The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-11-24

AS lncf ulu tlllS uailS, VIII HSFSi
word, ran to the corner of the fence
that served the family as horse block,
jumped on it bare headed, and then
sprang lightly on her lovers horse as
he drew up beside the fence. Her
mother, thoughtful soul, ran to the
horse with small bunde-very small
it would have seemed to a stranger to
contain bridal trousseau-in one hand
and Pharie's calico sun bonnet in the
other. Pharie grabbed them with one
hand.
"Bye, Pharle," SAID the mother.
"Bye, Nam Bye, Dad Hy, Jim,"
SAID Phar1e, and then she was off on
gallop, while the cavalcade followed
with cheers and yells and the firing of
their guns. Perhaps the reader expects
to learn that there was hustling about
on the part of the old man and Jim to
get at the horses and the guns and go
in pursuit. That does happen some
times, but not often. Most fathers are
like Doble, who let his daughter 60
when he found he couldn't prevent the
starting. As for the mother, she went
off and had a good cry and then came
back and killed a chicken and got the
best meal for the old man that he had
eaten since the minister stopped there
for dinner six weeks before.
Jack and Pharie rode straight down
to Pond Creek and to its mouth and
crossed Tug river here, as hundreds of
other lovers have done. Then they
crossed the mountains to Pigeon Creek,
where night overlook them, and they
were cared for by Mr.. and Mrs. Steve
Atkins, who have cared for scores of
other lovers in their time. Next day
| lack and his friend rode on to Logan,
where they got license, and the day
after they came back with it and par
son. They reach Steve's at 3 O'Clock.
and were just three hours behind
Pharie's brother Jim, who had come
trudging down a branch of Pigeon
Creek, carrying big wild gobbler thai
he had shot for the wedding feast, fol
Jim did not share his fathers pre-
judices.
In former times Tug river itself wa
the great highway of runaway lovers
but it was never quite so much in favo
with the maidens as with their youns
men. The mountain road is, general,
speaking, the bed Of the mountain
streams. To Northern man they seen
at best to be almost intolerable, but tn,
mountaineers tell tales OF what tn,
roads used to be, which show that thei
fathers must have been men of indomi
table perseverance. Even now the road
are, in the high waters of early spring
absolutely impossible. 1t was unde
, such circumstances as these that tn
runaway lovers took to the river in tn
hat.bottomed boat of the country, ant
rowed away to the hospitable banks c
the Ohio, a hundred miles distant, per
, haps. 1t was long journey, the love
. was ardent, and the lass was trustful-
: may be helpless. So many of the cir
+ never reached the Ohio, but came bac
t having neither lover nor husband thu
r the route at last ceased to be populs
, with the lasses who really wanted hu:
q band. Stories are told of maidens VIII
4 failed to return as well as failed to reacl
r the Ohio, and of fair corpses found 0
the bank or a sand-bar below Louis
and OF coroners' juries who were
g doubt whether certain marks on tn
f.. bodies we're made in conflict for homo
a or not, and of lovers who never return
h ed to their mountain homes. The tt
= river country is not only picturesqu
l. but il is romantic as well.
d Mountain maidens are not all so fo
st tunate as the neighbors say PEarie Dob
:. was, for Jack is said not to be Il
y mo account teller" his father-in-la
d would have folks believe. The mou
10 tain girl loves dash and courage
n rather better, it seems, than the majori
10 of her sex. Nothing is more appare
IN than the popularity with the women
at the fighters on both sides of the McC'
a Hatfield feud that has torn this dstri
Sc tor six years or more. The Northe
a readers OF the Suns stories of this fu
I'd no doubt wondered how it was possit
OF that so many men were drawn into
rs. trouble in which they were not at {
er or at best but remotely, concerne
st But the fact is that the fighters on be
en- sides who were not directly concern
were all young men. They had no co
ot of morals and no fear of the civil law
IS. restrain them, while they were dra
or into the fights by their love of exciti
oil, adventure, which amounted to thu
lat for human blood, and by certain