Never saw a woman so pleased in my life. 'I don't
aim to hold it back just to wear to meetin',' sez she. And she didn't.
From then on she wore that gold breast pin every day of her life. Said
she meant to be buried with it. Well, 'ginst my little girls had et
their candy and plaited each other's hair and tied on their new ribbons
they hovered around me again to show their sil'er the strange man had
give them. 'Captain Anderson,' sez Levicy, 'he was handsome built and
set his saddle proud and fearless. But not half so proud and fearless as
you. Nor were he half so handsome.' I could feel her hand on my shoulder
a-quiverin' a little grain like Levicy's hand ever did when she was plum
happy. Then she went on to tell as she washed the dishes and Nancy and
Rosie dried them and Lizbeth packed them off to the cupboard, about the
strange man. 'He laid powerful admiration on our little girls.' Levicy
was wipin' off the oilcloth on the table with her soapy dish rag. 'He
had them line up in a row to see which was tallest, whilst I set him a
snack. "Shut your eyes," sez he, "and open your mouth." They did, and
bless you, Captain Anderson, what did he do but put a sil'er dollar in
their mouth--each one.' By this time Nancy and Rosie and Lizbeth had
finished the dishes and they come hoverin' round my knee again whilst I
cleaned and polished my gun. Each one holdin' proud their sil'er dollar,
turnin' it this way and that, rubbin' it on their dress sleeve to make
the eagle shine. Just then, Jonse, my oldest boy, come gallopin' up the
road on Prince, his little sorrel. He never stopped till he got right to
the kitchen-house door. The chickens made a scattermint before him.
'Pa!' he shouted out, throwin' Prince's bridle out of his hand and
jumpin' down to the ground. 'They've caught him! Robbed the bank at
Charleston!' Levicy was drying the tin dishpan. She starred at Jonse and
so did I. 'Caught who?' sez I. 'Jesse James' brother, Frank! It was him
that was here. Him that Ma fed t'other day. Him that give Nancy and
Rosie and Lizbeth a sil'er dollar!' Levicy dropped the dishpan and
retched a hand to the table. 'Mistress Levicy Chafin Hatfield!' sez I,
'never again can I leave this house in peace. A man's family's not safe
with such scalawags prowlin' the country!'"
Then Devil Anse went on with the rest of the story.
Devil Anse, the leader of the Hatfield clan whose very name struck
terror to the hearts of people, and Jesse James' brother Frank,
highwayman and bank robber, had met on a mountain road, each unaware of
the other's identity, each intent on his own business. Captain Anderson
had gone down to the mouth of Big Sandy, the county seat, Catlettsburg,
Kentucky, to buy ammunition with which to annihilate the McCoys. That
story too the outside world heard afterward, for the clans met on
Blackberry Creek and engaged in battle for several hours with dead and
dying from both sides on the field--or rather in the bushes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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