He sat quietly as
several compared their experiences while hunting cattle in the
mountains. Finally the old man said his hearing was not so good as it
used to be, but he remembered once "hearing a cow-bell all the way from
Overton county." Down the line a rural statistician figured it must be
seventy miles from Pall Mall to the nearest point in Overton county, and
the jests began to explode in the old man's vicinity. He conceded many
changes since he was young, but so far as he could see there was
evidently no improvement in man's hearing powers. When all his efforts
to secure a side bet that he could prove his assertion were futile, he
explained:
"Wall, boys, ye got away. En once I won two gallons o' whisky on hit. I
was in Overton county. I bought a cow. As she had a bell on her, and I
drove her home, I heard that cow-bell all the way from Overton county."
On Saturday afternoon, or a rainy afternoon, when Alvin York and the
"Wright boys," and one of them, "Will" Wright, is president of the bank
at Jamestown; Ab Williams, gray of hair and bent, but vigorous of
tongue; his son, Sam Williams, tall and straight as an Indian and
equally upstanding for his opinions; John Evans, a local justice of the
peace; Bill Sharpe, who lives in the shadow of "Old Crow"; T. C. Frogge,
of Frogge's Chapel, who farms, preaches or teaches school as the demand
arises; "Paster" Pile and his brother, Virgil Pile, who has been County
Trustee; when any of these are among those gathered at the store, there
is a tournament of wit, with a constant change of program.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114