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Introduction |
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As he started home from the local meeting place, he invited his quaint-speaking friend, "Uncle" Billy Feezel, to get up on the horse behind him, saying, "Billy, Billy, get up behind me and I'll take you SAFE HOME, Billy." But Billy answered in his well-known mannerism, "The probability is, the probability is, I'm a little bit the safest on the ground." This dialogue was repeated by each a number of times, much to the amusement of the assembled mountaineers, but it ended in "Uncle" Billy's walking home.
"Uncle" Billy Feezel once in his old age found himself obliged to take shelter at a mountain cabin where a number of young people had gathered for an evening's entertainment and were playing the game of snap, in which the young lady snaps her fingers to the young man of her choice. One young woman out of courtesy, snapped "Uncle" Billy. Nonplussed, he blurted out in his honest, plain-spoken fashion, but with his usual repetition. "The probability is, the probability is, 1 was snapped many years ago."
My automobile was awaiting us at the foot of the mountain in front of "Uncle" Billy Myers' home. No story of Cade's Cove is more thrilling than the tale of how an eagle carried off his wife, Hattie Carrell Myers, as a child. Her name was then Herron and she lived with her parents in Happy Valley on Abrams Creek, somewhat beyond Cade's Cove. Her mother was doing the family washing. The child sat in the yard. Suddenly an eagle swooped down, fastened its talons in the little girl's clothing and started to fly off. However, the mother screamed so loudly that the eagle became frightened and dropped the child that fell into some bushes and was uninjured.
An interesting story of an eagle is told of Mr. Oliver's grandfather who had gone into the mountains to "call" wild turkeys. After calling them together, he noticed an eagle hovering above them and observed that the turkeys formed themselves into a compact mass, heads together. As the eagle swooped down almost upon them, every turkey disappeared in a different direction with the quickness of a flash of lightning. The eagle, of course, beat himself on the ground where the turkeys had been massed together. This same scene was enacted in the same way for several times. At last the eagle, wearied of the fruitless game, flew off, leaving the turkeys in peace.
According to "One-Armed Jimmy" Lawson, many years ago Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock), the novelist, lived at "Uncle" Dan Lawson's. As she was lame, "Uncle" Dan took her on horseback over the mountain trails of the Great Smokies. She wrote while here, according to |
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