ddle saved a
young girl's life. And while we're on trees, here's another:

Horn eat a horn in a white oak tree.
Guess this riddle and you may hang me.

For the fun of it they all pretended not to know the answer so she gave
it. "You're just pranking," she admonished playfully, "but nohow--a man
named Horn eat a calf's horn as he sat up in a white oak tree. But I'll
give you one now to take along with you. It's a Bible riddle, now listen
well:

God made Adam out of dust,
But thought it best to make me first;
So I was made before the man,
To answer God's most holy plan.

My body he did make complete,
But without legs or hands or feet;
My ways and actions did control,
And I was made without a soul.

A living being I became;
'Twas Adam that gave me my name;
Then from his presence I withdrew;
No more of Adam ever knew.

I did my Maker's laws obey;
From them I never went astray;
Thousands of miles I run, I fear,
But seldom on the earth appear.

But God in me did something see,
And put a living soul in me.
A soul of me my God did claim,
And took from me that soul again.

But when from me the soul was fled,
I was the same as when first made.
And without hands, or feet, or soul,
I travel now from pole to pole.

I labor hard, both day and night,
To fallen man I give great light;
Thousands of people, both young and old,
Will by my death great light behold.

No fear of death doth trouble me,
For happiness I cannot see;
To Heaven I shall never go,
Nor to the grave, or hell below.

And now, my friends, these lines you read,
And scan the Scriptures with all speed;
And if my name you don't find there,
I'll think it strange, I must declare."

That was the way Aunt Lindie and other older mountain women had of
sending young folk to read the Word.

There was rarely a gathering for telling riddles and trying simple
fortunes, especially during the winter, that did not end with a taffy
pull.