The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-06-11

] years, ana years, grim greed mad led
him into the depths of selfishness,
grasping for other mems lands and
money; his cunning had enabled him
to lead his neighbors in the mountains
into desperate financial straits to his
advantage. He had at last, held in
his hands a great fortune, but he
lacked the knowledge that would en-
able him to profit by tor even to
recognize the presence of the fortune
in the 24OO rough mountain acres Of
the Range Lots.
Now Old Drew wandered up and
down the mountain crying:
"A skun log floats! A skun log
fioats!"
People said Old Drew's madness
was the direct punishment of his sins
which were many and varied; others
said that it was his ignorance which
had fallen upon him; others even more
Philosophical, declared that if Old
Drew hadn't been ignorant he wouldn't
have committed so many sins and that
sin was ignorance, anyhow.
Accordingly, Old Drew became the
subject and the warning of many
mountain sermons in the white
church, the block schoolhouse, and in
the revivals. He came to the meet
ings and his shrill, weird voice would
rise uncannily at the services as he
shouted:
"a skun log floats! A skun log
floats!"
All this petty little knowledge,
trickery, craft and perseverance in
greed had come to that one phrase
and fact. He would take his little
Ratchet in bark-peeling time, and ross
the bark from hardwoods, gums,
beeches, sugar-woods. He would stand
the poles in the sunshine and carry
them, in the autumn to see them float
in Clinch river, or any CT the tribu-
tary creeks and runs. A fact that had
]; escaped his ignorance was now all
that remained of his intelligence
Because Sal-Bet Legere was of good
heart and her man Tip was willing
she gave Old Drew cabin to live in
and kept him eating. Really, the old
man was happier than he had ever
been before. Fear of not making
money, fear of being beaten in bar
gain, fear of poverty had given way at
least to sheer contentment of knowing
one thing, the thing that had made
him mad!
So now he rambled up and down
telling everyone what was no longer
a secret. Time had been when pos
session of such a secret would have
led him to the meanest and most des-
picable of expedients to prevent 9TH
ers from knowing and profiting by it.
Now his mad mind rejoiced in telling
it to all, which was complete re-
versal of habit of thought and mind.
He had madness for giving away
what had been a precious secret!
So little by little the tendency to
help someone else became brighter
in Drew Nuckle's darkened SOUL From
a fiickering sparkle, it widened and
deepened till he would carry his hat
full Of berries down to the seven
pupil district school and give to each
child and to the teacher sweet hand
ful to go with the pone lunches. He
carried bushels of nuts to that wret-
ched cabins of the poverty-stricken,
where dwelt a stupidity denser than
his own madness. He returned to the
craftiness of his own childhood and
caught mink, coon, musk-rats and
other furs with wire snares and dead
falls, and somehow managed to trade
them of for the benefit of some one
else.
The jeers and delight with which
people had greeted the downfall of
the old skinfiint gave way now to
pity and wonder, as they saw his gen.
erosity grow before their eyes, and
counted it the most remarkable phe-
nomenon of his change of mind.
Once mad, always mad! People
liked Old Drew better insane than
sane, however. No one feared him
now, and he was more welcome than
many a man who despised his weak
ness and hated him for what he had
been. Away down in the madness was
something which showed that he re-
membered the old days and acts and
was ashamed of them. When he met
someone whom he had misused of old,
he would turn his head away, like a
dog caught stealing chickens or kill
3 ing sheep. He avoided the people
Il from whom he had taken profits,
S~whose lands he had lawed away, or
whom he had beaten in unfair trades.