The Knight of the Golden Melice Part 55

"The author of this work has not favored the public with his name--and why, we are at a loss to know, for it is one whose authors.h.i.+p no one need be ashamed to acknowledge. A train of incidents, now pathetic, now humorous, and now marvelous, is woven together with an ingenuity not less happy than remarkable. Any reader, so intense will become his interest, who shall peruse the first chapter, will find it difficult to lay the book aside before all its contents shall have been devoured. And more, and better, no one can read it without becoming wiser and better--it abounds with wholesome lessons."--_Examiner_.

"No clue is given to the author of this story, but it is marked on every page by evidence of a practised pen, of great dramatic power, of experienced judgment of character, and of rare powers of description."--_St. Louis Republican_.

"Something as bright and cheery as the blue skies and sparkling waters of the New-England land selected for the scene of narrative; as quaint and hearty as the early settlers of the northeastern States, whence it draws its sketches of character, and as wild and picturesque in places as the Indian legends of that 'long time ago' it so cheerfully describes.

"Savage life and scenes of the forest are interwoven like threads of purple and crimson with the pleasant homespun of colonial story; and, ere the reader has ceased to smile over the antics, adventures and sports of the odd specimens of early Yankee character that fill the foreground, he is charmed into silence by the poetic pomp of Indian tradition and the fiery display of Indian loves and hatreds.

"The Lost Hunter is a fine specimen of that cla.s.s of American literature we have sought to encourage, and we will not mar the enjoyment of those whom we hope this notice may attract, by any brief, imperfect shadowing of the story. Buy it, read it, and you will find it amply worth the time."--_National Democrat_.

"We were prepared, by the original and facetious style of the preface of this book, for something out of the beaten track; nor have we been disappointed. The plot is ingeniously concealed, and well carried out.

The delineations of character are admirable. The Indian legends, and specimens of Indian eloquence, are some of them surpa.s.singly beautiful; while the history of the hero is so exciting, and withal so shrouded in mystery, that there is no sagging of the interest till the last page is reached."--_Vermont Republican_.