence, and an iron pot, for soft-soap-boiling, near it.