The Border Rivals

This issue of Beadle's Dime Novels (No. 175) contains The Border Rivals; or, The Mill-Flume Mystery by Mrs. Orrin James. Set in a frontier settlement, the narrative opens at the home of Squire Barber on a June afternoon. The story centers on Hetty Barber, the squire's pretty daughter, who sits sewing a decorative apron while observing domestic life around her—including Martha Washington, a Black servant, and her son Napoleon Bonaparte, a sixteen-year-old learning to read. The plot introduces romantic tension when Luke Norris passes by with a hay wagon; Hetty deliberately appears indifferent to him despite having dressed carefully for his passage, having quarreled with him previously. When Luke ignores her, she becomes upset and cries. The narrative establishes a frontier setting with log houses and rural labor, positioning a love triangle as central to the unfolding plot.