The Entailed Hat | Page 2

RACK 45
IX. HA! HA! THE WOOING ON'T 69 X. MASTER IN THE

KITCHEN 83 XI. DYING PRIDE 89 XII. PRINCESS ANNE FOLKS
100 XIII. SHADOW OF THE TILE 121 XIV. MESHACH'S HOME
129 XV. THE KIDNAPPER 154 XVI. BELL-CROWN MAN 164
XVII. SABBATH AND CANOE 179 XVIII. UNDER AN OLD
BONNET 192 XIX. THE DUSKY LEVELS 210 XX. CASTE
WITHOUT TONE 218 XXI. LONG SEPARATIONS 239 XXII.
NANTICOKE PEOPLE 261 XXIII. TWIFORD'S ISLAND 269 XXIV.
OLD CHIMNEYS 285 XXV. PATTY CANNON'S 298 XXVI. VAN
DORN 318 XXVII. CANNON'S FERRY 335 XXVIII.
PACIFICATION 357 XXIX. BEGINNING OF THE RAID 360 XXX.
AFRICA 365 XXXI. PEACH BLUSH 373 XXXII.
GARTER-SNAKES 391 XXXIII. HONEYMOON 405 XXXIV. THE
ORDEAL 411 XXXV. COWGILL HOUSE 424 XXXVI. TWO
WHIGS 433 XXXVII. SPIRIT OF THE PAST 441 XXXVIII.
VIRGIE'S FLIGHT 456 XXXIX. VIRGIE'S FLIGHT--CONTINUED
468 XL. HULDA BELEAGUERED 486 XLI. AUNT PATTY'S LAST
TRICK 496 XLII. BEAKS 510 XLIII. PLEASURE DRAINED 515
XLIV. THE DEATH OF PATTY CANNON 524 XLV. THE JUDGE
REMARRIED 542 XLVI. THE CURSE OF THE HAT 554 XLVII.
FAILURE AND RESTITUTION 558
* * * * *
A picture of Joe Johnson's Kidnapper's Tavern, as it stood in the year
1883, is given on the title-page.

THE ENTAILED HAT.
CHAPTER I.
TWO HAT WEARERS.
Princess Anne, as its royal name implies, is an old seat of justice, and
gentle-minded town on the Eastern Shore. The ancient county of
Somerset having been divided many years before the revolutionary war,
and its courts separated, the original court-house faded from the world,

and the forest pines have concealed its site. Two new towns arose, and
flourish yet, around the original records gathered into their plain brick
offices, and he would be a forgetful visitor in Princess Anne who
would not say it had the better society. He would get assurances of this
from "the best people" living there; and yet more solemn assurances
from the two venerable churches, Presbyterian and Episcopalian, whose
grave-stones, upright or recumbent, or in family rows, say, in epitaphs
Latinized, poetical, or pious, "We belonged to the society of Princess
Anne." That, at least, is the impression left on the visitor as he wanders
amid their myrtle and creeper, or receives, on the wide, loamy streets,
the bows of the lawyers and their clients.
There were but two eccentric men living in Princess Anne in the early
half of our century, and both of them were identified by their hats.
The first was Jack Wonnell, a poor fellow of some remote origin who
had once attended an auction, and bought a quarter gross of beaver hats.
Although that happened years before our story opens, and the fashions
had changed, Jack produced a new hat from the stock no oftener than
when he had well worn its predecessor, and, at the rate of two hats a
year, was very slowly extinguishing the store. Like most people who
frequent auctions, he was not provident, except in hats, and presented a
startling appearance in his patched and shrunken raiment when he
mounted a bright, new tile, and took to the sidewalk. His name had
become, in all grades of society, "Bell-crown."
The other eccentric citizen was the subject of a real mystery, and even
more burlesque. He wore a hat, apparently more than a century old, of a
tall, steeple crown, and stiff, wavy brim, and nearly twice as high as the
cylinders or high hats of these days. It had been rubbed and recovered
and cleaned and straightened, until its grotesque appearance was
infinitely increased. If the wearer had walked out of the court of King
James I. directly into our times and presence, he could not have
produced a more singular effect. He did not wear this hat on every
occasion, nor every day, but always on Sabbaths and holidays, on
funeral or corporate celebrations, on certain English church days, and
whenever he wore the remainder of his extra suit, which was likewise

of the genteel-shabby kind, and terminated by greenish gaiters, nearly
the counterpart, in color, of the hat. To daily business he wore a cheap,
common broadbrim, but sometimes, for several days, on freak or
unknown method, he wore this steeple hat, and strangers in the place
generally got an opportunity to see it.
Meshach Milburn, or "Steeple-top," was a penurious, grasping, hardly
social man of neighborhood origin, but of a family generally
unsuccessful and undistinguished, which had been said to be dying out
for so many years that it seemed to be always a remnant, yet never
quite gone. He alone of the Milburns had lifted himself out of the forest
region of Somerset, and settled in the town, and, by silence, frugality,
hard bargaining, and, finally, by money-lending, had become a person
of unknown means--himself almost unknown. He was, ostensibly,