The Hoosier Schoolmaster: A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana

Edward Eggleston

ene 1913 · Grosset & Dunlap

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Ralph Hartsook, A Union Army soldier, is mustered out of service in Virginia at the termination of the War Between the States, and he with a large group of other freshly discharged Northern troops, while still in uniform, trod wearily into southern Indiana in search of alleged land grant opportunities for veterans of which they have been told are based in that State, only to be unpleasantly greeted by residents of the Confederacy supporting region. Ralph, however, utilizes a specific strategy in order to remain within the backwoods area and obtain farm acreage of his own, as he applies for a position as the regional schoolmaster, thereby hoping additionally to persuade a pretty indentured, or "bound" girl, Hannah Thompson to be his wife. Ralph's nature ingenuity serves him well, but after he determines that a trio of prominent community leaders is fraudulently obtaining land grant funds solely for their personal use, his efforts to expose the scoundrels to public scrutinity cost him his personal safety and perhaps a good deal more, a false accusation of theft against Ralph so as to form his primary difficulty, into a failure to win first prize at a spelling bee.