The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-08

tIie others out free in the mountains i
swar to God l felt heap sight happier
shan eff I'd been toted straight up to
beaven-and left in doubt. Hit did me
powah of good only jest to think that
I'd rot inter my Jacks place. and him
sot down to be hung that day. And so I
allow that bein unhappy in Jail depends
altogether on what yer in Jail TO-" This
she said with brave CLINT of the gray
yves while relating her experience.
The provost marshal and a number of
other officers visited her cell, and the
former asked:
"Are you the mother of Jack and Pike
Hurd?"
"God blessed me in maxim me sich,"
she replied.
"You are Yankee, are you not?"
"No, d-n you! was Dawn in Camp
bell county, up in the Cumberland hills
.sBut you side with the Yankees
with the Union?
"Whin you say 'fo' the Union strang-
er, yer hollerin the loudest kind of sinse.
Through and through, inside and out.
up one side and down t'other, we uns-
except Pike-is TO- the Union, and will
be, praise the good Lor, till every d-n
rebel is druv from Tennessee. Is you
uns lestnin"
"Your son Pike is worse than Yankee;
he's an Internal deserter," said the off
GER. "But we'll catch him and fix him."
"Mebbe you uns won't ketch him." she
retorted, ''but eff so be yo' should, yo'
won't find the job quite so easy as ketch-
in and KILN lamb. Pike was sot fo'
the south, and he'd "a stuck eff yo' hadn't
tried to. hang his brother; that riled him,
fo' he's my son, and them that strikes
his kin, and that kin no less than brother,
hez got to fix fo' a fight, and then make
up his mind to be doggon' badly licked
Now, what mo- have you uns to say?"
The officers saw that they could make
nothing out of Mrs. Hurd, and while at
heart they must have respected her, yet
it was time of fierce passions and bit
ter prejudices, and so they cursed her
Union sentiments and questioned her as
to the plan by which her son escaped.
They were very sure that she had hand
in it.
After being kept a few days in jail
she was released to make room for polit-
ical prisoners-Union men-who were
still being brought down in droves from
the hills. On foot Mrs. Hurd made her
way back to her home, where she found
Minny eagerly awaiting her coming.
Minny had been alone for ten DAYS, but
she was not afraid, and though anxious,
it was not for herself. The day before
her mothers return a sergeant and ten
men, who had been sent up from Knox
vile, went into camp near the house,
their purpose being to surprise ''the
Hurd boys" should they return home, as
it was believed they would do. These
men wanted to buy provisions from
Minny, and failing in that they at
tempted to raid the smokehouse, but she
drove them away with her rifle and
compelled them to move their camp
farther down the valley, which they
soon left.
Within few months every man capa-
BILE of bearing arms in that region had
either fed north to the Union lines or
had volunteered or been drafted into the
southern service. Although well pro-
vided with life's necessities and quite
able to care for themselves, it was a
dreary, anxious winter to Mrs. Hurd and
Mlnny.
"We uns wasn't skeert fo' oursels,"
said Mrs. Hurd, in telling her story;
f'thar was plenty of wood and full and
plenty to eat, and mon enough, and
thar was fodder fo' the critters and con
fo' the hogs, but hit was the heart hun
ger bout them two boys ez worried we
uns so. Often and often, whin the criks
was friz and thar was snow knee deep
in the mountains, Minny or med tramp
to Jacksonboro and back, all the same
day, kinder expectin that Jack or Pike'd
write, but hit pears they couldn't; still
we uns didn't know why at the time,
and it sickened us so we uns couldn' t
eat much, and I could see ez how Minny
she was a-gittin thinner and her eyes
hollerer. Hits hard to bar death whin
yer hearts sot on them that's TUX, but
hits right smart harder to bar the on
sartinty right straight long, week in
and month out, when one don't know eff
SO be her boys is alvin or dead.
Gotten and often whin me and Minny
lied down long side by aich other that
ar wintah | couldn't go to sleep fo'
thinkin. And when the darkness was
on the hills, and the cold sleet druv
down the valley, and the wind was
a-howlin bout the house like pack of
hungry wolves, I'd think heard Jack or
Pike a-hollerin fo' help, and I'd start up
from doze with my heart a-iumpin till
l felt sick and giddy and my ears
a-strainin to catch the voices of humans
out in the sto'm. Then I'd reach out my
han, hopin Minny was asleep, and I'd
find her a-settin up, too, and a-pantin's
eff she'd been chased up hill.
"Hit amt much to tell bout, mebbe,
but hit was mighty hard to bar. Some
times felt that eff SO be | could get
away by myself and holler like mad fo' a
bit that hit'd do me heap of good; OF
thought if I could "a throwed myself flat
on the snow and cried till nv teahs