News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-07-01

and shall eat but a few mouthtuls any
way. l forgot to tell you that l pre-
ferred water to coffee
"' But-you-you'-
"' I'm all right
s. She gave me one of the queereSt
looks | ever got, first flushing up and
then turning pale, Spilllng that coffee
was put-up job to get my back to the
kitchen door. I suspected it then; a
few months later l had plenty of hor-
u rlbte proofs. Before t meal was fin
1shed old Bender looked in from the
kitchen door and drew back, and when
l showed away and entered the office he
was not there and did not show up for
| i've minutes. When | went to diner q
double barrelled shotgun stood in a cor
ner of the office. " hen I came ont #
was gone. The old man came in after n
"Hile' ana 1t was easy to see that he
mad to force himself to converse 7
palu him for the meal and was ready 70
GO It was lonely road had to
EraVe!, with no otner house for miles
ana II suddenly struck me that the
younger man had gone on to lie in am
bush and shoot me in case | escaped
assassination at the house. For "a min
ute or two quite lost my sand, and you
can Judge what relief it was to me to
see team drive up with three men in
the vehicle and room for one more.
They stopped to water the horses and
chat few moments, and readily gave
me lift on my way. did not impart
my suspicious to them, and it was not
until the horrible stories came out that
| felt sure in my own mind what close
call l had had
" Do l know what became of old
Bender and his family? You remember
that they fed the country, or that the
papers So reported, and for months we
used to hear from one locality and an
other of the fugitives being seen or
captured. | have reason to believe
they never got out of the State, nor yet
a hundred miles from that lone tavern
on the prairie, with its horrible cellar
underneath and its graveyard in the
rear. Bands of men were riding in this
or that direction, bent on vengeance.
and one Of these overhauled the party.
| have been told this on the best au-
thOri,y. As Bender had shown no
mercy toward the unsuspecting travel
! ers who were shot in the back from that
kitchen door as they ate at his table, |
none was shown to him or his. They |
were wiped out and planted where their |
bodies will never be turned up to the !
light OF day"
81 have also been pack pedder for
years. said the man who had decided
limp in his gait, and who seemed to be
about forty five years old, ''and l have
had my fair share of adventures with
the rest of the fraternity. For years I
have Travelled in Tennessee, the Caro-
linas and Georgia, and my line of goods
has been cutlery. l have sometimes
carried pins, needles, and thread but
more as an accommodation than from
any hope of profit. My line includes
raZors, shears, scissors, pocket knives.
table knives, and forks. Sometimes |
add few sheath knives. which are I
bought by lawless characters, and some !
times | omit them, according to the (
route l have laid out.
ION two or three occasions nv life
has been put in peril by the cupiditv of
others, but the closest shave | ever had
was in the mountains of Tonno=soo s
about fifty miles from Knoxville. Ihad
sold my stock pretty well down, and !,
had about $500 with me, when, one !
afternoon an hour before sunset, the
approach of a terrific thunderstorm
AAO'N INV " oSCN bilC SllClICI Vi d IOdOl- |
side cabin. 1t was lonely place, on a
lonely mountain road, and the time was
in 1867. While the war had long been
over, as of course you know, there was
a good deal of bitterness among the
mountaineers of Tennessee, and there
was q great many men who had not vet !
settled down to anything like work ,
AS | was not in the war on either side.
an1 FncrIich
we'll with the fire-eaters; but the fact
was every day before me that there were {
plenty of la wless characters, both Union
and rebel, who wouldn't hesitate to put
me out of the way for what my pack
contained, no matter what principle /
upheld. But for the coming storm |
should have continued on for a connie I
of hours. | did not like the looks of 6
the place. 1t was story and half log
house, situated several roGs off the road,
and there was something in the house
and its surroundings which made me {
hesitate to ask or hospitality. How !
ever, July thunderstorm was creeping
up, covering the whole west with dark {
ness, and the thunder was rolling and
reverberating from hill to hill as I
knocked on the casing of the open door. I
lAC fO4CC VI WOLldu UdIle me enter, |
She was person at least forty years l
old, large and muscular, and her coun-
tenance was anything but progressing. {
1t wore a sullen, sulky expression, and t
the gray eyes which sized me up had s
no CLEAN of womanly kindness in them. '
explained that | was a traveller who 6
craved shelter from the storm, and she
sullenly replied:
I" You are welcome to sit down.
Give minutes later the rain was fall
ing in torrents, and it grew so dark that /:
the woman had to light a candle The !
cabin had but one room below. In this
was bed, bureau, and other furniture, !
and the cooking was done in fireplace. !
At one end of the fireplace a rough lad =
der led to the loft above. The interior =
OF the house was neither inviting nor :
repelling, but | certainly did not like !:
the woman. 1t was all of twenty min
utes after | sat down before she spoke
another word, and then it was to ask
what my pack contained. l opened it
IN explanation, and told her | was on
my way to Knoxville to replenish stock f
from goods ordered shipped to that v
point. / presented her with common t
pair of shears, and there was sudden a
change in her demeanor: She be anne X
smiling and talkative, and, as the storm a
showed no sign of abating, she began Z
to prepare supper, and observed that l \
must not think of continuing my jour b
ney before morning. Where | asked t.
one question she asked five. She wanted p
to know where | was from, how much p
stock of goods cost, whom | knew at t
Knoxville, and a great many other I
things. In return she told me that she f
was a widow, had son twenty years o
old, who had gone to mill, and that v
they had hard time to make a living. t.
While the change in her demeanor a
was agreeable in one sense, could not b
get rid of the idea that the change was
forced While her lips uttered pleasant f
words her eyes gave them the lie. We Il
had fair supper, during which she b
bore the burden of conversation, and it t.
was then seen that | must remain [
through the night. While the thunder s
mad passed away, the rain fell in a steady k
pour, and the night was as black as tar. p
She said the storm would delay her son, h
but that he was certain to be home be- c
fore midnight, She cleared away the t.
table, sat down with some sewing, and n
asked me so many things about the s
outside world that knew she had some T
time lived in better circumstances and h
had been fairly well educated. She g
gradually led the conversation back to b
my vocation, and carelessly remarked as O
she bent over her sewing: "