Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ... HAWK'S PERCH. CHAPTER I. There was a glow over the landscape--a glow of gorgeously tinted leaves and dazzling sunbeams that streamed away from the west, and crept in through the trees, shedding a glory of golden light over the heads of a lady and gentleman, who helped to form a lovely picture as they stood in a setting of brilliant leaves, beside a glimpse of smooth water, with a background of grand old walnut trees, through which wild grape vines twined in and out in many a fantastic wreath and garland, till they reached the topmost boughs, and then came showering down in wild profusion--the purple clusters of grapes dipping into the water beneath, and mingling with the vividly mirrored shadows that seemed to sink into unfathomable depths. The lady might have been born of the sunbeams and glowing tints about her, so lovely and sparkling was she. Her dress, which trailed over the grass, was of the same soft violet hue as the golden-fringed clouds that floated overhead, while gathered about her waist, and thrown over her shoulder after the manner of a Highlander's plaid, was a scarf of wondrous fabric, in which amber and crimson mingled with azure, purple and emerald in soft silken threads, that flashed and shimmered as they caught the sunlight. A little black velvet cap, with a sweeping scarlet plume, was perched coquettishly on a waving mass of dark hair that was caught high up on the lack of her head, and then went rippling down over her shoulders, flashing back the sunlight which it caught fitfully, and entangling the falling leaves that were everywhere scattered in gorgeous luxuriance under feet--floating on the water, furled in the trailing folds of her dress, caught in the long rich fringe of her scarf, and some of them even now...