The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-11-22
Story OF Skeery Lucy.
"Skeery Lucy!"

'"That's what they called her" said
Plunkett, as he chunked the fire and
seated himself in the corner
Gas a little girl at school, the teach
er called her 'Timid Lucy but all
the scholars knowed her as 'Skeery
Lucy for she went by that name
among all the settlement folks, and
her own daddy and nanny said the
named suited her character.
"When she growed up and got
married she was just the same, and
when John, her old man, would be a
little late in getting home at night
he'd find her shut up tight in the
house, with the doors all locked and
every table and old bench and chairs
piled up ergin them, and when John
would knock at the door and tell her
who it was he'd have to stand and
wait till she moved these things
away before he could open the door
and then he'd scold her for being such
Ounce, but she'd just laugh and
say:
"You knowed I wa S 'skeery fore
you married me-
''The name of 'Skeery Lucy clung
to her for a long time, and guess
she deserved it, for she'd squeal at a
lizard or a frog and take fit almost
if she seed snake, but when old
Sherman come down here she done
what most any man would erbin er-
fraid to do, and they quit calling her
'Skeeny Lucy after that, and that's
what | want to tell you erbout.
"She was left with four little chill
dren to scuffie for when John went
off to Virginia, and it was mighty
hard getting along at best, but as
the armies got nearer and nearer
things got scarcer and scarcer and
Lucy got scarier than ever. The big
guns could be heard for long time
before we seed the Yankees, and Lucy
had just looked like she couldn't
stand it, and the folks in the settle
ment said she'd die some day. just
from fright and anxiety.
"But everybody had to scuf1e, and
one morning Lucy walked up with
not a crust ofbread in the house, and
the children were swinging onto her
dress and apron crying for something
to eat, and there was no other way
but for her to start out and get
little meal for 'em. She shut the
children up in the house and put out
across the field to the mill, and they,
poor little things, had been taught
by their nanny to be afraid, and
there they sat, allin huddle, as
scared as rabbits at everything that
cracked or made fuss, and whis.
pered to each other.
"Sherman's army was on the move.
making for the ailroad-they'd got
down the night before and Lucy
didn't know it.
"Hardee's army was moving to
meet the Yankeys and to keep them
from getting to the railroad, and
Lucy didn't know nothing erbout
that.
"She had just got to the mill. and
stepped upon the platform when down
through the woods came Hardee's
line of battle at a double quick and
before she had time to think they
were past, throwed out skirmishers
and were expecting every minute to
meet the Yankeys.
"Sherman's line was coming to-
wards Hardee, and it was only
question of few minutes till the
fight would begin.
''Lucy thought other little children
shut up in the house, and knowed
how scared they'd be when they
heard so many men marching. She
didn't know yet that it was fight.
"She started in a run towards her
house, intending to get there before
Hardee's troops did. But old Sher-
man was coming to meet them. and
it would only be a minute till there
would be warm times between Lucy
and her house.
"The skirmishers began to pop
their guns up and down the line, and
here come battery dashing through
a road in the woods, and unlimbered
in twinkling and let in, and then
the fight had started.
''Lucy's house was between the two
lines. She seed shell hit the CHM
ney and scatter the bricks and rocks.
She thought of her four little children
that were huddled up and couldn't
get out and she didn't stop.
1.-The balls were flying thick from
one line of battle to the other, but
she dashed through the cotton patch
the same as deer. The soldiers
screamed come back; lay down!
you'll be killed. and sich like. but
through it all she went and dashed
ergin the door and fell in ermong her
little children.
"Just then a bomb struck one cor
ner of the house and scattered splin-
ters everywhere. The children were
clinging to her and er screaming at
the top of their voices Another shell
hit the house and took away one
SdOAC CAu duu Uilc lIt1ulIC UtbllS WtIc
pattering the same as hale. She
grabbed the smallest child up in her
left arm and made the rest jine hands
and then took hold of the end child's
hand and out they dashed into the
open field between the two armies.
"The Yankee line was the first to
see them as they went stumbling,
falling and rolling over the cotton
rows, and they yelled like madmen:
"'A truce, a truce, truce!'
"Then Hardee's men seed what
was the matter and they waved their
caps and jumped up and down and
yelled:
truce, a truce, truce!'
Wln less time than it takes to tell
you, the firing ceased and a hundred
men from Hardee's line rushed tor
the children and Lucy and the first
ones to them grabbed 'em in their
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