Christmas Eve On Old Lonesome & Other Stories.

By John Fox Jr.

1904

First Published

3.04

Average Rating

245

Number of Pages

7H26M

Audio Length

CHRISTMAS EVE ON LONESOME It was Christmas Eve on Lonesome. But nobody on Lonesome knew that it was Christmas Eve, although a child of the outer world could have guessed it, even out in those wilds where Lonesome slipped from one lone log cabin high up the steeps, down through a stretch of jungled darkness to another lone cabin at the mouth of the stream.There was the holy hush in the gray twilight that comes only on Christmas Eve. There were the big flakes of snow that fell as they never fall except on Christmas Eve. There was a snowy man on horseback in a big coat, and with saddle-pockets that might have been bursting with toys for children in the little cabin at the head of the stream.But not even he knew that it was Christmas Eve. He was thinking of Christmas Eve, but it was of the Christmas Eve of the year before, when he sat in prison with a hundred other men in stripes, and listened to the chaplain talk of peace and good will to all men upon earth, when he had forgotten all men upon earth but one, and had only hatred in his heart for him."Vengeance is mine! saith the Lord."That was what the chaplain had thundered at him. And then, as now, he thought of the enemy who had betrayed him to the law, and had sworn away his liberty, and had robbed him of everything in life except a fierce longing for the day when he could strike back and strike to kill. And then, while he looked back hard into the chaplain's eyes, and now, while he splashed through the yellow mud thinking of that Christmas Eve, Buck shook his head; and then, as now, his sullen heart answered:"Mine!"The big flakes drifted to crotch and twig and limb. They gathered on the brim of Buck's slouch hat, filled out the wrinkles in his big coat, whitened his hair and his long mustache, and sifted into the yellow, twisting path that guided his horse's feet.High above he could see through the whirling snow now and then the gleam of a red star. He knew it was the light from his enemy's window; but somehow the chaplain's voice kept ringing in his ears, and every time he saw the light he couldn't help thinking of the story of the Star that the chaplain told that Christmas Eve, and he dropped his eyes by and by, so as not to see it again, and rode on until the light shone in his face.Download Christmas Eve On Lonesome And Other Stories Now!

Avg Rating

3.04

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

18%

4 STARS

14%

3 STARS

34%

2 STARS

22%

1 STARS

12%

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Author

John Fox Jr.

Author · 12 books

John William Fox was born in the heart of Bluegrass country in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His father, John W. Fox was headmaster of the Stony Point Academy, which John Jr. attended from 1867 to 1875. After attending the Transylvania University for two years, he entered Massachusetts' Harvard university to study English in 1880, graduating cum laude in 1883. Fox moved to New York City where he worked for a time as a journalist with the New York Sun and then the New York Times. He then moved to Virginia where he joined his half-brother James in the real estate business, and the rest of the Fox family soon settled there too at Big Stone Gap, now an historic National Monument in memory of the Fox family. The new homestead saw a number of illustrious visitors, including future President Theodore Roosevelt, who became a life-long friend of Fox's. It was in Century magazine that his first story "A Mountain Europa" (1892) was published serially, followed by "A Cumberland Vendetta" a year later. The mountaineer-theme would be repeated in future works. Due to his popularity, he launched into the lecture circuit, travelling around Europe and America, including visits to President Roosevelt's White House, singing accompanying mountaineering songs and reading from his own works and others. A Cumberland Vendetta and Other Stories (1895) was his first published collection of short stories. It was followed by Hell-Fer-Sartain and Other Stories (1897). The Kentuckians (1897) was followed by the novella A Mountain Europa (1899). Harper's Weekly sent Fox to Cuba in 1898 to report on the Spanish-American War. Crittenden (1900), Blue-Grass and Rhododendron (1901), and Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories (1904) followed, before he was off to Japan and Manchuria to cover the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. Following the Sun Flag: A Vain Pursuit Through Manchuria (1905) was a result. A Knight of the Cumberland (1906) was followed by his popular romance/coming-of-age story The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908). This and Little Shepherd were adapted for the big screen in several different versions in 1912, 1916, and 1936. Fox counted among his friends other popular writers such as Richard Harding Davis, Jack London, and Booth Tarkington. He was awarded many honours in his lifetime including election to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1899, a medal for his literary contributions from the Emperor of Japan, and his dedication and lobbying led to the passing of the Federal Copyright Act. John William Fox Jr. died of pneumonia at Big Stone Gap in Virginia and is buried in the Paris Cemetery, Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky.