Beadle's Pocket Library No. 474

Gypsy Mag, the Mountain Witch This issue features "Gypsy Mag, the Mountain Witch: The Mysterious Mute" by C. Dunning Clark, opening a frontier adventure serial. The narrative begins in the colonial settlement of Cherry Valley during the pre-Revolutionary period, where horse thief Tom Dockstader is publicly punished with thirty-nine lashes for stealing horses. Ralph Campbell, the settlement's Vigilance Committee captain, orders the whipping while Dockstader's elderly mother—Gypsy Mag, a feared local witch figure—attempts to shield her son and curses the proceedings. Campbell's wife Myra compassionately brings Dockstader water, while Mag vows vengeance against the Campbells, particularly targeting their young son. The chapter concludes with mother and son plotting revenge in whispered conversation at the stocks, their plans reportedly involving life-and-death stakes for the settlement.