The Heart of Happy Hollow
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The Heart of Happy Hollow is a short story collection by Paul Laurence Dunbar that focuses on the experiences of African-Americans after the conclusion of the Civil War.
Source: Dunbar, P.L. (1904). The Heart of Happy Hollow. Dodd, Mead and Company.
- Foreword
- Foreword to the text giving explanation of the books title.
- Chapter 1: The Scapegoat
- Mr. Asbury is a businessman who successfully works his way up from a barbershop owner to a lawyer. Upon his success, Mr. Bingo conspires against him to make Mr. Asbury the scapegoat for his crimes.
- Chapter 2: One Christmas at Shiloh
- Mrs. Mixon leaves her home to move to the North where she can be somebody, leaving her lazy husband behind. She tells him if he ever makes something of himself to come find her. Come Christmastime the pastor at Mrs. Mixon's new church asks her to host a strange guest preacher who is coming to visit.
- Chapter 3: The Mission of Mr. Scatters
- A well dressed stranger, Mr. Scatters, comes to the sleepy town of Miltonville to give Mr. Isaac Jackson an inheritance from his rich brother.
- Chapter 4: A Matter of Doctrine
- Reverend Mr. Hayward plagiarizes more than just the sermons he listens to at the white church.
- Chapter 5: Old Abe's Conversion
- Reverend Abram Dixon's only son, Robert, becomes a minister by going to college. When he comes home to visit Robert proves to his father that his way of preaching is as effective as his fathers, even though they have very different views.
- Chapter 6: The Race Question
- Two men converse while at the race track.
- Chapter 7: A Defender of the Faith
- The reporter, Miss Arabella Coe, changes a Christmas for the family of the house Number Ten "D" Street.
- Chapter 8: Cahoots
- A man visiting an old Virginia grave-yard sees two monuments side by side. One monument is inscribed with the name Robert Vaughan Fairfax and 1864, and the other simply said "Cahoots" and nothing more. The man then goes to a nearby post-office to ask the man in charge about the two monuments.
- Chapter 9: The Promoter
- Mr. Buford schemes an old lady to invest her inheritance.
- Chapter 10: The Wisdom of Silence
- Jeremiah Anderson's pride keeps him from asking for help from his ex-slave master after he is freed.
- Chapter 11: The Triumph of Ol' Mis' Pease
- Ol' Mis' Pease seeks revenge from Nancy Rogers, after Nancy marries her ex-husband.
- Chapter 12: The Lynching of Jube Benson
- Dr. Melville tells a first hand story of the lynching of Jube Benson.
- Chapter 13: Schwalliger's Philanthropy
- Mr. Schwalliger helps an old man get back his money after he lost it in a scheme at the racetracks.
- Chapter 14: The Interference of Pasty Ann
- Young Patsy Ann is afraid of getting a step mother after Mrs. Caroline Gibson tells her that all step mothers are horrible people.
- Chapter 15: The Home-Coming of 'Rastus Smith
- No one is more excited about the homecoming of Erastus Smith, than his old childhood sweetheart Sally Martin.
- Chapter 16: The Boy and the Bayonet
- When Bud is performing in the Cadet Corps competitive drill, his mother Hannah Davis, and his little sister, watch anxiously in the crowd.