Hundred Dollar mule (standard:Inspirational stories, 1669 words)
Author: stanley mcqueen kentucky backwoods writer	Added: Dec 30 2009	Views/Reads: 3534/2053	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
back wood tales

Hundred dollar Mule 

The Ridges were alive with the coming of spring, men's voices could be
heard directing the mules as they plowed the earth to plant summer 
corn, Spring is always a good time to be alive and smell the flowers 
that bloom on the Ridges,, Our little one room cabin sets surrounded by 
slim young popular, trees,  paw owned the steepest farm around these 
parts, and we have a terrible time turning our corn grown, paw has to 
wait till some of the other farmers get their grown plowed , so he can 
borrow a mule, we are poor and paw has never owned a mule we just 
cannot afford one ,is all there is too it, We are Turners and there is 
few of our kin here in Muddy Fork county, paw and maw settled here when 
I was seven years old, and I recall just a little about where we come 
from and that was Virginia, work had fallen scarce for paw there he has 
worked in a under grown coal mine, paw has saved some money back , and 
when he bought our farm here it took the whole five hundred dollars to 
buy sixty acres of the worse grown in these parts, Not enough money 
left to buy him a mule, good thing the neighbor farmers are free 
hearted or we would be in a fix. it's a little embarrassing to have to 
call on a neighbor to plow your ground with his mule, but paw has to , 
I had made my mind up that some day when I found some kind of work to 
do that I would buy paw a mule of his own, but in these parts there is 
just no work to be found  in corn growing county , I over heard some 
men down at the stock sales market , making fun of paw, and laughing 
about a man being so poor he cannot afford a mule , they never seen me 
and standing down a little ways from them , and that made me so mad I 
thought about going and socking them with my fist, but  used good 
judgment and didn't Paw got our grown plowed after ever one got theirs 
done, and we planted four acres of corn,  paw always hoped that he 
would make enough to buy him a mule, but ever years we would end up 
coming out so close with our having to pay back the little bank what we 
had to borrow during the year, It was mid summer that I got a letter 
from the us government telling me that I was drafted into the us army 
and had to report on a certain day ,plume over in Brownville county,  
there was a war going on and my nation needed men to fight , them 
Japans fellow and other nation has got into a fuss and this had drew 
our nation in that fuss, so I had no  choice in the matter but to go 
and serve my nation, Paw wondered how in the world he could make it 
without me being there helping in the corn crops, which needed a lot of 
tending too with all the weeds that grew in and around the corn , I 
left paw and maw and Willard north rode me into the train station over 
in Clark county where I would board the train and be hauled over to 
some place to be trained to fight, When I got trained after a hard 
bunch of running around in a large level field and crawling around on 
the grown and such as that, and shooting at targets which was a waste 
of time with me because I had always been a dead bull eye shot with a 
rifle in the first place, They sent me across the waters where the 
fighting was taking place , and boy what a hard time I had staying 
alive shooting at  funny looking fellows with funny cut eyes , who 
spoke a strange  gibberish like language, I got wounded in the leg and 
has to be sent to a make shift hospital in a wooded area and lay there 
till my wound was healed and  then sent back to  fight them funny 
looking fellows again, to tell you the truth I got tired of all this 
shooting and running and those bomb going off has just about got my 
nerves on edge, but somehow with the grace of God I managed two stay 
alive , I had saved ever dollar they paid me and has it in a little jar 
I have found on the battle field, I was aiming to buy my pap a mule 
when I got this fighting over and all so men would not make fun of him, 
I had got so tired of having to go borrow a mule off other farmers ever 
blasted year, I guess two years has passed and I liked two week having 
my time served in the army , and they was going to give me what they 
called a discharge which meant  I was finished fighting and was a free 
born man again, I was anxious to get home and see how maw and paw has 
faired with the corn crops, when I arrived in the little township of my 
home territory Muddy Fork, folks greeted me and shook my hand, they 
were glad I made it back among them,. I had that jar of money in a 
little suit case and I made my way walking over to the Muddy Fork stock 
yard, I was going to surprise paw with a  good plow mule, I asked the 
stock yard keeper to go fetch me the best plow mule he had from the 
stables , and he was eager to get me one, he come back with a fine 
looking mules as I ever had seen, and he asked me how I was going to 
pay for such a fine mule ?as he has brought for me to look at, I told 
him green cash ,, how much is this mule going to cost me  I asked? One 
hundred dollars the man said and that firm , I am not coming down a 
dollar he added this is the best mule for forty miles around, he the 


Click here to read the rest of this story (43 more lines)