Frank Mehaffey, Maggie, Haywood County, North Carolina
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Frank Mehaffey of Maggie Valley, Haywood County, North Carolina, was 45 years old when recorded by Joseph Hall in 1939.
[transcripption copyrigh Michael Montgomery and Paul Reed, 2017]
[INDISTINCT TALKING]
Back in nineteen and thirteen, me and my brother coon hunted lots in Smokies, we had a dog named Track, he was a good'un, we went to Flat Creek one evening and built up a camp fire and stayed till two o’clock the next morning, we left and went in on Stillwell, and old Track, he struck, right up Stillwell he went and us right after him, about ten o’clock in the day it begin snowing, we followed old Track about a hour and the snow was about twenty-two inches deep, we turned back to the camp, about two o’clock in the evening old Track come back and we had a big campfire, chunks had rolled down and old Track come in and set down by the fire, and directly he retched down and got a chunk of fire in his mouth and right out the door he went, we was right out after him, went back in on Stillwell and we was a-tracking him, he’d run off and left us, right up Stillwell he went and us right after him, and about a mile above where we’d turned back why, we found old Track at a big cliff, he took this chunk of fire and he treed the coons in the cliff and stuck the fire under it and set the leaves afire, smoked the coons out and had them, three big'uns a-lying there dead, I give them to my brother and told him to come back the nigh a way and I’d go up to Balsam Corner to see if I could locate some bear sign, and I didn’t take anything to eat with me, went up there and the fog come down and I got lost and got in on Tennessee, getting about dark, and I traveled all night, the next day, and late next evening, hadn’t had a bite to eat, come to a little log cabin in on Cosby [Creek] somewhere, I called and a woman come to the door, and I asked her about staying all night, I told her I was starved and froze and give out, said she guessed she could keep me, so I went in and she said there wasn’t no man of the house, started to bed, she made four pallets, they was her and two daughters, made a pallet in each corner of the room, went to lay down, and she got a big pistol and laid it up on the fireboard, and she said, “you see this gun? if anything takes place here tonight,” says, “I’ll use that gun on ye,” so I just tumbled down on the pallet and was give out, and just in a few minutes I was about asleep, the old lady, she begin to snore, [SNORE] she said, “the gun ain't loaded,” [SNORE] “the gun ain't loaded,” I took it for granted that she wanted me to crawl over to her pallet, and I crawled over and laid with her awhile, and I went back to my pallet, I just plunked down on it, just three days walk and no sleep and nothing to eat, and directly the middle-aged girl said, “my time next, my time next, my time next,” I decided that one more p- piece wouldn’t kill me, and I, I crawled over with her pallet and lay awhile, and I just barely could crawl when I left there, and, and I just about half-way back to my pallet, this little girl over in the other corner with a little finer voice said, “don’t forget me, don’t forget me,” I thought there I was that I knowed I’s a new duck and I crawled up there and tried petting, I got over and laid with her awhile, and I just started back to my pallet and fell over, and just as I went out of my head, the old woman said, “ready again, ready again,” and I said [SNORE] “the gun ain't loaded,” about, about three days my brother found me there unconscious.