Recollections of Estil Barb Bible _
"The Recollections of Estil B. Bible"_

Article Six:

My father was the youngest of a family of nine children. I was the youngest of a family of seven children. For that reason, three of my grandparents were deceased long before I was born. My grandfather on my mothers side died when I was three years old and I have no recollection of ever seeing him. I had four -uncles on my fathers side, but none on my mothers side of the family. There was one of my uncles that I never saw. My oldest Uncle Moses Bible came in from Wisconsin on a visit when I was only six or seven years old, but I saw very little of him because I was more interested in what went on outside the house than what two old men had to talk about. When I was about four years old, Father took the whole family on a visit to our kin folks who lived on Big Creek and in the mountains above Nough. We stayed all night with my Aunt Polly Jones and the next day went on to visit my two uncles Jacob Bible and Uncle Aaron Bible. This was the one and only time that I ever saw my Uncle Jake.

Now, here begins my story of one of the grandest and most beloved old Uncles that a man ever had. It seems that from the very start of our visit, that I was the sole attraction for Uncle Aaron. He naturally loved children and took me by the hand and led me around all over the place. He took me to his orchard and he had All kinds of apples getting ripe. One kind was what he called the "buff apple." They were as large as grape fruit and he picked the biggest one he could find for me, it was good and mellow and seemed to me like the best apple I ever ate in my life. We then went to his leather shop and he picked up his leather knife and cut off two strips of string leather a half inch wide and three or more feet long and gave them to me and said for me to take them home and when I got a little bigger I could make me a cross bow to shoot birds. But sorry to say, they didn't do me any good. My brother swiped them from me to make shoestrings for himself and to mend harness.

Some two or three years after our visit to Uncle Aarons, he came on a visit to see us. The next morning after he came, he suggested to Father that they walk around over the farm, that he wanted to see father's farm. From as far back as I can remember, my father always used a walking stick or cane when walking around and he kept several extra canes on hand and he asked Uncle Aaron if he wanted a cane on the walk. Uncle Aaron promptly declined the offer saying that he had always got around pretty well with out a cane. While he was nine years older whan father, he had an inclination to always try to make it appear that he was younger than his age. This trait was very noticeable in all our association afterward. After this visit I didn't see my uncle any more until I was old enough to be trusted to go on long trips on horseback. After that I would go on trips to the mountains and stay over night with my cousins Celestin and Elizabeth Jones and their brother Jehu Jones. The next day I would go on to see Uncle Aaron and Aunt Sara. These trips were made in the fall of the year after I started to college I didn't see him any more until 1900.

In the fall of 1900 I taught a school at Bell Hill and my boarding place was at Nailon. It was five or more miles by road from Nailon to Uncle Aarons, but some one told me that if I would go up the road a mile or more and take up the mountain I would find a low place in the mountain overlooking Uncle Aarons farm, and could get there in two and a half miles or less. I tried it and found the way across and after that. I went to see him many times. On the way from the mountain top down to the house the trail passed through one of his orchards, and in gathering his apples there would nearly always be a few apples left in the very top of the tree and they would hang on until after frost, and the longer they hung on the tree the better and mellower they got. I would knock them out with sticks and stones until I got my pockets full and went on to the house. He had lots of apples "holed up" in his garden but they didn't seem to be as good as those that had hung on the trees. He would clean off a place in his garden about three feet wide and clear across the garden and place his apples in the form of a ridge three feet wide at the base and 18 to 24 inches deep in the center of the ridge and cover them with straw and a layer of dirt on top of the straw. He then covered the whole ridge with long split clabbourds to keep them dry and they would save until spring, but he was usually sold out long before spring.

On one of my trips to visit Uncle Aaron, I had the worst scare I ever had in all my life. The way it came about, when I got to the top of the mountain there was some four or five dogs eating on a dead cow brute about twenty five yards from where I had to pass, and they looked up and saw me and all of a sudden they decided that I was invading their feeding grounds, and they were going to run me off. The whole bunch came at me with their bristles up, teeth showing and snapping, barking and snarling. Take it from me I was really scard, but fortunately for me, I was not scard entirely out of my wits. I knew that if I ran that they would attack me from behind and tear me apart. I didn't have any thing to defend myself with and it looked like I would have to fight situation like that, I am telling you, bare handed for my life and when a man is in a in a situation like that, his mind works like lightning. I glanced down at my feet and there was a good stout stick or club almost at my feet. I grabbed it up and raised it over my shoulder and by that time the dogs were within six feet of me. I took one step towards the dogs and they all turned and ran off down the mountain.

I was so relieved that I almost cried and at the same time I was so mad that I guess I "cussed!' a little too. The Lord says "vengeance is mine" but if I had those dogs in a close place where they couldn't get away from me I would not have waited on the Lord.

I don't think I mentioned the dog episode to Uncle Aaron, because he was 81 years old and I didn't want him to worry about my safety.

When I started back on Sunday evening I had cut me a good heavy walking stick and was ready for the dogs but they were nowhere to be see.

On this trip, Uncle Aaron asked me when I was going to my home in Oven Creek, I told him I planned to go the next Saturday if I could get a horse to ride. He gave me a quarter and told me to go to C.L. Ottinger's store and get him some musket caps. He said he had plenty of power and shot but could not find any caps for his old army musket which was an old 50 caliber springfield musket that he had bored and turned into a shot gun.

He said that when I came back to be sure and bring my shotgun with me when I came to see him again that we would go squirrel hunting. So I got his caps and went over the next, week end and was wondering what kind of an excuse he would put up to avoid going, as I have said before, he did not want to admit his age, but I knew he was too old to climb around over the mountains hunting squirrels. The next morning after breakfast I told him to load up his gun and we would go on that squirrel hunt. He said, "Now Estil, I planned all the time to go, but I am not feeling so good this morning and I had better not go. I will get Andrew Sexton to go with you!" Andrew lived close by and he called over to him and told him to bring his gun and come over and go with me. When Andrew came Uncle Aaron said now boys, take Old Leed along and he will tree them for you, he is an awful good squirrel dog. Now, Old Leed was about as old a dog as Uncle Aaron was a man. I would guess him to be at least 12 or 15 years old.

When we got to the woods, every time we looked up a tree Old Leed would run to the tree and rear up on it and bark as loud as he could, and of course that scared all the squirrels and they scampered to their dens or hid where they could not be seen. About eleven o'clock I looked up a big old black oak and saw a hornets nest as big as half bushel. I showed it to Andrew and suggested that we both get behind, a tree and shoot through the nest and the hornets would blame the old dog and take it out on him and he would go home. When we shot the nest, the hornets came out in a swarm and just literally covered him up and in about ten seconds the old dog was going down the mountain howling all the way.

When we got home, Uncle Aaron met us out in the yard and said, "Boys, what happened to that old dog?" I asked him how he acted and he said that he came home 'rolling and howling and scratching like he was in awful misery. I told him all about how the dog acted and what we did to get rid of him and Uncle Aaron said, "Well boys if that is the way he acted you just served him right."

Uncle Aaron had two old mules. Their names were Kit and Tom. They were 35 years old the last time I saw them, and he also had a grandson Bernie Bible 10 or 12 years old who visited him occasionally. On one of his visits Uncle Aaron asked Bernie if he would shingle his mules for him. Their manes and tails had not been shorn in a year or more and was looking pretty ragged.

Bernie asked his Grandpa how to shingle a mule as he had never saw one shingled. Uncle Aaron told him to put a bridle on them and hitch them up and clip their manes and tails with the sheep shears. Bernie took the shears and went to the barn and sheared their tails clean of all hair. He didn't leave any long hair on the tip of the tails for a fly brush. He sheared their manes as close to their necks as he could. Their tails looked like Opossums tails and their necks looked like sheared sheeps necks. When the job was done Bernie called his Grandpa to admire his job and when Uncle Aaron saw the mules he had a big laugh and said "Well, Bernie you done a little bit too good a job."

Well, dear readers, I could write on page after page of the good times I enjoyed with my dear old Uncle Aaron and Aunt Sara, but this is enough to give you an idea of the love and esteem I had for the only Uncle I ever knew.

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