The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain, and Other StoriesCraddock, Charles Egbert
General
The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain, and Other Stories
Craddock, Charles Egbert
Cumberland Mountains -- Fiction; Mountain life -- Fiction; Tennessee -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
It lasted 'Fambly' well. They
ain't laffed at 'God's pore' sence! Waal, 'Fambly' 's takin' up too
much o' this enlightened assembly's attention. Enough to tell what's
kem o' 'Fambly.' The oldes' gal went ter free school, l'arned ter
read, write, an' cipher, an' married Pa'son Tyson's son, ez air a
minister o' the gospel a-ridin' a Methodis' circuit in north Georgy
now. An' the second gal"--his voice faltered--"_she_ went ter free
school, l'arned mo' still o' readin' an' writin' an' cipherin', an'
taught school two year down on Bird Creek, an' war goin' ter be
married ter a good man, well-ter-do, who had built her a house, not
knowin' ez God hed prepared her a mansion in the skies. She is livin'
_thar_ now! An' las', the Benjamin o' all the tribe, kems my brother
Walter. _He_ went ter school; kin read, write, an' cipher; he's been
taught ez much ez any man ez ever held the office he axes ter be
'lected ter, an' air thoroughly competent. Fac' is, gentlemen, thar's
nothin' lef' ter show fur the humble 'Fambly' Mr. Markham's be'n
tellin' 'bout, but me. I never went ter school, 'ceptin' in yer
fields. I l'arned ter cure hides, an' temper steel, an' shoe
horse-critters, so that pot mought be kep' a-b'ilin', an' 'Fambly'
mought dine accordin' to thar humble way in them very humble days that
somehow, gentlemen, I ain't got an' can't git the grace ter be 'shamed
of yit."
He paused abruptly as he concluded the recital of his speech, and
wiped his face with the back of his hand. "I wisht ye could hev hearn
them men cheer. They jes' hollered tharse'fs hoarse. They shuck hands
till they mighty nigh yanked my arm out'n its socket." With the
recollection, he rubbed his right arm with a gesture of pain.
Something there was in the account of this ovation that smote upon the
younger brother's sense of values, and he hastened to take possession
of it.
"Oh, I knowed I war powerful pop'lar in the Sycamore Gap deestric',"
he said, dropping his lowering manner, that had somehow been
perceptible in the darkness, and wagging his head from side to side
with a gesture of great security in the affections of Sycamore Gap.
"Sycamore Gap's all right, I know; I'll poll a big majority thar,
sure."
"I reckon ye will; but I warn't so sure o' that at fust," replied the
elder. "They 'peared ter me at fust ter be sorter set ag'in
us--leastwise _me_, though arter a while I could hardly git away from
'em, they war so durned friendly."
Walter cast a keen look upon him; but he evidently spoke from his
simple heart, and was all unaware that he was personally the source of
this sudden popularity in Sycamore Gap--his magnetism, his unconscious
eloquence, and his character as shown in the simple and forlorn annals
of "Fambly." And yet he was not crudely unthinking. He perceived the
incongruity of his brother's successive standpoints.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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