Spake As a Dragon

by Larry Edward Hunt

  VISIBLY SHAKEN

  The string of horses is beginning to get restless. They shuffle around each other, some whinny, others snort, they are nervous. The two young travelers, Sam and William, lay on their blankets sound asleep.

  ‘Kaboom,’ ‘Kaboom,’ the noise from the lightning was deafening as it reverberated through the trees. Sam leaped from his horse blanket, fumbling to eject a shell into the Henry rifle. The night is cool, but sweat is dripping from his face – “What in tarnation,” William said rolling from underneath his poncho. “What is goin’ on?”

  “Don’t know William, one of the scariest dreams I have ever experienced.”

  “Hold on and I’ll get us a pot of coffee started before this storm moves in – looks like it might be a little while before it gets to us. Tell me about the nightmare? Scary huh?”

  Sam still visibly shaken, sits down next to the fire and tells William his dream about the five bandits coming into their camp accusing them of killin’ Bert Black and stealing his horses. The storm, which only a few minutes earlier appeared to be heading toward them now seems as if it is going south of their location. The string of horses begins to settle down - instinct tells them the storm is missing them. Sam points to the string of horses, “He said that pinto belonged to Bill Jackson,” then Sam reached above his eye feeling for a cut from the blow from the .45 pistol, it wasn’t there, “I’m telling you William that had to be one more realistic nightmare, it seemed so real, and then this desperado pulls his Colt revolver and shoots me and you, stone cold dead. I even heard the sound of the .44 as he shot us, KaBoom! KaBoom!”

  Instantly a huge lightening bolt cascaded from one cloud to another during the violent thunderstorm almost overhead, KaBoom! KaBoom! Sounded the thunder, shaking the ground.

  “Sound kinda like that? Yeah, I know, sometimes them dreams can get pretty wild, here drink this cup of coffee, its okay,” William said as another peal of thunder – Kaboom - shook the ground, “it was just a dream, with God adding the sound! It’ll be daylight in another hour or so, we might as well pack up and get started.”

  A week or so later Sam and William ride into Gettysburg, leading the string of horses behind. They stop at the livery stable and make arrangements with the liveryman to corral their ponies. While getting their horses attended to, they inquire as to the location of the business establishment of Mark Holmes.

  From the livery, they move down the empty street to the building with a sign reading, ‘CLOCK REPAIR, Mark Holmes, Prop’. The hand-lettered sign in the door glass reads ‘OPEN’. “I guess this is it,” said William, “Let’s giver a try.”

  A small bell over the door jingled as it announces their entrance. From the back room, a man’s voice answers the bell, “Be with you in a second.” A man with a slight limp enters putting on his jacket. “May I...”

  “Matt is that you? Is it really you?” Said William.

  Looking surprised, Matthew looks at William and then at Sam. “Sir I don’t believe I have had the pleasure...”

  Before he has a chance to finish, “It’s me Matt, your brother William.”

  “William? Brother William? Why boy you wasn’t no taller than this,” he indicated holding his hand about waist high, “when I left home. What...why...?”

  “It’s okay Matthew, this is our brother-in-law Sam Babb. His sister Catherine went and married brother Luke. We figured you needed help making them fake legs so Sam and I come to help.”

  Hollering to the back, “Mark! Mark! Come up front, I’ve got some people you need to meet.”

  A few hours later Matt and Mark had brought Sam and William up to date on the manufacturer of the artificial legs. They had explained they were broke and unable to pay the mortgage and had suspended all work on the soldier’s artificial limbs.

  “Well, not to worry no more brother Matthew. That’s where me and Sam come in. We’ve got the money,” and William told the entire story of the Cumberland Mountain gold creek and the two pouches of gold nuggets he and Sam had brought with him. “Sam hand me your saddle-bags.” William searches through both the left and right side then says to Sam, “They must be in my bags. Check mine?”

  Sam turns after thoroughly searching every possible place two bags of gold nuggets could be, “William, they’re just not here!”

  “They’ve got to be Sam, we haven’t taken them out since we left. Oh, wait a minute that last river we crossed was rough, you suppose the gold fell outta our saddlebags. You know being so heavy and all?”

  Sam looks at the leather bags then at William, “What about them outlaws? I told you they took our gold!”

  “Sam, be reasonable, that was just a nightmare. And nightmares didn’t steal the gold!”

  “Well, it ain’t here and I told you that the dream felt awfully real.”

  “Yeah, you did Sam, and you also said we were killed dead too! If you ain’t a ghost, and I feel reasonably sure I’m not, then we’re alive!”

  “You’re right William, I guess they fell out crossing that river.”

  Mark speaks up, “Fellers Matt and I appreciate your good intentions. We sure could have used that money, but I guess we’re back to square one now, nothing to do, but move out to Alabama.”

  “Wait,” said William. “We still got a trick or two up or sleeves, right Sam?”

  “You may have one up your sleeve William, but mine’s empty,” said Sam.

  “The string of horses! Our horses at the livery stable – them’s just greenbacks walking around on the hoof, we can sell them. I’ll wager we can get maybe ten or twelve dollars a head for them. Mark that’ll give you and Matthew enough money to make your mortgage payment, buy a few supplies for the work on the soldier’s legs, while me and Sam go back to the Cumberlands and get some more nuggets. We should be back in less than a month or two.”

  Matt asked, “How much you think you can get for the horses Sam?”

  “I reckon at least a hundred dollars, maybe a little more. Why, how much do you need?”

  They were told the mortgage money was due at the end of the month and they owed two hundred dollars, Mark’s tools had been pawned and he owned another fifty on them. Supplies for the artificial legs were going to be another hundred and all were due way before they had time to travel to the mountains, load up some gold and return.

  “What is you’re idea Matthew? What do we do Mark?”

  “For sure,” said Mark, “We can’t meet this month’s mortgage and pawn payments much less order supplies, that bandit that holds the note on my place will not give us one extra day. Yeah, he’s one more snake-in-the-grass, that...that...Bill Jackson son of a gun! He’s already sent his yes ‘man’ Lucky Lawson over to demand the money...no we won’t be able to meet their payments.”

  Sam’s ears perked up, “Who did you say Mark? Did I hear you say Bill Jackson and Lucky?”

  “Yes, why? Do you know them Sam?”

  “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, but yes, I believe I do, but actually I don’t personally know those scoundrels, but I don’t want to dwell on them too much, I have this splitting headache right above my eye.”

  “What? You do and you don’t? Can I get you anything, maybe a cold compress to put on your forehead?”

  “I’ll explain it to you both some day,” answered Sam. “But right now I believe Mark is right, we need to sell our ponies to the livery and get out of this town and head south to Scarlett as fast as our horses will carry us. I have the feeling of impending harm if we stay in this town.

  Chapter Sixty

  THE SPECIAL DAY

  It was like in the days of Noah; however, he was gathering animals from near and far to populate the ark for the re-birth of the world. The gathering, taking place at Scarlett was not close to the scale of importance as the one in the Biblical story of Noah, but it was momentous to those of the Scarburg family.

  From old Kentuck came the boys Sam and William by way of Pennsylvania; from Gettysburg Matthew, Kim, Mark and Kelly; f
rom Tennessee came Elsa, Nate, Nate Junior and Luke. Greeting this group of returnees was Malinda, Levi, Ora Lee, Sary, Catherine, Isaac, Stephen, Thomas Henry, Mattie Ann and little Elizabeth.

  For the next couple of days, the family spent exchanging hair-raising tales of their past adventures. Finally, on Sunday the 2rd of July Malinda announces at breakfast that the 4th will come on Tuesday, two days hence. She said she knew the country has been heatedly divided over the past four years between those of the North and those of the South. The War is over, life must go on, the Union had been spared the anguish of division and now we are all once again the United States of America. As citizens, she thinks the family should celebrate the 4th of July. She also notes that it was on the 4th of July in the year 1852 that she and Robert left Scarlett with Alabama as their destination. “Now,” she said, “thirteen years later we are back where we started and we are going to have a party.”

  “Oh, Mizz Malinda,” said Sary, “you no’s we don’t got nothin’ for a party, why, we’s barely got enough for us to just get by on now!”

  “I don’t care,” said Malinda, “we have all scrimped and saved every little morsel of anything worth having for the past four and one-half years, we may starve next week, but on Tuesday we’re going to have us a 4th of July celebration!”

  Ora Lee was next to speak, “Malinda, girl you planning on a party here for us, just the family?”

  “No,” she replied. “We are going to have a community celebration. We are all going to celebrate, of course, the 4th, but more importantly this community is going to celebrate our survival. We have undergone some harrowing times and have come through victorious, maybe we didn’t win the War, but we endured the hardships of the past and will endure the suffering, persecution and oppression of the future. For this, we cannot be thankful, but knowing God’s will is mightier than the sword we will cope with whatever comes our way.”

  Malinda went on to explain that she thought the open area under the old oak at Scarburg Mill would be the perfect place to have this event. She said they should all get ready and go to church and make an announcement in front of the whole congregation of the plans for the activity on the Fourth.

  Before she finished, she had another thing to talk about – Scarlett Plantation. She wants to rebuild it. Not only rebuilt in it’s past glorious splendor, but she wishes it to be bigger and better.

  THE 4TH OF JULY

  Word spread throughout the valley quickly that a festival was being planned at Scarburg Mill on Tuesday the 4th of July. People could not believe it! It had been years since they had assembled together in a festive atmosphere. They marveled in anticipation as a young child does the night before Christmas. Women folk from all around began making preparations for the event. It seems in the south every woman has a specialty food. She prepares this special dish for those rare occasions such as dinner on the ground at revival time at church, or as happened before the War when the circuit-riding preacher came through and it was their time to feed the Reverend Sunday dinner.

  Roberta Hunt killed the last Road Island Red chicken they had and made a huge pot of her delicious chicken and dumplings, Barbara Almond, somehow or other got the fixings to make her four-layer dessert. Farah Harper made up the biggest batch of fried apple pies that she had ever made. Diane Brown was famous for her cornbread dressing. Two big pans wasn’t enough for this day, she made three. This type of thing was happening all across the hills and dales around Scarburg Mill. The people had been miserable for so long they wanted a day to forget and a chance to remember the good times.

  Malinda got with Jethro, Rubin and Dan and arranged for them to spruce up the old Mill and the surrounding grounds. And she asked if they would build a few wooden eating tables and benches for serving dinner to a large crowd expected to attend. She also wanted a gallows rope tied and placed over the old wooden bench underneath the oak tree. As the highlight of the day’s activities, she was going to reenact the hanging of John Scarburg during the Revolutionary War. The people had not much to be proud of during these past few years, but they had always been proud of Scarburg Mill and John Scarburg’s family and their heroic actions on that fateful day back on the 15th of April 1781. She even had the local stonecutter who made tombstones engrave a stone.

  The plan was to have a band, which only consisted of a fife, bugle and drum to play a tune. She was unsure which one exactly, since she did not know what they could play. Regardless, after the tune and the reenactment of John Scarburg’s hanging, a cloth covering the stone would be removed and the old cannon that sat in front of the Masonic Lodge Number One would be fired. Thirty cannonballs were stacked in a neat pyramid beside it; however, hopefully the plan was to fire it with only a powder charge and no ball.

  Tuesday morning the old rooster at the barn announced the arrival of daybreak; however, Malinda, Sary, Catherine and Ora Lee have been up much earlier for today is going to be special and they wanted to get an early start. At this early hour, no one living in the guesthouse at Scarlett could realize just what a special day this 4th of July was to become!

  DEDICATION

  “Come on young’uns,” yelled Sary to the household of young folks and old alike for that matter, “Y’alls git a move on...we’s burning daylight.” Although none in the household realized it at the time, Sary was as excited as the children. She had never been to a real party in her whole life, especially one like Mizz Malinda had planned. Oh, there had been occasions when she was younger she would go to the house of a friend and carry food to the family for someone that had departed, or enjoy dinner on the grounds at a local church from time to time, but never to an honest to goodness, undeniable, actual party.

  The front of the Mill looked festive and wonderful. Jethro, Rubin and Dan along with the other Mill workers had tables set up around the Mill grounds. Red, white and blue bunting streamers hung along the entire front of the building. A large American flag was fluttering from a tall post the men had put up; a thick hemp noose and rope draped across a limb was hanging limply above the bench under the oak. As the Scarburg bunch arrived Malinda could see the stone marker sitting off to one side beneath the massive oak, it was covered with a white bed sheet. They were the first to arrive, but within minutes people from the surrounding countryside begin to filter in. None wanted to miss a minute of this wonderful day. Within a couple of hours, the area around the Mill was filled with people, up and down the road and on the sides of the Mill were wagons, buggies and horses left by their owners hurrying to the festive atmosphere in front of Scarburg Mill.

  A wagon had been positioned in front of the Mill and the mayor of Scarlettsville had stepped up into the bed and was beginning to speak. “Folks,” He said holding his hand in the air, “Folks, my good friends and neighbors of Scarlettsville, may I take this opportunity to welcome you to this our first celebration of our Founding Fathers Day and the Fourth of July Celebration...” This goes on for a least an hour, Malinda makes a mental note to remember next year to tell the Mayor to limit his speech to the day’s activities only. Oh well, she thought, what did she expect getting a politician to speak! Finally, he was getting to the end of his politicking, “Now friends, after the Reverend Plunkett says grace we will partake of this wonderful meal, ummm... I can taste Sister Roberta’s dumplings already,” he said licking his lips, “Then we will listen to the band play a couple of tunes and as the grand finality these fine folks will reenact the events that took place here in 1781.” With this, he stopped and stepped down from the wagon with a thunderous roar of applause, thinking it for his excellent deliverance; however, they clapped because he finally finished talking.

  Mark is to play the part of John Scarburg, Stephen and Thomas Henry are to be the sons William and Isaac. All three are dressed in the style of the revolutionary day - breeches, white shirts, coats and stockings. Cravats tied around their necks and three-cornered hats complete the outfits. The breeches are closely fitted and end at the knee. White stockings extend from the knees to
the highly shined shoes with large buckles.

  Malinda did not want anyone left out, so she assigned Nate Junior the part of the British Colonel David Wilcox. They had no real British uniforms that would fit him, but Sary fashioned him one with a red jacket and white breeches, pinned three sides of a wide brimmed hat into a tricorne and applied balls of cotton resembling a white wig. At his side he carried a borrowed a long cavalry saber, which dragged the ground, but no one noticed.

  Malinda had enlisted a number of townspeople to be the British attacking the Mill and others played the part of the Patriots defending. All were firing blank charges from their muskets. The spectators stood afar and have a marvelous time witnessing the fighting; clapping and yelling as each of the British actors are ‘killed’. After the ‘battle’ it was time for the hanging. All the participants are given time to reassemble on the grounds in front of the Mill, the ‘band’ plays a tune or two and the fife and bugle cease playing. The drummer begins his ‘Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat’...

  From the door of the Mill three ‘prisoners’ are ushered across the open courtyard to the bench and the awaiting gallows. Mark playing the part of John Scarburg already has a black hood covering his head; the other two wear their hats. Their hands are not tied. They walk solemnly and slowly across to the oak tree. ‘John’ is guided upon the bench; sons ‘William’ and ‘Isaac’ are positioned next to him. ‘Colonel Wilcox’ strolls across the yard, dragging his sword on the ground as the spectators try to muffle their laughter. Up to the bench he strolls and in as loud a voice as he can muster says, “Dost any request a last word?”