Evening star., 1932-06-28

'NHERE Is no call Tor CLOCK or CAL
endar at Miss Becky Hewetts
cabin in a cove on Upper Bull
i Run, Va, which is only as miles
from Washington. but still as
remote as the early frontier.
The days, like the weeks, months and
years, are of less consequence than the
seasons, which demand little garden
ing in the Spring, more wood chopping
in the Fall.
Miss Becky, what with living alone
and marking the hours by the slant of
sunlight across her doorsill long since
has lost count of her years.
But the eldest residents who live in
the valleys of Prince William and
Fauquier Counties near the Bull Run
Mountains say she is older than any of
them and must be over IS years.
Remembers "the War;"
Miss Becky herself estimates more
conservatively. Still, she can remember
"the war"-the one and only war-of
Bull Run and Manassas. She lived in
her mothers cabin then, just across
the branch" a stones throw from her
present doorstep.
The other wars. if Miss Becky had
in the timeleSs cove where Miss Becky
cultivating a garden patch, keeping a
COW and a few chickens, chopping wood
against freezing weather and cooking
over an open fire.
Feebleness grew upon Miss Becky
slowly with the advancing years, the
garden sprouted weeds, cherries and
apples ripened out of her reach, fire.
wood became Increasingly hard to
gather.
Will Never Leave Mountains.
But Miss Becky insisted then, as she
insists today, upon living on in the
lonely cove She's "sorta used to the
mountains she says, and will never
leave them for the county aims house
or anywhere else.
Now residents of The Plains, Va, say
Miss Becky is ION the county for some
SIS month, delivered by messenger to
her door. Church people from the sur
rounding valleys ride the miles of
overgrown trail to deliver butter, milk
and eggs from time to time
But for the rest, and sturdily enough,
Miss Becky looks after herself. Yester-
day she was stirring about her yard,
talking to herself and collecting brush
for her cooking fire when visitors ar
rived-Miss Margaret Shirley of Water
fall, Va, who with her young niece had
volunteered to show a reporter and
photographer to Miss Becky's door.
Surprised by Callers.
Miss Becky was surprised and more
than a little puzzled by so many callers,
but invited them into her tiny one
room cabin, with its single window.
She saw that her guests were comfort
ably seated, and sought, in the name
of courtesy, to restrain her curiosity
regarding the purpose of the call.
Miss Shirley, on a previous visit, had
taken Miss Becky's photograph for the
first time, and now presented the aged
woman with an enlargement.
Miss Becky scarcely glanced at the
picture. which she quickly hid under
her gingham apron. 1T must be
purity sight" she scoffed. Il don't aim
to look at it."
Nevertheless Miss Becky presently
tucked the picture furtively away IN
an old trunk, for later reference, per-
haps.
Cats Keep Her Company.
Miss Becky, she said. had got 'sorta
used to the mountains" and wasn't
lonely, especially since she had three
cats to talk to. Only few seasons
back she had two top knots" chickens,
which something, man or beast, had
stolen.
Il wouldn't have took a dollar piece
for them" Miss Becky said. NO, nor
two collars nsitheri"
About her tiny cabin Miss Becky had
garden in which hollyhocks. bridal
wreath and other flowers grew pleas
antly There were apple trees-'Sweet-
enins," Miss Becky said, and too high
to reach anyhow. A great cherry tree
cleaned with a profusion of fruit at
Miss Becky's doorstep, but Miss Becky
didn't have no tooth for cherries.
Instead, Miss Becky subsisted largely
on corn pone ard coffee, which she
prepared over the hearth, pieced out
by few "store rations" from time to
time and such produce as the weed
grown garden yielded
Has Fear Of Snakes.
But Miss Becky, despite her sturdy
self-reliance and lifetime in the
wilderness, fears one thing and because
of it taxes her neager resources to keep
a lamp burning all night long.
The light. which she has tended for
years. win keep snakes out Of her