Big Toby find Love (standard:romance, 2120 words)
Author: stanley mcqueen kentucky backwoods writer	Added: Jul 23 2007	Views/Reads: 3210/2317	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
short backwood love story

Big Toby 

living along the sloped ridges of Muddy Fork county and riding a mule
almost two miles to work at the little fox sawmill is quite a chore, 
and then riding back at five in the evening and then helping Paw with 
his tobacco and corn crops in the summer , just about has me wore thin 
as a dime. Being a sharecropper son and the only one born to my folks 
union and being at the ripe old age of twenty one and not wed yet is 
quite trifling knowing that most young men my age has already found a 
mate and settled  down to farming like everyone here and about does, I 
never mention my name I.”m called Big Toby mostly because im a Hugh man 
I weigh nearly three hundred pounds, and there  is not a man in the 
county that will tackle me in a fight, I carry my weight around here 
and hardly ever have any trouble getting along with folks, do you know 
any man who has to have eight big chicken eggs fried to fill his craw, 
/ maw keep chicken and plenty of them because she know without them 
that she could not fed such a fellow as me , paw says that he never 
seen the beat of a fellow eating almost a dozen eggs ever morning, 
before his goes to work at his sawmill. I figure that why none of these 
Muddy fork neighbor gals want ever take a look at a big sort like me 
and I cannot say I blame a woman for sparking a big man as myself. I 
guess with one look they say I could not cook enough for that rascal 
and that throws a sprig in the wagon wheel. Well to say the least I 
figured I would just keep on living under Ma and Pa roof and except my 
fate, yesterday at the sawmill there come a stage coach around the 
ridge wagon road and it stopped at the mouth of the sawmill and off it 
got one of the biggest woman I ever seen, she carried umbrella and was 
wearing city duds and I found out later she was old man Moore 
granddaughter and was come to the mountain to visit for a spell, Old 
man Moore called me to his small work shack and introduced me to his 
grand daughter . She is from up Ohio and has never been down here to 
these stick and she wanted to come and see how us country folk lived, 
Moore explained” and boy I want you to show her around th district, 
I”ll get morris to work in your place for a day or so you can do this 
chore for me , and boy you know I have to be here at the mill or these 
sorry work hands will take naps on me if I leave here, so I figure you 
being about the same age of her it would be a good thing to get you to 
show her around, she writes for the Ohio new company and write articles 
on places she visit for the paper son and you take her where ever she 
want to go ok he said” well you being th boss I have no choice right I 
says” that it Toby I”m the boss he added” it was on the next day that I 
hurried to the mill and she was in a wagon waiting for me to haul her 
around the districts , she was a friendly gal for sure and look good in 
the face but the rest of her was like me pretty bulky , we hit it off 
real well and I was enjoying her company and getting to drive her 
around like a big shot would do in the city places , I was glad Moore 
picked me to do the honors of hauling her , well things was doing swell 
till we went into Muddy fork township , our little town was not much to 
look at a few building a small court house a little box type jail house 
and two boarding houses and one big General store and that was about it 
to say the least, when we was about half way threw the township a man 
from off the street seen us coming along on the wagon and I heard him 
say something that riled me to the fullest, look Tom he said to his 
friend who was walking along side him, at those two tubs of lard on 
that wagon,.. I pulled hard against the bridles of the mule team and 
they come to a quick start, then I put the brake on the wagon and 
jumped down and headed to get a hold of that smart mouth fellow who had 
said the smart remarks , he seen me coming and it was too late for him 
to run I grab him about the collar and threw him threw the General 
store picture winder and then the other man run for his life and , the 
man come back from within the store and had a pistol in his had he had 
retained from his breaches pocket. He aimed the big bore pistol right 
at me and said you have done it man, you have nearly killed me he said 
wiping blood from his forehead where he had bashed threw the big winder 
of the store house,,, now mr I say if you shoot me i,'ll have just 
enough life left to kill you before I die so go ahead and pulled that 
trigger I shouted, he went to trembling and shacking something awful , 
then he dropped his pistol and run like a scared turkey, My guest Sara 
Moore grand daughter was crying and terrified and I comforted her and 
drove on.. I could tell she was a good person she was concerned about 
the man I had made fly for a spell and asked me would he live reckoned? 
Yes I tell her he will have a nob on his nogging for a day or so and be 
fine.. She jots down words in a writing tablet as we go along seeing 
the country side and we spend the better part of the day just riding 
along , the day was pretty and no so hot a good day for just admiring 


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