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Harte was born in Albany, New York, and moved to California at the age of nineteen. He helped to found and edited The Overland Monthly, the major literary publication of the American West. He wrote numerous stories, poetry and essays over the course of a thirty-five-year literary career.

Society has forgiven Jo Corbin for killing a man, but can he forgive himself? Will the Postmistress lose all in a bid to help a friend escape justice? Will the new teaching assistant's unorthodox ways tame the unruly pioneer children? These are just three of the nine wonderful short stories from Bret Harte, set in wild and wooly 19th century California.