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".
