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Introduction |
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rubbed the squirming mass out of my hair. I was, of course, almost crazed with pain and slept little that night. All of us agreed later that it was the biggest nest of yellow-jackets we had ever seen. Mr. Oliver cheered me by telling about a man over in Weir's Cove that was stung to death and of how a sheep died in his own yard from the stings of bees.
This would seem like adventures enough for one trip into the mountains, but we found another in our search for water. That summer's drought in the South had left the mountains almost dry. The electrical storms brought little rain. We had scarcely any water in the evening in our camp at Beech Nut Gap and had none for breakfast the next morning, nor did we find any until near noon of that day.
We retraced our way over Thunderhead to the Spence Cabin, that historic and tragic place, in the hope of finding water there, but the spring was quite dry. Here some years ago Tom Sparks was shot to death by Earl Cameron. Strange as it may sound, Mr. Oliver, my guide, conducted the funeral services over Tom Sparks' body, though the latter had been a confessed accomplice in the feud that led to the burning of Mr. Oliver's barn, horses and cattle. Tom's grandson, Wade, did the actual burning along with a Gregory boy. Two weeks later the Sparkses and Gregorys shot one another up. Wade Sparks then squealed on the Gregorys. So the whole truth came out and the trial followed.
We took up our journey again and passed over Anthony Top and Little Bald, through the Sugar Tree Gap, where the lightning had played particular havoc the previous day, and into Campbell's Gap, to the Russell Cabin where we found a spring and ate our lunch.
It was over in North Carolina from this point, on Eagle Creek, that Theo Rose, the outlaw, lived. Jake, the father, and his three sons, Theo, Eagle and George, always known as 'Tit", are remembered as handsome, well set-up men of great physical prowess, who could be loyal friends and soft spoken to women. Yet both "Pit" andTheo were killed in deadly combat and Eagle was shot from ambush. This kind of wild existence was impressed upon me by the fact that as we ate our lunch a fugitive from justice lay stretched out on the grass before us. There are still wild men and wild deeds in these mountains.
We now passed through Little Mill Creek Gap and Big Mill Creek Gap along Lawson's Ridge to Tater Patch Knob, Bear Pen Knob, and Lawson Gaunt Lot. Last summer season one of Mr. Oliver's cows had concealed a |
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