John woke up about 5:00 in the morning to the smell of coffee and bacon. His mom had not

only fixed him breakfast before his long trek into the city, but had made 2 lunches….one for him and for her too! His mom was going with him. Lucy was awfully good at trading or bartering and she and his dad had decided she would be a great asset on this trip. John went out to the barn to hitch the horses up to the wagon, while his mom finished up the breakfast. They ate as quietly as possible, so as not to wake the rest of the family and then were off on their adventure!

The horses were feeling frisky in the crisp early morning air! They pranced like a couple of Tennessee Walkers. John had to keep reining them back in so they wouldn’t go too fast down the mountain. “What do you think about going to one of the big stores first and see if’n they will take all of the chestnuts, so we don’t have to go traipsin around to a lot of smaller stores, John?”” Lucy asked.

“Sure, ma,” John answered, being a man of few words. “We have passed apple tree after apple tree and they are plum full of apples. Isn’t this the old Johnson place?”

“It shor nuff is, John Joseph. And I do believe they moved away last year. Are you thinkin what I am thinkin?” Lucy asked her son.

“That we need to buy lots of sugar and cinnamon and flour? I can taste yore apple pie rite now, ma!” John said. “We won’t let those apples go to waste!”

Meanwhile, back at the house, Cora Sue had gotten breakfast started and Carl had milked the cow so they would have fresh milk in their coffee and for the kids to drink. Earl had started early workin on his drawings of the still. He was trying to remember the lay of the land around where he would place the still. He was thinking about going back to that spot so he could map it just right. If he timed it right, he could get there and map it out and get back before dark. “Honey, can you take care of cookin the supper and churnin the butter if’n I bring you back some more of those blackberries?”

“Sure thing pa. Who are you takin with you?” Cora Sue answered him.

“I thought I would take Hattie Mae, Timmy and Karen. Does that sound ok to you?” her pa said.

“Shore pa, Carl can stay and help me with the egg collecting and weedin the garden. Is that going to be ok with ma, tho?” Cora Sue asked.

“It’s been almost a full week and I ain’t had no problem with my leg bleeding for 3 days. I think it will be ok. And just think about how those blackberries will taste! Blackberry season is almost over, too.” He knew just what to say to get Cora Sue to feel good about their little trip, cuz he knew ma wouldn’t be any too happy when she came home and found out he wuz out workin agin.

Stolen story; please report.

He and Timmy loaded up some old plywood, hammers, saws and nails and the girls got some food together for the trip and Timmy made sure to bring his shotgun, remembering the bear from last time. “Pa, why are we bringing buildin stuff? This ain’t the material for the still, is it?”

“No, it ain’t, Timmy. I’ll explain it to you when we get up yonder. We ain’t ready to set up the still, yet. John and yore ma will be bringing the copper tubing and copper sheets and such for the still. Let’s get loaded up. Can you go get the girls?”

Drivin down the road in the old jalopy, Hattie Mae tried to explain to Karen how much fun the back seat was for bouncin around. They were both waitin excitedly for their fun ride and knew it would start soon, as their pa just left the road and was driviin down the creek bed when pa put on his brakes, sudden like!

“What happened, pa?” Karen asked as she picked herself off of the back of the front seat! She picked Hattie up too off of the floor of the old car.

“Thars a big tree across the creek! We’re going to have to get out and saw it up sose we can move it. You girls can get out too, but watch out fer critters. There may be berries nearby but remember, where there’s berries, there’s bears!” their pa explained.

The tree across the stream bed was a foot in diameter and the guys decided to each start on the edge of the stream bed, one on each side and work toward the middle, toward each other. Timmy was the first to make a cut all the way through and had the satisfaction of seeing the end of the log roll off down the hill! His dad, being very competitive, put the gas on, so to speak and made the next cut through. There was no hill on that side of the creek so he had to put some muscle to the log to get it out of the way.

The girls had gone for a walk, looking for berries. There was a lot of undergrowth, so they took it slowly. Suddenly Hattie said, “Lookie up ahead on the right. Do you see berries?”

Karen answered, “I think so but let’s go slowly and listen. We don’t want to come up on no bear!” They crept slowly in the direction of the berries and stopped and listened. There was a snuffling sound coming from the berry bushes! Karen grabbed Hattie Mae and they ran like the wind back to pa and Timmy, praying the bear was not following them!

Timmy heard the girls scream and ran toward them with his shotgun. The girls ran up to him, all out of breath with Karen panting, “A bear, a great big bear! Right down there. Do you see him?”

Timmy scanned the horizon, looking for the bear. He finally spied him, but the screaming of the girls had spooked him and he was a long ways away! Timmy laughed, “That old bear is a lot more scared of you than you are of him. He won’t be botherin you any more today! You girls did the right thing, yelling and gettin away from him!” They walked the rest of the way back to their Pa.

“So pa, what is the big secret with all of the tools?” Timmy asked his dad.

Earl smiled and said, “We are going to build a little cabin for us to stay in while we make the still and for while the still is running. You see this flat place over yonder? That will be the place we put it. We need to gather up some 5 inch logs, about 30 of them and some year old trees to use for the stakes to hold the logs steady. We will need to gather wood for the bunk beds, but we can do that later. I’d like to get the cabin as far along as possible today. Do you reckon you could gather up the supplies while I wander up to check on our still site again?”

“Sure Pa, I’ll be glad to ,” Timmy said.