Legendary figures of Mississippi' s past-flatboatman Mike Fink and the dreaded Harp brothers-mingle with characters from Eudora Welty' s own imagination in an exuberant fantasy set along the Natchez Trace. Berry-stained bandit of the woods Jamie Lockhart steals Rosamond, the beautiful daughter of pioneer planter Clement Musgrove, to set in motion this frontier fairy tale. " For all her wild, rich fancy, Welty writes prose that is as disciplined as it is beautiful" (New Yorker).