Listen Here: Women Writing in Appalachia

from In the Tennessee Mountains

470 LISTEN HERE IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS (1884) from Drifting Down Lost Creek "Laws-a-me!" she cried, in shrill, toothless glee; "ef hyar ain't 'Vander Price! What brung ye down hyar along 0' we-uns, 'Vander?" she continued, with simulated anxiety. "Hev that thar red heifer 0' our'n lept over the fence agin, an' got inter Pete's corn? Waal, sir, ef she ain't the headin'est heifer!" "I hain't seen none 0' yer heifer, ez 1 knows on," replied the young blacksmith, with gruff, drawling deprecation. Then he tried to regain his natural manner. "I kern down hyar," he remarked in an off-hand way, "ter git a drink 0' water." He glanced furtively at the girl; then looked quickly away at the gallant redbird, still gayly parading among the leaves. The old woman grinned with delight. "Now, ef that ain't s'prisin'," she declared. "Ef we hed knowed ez Lost Creek war a-goin' dry over yander anigh the shop, so ye an' Pete would hev ter kern hyar thirstin' fur water, weuns would hev brung su'thin' down hyar ter drink out'n. We-uns hain't got no gourd hyar, hev we, Cynthy?" "'Thout it air the little gourd with the saft soap in it," said Cynthia, confused and blushing. Her mother broke into a high, loud laugh. "Ye ain't wantin' ter gin 'Vander the soapgourd ter drink out'n Cynthy! Leastwise, 1ain't goin' ter gin it ter Pete. Fur 1s'pose efye hev ter kern a haffen mile ter git a drink, 'Vander, ez surely Pete'll hev ter kern, too. Waal, waal, who would hev b'lieved ez Lost Creek would go dry nigh the shop, an' yit be a-scuttlin' along like that, hyar-abouts!" and she pointed with her bony finger at the swift flow of the water. He was forced to abandon his clumsy pretense ofthirst. "Lost Creek ain't gone dry nowhar, ez 1knows on," he admitted, mechanically rolling the sleeve ofhis hammer-arm up and down as he talked. "It air toler'ble high,-, higher'n 1 ever see it afore.... It was a great opportunity for old Dr. Patton, who lived six miles down the valley, and zealously he improved it. He often felt that in this healthful country, where he has born, and where bucolic taste and local attachment still kept him, he was rather a medical theorist than a medical practitioner, so few and slight were the demands upon the resources ofhis science. He was as one who has long pondered the unsuggestive details of the map of a region, and who suddenly sees before him its glowing, vivid landscape. MARy NOAILLES MURFREE 471 ''A beautiful fracture!" he protested with rapture,-"a beautiful fracture!" Through all the countryside were circulated his cheerful accounts of patients who had survived fracture of the skull. Among the simple mountaineers his learned talk of the trephine gave rise to the startling report that he intended to put a linchpin into Jubal Tyne's head. It was rumored, too, that the unfortunate man's brains had "in an' about leaked haffen out;" and many freely prompted Providence by the suggestion that "efJube war ready ter die it war high time he war taken," as, having been known as a hasty and choleric man, it was predicted that he would "make a most survigrus idjit." "Cur'ous enough ter me ter find out ez Jube ever hed brains," commented Mrs. Ware. '''T war well enough ter let some of 'em leak out ter prove it. He hev never showed he hed brains no other way, ez I knows on. Now," she added, "somebody oughter tap 'Vander's head, an' mebbe they'll find him pervided, too. Wonders will never cease! Nobody would hev accused Jube 0' sech. Folks'll hev ter respec' them brains. 'Vander done him that favior in splitting his head open." ... A vague prescience ofdawn was on the landscape; dim and spectral, it stood but half revealed in the doubtful light. The stars were gone; ever the sidereal outline of the great Scorpio had crept away. But the gibbous moon still swung above the dark and melancholy forests of Pine Mountain, and its golden chalice spilled a dreamy glamour all adown the lustrous mists in Lost Creek Valley. Ever and anon the crags reverberated with the shrill clamor of a watch-dog at a cabin in the Cove; for there was...