Gena of the AppalachiansCHAPTER IThe Burial of Lucky Joe
Gena of the Appalachians
Itwas late in the afternoon of a cold winter’s day when they sent for him to go and perform the last sad rites at the burial of Lucky Joe.
Lucky Joe had outstripped the law in his crimes for more than forty years—hence the people had well dubbed him “Lucky.” For more than three decades his name had been the synonym of dread and fear among the people of the hills. He had at length whipped them into granting him whatever he exacted of them, whether the thing in itself was right or wrong. But one memorable day, the tardy finger of the law apprehended him, and he stood up before the bar of Justice and heard the court pronounce, “Joseph Filson, guilty!” Quickly he was ushered away to the penitentiary—down to a Southern jail and to hard and endless toil for the remainder of his life. The gates of the prison closed and locked their iron jaws behind him: his keeper admonished him to be obedient, and he immediately chose to work at the blacksmith’s forge. Day after day, he swung the sledge in silence. Then the days crowded into months and into years, but he pounded away at the anvil unmindful of the end. Finally death came and knocked at the door of his narrow cell and took him away.
The news of the great outlaw’s death flashed back to the hills, and horse and rider took up the message andsped over the peaks and down into the narrow gorges to tell the mountainfolk of the end. Many a mountain mother and son ran out to the roadside to meet the rider, and received the news with gladness. Men and boys gathered in groups about the forks of the roads and doubted that it could be true. But, when the remains were forwarded to the railroad station nearest the mountain home, doubt and distrust gave way to the evidence, and all were satisfied.
“No, he wouldn’t come,” said the man at the gate. He sat there, on his horse and fumbled at the horn of his saddle for more than a minute, all the while trying to find words with which to make further known his mission.
“I say, thet we took ’im to the school-house yisterday, but the preacher wouldn’t come. Don’t think thet he wanted to come nohow, cause you see, Lucky wuz allus a purty bad man. But we’ve brot ’im back to the school house today, an’ we want to put ’im away nice, an’ as we knowed that you wuz here, we’d like to git you to come. We knowed thet you wuz not a preacher, but thet you wuz a kinder public Sunday-school speaker—an’ we want to put ’im away nice—an’ like to git you to come.”
Paul Waffington saddled his horse and led him out into the deep snow, mounted, and followed the stranger out into the storm. The way was dangerous, but the two men picked their way along the mountain pass as best they could. The roar and the fury of the storm increased as they went, and the cold wind cut like the blade of a knife. Many times they were forced to lie down in the saddle with their heads against their horses’ necks to protect themselves from the cutting sleet and driving snow.
True enough, the man had said at the gate that Paul Waffington was not a preacher. Nor was he engaged in any preparations to that end. But choosing to remaina layman, the Sunday-school and the children were the direct objects of his Christian activities. But when some human heart was sore and duty called, he responded without a murmur. Hence throughout the blinding storm of this winter day he rode with the stranger to the burial of Lucky Joe.
Despite the midwinter storm that was raging, he found the little school-house overflowing with the people of the hills. Great bunches of mountaineers stood about in the deep snow, on the outside, while the house was crowded to the door with thinly clad mothers bearing in their arms their children. All had come, alike, to get a glimpse of the face of the dead man whose name, to them, had been born of destruction.
All the family were there. The two young sons sat on the front seat with ruined hopes. The little daughter was there alongside the brothers, clinging to them in grief; mother was there by the side of the children, and father was there—in the casket.
It was with great difficulty that Paul Waffington made his way through the throng, to the front. It had not been his lot to meet with Lucky Joe during his lifetime. But now, as he approaches the platform, he turns and looks into the casket. He beholds the face of an old man—past sixty years—with pinched features and a long, white beard, with deep lines in his face that the chisel of sin had hewn with no uncertain hand.
With a warning to the living and words of comfort for the bereaved the little service closed. For hours during the blustering day strong men had worked at the grave. Rough, uncouth mountaineers, many of whom had hated and feared the dead man during his lifetime, dug up the frozen earth and rock in perfect silence. It mattered not to them now, whether he had been a friend or an enemy during his lifetime, their respect now wasfor the dead. The infallible rule of the gentle people of the Appalachian hills is to respect and honor the dead, friend and foe alike, and to “let the dead rest in peace;” therefore, when their feet on this sad day became benumbed and stiff with cold, there was not a murmur from any lip or rest from any stroke until the grave was finished.
Kind hands laid away the remains of Lucky Joe. Strong men braved the winter’s gale and did their part well. When the last shovelful of half snow and half frozen earth had been placed upon the mound, the people gathered themselves together by families and dispersed in silence. Paul Waffington lingered and comforted the mother and the two sons. Then he took the beautiful hand of the little daughter Gena and held it as he tenderly spoke a few words to her. Her big blue eyes looked up through the hot tears wishfully at him as he finished:
“Good-bye, now. And be a good little girl. I will come back, perhaps. And if—if I come back, I will come to see you and bring you a pretty book. Don’t forget now. Good-bye,” and he patted her on the head as he turned to go.
The storm increased its fury and night came on as death comes—swift and sure. Then, with a heavy heart and a picture in his mind that shall grow plainer and brighter as the years go by, Paul Waffington mounted his horse and went out into the night towards his own place.