The herald., 1895-05-06
MURAT HALSTEAD'S PADDY RUN PAPERS


bloom, and the succulent persimmon and
the tropical papaw. which beats all ba-
nanas when the frost has darkened the
purple hull and the pulp is yellow as gold
and soft as butter, but l cannot personally
vouoh for the copious blood of the straw
berry. / have found the red berries wild
on their trailing vines, and plucked the
dewberry with the dew on 1t, and snatched
the red and black raspberries from their
plumy stems, and broken into the cells of
the honey locust pods and even cut bee
trees.
The first thing to do under the mulberry
tree was to build house of rails split long
and thin and notched at the corners SO as
to make the frail walls tight as possible.
Then the cracks were stuffed with moss
and wet clay, and fine grained oaks were
split to furnish clapboards for roofing
Flat rails served for flooring. At first the
wagon bed, long and deep and covered,
was the bedroom, and the horses tied to it
and the dogs under 1t were good company.
Or course the fuel was not spared, and it
was easy to provide an outside fireplace of
great stones placed on edge at the ends,
and the burning logs were a comfort by
day and by night and as a rule kept the
wild beasts at a respectful distance The
spring was dug out-that is, the pool it
formed was enlarged-and walled and a
great broad stone placed on the walls so as
to cover it, and there was sparkling riv-
ulot that flowed from this source for many
and many year. The undcrbrush was
cleared away around the rail pen and the
wagon, and then fence surrounded the
wagon and pen and spring. And the next
thing was clearing land for patch of
corn and sweet potatoes, and this was the
beginning of gardens and orchards and
fields There were many deer and bear
and turkeys, and the woods held no end
of squirrels and possums and coons. Pow
der and ball were indispensable, but scarce
and costly, and a man had to know how
to mend his own gun.
The dread and awe of the dark mysteri-
ous, boundless woods for long time op-
pressed my gentle grandmother. The In
dians had ceased to be troubles and passed
to the north and west, but the wolves
howled at night, and the great white
horned owls hooted as If they were mus
tering ghosts, and sometimes the panthers
cried out of tho profound darkness with
voices like broken hearted children. No
wonder it was lonesome
There was one memorable night by the
spring under the mulberry tree. My
. grandfather had killed two deer and hung
them OH saplings close by the wagon and
the pen out of which rough loghouse
was in evolution. The way to save tho
deer was to pull down the top of slender
hickory, tie the animals legs to it and let
it fly high with the precious burden of
fresh meat. There had becn some careless
ness OH the occasion referred to with the
blood of the slain, and when the fires fad
cd the wolves came in force and frightened
the horses and even the dogs. My grand
father made a sally with long handled
pike, heavy spearhead on "ten foot"
polo that he was fond of calling ''spon-
toon," and lol the wolves were right
there, and the dogs ran into the house as
he opened tho door and did we'll to do so.
The North Carolina blood was up, and
the angry householder put the spontoon
into two or three wolves in quick success
sion, but the animals were not discour-
aged, and the swapping of their jaws and
the flashing of their eyes were fearsome
spectacle, while the din of their yelling
was dreadful My grandmother made her
self heard. John, get your gun!' said
she. lido not know whether that was the
origin of Johnny, get your gun," but
that story is the first l ever heard of it.
John got his gum and that quickly, and
the flash and roar that followed and the
death cry of tho leading wolf raised tho
siege. The fires were made to glow, and
the wolves had prejudices against fire and
firearms.
In a few years my grandfather built a
large house of hewn slippery elm logs,
with puncheon floors of ash The trees So
lected for puncheons had to be of even
growth, so as to split straight. They were
halved, the fiat sides aided and planed
smooth, the sides hown so to make close
joint, each tree thus making two 'planks
The sides with the bark OH were down, of
course and the floors were solid as mar
ble The style OF the outbuildngs was
southern. There was long string of sta
bles, another string of corncribs, smoke
house, milkhouse, more pens for pigs
and shelter for cows, a wagon shed or
two and log barn, altogether quite
village AS soon as the ground could be
spared from Immediate necessities there
were fruit trees planted The seeds of ap-
pies wore precious in those days as grains
of gold, and peach stones as nuggets of
silver, and there were slips of pears and
seeds of cherries. The first fruit was well
cOmeu as the Ia1reSG boon OF C1VllZaGlOn.
When my father and mother were mar
ried, their home was beside the northern
spring. which was shaded by beautiful
elm, d wild cherry tree and graceful sug.
ar maple, and there, in a house that was
built by a cousin of my grandmother, who
devoted himself to the discovery of "per.
petual motion that he never quite fin.
ished, was born. MURAT HALsTEAD.
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