"The peddler admired the hospitality of his host, but could not reconcile
it to his conscience to go away without making some recompense. There were
honest Simon's two daughters, two strapping, red-haired girls. He opened
his packs and displayed riches before them of which they had no conception;
for in those days there were no country stores in those parts, with their
artificial finery and trinketry; and this was the first peddler that had
wandered into that part of the wilderness. The girls were for a time
completely dazzled, and knew not what to choose: but what caught their eyes
most were two looking-glasses, about the size of a dollar, set in gilt tin.
They had never seen the like before, having used no other mirror than a
pail of water. The peddler presented them these jewels, without the least
hesitation; nay, he gallantly hung them round their necks by red ribbons,
almost as fine as the glasses themselves. This done, he took his departure,
leaving them as much astonished as two princesses in a fairy tale that have
received a magic gift from an enchanter.
"It was with these looking-glasses, hung round their necks as lockets, by
red ribbons, that old Schultz's daughters made their appearance at three
o'clock in the afternoon, at the frolic at Bob Mosely's, on the Pigeon
Roost Fork of the Muddy.
"By the powers, but it was an event! Such a thing had never before been
seen in Kentucky. Bob Tarleton, a strapping fellow, with a head like a
chestnut-burr and a look like a boar in an apple orchard, stepped up,
caught hold of the looking-glass of one of the girls, and gazing at it for
a moment, cried out: 'Joe Taylor, come here! come here! I'll be darn'd if
Patty Schultz ain't got a locket that you can see your face in, as clear as
in a spring of water!'
"In a twinkling all the young hunters gathered round old Schultz's
daughters. I, who knew what looking-glasses were, did not budge. Some of
the girls who sat near me were excessively mortified at finding themselves
thus deserted. I heard Peggy Pugh say to Sally Pigman, 'Goodness knows,
it's well Schultz's daughters is got them things round their necks, for
it's the first time the young men crowded round them!'
"I saw immediately the danger of the case. We were a small community, and
could not afford to be split up by feuds. So I stepped up to the girls, and
whispered to them: 'Polly,' said I, 'those lockets are powerful fine, and
become you amazingly; but you don't consider that the country is not
advanced enough in these parts for such things. You and I understand these
matters, but these people don't. Fine things like these may do very well in
the old settlements, but they won't answer at the Pigeon Roost Fork of the
Muddy. You had better lay them aside for the present, or we shall have no
peace.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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