E-text prepared by S. Drawehn, Suzanne Shell,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
The Uncalled
A Novel
By PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Author of "Lyrics of Lowly Life"
Copyright, 1898
By Paul Laurence Dunbar
Copyright, 1898
By Dodd, Mead and Company
NORTH RIVER BINDERY CO.
PRINTERS AND BINDERS
NEW YORK
Dedicated
TO MY WIFE
| Chapter I | |
| Chapter II | Chapter III |
| Chapter IV | Chapter V |
| Chapter VI | Chapter VII |
| Chapter VIII | Chapter IX |
| Chapter X | Chapter XI |
| Chapter XII | Chapter XIII |
| Chapter XIV | Chapter XV |
| Chapter XVI | Chapter XVII |
| Transcriber's Note | |
THE UNCALLED
CHAPTER I
It was about six o'clock of a winter's morning. In the eastern sky faintstreaks of grey had come and were succeeded by flashes of red,crimson-cloaked heralds of the coming day. It had snowed the day before,but a warm wind had sprung up during the night, and the snow hadpartially melted, leaving the earth showing through in ugly patches ofyellow clay and sooty mud. Half despoiled of their white mantle, thoughwith enough of it left to stand out in bold contrast to the bare places,the houses loomed up, black, dripping, and hideous. Every once in awhile the wind caught the water as it trickled from the eaves, and sentit flying abroad in a chill unsparkling spray. The morning came in,cold, damp, and dismal.
At the end of a short, dirty street in the...