The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-10-09
THE EVENING STORY
a Mountain Joan.

4 ny AllcAd
Tilda Dale came up into the noun
tadns Of Kentucky from Virginia while
the clans of the Doanes and the Hack
etts We're at peace. Not man on eth
er side had been killed or wounded for
five long years. They passed each
other ON the highway, they met each
other in the village, they sat almost
side by side in the log church on a
Sunday. They did this with knives IN
their belts and rifles at hand. At any
moment there might be bloodshed.
The girl was not e stranger to feuds,
but she was not a halter. She had the
sentiment of one born amidst peaceful
surroundings. She had q gentleness
| about her that awed the grim mountain
GERS who had sent for her to teach the
school at Chestnut Cove. The Doanes
and the Jackets were agreed on that.
! They had met at the school house. half
a dozen on each side, each man with
/ his winchester across his arm, and
talked it over. When they rode slowly
away in different directions they had
looked back at each other, but not a
shout Of defiance had been uttered nor
a shot fired Schooling was part Of
patriotism.
In a week the sehoolmistress had
heard the story of the feud, but she had
refused to become a partisan. When a
month had gone past, and she was in
I dulging in the hope that she might be
/ the humble instrument Of making the
| truce a permanent peace, she precipi-
-tated the very calamity she was pray
ing might be avoided. The children OF
I the Doanes and the Hacketts were in
/ the same classes, but they mingled no
more than oil and water. Down to
i the 5-year-Old child they had heard the
story of the feud and each was a self
/ constituted champion
One Of the Hackett boys finally re-
sented word from one Of the Doanes,
drew pocketknife and made an at
/ tack. The teachers screams called in
James Doane, who happened to be
passing and he disarmed the Hackett
boy. DOane had been away in North
Carolina, and this was his first meeting
with the schoolmistress. He was the
Kentucky mountajneer in size and
strength and 1ithesomeness and fear
leSsness, but he had q face in which
tere was good nature and gentleness.
He had grown from youth to manhood
| during the truce. He had neither sought
/ to make peace nor provoke hostilities.
Having disarned the boy. he stood star
ing at the girl. blushing and unable to
say a word
Next day there We're mutterings
from the Hacketts and chuckles from
4 the Doanes. There were those who
sought TO enlarge upon the incident
Three days later, as young Doane rode
to town, he passed two of the Hack
cts, and they crowded him off the mar
row highway. There would have been
an outbreak but for the gentleness of
the teacher Her mingled tears and
smiles turned the knives and bullets
aside for the time. Then a foe crept
/ in, against which she could not guard.
James Doane was just past his TWEEN
ty-first birthday. 1t was the same with
David Hackett. Both young men
! came to call upon her with that free
/ dom from restraint found among the
primitive. Each fell in love with her
ere she was aware of having created
! any feeling at all. When she found
that the demon of jealousy had been
rs,~f
wanted to return to her home and let
/ the feeling die out. But the people
would not hear of it. They were
taking sides again to renew the feud,
yet they insisted on regarding her as
neutral figure, and also on her re-
naming.
Down in her heart Tilda was just
| bit glad of this. While she would not
admit it to herself, she was learning
to love the young man with the mild
blue eyes and gentle face
The dozen families at Chestnut Cove
! had already taken sides. The parts
anship soon extended to others miles
| away In a family feud you are for
1 or against. For a man there can be
no neutrality. Next came arming and
mutterings and threats. All knew that
these were the preface to deeds of vio-
lence. It needed that an overt act and
/ the killings would begin.
AS the excitement intensified young
Hackett ceased his visits to the school
! MISTRESS one IldQ not seen MIN lOf d
! week, when one gray afternoon, as she
| walked alone up the mountainside to
I gather the ripening chestnuts she saw
/ him hiding behind boulder Even as
she stood there looking and wondering
he aimed, fired his rifle, and quickly
/ disappeared among the laurels. Twen-
/ " minutes later she knew that horse
ridden by one of the Hackett partisans
had been killed in its tracks
The girl could have told, but she
+ didn't. Even when the HackettS
/ charged her lover with the crime and
| had him arrested and confined in Jail
for examination. she. spoke no word ex-
cept to him. From that hour she was
thinking and planning. Her face was
still gentle. but her scholars noticed
! it had taken on d new look of determI-
nation almost of heroism-
OF certain Wednesday, down in the
| town at the foot of the mountain, James
Doane was to be brought before a JUS
! tice of the Peace for preliminary exam
nation. Each and every one of the
| Doanes was there. Each and every one
| of the Hacketts was there. Each par
| tisan for five miles around was there.
| When the justice saw the size of the
crowd that had gathered he adjourned
the case from his office to the big room
in what the townspeople called their city
! hall, 1t held two hundred people. Two
hundred were there to fill it. The sheriff
at the door had asked each and every
/ man who passed to leave his weapons
behind. Not q man had obeyed Who
| could say what would happen before
the examination was concluded?
To humiliate a Doane, the Hacketts
had insisted that the prisoner be
! brough in handcuffed- Women had ask
ed to be admitted but they wegs kept
! out-alI but one. There was no school
that day up in Chestnut Grove. The
school mistress had been subpoenaed as
a witness, but no one knew what her
testimony would be- She had come
down in the blackboard of a constable.
She had talked with the official long
and earnestly on the way. Before going
to court he had performed an errand for
her This purchase he had carried into
court, with the girl at his heels. and