

E-text prepared by S. Drawehn, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



THE UNCALLED

A Novel

by

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR

Author of "Lyrics of Lowly Life"







New York
International Association of Newspapers and Authors
1901

Copyright, 1898
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Copyright, 1898
by Dodd, Mead and Company

North River Bindery Co.
Printers and Binders
New York




                            Dedicated

                            TO MY WIFE




THE UNCALLED

CHAPTER I


It was about six o'clock of a winter's morning. In the eastern sky faint
streaks of grey had come and were succeeded by flashes of red,
crimson-cloaked heralds of the coming day. It had snowed the day before,
but a warm wind had sprung up during the night, and the snow had
partially melted, leaving the earth showing through in ugly patches of
yellow clay and sooty mud. Half despoiled of their white mantle, though
with enough of it left to stand out in bo