untains of West Virginia and
Kentucky, emptying at last into the Ohio.

Levicy bore her mate thirteen children and died a few years after 1921
when the old clansman had passed to the beyond. There was not even a
bullet mark on the old clansman. He died a natural death, mountain
kinsmen will tell you proudly. He was buried with much pomp, as pomp
goes in the mountains, on Main Island Creek of West Virginia, in the
family burying ground.

I knew Devil Anse and "Aunt" Levicy quite well. For, long centuries
after my illustrious kinsman had returned to Merrie England to report
upon his expedition for the Loyal Land Company in the Blue Ridge, I
followed the same course he had blazed out of Virginia into the
mountains of Kentucky and West Virginia. I lived for a number of years
on Levisa Fork and Tug Fork and on Main Island Creek in West Virginia,
where my nearest neighbors and best friends were Hatfields and,
strangely enough, McCoys.

One day Devil Anse stopped at my house out of a downpour of rain and as
he sat looking out of the open door he fell to talking of another rainy
day many years before. "This puts me in the mind of the time I had to go
away on business down to the mouth of Big Sandy," he said in his slow,
even tones. All the time his eagle eyes were fixed on me. "I had to go
down to the mouth of Big Sandy," he repeated, "on some business of my
own. A man has a right to protect his family," he interrupted himself
and arched a brow. "Anyway there come an awful rainstorm and creeks
busted over their banks till I couldn't ford 'em--not even on Queen, as
high-spirited a nag as any man ever straddled. But she balked that day
seeing the creeks full of trees pulled up by the roots and even
carcasses of calves and fowls. Queen just nat'erly rared back on her
haunches and wouldn't budge. Couldn't coax nor flog her to wade into the
water. A feller come ridin' up on a shiny black mare. Black and shiny as
I ever saw and its neck straight as a fiddle bow. He said the waters
looked too treacherous and turned and rode off over the mountain, his
black hair drippin' wet on his shoulders. Anyway there I was held back
another day and night till that master tide swept on down to the Big
Waters [the Ohio]. When I got home my little girls Rosie and Nancy come
runnin' down the road to meet me. 'Pappy, look! what a strange man give
us!' Rosie held out her hand and there was a sil'er dollar in it and
Nancy brought her hand from behind