Judith of the Cumberlands

								

little chicken had its feet frozen in the wet barnyard so badly that it
lost one of them, and Nancy, who had taken the poor mite into the house
and nursed it till she loved it, constructed for it a wooden leg
consisting of a small, light peg strapped to the stump. And thereafter
Nicodemus, a rooster who must now belie the name since he could not cling
to a perch with his single foot, became an institution in the Card
household.
Jephthah Turrentine was a natural bone-setter, and was sent for far and
near to reduce a dislocation or bandage a broken limb. In the pursuit of
this which came to be almost a profession, he acquired a good knowledge
of tending upon the sick, and the bitterness of rival practitioners was
added to the score between him and Nancy. The case of Nicodemus furnished
the man with a chance to call the woman a chicken doctor, and the name
appealing to the humorous side of mountain character stuck to her,
greatly to her disgust.
Aunt Nancy's dooryard was famous for its flowers, being a riot of pied
bloom from March till December. Even now fire-in-the-bush and bridal
wreath made gay the borders.
"Good land, Jude Barrier!" called Nancy herself. "You're as wet as a
drownded rat. 'Light and come in."
Old Turrentine permitted his niece to clamber from Selim, and secure him
and both mules.
"Whar's the boys?" he inquired in a great, sonorous bass, the deep,
true-pitched voice promised by the contours of strong bony arches under
heavy brows and the strong nose-bridge.
"In jail," responded Judith laconically, turning to enter the gate. Then,
as she walked up the hard-trodden clay path between the tossing, dripping
heads of daffodils, "Uncle Jep, did you know Creed Bonbright's daddy?"
"In jail!" echoed Nancy Card, making a pretence of trying to suppress a
titter, and thereby rendering it more offensive. "Ain't they beginnin'
ruther young?"
Tall old Jephthah got to his feet, knocked the ashes from his pipe and
put it in his pocket.
"Who tuck 'em?" he inquired briefly, but with a fierce undernote in his
tones. "What was they tuck fer?"
"I never noticed," said Judith, standing on the step before them,
wringing the wet from her black calico riding skirt. "Nobody named it to
me what they was tuck fer. I was talkin' to Creed Bonbright, and he
'lowed to find out. He said that was his business."
"Creed Bonbright," echoed her uncle; "what's he got to do with it? He's
been livin' down in Hepzibah studyin' to be a lawyer--did he have Jeff
and Andy jailed?"
Judith shook her head. "He didn't have nothing to do with it," she
answered. "He 'lowed they would be held for witnesses against some men
Haley had arrested. But he's goin' to come back and live on Turkey
Track," she added, as though that were the only thing of importance in
the world. "He says we-all need law in the mountings, and he's a-goin' to
bring it to us."
"Well, he'd better let my boys alone if he don't want trouble," growled