Crestlands: A Centennial Story of Cane RidgeBayne, Mary Addams
History
Crestlands: A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge
Bayne, Mary Addams
Kentucky -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
"No, sir, I've no ambition of that kind. My intention is to look about,
while teaching, for a good tract of land. I want to settle in Kentucky,
not as a lawyer, but as a farmer."
"Now you're talkin' sense! Lawyers an' perfessionals air gittin' ez
thick in Bourbon an' Fayette ez lice in a niggah's haid. Ev'ry othah
young fellah you see, ef he hez any book-l'arnin', thinks he's a second
Patrick Henry or John Hancock. But whut we need hain't more lawyers an'
sich lak, but more farmahs an' carpentahs an' shoemakahs. An', ez fur
land, thar's a track uv 'bout three hundurd acres back thar on Hinkson
Crick whut ole man Lucky, I heah, will sell fur one dollah an' two bits
a acre--lays well, is well watered an' well timbered, an' the sile
fairly stinks with richness. All it needs is cl'arin' up. I've been
castin' longin' eyes on it myse'f, but I couldn't manidge no more land
jes' now, I reckon. So my advice fur you is to buy uv Lucky right away.
An', I tell you whut, ef you hain't got money 'nough by you jes' now,
I'll lend it to you, an' tek a morgitch on the land. I tell you this is
the fines' country in the univarse--healthy climit, sile thet'll grow
anything, an', to cap all, the fines' grazin' in the world. Nevah seed
nothin' lak it! Talk 'bout yer roses an' honeysuckles! they can't hold
a candle to the grass 'roun' heah. It has a sortah glisten to it an' a
bluish look when it heads out thet beats any flower thet blows fur
purty. I hain't no Solomon, nor yit among the prophets; but, mark my
word, in twenty year from now, this'll be the gairden spot o' creation.
A clock-tinkah frum Connecticut, whut wuz heah last spring, got sortah
riled at us, an' said we Kaintucks wuz ez full o' brag ez ef we wuz
fust cousins to the king of England; but, Lawd! hain't we got reason to
brag? Hain't ourn a reasonabler conceit then thet uv them ole
'ristercrats 'roun' Lexin'ton an' Bourbonton, allus talkin' o' ther
pedergrees, an' ez proud ez though they wuz ascended frum the Sultan o'
Asia Minor or the Holy Virgus hisse'f?"
"Indeed, you have reason to be proud," agreed Dudley, warmly; "in only
a few years you have made a howling wilderness to blossom as the rose."
"You may well say this wuz a howlin' wilderness. Why, suh, jes' twenty
year ago, in the spring o' 1780, when Dan'l Boone come to Kaintuck frum
Car'liny, 'bout fifty uv us frum thet State come with him, through
Cumberlan' Gap by the ole Wilderness road, an' we fit Injuns an'
painters an' copperhaids all 'long the way."
"Did you settle at Boonesborough first?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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