18th printing. No jacket, large stain to corner of rear paste-down endpaper and rear endpaper. 1898 Hard Cover. We have more books available by this author!. 361 pp. James Lane Allen was an American novelist and short story writer whose work often depicted the culture and dialects of his native Kentucky. His work is characteristic of the late-19th century local color era, when writers sought to capture the vernacular in their fiction. Allen has been described as Kentucky's first important novelist. This novel, by the author of John Gray, is a story set in the green wilderness of Kentucky. Parts of the tale are taken from John Gray and the entirety is wonderfully written. This book will keep your attention and make you wonder exactly what happened to that little blue and white checkered bundle that fell unnoticed from that white bobtail horse's side saddle.