A GOOD PRICE

Charlie Price was considered the "black sheep" of his family.  The other Price children (all fourteen of them) were fine upstanding members of the community.  Not Charlie...he drank  too much, smoked too much, and cussed worse than you ever heard.  Then there was the gambling and fighting, which often landed him in jail for the weekend.  (He was a regular).  Charlie never kept a red cent in his pocket,  and couldn't even afford a sway back mule to ride.  If it wasn't for his chickens, and a good milk cow, I guess he would have starved.  Well, he could fish too, so that helped out.  My daddy was the exact opposite of Charlie, but he never had anything bad to say  about the man.  Daddy even tried to find something to give Charlie, but there wasn't much he could part with.  He did find an old broom, and Charlie was glad to get it.  It made a pretty fair fishing pole when he got done with it.  I used to think about how I was glad Charlie wasn't my kin, but that was before I fell into Watson's Creek.  I'll never forget that day, even if I lose my wits.  Charlie had taken his fishing broom down to the creek bank, and managed to hook two big catfish.  There were several of us kids wading along the shallow bank, and I was being careful to watch for quicksand.  Daddy said he "liked to fell"  into it before, and for me to watch out.  Lots of folks went to Watson's creek, and nobody ever stepped off into quicksand, so I figured maybe Daddy really didn't see it, but still, it couldn't hurt to watch.  I left the other kids and went to look at Charlie's catfish.  They were spectacular!  Of course, I wanted to pick one up because; well I don't know why, I just did.  That old catfish was a lot heavier for me to hold than it was for Charlie, and that surprised me.  I guess the catfish was surprised too.  He was suddenly free, and headed for home!  I couldn't let it happen!  After all it was my fault, and I knew Charlie was depending on having the fish for supper.  I had caught a suckling pig once, but the pig didn't have a big old dorsal fin, or whiskers which could stab you.  I got two big cuts, and a stab wound trying to catch that slippery, slimy, nasty, flopping, ugly...catfish.  I was bleeding bad, but hardly noticed.  My sites were set on the fish, and the fish had his sites set on the water.    By this time, I was on my belly, still trying to win the chase.  Charlie yelled at me to let the fish go, and tried to grab me by the foot, but he slipped and fell in the mud.  I slid into the creek with all my clothes and shoes to weigh me down, and suddenly felt the difference in the mud.  It was the quicksand Daddy told me about, and I was caught in it, hands first.  I couldn't keep my head above the water, even though it wasn't much deeper than a puddle.  The mud wouldn't let me free my hands, and I couldn't fight, so it didn't take long for me to lose consciousness.  I was drowning in a foot of water!  Charlie took hold of the broom pole, and slam-anchored it in the mud beside the quicksand.  With his right hand holding the broom pole, he stretched his long thin lanky left arm, and dug down till he had me firmly around my waist.  There was so much pressure on Charlie's arm that it broke, but he still pulled me out. It was up to him to start me breathing, but he didn't know how, so he just jerked that broom pole out of the mud and whacked me three good times on the back.   I woke up in my own bed with my hands bandaged.  Charlie and daddy were standing over me.  I had a hard time breathing, and couldn't speak at first.  It wasn't long  though, before I could ask questions, and that's when I found out what Charlie did to save me.  His left arm was in a splint, and I felt so bad for putting this trouble on him.  He told me not to worry, because the broken arm was a small price to pay for my life.  My daddy told Charlie  that he could never repay him for saving me, and Charlie said he could never repay daddy for the broom pole, which caught lots of fish, and kept him fed.  Even though a lot of people still considered Charlie the black sheep of his family, daddy always said that Charlie was "A Good Price".

THE WISHING MAN OF CULPEPPER MOUNTAIN

 

Clement Culpepper was only twenty one years old when he bought himself a mountain.  Yep, he bought the whole thing, complete with creeks and streams, rocks and wildlife, and...oh yes... "The Wishing Man".   Nobody had ever heard of the Wishing Man before Clement moved to the mountain.  It was all very mysterious, and glorious.  Imagine finding your very own Wishing Man on your very own mountain!  Mama said to be polite about it, and not covet, but still, I always wished I had a "Wisher" myself; and a mountain would be nice too.  But, that is the nature of wishing, isn't it?  I know what you're thinking; you're thinking that folks could go to the Wishing Man and get their wishes granted.  That only happens  at a wishing well, or in the Land of Bernethia, and I can't tell you how to get there.  Up on Culpepper Mountain, you had to find the Wishing Man, and then HE made your wishes FOR you.  Clement might have made that up, but who's to say.  Of course, everybody wanted to see the Wishing Man for themselves, but those were elusive wishes that never got granted.  I used to think about what it would be like to meet him myself.  I figured he would be real dreamy looking...like a cloud; and he would float around and glow, like a lightning bug on a summer night.  (My cousins wanted to catch him and put him in a pickle jar).  To get to the Wishing Man, you had to first find the tree with the ten bells and four whistles, but nobody ever ever did.  Folks would traipse all over that mountain in search of the "Wisher" tree.  Clement was a real good natured fellow, and liked to laugh about it a lot.  He was "all the time" engaging in conversations with the Wishing Man, and passing the messages to the townsfolk.  I can still remember a good many of the wishes Clement brought down from the mountain.  Clement told "Old Jack"  that the Wishing Man wished for Jack to buy a donkey.  So, Mr. Daniel (that was his last name) bought a donkey that day, and didn't even know why he did it.  I heard laughter on the mountain that night.  Clement said the Wishing Man wished that Miss Jane would take some biscuits and gravy over to the court house and feed everybody.  She did, and Clement's cousin (a widower who worked at the court house) ate good that day.  Sawyer Plum got a wish from Clement's Wishing Man that he would stand on the street corner and sing "O Danny Boy".  He did, and ended up in New York, singing on stage.  Clement didn't care too much for Jim Bob, but was "kind" enough to pass a wish along anyway.  With a twinkle in his eye, Clement told Jim Bob to start making soap for the choir, and tend to washing all the robes.  I got a wish once, to start writing stories, and been doing it ever since.  The wish that I remember the most was the one Clement passed on to Miss Louisa Snow.  He told her that the Wishing Man wished for her to marry Clement Culpepper.  She married Clement, and got the whole mountain, the creeks and streams, rocks and wildlife, and of course, "The Wishing Man".