It is the file-leader of the procession of American dialect novels.

Before the appearance of this story, the New England folk-speech had long been employed for various literary purposes, it is true; and after its use by Lowell, it had acquired a standing that made it the classic _lingua rustica_ of the United States.

Even Hoosiers and Southerners when put into print, as they sometimes were in rude burlesque stories, usually talked about "huskin' bees" and "apple-parin' bees" and used many other expressions foreign to their vernacular.
American literature hardly touched the speech and life of the people outside of New England; in other words, it was provincial in the narrow sense.
I can hardly suppose that "The Hoosier School-Master" bore any causative relation to that broader provincial movement in our literature which now includes such remarkable productions as the writings of Mr.Cable, Mr.
Harris, Mr.Page, Miss Murfree, Mr.Richard Malcom Johnson, Mr.Howe, Mr.Garland, some of Mrs.Burnett's stories and others quite worthy of inclusion in this list.

The taking up of life in this regional way has made our literature really national by the only process possible.

The Federal nation has at length manifested a consciousness of the continental diversity of its forms of life.