# Back o' the Moon, and Other Stories

Edition: Hurst and Blackett Ltd, London, 1906. A collection of horror and ghost stories: including the title novel, a novelette, and 3 short stories. Front matter (advertisement) to be added later.
Back o' the Moon
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. “THE DRAKESTONE.” Second Edition. Price 6s.
Selection of Press Opinions.
“It is, both in construction and workmanship, very unlike the usual flimsy story which does duty as a modern novel. This book is more like the fiction of some fifty or sixty years ago, when the appearance of a novel was, to a certain extent, an event in the world of letters.”—The Spectator.
“There is much sound work in the novel; quaint local customs are conscientiously reproduced, and the characters, with the exception of a rather shadowy heroine, are living beings.”—The Athenæum.
“The book is thoughtfully as well as cleverly written, and at least maintains the promise of its forerunners.”—The Times.
“The character-drawing is strong and clear, the run of the incident perfectly natural, and the outlook kind and manly in a spirit that puts to the blush a great deal of meretricious and catchpenny work.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
“Mr. Onions’s canvas is crowded with well-drawn characters, and the whole presents a particularly lively and clever study of Yorkshire life and manners eighty years ago.”—The Academy.
“Here he is thoroughly at home, and he writes with rare insight and uncommon skill of the country folk of our dales.”—Leeds Mercury.
“The present story derives its main interest from the liveliness of its presentation of the countryside and rustic character of Yorkshire, as these appeared to the observant eye in the earlier half of the nineteenth century.”—The Scotsman.
“As we have said, the book is devoid of sensationalism of any sort; but, for all its quiet tone, it is one of the few books of the season worth careful reading, and worth also a permanent place in any library.”—The Westminster Gazette.
“Mr. Onions, who knows his Yorkshire nearly as well as any writer of the time, has improved amazingly, and ‘The Drakestone’ is of sufficiently high quality to make one anticipate with interest his next book.”—The Yorkshire Post.
“It is a strong book all round, and the culminating catastrophe—the breaking-in of the marsh upon the moorland—is well rendered and effective. The work is one which will repay study, and we have few living writers who could better it.”—The Sheffield Daily Telegraph.
“It is an olla podrida of vivid sketches of Yorkshire life, more faithfully conceived and picturesquely rendered than we have ever seen before.”—The Daily Mail.
“The humble lives of the peasant folk, their jealousies, bickerings and junkettings, take their proper place as background to the working out of the Drake prophecies, while the chief figures are limned with rare skill and insight. A clever and deeply-interesting book.”—The Liverpool Post.
Back o' the Moon AND OTHER STORIES
BY
OLIVER ONIONS
AUTHOR OF “The Drakestone,” “Tales from a Far Riding,” Etc.
LONDON
HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED
1906
All rights reserved
TO
Ag and Em,
MY SISTERS
PREFACE.
Halifax, Sunday, 26th August, 1778.—“Understanding there was great need of it, I preached on 'Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's.' I spoke with all plainness, and yet did not hear that anyone was offended.”
JOHN WESLEY.
Halifax, 1836.—“I am very sorry that there was a 'great need' for Mr. Wesley to bring (this) charge ... though unable to unravel the secret.”
URIAH WALKER (Methodist Historian).

### CONTENTS.

* chapterpage
* BACK O' THE MOON.
* Introduction 1
* I. Horwick Thursday 9
* II. The Executive 21
* III. “Johnny Cope” 34
* IV. Eastwood Ellah 46
* V. The Wadsworth Wedding 61
* VI. Emmason 77
* VII. Cicely 89
* VIII. Crudelitas 103
* IX. The Slack 103
* X. The Home-coming 133
* XI. A Hundred Pounds 147
* XII. The Cloth Merchant 162
* XIII. The Scout 179
* XIV. One way in, none out 193
* XV. The Cave in Soyland 202
* XVI. Cover 217
* XVII. The Moon turned round again 232
* THE PILLERS.
* I. The Nightingale 241
* II. The Ladyshaws 248
* III. The Press 256
* IV. At Portsannet 267
* SKELF-MARY 279
* LAD-LASS 297
* THE FAIRWAY 317
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1961, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 63 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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