Chapter 1 of The Lure of the Dim Trails is here in full — 105 sentences across 21 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Lure of the Dim Trails is here in full — 105 sentences across 21 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was. “Well, I'll-be-hanged! Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off. Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?” He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
Chapter 1 of The Lure of the Dim Trails is here in full — 105 sentences across 21 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 16/21 · 5 reading units · Lines 76–80
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
a partially opened flower
From this reading “Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.”
a sudden uncontrollable attack
From this reading “He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.”
shout out
From this reading “Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.”
located inward
From this reading “He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.”
past form of “lean” — to incline or bend from a vertical position
From this reading “He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.”
contemptibly small in amount
From this reading “Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?””
a unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; exactly 1609.344 meters
From this reading “Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.”
a light shade of red
From this reading “Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?””
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
having undesirable or negative qualities
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
a partially opened flower
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
the act of drawing spatially closer to something
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
a sudden uncontrollable attack
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
experiencing joy and pleasure
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
prevent from being seen or discovered
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
shout out
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading “Well, I'll-be-hanged!
on condition that; in the event that
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
located inward
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
past form of “laugh” — produce laughter
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
past form of “lean” — to incline or bend from a vertical position
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
contemptibly small in amount
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
having or showing great strength or force or intensity
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
a unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; exactly 1609.344 meters
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother)
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
from a particular thing or place or position (“forth” is obsolete)
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
a light shade of red
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
free of extraneous elements of any kind
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
inflected form of “see” — perceive by sight or have the power to perceive by sight
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
a woman, girl, or female animal already mentioned, as the subject
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
marked by absence of sound
From this reading He leaned back and laughed--a silent, inner convulsion of pure gladness.
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
the people or things already mentioned, as the object
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
to a degree exceeding normal or proper limits
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
employed in accomplishing something
From this reading Bud Thurston little, tow-headed Bud that used to holler for 'frumes' if he seen me coming a mile off.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
be dressed in
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
(often used as a combining form) in a good or proper or satisfactory manner or to a high standard (“good” is a nonstandard dialectal variant for “well”)
From this reading “Well, I'll-be-hanged!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading Too bad; she was a mighty fine woman, your mother was.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Doggone your measly hide, where's all them pink apurns yuh used to wear?”
Chapter 1 of The Lure of the Dim Trails by B. M. Bower holds 105 sentences, grouped into 21 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 105 sentences of The Lure of the Dim Trails, unabridged, divided into 21 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Lure of the Dim Trails by B. M. Bower exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 105 sentences, grouped into 21 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 21 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 21 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The Lure of the Dim Trails by B. M. Bower on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1598 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #1014 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #1014, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 133 minutes of reading across 320 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Lure of the Dim Trails section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 13 chapters of The Lure of the Dim Trails to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The Lure of the Dim Trails, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
