Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-01-08
aunt MINTY's AWAKENINe.
(By Nj. S. CO.


suddenly over the gap, and entered
the little valley narrow as q groove
between two mountains, YOU would
nave thought the cabin was deserted.
IT was windowless, and only at the
North where the one great door OPEN
ed, or at the South where the other
Iopened could be seer a 1hin thread of
light thro the cracks.
Aunt Minty was alone. She was
disconsolate.
AS long ago as the autumn Aunt
Minty vas di~sconsolate. was as
she sh~adagalhered in the golden pump
'klns and corn, and the fragrant frost
grapes n apples bursting with
sweetness, that the mood had come
upon her. She would stop her work
TO look away over the sweep of goI
zen rods and asters on the upland to
where the walnut tree marked Sar-
abs grave.
Sarah had been dead five a
come Easter, but never before had.
her death seemed such a calamity.
Sarah's bill had been sent up" in
the fall term of court for killing a
game warden over on Newfound.
Later it was rumored that his wife
Lad gone back to her loose ways and
goings on with that moonshining
crowd around her Pas. She had
same as abandoned their child-little
Bill. Anyway he wouldn't stay with
his own mother, and had taken to run
ming around from post to pillar. Onc9
after night he came to Aunt Minty's,
bat she called him an imp of satan,
and babe him begone. He was her
own flesh and blood, but hadn't his
mother broken Sarah's heart, and
driven her to Aunt Minty's to beg
shelter.
ALI these things Aunt Minty conned
over in her heart. and she was lone as
she had new been lonely before N
the years she had dwelt alone. Her
dissatisfaction deepened till New Year
found her sunken in a state of apa-
thetic gloom,
New Year. Every gaffer and hill
BILLY knows that the house should still
be full of Christmas cheer, and holly
wreaths, and laughter, and egg-nog
and the like; but Christmas a past
unnoticed, and now she sat shivering
as if with cold.
She heaped the huge logs up, till the
room was aglow. The oven and the
pothooks, the corn hearth broom. the
garlands of herbs and peppers, the
quilting frames and the spinning
wheel-the freight showed them uI
bright at day; touched to a fine glow
the old low ceiling. n reached back
to the dim corner cleaning on the
edges of the virgin bed, weaving shad'
ows among the patterns of the croch-
cted foot curtains-but the heat coulc
not warm her heart.
! Her massive figure slouched over
and the grey at her temples seemed t.
/ suddenly spread over the whole ragge'
mass of her dull red hair. 1t was ex
actly as if age had been creeping alonl
her veins and suddenly made a pounc'
at her throat. She writhed.
She had lived by herself since tn,
war, save for the four years afte
Sarah's Bill married and turned he
out of house and home. that Sarah hat
come and spent her last days. Sh'
had titled the soil thro lean and fat
gathered in her crops, kept her stock
and carried he rcorn back and fortl
to mill; the, kindest and yet the mos
fcrbidding figure in the whole settle
ment.
The wind came sweeping down tn
valley, rafting at the door. She arose
lighted the little oil lamp, and dragge,
an old lea chest from under her be-
~sclose up tt the fire.
One by one, she laid out the old ia
miliar tokens, and out with then
seemed to March the spirits of tn.
past. No hopes had been brighter, M
heart lighter than was MINIS in th'
old Ia With HIS own hands HI
had built this cabin for them to live in
EHIS hands had cut the logs for thu
puncheon floor, and .chinked the wall:
with mud.
When they were to have been mar
ried, he and her father had marched
away to the war, and neither of then
had ever come back any more. Here
were the letters that told about il
With a sudden spasm of grief sh'
caught them to her. and rocked bacl
and forth.
ALI these years she had kept hear
as best she could. comforting the af
ffcted, helping the needy from he
thrifty store. and cursing those VIII
intruded upon her, The burden of tn
dead vain years was heavy on her. Sh'
looked at the walls builded with sucl
~ T. N1L - L.