Mountain Man Freedom (standard:humor, 4464 words)
Author: stanley mcqueen kentucky backwoods writer	Added: May 29 2009	Views/Reads: 3421/2042	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
This story is about a mountain man that loved freedom and he tryed to live like other men , getting his a woman to spark and maybe married later, just take a read and see what happens

Mountain man Uncle Tom lives on the highest ridge in Muddy Fork County,
he loves being away from the other settlers that have come and built 
homesteads to raise their families, paw called him hermit like fellow. 
Some men just don't like t be hedged in and Tom is that type man' paw 
said that if Tom could climb to the moon and live he be a happy man. ,  
 Tom is Mammy only brother, and him and her was raised up in Virginia 
where her and paw meet and married while paw was traveling through 
Virginia to seek his fortune and find work back in those days, they 
married in mammy home country, and eventually come here to Muddy Fork 
and settled, and paw put his claim on the hill side farm that we now 
own and grow corn on. I rode my horse up to Tom shack yesterday and 
found him setting in a chair he made himself, he was glad to see me 
come to visit as I often do,  well Willie Boy ii am glad you come up 
here today he said” smiling from ear to ear,  why are you so tickled 
that I come I asked ? Wondering what he had in mind. What are you up to 
now I asked? 

Well boy you recall that summer you and I rode into Muddy Fork to get
corn seed for you pappy,  and we run into that fellow that was wanting 
someone to come and court his sister that was getting fairly old  and 
the man said” she was in the market for a man, and Willie I got to 
studying just how good it would be to have a woman up here on this 
ridge to cook vitals and help around my place , I could teach her to 
help skin the pelts that I traps and she  could clean the fish I catch 
and help me in a lot of different ways he declares” What on earth has 
got you to thinking on having you a woman, I asked? You're a loner all 
you life and now you talking on courting a woman, son I am nigh fifty 
years old now and I am not as much of a man like I used to be, and I 
said to myself setting here last night and gazing at the star in the 
sky, and seeing all those stars have other stars to be beside them and 
I figured I would be like a star and have me some company like all the 
stars in the sky have.. Doesn't that make sense he asked? Well I expect 
it does in some ways, but how do you know this man sister would want 
and old mountain man like you, well boy that how you come in, I need to 
get me some clothes that is better than these old buckskin breaches and 
get some of the shag off my head and shave off this old long beard,   
and I will take a good bath in the Muddy Fork river and  I figured you 
could talk your Mammy into helping fit me in some proper clothes  and 
breaches , I go to that barber in the township and get my mop cut down 
to size, and it will all fall into place, and before long  I will have 
me a woman setting her beside  me in this shack of mine and be as happy 
man for sure, I swear I think you have went off your rocker  Uncle Tom 
thinking in your late years you need a woman for company and help 
around this here shack of yours, you better give this some good 
thoughts before jumping into something to fast I warn him' I'll  help 
anyway I can to get you all fixed up to go and spark that woman, that 
you have not even spoke to about sparking her, what did her brother say 
she look like , I asked? She might be as ugly as a hound's ear for all 
you know, and who would want a ugly woman setting around to stare at 
all the time, I added! Her brother called her fair looking, and that's 
enough to start on he said”  he also told me she could read and write 
and that shows she is smart  don't” it he said” Uncle if that is what 
you want to do I said I would help and I will, saddle that mule of 
yours and come on with me to the shack and we will tell many about this 
idea of yours on getting hitched up with a woman ., Tom kept his mule 
in a little coral he had made in the woods beside his shack not real 
far away, and he lead him out and saddled him  and away we went toward 
the shack , so we could fill Mammy in on the plans  he was making on 
fixing himself to be  courting sparking man, Mammy was not so excited 
as he was and told him he had went off him rocker but she would help 
the fool anyway to humor him ,  so that day Tom and I rode into our 
small township and he got him his first tailored hair cut,  his beard 
was cut , and we had not see his whole face in years , to tell you the 
truth he was not so bad of looking gent with all that shag he had let 
grow on his face for many years , never trimming it or having a razor 
about his face, 

him and I arrived back at the shack Mammy never recognized him and
thought I had come back with a stranger from the township and left Tom 
in town, it's me your brother Tom said to Mammy , she said well brother 
you not as ugly as I imagined  Mammy said smiling at her remarks about 
Tom, 

I have some breaches of your pappy laid out for  Tom and go and fetch
them and let him go get into them clothes of your paws and then we will 


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