Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

from Fiddling His Way to Fame, The Heart of Old Hickory

194 LISTEN HERE THE HEART OF OLD HICKORY AND OTHER STORIES OF TENNESSEE (1895) from Fiddling His Way to Fame We had fallen in with a party ofAlabama boys, and all having the same end in view-a good time-we joined forces and pitched our tents on the bank ofthe Clinch, the prettiest stream in Tennessee, and set about enjoying ourselves after our own approved fashion. Even the important-looking gentleman, sitting over against a crag where he had dozed and smoked for a full hour, forgot, for the nonce, that he was other than wit and wag for the company; the jolly good fellow he, the free man (once more), and the huntsman. Our division had followed the hounds since sun-up; the remainder of the company were still out upon the river with rod and line. The sun was about ready to drop behind Lone Mountain, that solitary peak, of nobody knows precisely what, that keeps a kind of solemn guard upon the wayward little current singing at its base. Supper was ready; the odor ofcoffee, mingled with a no less agreeable aroma of broiling bacon, and corn cake, was deliciously tantalizing to a set ofweary hunters. But we were to wait for the boys, that was one ofour rules, always observed. The sun set, and twilight came on with that subtle light that is half gloom, half glow, and mingled, or tried ro, with the red glare of the camp-fire. While we sat there, dozing and waiting, there was a break in the brush below the bluff upon which we were camped. ''A deer!" One of the boys reached for his rifle, just as a tall, gaunt figure appeared above the bluff, catching as he came at the sassafras and hazel bushes, pulling himself up until he stood among us a very Saul in height, and a Goliath, to all seeming, in strength. He took in the camp, the fire, and the group at a glance. But the figure over against the crag caught his best attention. There was a kind of telegraphic recognition of some description, for the giant smiled and nodded. "Howdye," he said; and our jolly comrade took his pipe from between his lips and returned the salutation in precisely the same tone in which it was gIven. "Howdye; be you-uns a-travelin'?" The giant nodded, and passed on, and our comrade dropped back against the crag, and returned to his pipe. But a smile played about his lips, as if WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE 195 some very tender recollection had been stirred by the passing of the gaunt stranger. It was one of the Alabama boys who broke the silence that had fallen upon us. He had observed the sympathetic recognition that passed between the two men, and had noted the naturalness with which the "dialect" had been returned. ''I'll wager my portion ofthe supper," he said, "that he is a Tennessean, and from the hill country." He pointed in the direction taken by the stranger. He missed, however, the warning-"Sh!" from the Tennessee side. ''ATennessee mountaineer-" he went on. "His speech betrayeth him." Then one of our boys spoke right out. "Look out!" said he, "the Governor is from the hill country too." The silence was embarrassing, until the man over against the crag took the pipe from between his lips, and struck the bowl upon his palm gently, the smile still lingering about his mouth. "Yes," he said, "I was born among the hills ofTennessee. 'The Barrens,' geologists call it; the poets name it 'Land ofthe Sky.' My heart can find for it no holier name than-home." The Governor leaned back against the crag. We knew the man, and wondered as to the humor that was upon him. Politician, wit, comrade, gentleman; as each we knew him. But as native, mountaineer, ah! He was a stranger to us in that role. We had heard of the quaint ease with which he could drop into the speech of his native hills, no less than the grace with which he filled the gubernatorial chair. He had "stumped the state" twice as candidate, once as elector. His strange, half-humorous, half-pathetic oratory was familiar in every county from the mountains to the Mississippi. But the native;-we almost held our breath while the transformation took place, and the governor-orator for the moment became the mountaineer. "I war born," he said, "on the banks 0' the Wataugy, in...