The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-20
BACKwooDs COURAGE.
Got From Under Crushing Weight,
 But Was Bashful

! Got From under crushing NelSHt,
 But Was Bashful.
 The first thing we wanted to know about was the accident which account ed for Hickorys clumsy walk, says a descriptive writer in Forest and Stream. We had heard in a general way about it, and knew he had shown good nerve in getting out of it; but we wanted his own version of the experi- ence.
 We'll said Hickory, looking down at his feet and moving them little as he spoke of their unnatural shape, fit was a close call for that end of me. You see, my team was drawin stone from the new quarry up on Coldbrook Mountain, and they was gettin' out some pretty big ones there. They got out one that measured up thirteen tons and I told the boys I'd ride that down myself. I shut up couple Of wagons Gook the reaches out, and coupled the front and rear axles as closely together as the wheels would allow) and put railroad ties on for bed pieces. Then put timber across the bed-pieces on each wagon for bolsters and hitched the wagons together. When the stone was loaded it lay as light as feather on the bolsters, and I sat in the front end of it, with my feet on the bed-pieces. We had to brake it pretty tight for the road is terribly Ctapn h11+ rUo rN+ ,5 t1oo1 tui all right, and most out to the unload in derrick without so much as bustin a trace chain Then, all of a sudden the hind OK of the front wagon gent down and let the stone dip forward. It caught my feet and doubled them up against the bed-piece just as easy as if they'd been yarn mittens.
 There wasn't but two men there my boy and another fellow-and they tried every way they could think of to git me loose but they couldn't budge that stone, and was afraid they was goin to kill themselves pryin' and lift in'- All the time there stood that der rick, not more than a hundred feet away, that could lift it just as easy as you'd lift a piece of pie, but it wasn't no use to us. Well, after about twenty 1 minutes I see they couldn't do it no way, and I told them to give me an ax. Then held it one hand and clipped and split. a notch out of the tie under one foot big enough so that 1t let it loose. You see the tie was so wide that there was timber left to hold the stone after I'd cut out a chunk the width of my foot I did 1t myself, for was afraid the men would cut my foot, they were so excited and fus- tered with their liftin' and strainln'. 1 When I'd got one out, they see how it so they cut the other out, for couldn't use the ax left-handed
 | ''When the doctor got here" Hickory ] continued, land said he could fix mY feet up without cuttin' um off, I was pretty tickled, for they didn't look much better than mineemeat to start on. That's why I haint been here be- fore I heard you fellows was here, but I couldn't get around much, and now my shoes are half full of stuff1ng to fill out the parts that's gone" The visit drifted from one subject to another, until we noticed that Hickory was rather more particularly dressed than usual His clothing had new ness about it, and there was little dash of bright color in his necktie which gave us suspicious. The suspi- cons pointed to a certain widow whom he had heard of. Just as they were taking their parting drink, Henry put his hand on Hickory's sleeve, and pat ting the new cloth, asked some ques- tions about the widow. Then the man who had courage enough to cut himself out from under thirteen-ton stone, blushed and stamnered like school boy.