18 books like A waif of the plains
Little House on the Prairie
When Laura Ingalls and her family leave their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, they head west for the open prairie skies of Kansas Territory. They travel for many days in their covered wagon until they find the perfect spot for Pa to build them a new home. Soon they are planting and plowing, hunting wild ducks and turkeys, and gathering grass for their cows. But just when they begin to…
Shares: Pioneer Children, Pioneers
Tales of Aztlan
With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.
Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We…
Shares: Pioneers, Westerns
A Sappho of Green Springs
The door of the editorial room of the "Excelsior Magazine" began to creak painfully under the hesitating pressure of an uncertain and unfamiliar hand. This continued until with a start of irritation the editor faced directly about, throwing his leg over the arm of his chair with a certain youthful dexterity. With one hand gripping its back, the other still grasping a proof-slip, and his pencil in…
Shares: American Short stories, Westerns
Colonel Starbottle's client, and some other people
Everyone's favorite bloviating attorney makes a triumphant return to the law profession in the title story of this charming collection from Bret Harte. Colonel Starbottle takes on a client named Jo Corbin, who has committed a grievous crime and works out a convoluted plan of repentance.
Shares: American Short stories, Westerns
Law of the Desert Born
This first-rate collection of short stories by the incomparable Louis L’Amour showcases the legendary writer at his very spinning a fascinating and wholly authentic set of unforgettable tales. In these extraordinary stories, we meet a man who is forced to defend himself by taking another’s life—and must pay for his actions in a most punishing manner; a young thrill-seeker who finally finds a…
Shares: American Short stories, Westerns
Wildfire
From the book:For some reason the desert scene before Lucy Bostil awoke varying emotions - a sweet gratitude for the fullness of her life there at the Ford, yet a haunting remorse that she could not be wholly content - a vague loneliness of soul - a thrill and a fear for the strangely calling future, glorious, unknown. She longed for something to happen. It might be terrible, so long as it was…
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The Crusade of the Excelsior
The speaker, though apparently more at his ease at sea, was in dress and appearance fully as unnautical as Banks. As he leaned over the railing, his white, close-fitting trousers and small patent-leather boots gave him a jaunty, half-military air, which continued up to the second button of his black frock-coat, and then so utterly changed its character that it was doubtful if a greater contrast…
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Welcome to the Monkey House
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
Includes the following stories:
“Where I Live”
“Harrison Bergeron”
“Who Am I This…
Shares: American Short stories, American literature
Maruja
Morning was breaking on the high road to San Jose. The long lines of dusty, level track were beginning to extend their vanishing point in the growing light; on either side the awakening fields of wheat and oats were stretching out and broadening to the sky. In the east and south the stars were receding before the coming day; in the west a few still glimmered, caught among the bosky hills of the…
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Valley of Wild Horses
The tall young cowpuncher known as Panhandle Smith had roped, gambled and fought his way from Montana to New Mexico, but Marco was the most lawless place he had ever seen. And when Panhandle faced down Dick Hardman, he knew he had to destroy Hardman to save his woman and his life.
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Lost Pueblo
A tale of romance in the Old West. The heroine is Jane Endicott -- a spirited young woman who travels to Arizona with her father. She falls in love with this rough and rugged frontier -- not to mention the eligible young cowboys.
Her father, rushing in where angels fear to tread, tries to match her with the son of an old friend. Complications arise.
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The Lost Wagon Train
The story of a Civil War soldier finding his humanity in the face of horrible savagery.Emerging from the Civil War a shamed and broken man, Stephen Latch turns to a life of thievery and murder. Still hoping to uphold the values of the Confederacy, Latch sets his sights on the wealth of resources pouring westward from the northern United States, putting together a band of ruthless misfits to help…
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Sally Dows
What had been in the cool gray of that summer morning a dewy country lane, marked only by a few wagon tracks that never encroached upon its grassy border, and indented only by the faint footprints of a crossing fox or coon, was now, before high noon, already crushed, beaten down, and trampled out of all semblance of its former graciousness. The heavy springless jolt of gun-carriage and caisson…
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The Bell-Ringer of Angel's
Where the North Fork of the Stanislaus River begins to lose its youthful grace, vigor, and agility, and broadens more maturely into the plain, there is a little promontory which at certain high stages of water lies like a small island in the stream. To the strongly- marked heroics of Sierran landscape it contrasts a singular, pastoral calm. White and gray mosses from the overhanging rocks and…
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Ronicky Doone's Reward
Frederick Schiller Faust (May 29, 1892 - May 12, 1944) was an American author known primarily for his thoughtful and literary Westerns under the pen name Max Brand. This is one of his novels.
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The Mountain Valley War
Trent came to Idaho seeking solitude. He built a cabin, broke a few wild horses, and quietly put his pas behind him. Then King Bill Hale began laying claim to all the land around Cedar Bluff. When Hale's son kills one of Trent's neighbors, Trent quickly steps forward to lead the fight. Their property had been legally filed on, but Bill Hale has the men, money, and political power to steal it from…
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In a hollow of the hills
It was very dark, and the wind was increasing. The last gust had been preceded by an ominous roaring down the whole mountain-side, which continued for some time after the trees in the little valley had lapsed into silence. The air was filled with a faint, cool, sodden odor, as of stirred forest depths. In those intervals of silence the darkness seemed to increase in proportion and grow almost…
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Tales of Trail and Town
It must be admitted that the civilising processes of Rough and Ready were not marked by any of the ameliorating conditions of other improved camps. After the discovery of the famous Eureka' lead, there was the usual influx of gamblers and saloon-keepers — but that was accepted as a matter of course. But it was thought hard that, after a church was built, and a new school erected, it should…
Shares: Westerns