Elder Conklin by Frank Harris (1903)

Name: Elder Conklin
Author: Frank Harris

Elder Conklin, by Frank Harris, follows a young Bostonian schoolmaster, George Bancroft, boarding with the Conklin family on the Kansas prairie near Cottonwood Creek. Bancroft is drawn to the Elder's beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter, Loo, and, provoked by her rivalry with Seth Stevens over the girl's attentions at a house-warming kissing game, agrees to fight Stevens. He wins the fight easily. Loo, remorseful for having provoked the quarrel, confesses to her father, Elder Conklin, that she loves Bancroft and wants money so he can study law in New York; the Elder, though it means compromising his strict honesty, resolves to raise the funds, even resorting to salting his cattle's feed to overcharge a buyer at the Eureka scales, a trick Bancroft discovers and angrily denounces. That night Bancroft secretly witnesses the Elder wading into the creek to pray, confessing his sin but insisting he would repeat it for Loo's sake and begging that punishment fall on himself alone. Moved, Bancroft apologizes to the Elder the next day. Meanwhile, news arrives that the federal government, under General Custer, is sending troops to enforce the boundary of the Indian Reserve and destroy settlers' crops and fences planted across Cottonwood Creek, including the Elder's valuable corn crop. The local farmers hold a meeting and resolve to resist. A young lieutenant warns the Elder his fences and corn will be destroyed; the Elder calmly but firmly refuses, leveling his shotgun and declaring he will shoot rather than submit, until armed neighbors under Morris and Seth Stevens arrive in force and the lieutenant withdraws. The next day General Custer himself arrives with a larger force but, faced with the mobilized farmers hidden in the corn and woods, also backs down after a brief exchange with the Elder, who states simply that he only wants to keep his fences and cut his corn in peace. The settlers hire a Wichita lawyer, Barkman, to fight the matter through legal and political channels, offering him their votes for Congress in exchange. Barkman, calculating and self-interested, is immediately struck by Loo's beauty and begins courting her by driving her around to collect neighbors' affidavits, flattering her persistently. Bancroft, jealous but still guarded and critical of Loo's lack of refinement, alternates between admiration of her beauty and contempt for her vanity and unpolished manners, especially after witnessing the Elder's religious devotion, which deepens his respect for the father even as his feelings toward the daughter remain conflicted. Barkman proposes marriage to Loo, promising her a glamorous life in New York and Washington; she asks for two days to decide. Wounded by Bancroft's coldness and sarcasm, and desperate for his approval, Loo attempts to attract him by dressing provocatively in his room, but he coldly implies she did it for Barkman's benefit, humiliating her into tears and rejection. The narrative ends with Loo having vanished in the night, apparently having driven off in a buggy around two o'clock, with Bancroft and the Elder each realizing she is gone and fearing she has left with Barkman. The Elder, devastated, retreats alone to his room and prays brokenly for her safety and forgiveness, insisting the fault and punishment should be his alone. The text ends here, before any resolution of Loo's fate or whereabouts is revealed.

By Frank Harris · First published 1903 · Genre: Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Realism · 28,043 words

First lines

As soon as the Elder left the supper-table his daughter and the new schoolmaster went out on the stoop or verandah which ran round the frame-house. The day had been warm, but the chilliness of the evening air betokened the near approach of the Indian summer. The house stood upon the crest of what had been a roll in the prairie, and as the two leant together on the railing of the stoop, they looked out over a small orchard of peach-trees to where, a couple of hundred yards away, at the foot of the bluff, Cottonwood Creek ran, fringed on either bank by the trees which had suggested its name. On the horizon to their right, away beyond the spears of yellow maize, the sun was sinking, a ball of orange fire against the rose mist of the sky. When the girl turned towards him, perhaps to avoid the level rays, Bancroft expressed the hope that she would go with him to the house-warming. A little stiffly Miss Conklin replied that she'd be pleased, but --

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Elder Conklin is listed on Textopian as a novel by Frank Harris, dated 1903 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Frank Harris
Date: 1903 CE
Language: English
Genres: Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Realism, Drama, Romance
Length: 28,043 words
Structure: 1 section, 359 paragraphs
Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)

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Genres

Literary Fiction — Explores complex characters and moral dilemmas with a focus on narrative style and depth.
Short Stories — Comprises a collection of short stories, each with its own plot and characters.
Realism — Depicts everyday life and society with a focus on realistic characters and settings.
Drama — Contains dramatic elements and conflicts that drive the narrative forward.