The Delta independent., 1915-06-04
CHAPTER III.

LARK ana BLOODY GrOunQS pioneer,
telling oak and poplar logs for the
home he meant to establish on the
banks of purling watercourse, let his
az slip, and the cutting edge gashed
his ankle. Since to the discovered be-
longs the christening, that watercourse
became Crippleshin, and SO it is today
set down on atlas pages. A few miles
away, as the crow flies, but many
weary leagues as man must travel,
q brother settler, racked with rheuma-
tism, gave to his creek the name Of
Misery. The two pioneers had come
together from Virginia, as their ances-
tors had come before them from Scot
land. Together they had found one
of the two gaps through the mountain
wall, which for more than hundred
miles has no other passable rift. To-
gether, and as comrades, they had
made their homes and founded their
race. What original grievance had
sprung up between their descendants
none of the present generation knew
perhaps it was farm line or disputed
title to a pig. The primary incident
was lost in the limbo of the past; but
for fifty years, with occasional inter-
walls of truce, lives had been snuffed
out in the fiercely burning hate of
these men whose ancestors had been
comrades.
Old Spicer South and his nephew
Samson were the direct lineal descen-
dants of the manner of Misery. Their
kinsmen dwelt about them: the Souths,
the Jaspers, the Spicers, the Wileys,
the Millers and McCagers. Other fam
lilies, related only by marriage and
close association, were, in feud align
ment, none the less "Souths." And
over beyond the ridge, where the
springs and brooks flowed the other
way to feed Crippleshin, dwelt the
Hollmans, the Purvises. the Asberries.
the Hollises and the. Daltons-men
equally strong in their vindictive
fealty to the code of the vendetta.
By mountain standards old Spicer
South was rich. His lands had been
claimed when tracts could be had for
the taking, and, though he had to make
his cross mark when there was con-
tract to be signed, his instructive mind
was shrewd and far seeing. The tinkle
Of his cowbells was heard for long
distance along the creek bottoms. His
hillside fields were the richest and his
coves the most fertile in that country.
Some day, when railroad should bur-
row through his section, bringing the
development of coal and timber at the
head of the rails, sleeping fortune
would yawn and awake to enrich him.
There were black outcroppings along
the cliffs, which he knew ran deep in
veins of bituminous wealth. But to
that time he looked with foreboding.
for he had been raised to the stand
ards of his forefathers and saw in the
coming of new regime a curtailment
Of personal liberty. For new-fangled
ideas he held only the aversion of
deep-rooted prejudice. He hoped that
he might I've out his days and pass
before the foreigner held his land and
the law became a power stronger than
the individual or the clan. The law
was his enemy, because 1t said to him,
Thou shalt not" when he sought to
take the yellow corn which bruising
labor had coaxed from scattered rock
strewn fields to his own mash vat and
still. 1t meant, also, tyrannous
power usually seized and administered
by enemies. which undertook to forbid
the personal settlement Of personal
Quarreis. But mis- eyes, wnlcn couiu
not read print, could read the signs
Of the times. He foreeaw the inev-
table coming Of that day. Already he
A hod nj hn nd oh
vat, and no longer sought to make or
sell Illicit liquor. That was a conces.
sion to the federal power, which could
no longer be successfully fought. State
power was still largely a weapon in
factional hands, and in his country
the Hollmans were the office holders.
To the Hollmans he could make no
concessions. In Samson, born to be
the fighting man, reared to be the
fighting man. equipped by nature with
deep hatreds and tigerish courage
there had cropped out from time to
time the restless spirit of the philos-
opher and hunger for knowledge
That was matter in which the old
man found his bitterest and most Sc
cret apprehension.
It was at this house that George
Lescott, distinguished landscape paint
er of New York and the world at large
arrived in the twilight.
Whatever enemy might have to be
met tomorrow. old Spicer South rec
ognized as more immediate call
upon his attention the wounded guest
of today. One Of the kinsmen proved
to have rude working knowledge Of
bone setting. and before the half hour
had passed Lescott's wrist was in q
splint, and his injuries as well tended
as possible. which proved to be quite
well enough.