Old Gatestown Chronicles

By Eva Conrad

A collection of short stories about people living in a fictional Kentucky town in the 1800s. The characters' lives intertwine through past, present and future creating a portrait of their community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eva Conrad
• Release date: Sep 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301180912

Eva Conrad

Eva Conrad, a poet and author of gothic, historical and romantic fiction, expresses the depth and breadth of human emotion through her depiction of complex characters and situations. She has an affinity for imperfect heroes and heroines, especially those who were born to hardship or disadvantage. Eva's scenes are sensual and lush with detail; yet she embraces the spiritual experience in her daily life and writing.

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Old Gatestown Chronicles

By Eva Conrad

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Eva Conrad

(K. G. D.)

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author/photographer.

Dedicated to the memory of John T. Smith, dear friend and storyteller.

The Storyteller

Arlie McIntosh sat on a stone carriage step in the town square eating an apple.  Several boys saw him and approached.  He tossed each of them an apple.  Have you come to ruin my peaceful day, then? he said.

The boys settled in a circle around him, looking at each other as they settled in, crossing their legs and leaning forward. 

I suppose you’re expecting a story! Arlie gasped.  The boys nodded, smiling at each other and at the grumpy old man.  Well, then.  I suppose you’ve come to the right place.

Just now I was thinkin’ boys, about the early days, when I was a young man and settled here.  Looking back I was little more than a boy myself, full of the glory of the war and considering myself quite a fine man, (and here he grabbed his jacket collar with his hands and pushed out his chest), ready to start my life.  I had received my land grant and I came to Kentucky to make my estate.  I had nothing, and I put up a cabin, with the help of a few kindly neighbors, who also gave me what I needed and taught me what I had to know to get along.  One of them gave me some little apple trees to start my orchard, another gave me seeds to plant.  In those days Gatestown, you see, Gatestown didn’t even exist.  This place was nothing but rocks and trees and weeds.  Wasn’t much to visit.  No post office, no storefronts, one measly church out in the brush with a dirt road so bad going to it that if it rained a little church had to be cancelled on account of mud.

So them apple trees you got, Captain, them are that old? asked one of the boys. 

A few of ‘em are.  And then after I got the rocks out of the land and got me a plow and a couple of mules I started planting.  I bought some pigs and raised up some piglets.  And I got some tobacco seed, and planted some tobacco, planted some beans, planted some corn, cabbage, and so on.  I started making money and I added onto my cabin.  I had two rooms and I even built me a nice shack for the necessities.  It was then that I was twenty-five and figured I was late for getting a wife.

Were there any pretty girls here back then? asked one of the boys.

No, said Arlie, spitting out a pip, but that didn’t stop me from getting married. I figured my neighbors had been good to me and I should help them out in the area of excess daughters, for all my neighbors had plenty of daughters but a genuine dearth of sons.  So I thought I would marry Yancy Reas’s daughter Olivia, who was as ugly as a stovepipe and already twenty-seven.  She looked sturdy and she and I got along well, so I thought it a good match.

The boys were laughing at this point.  Ugly as a stovepipe! they echoed, so as to remember the insult for later use.

"So I went over to Yancy Reas’s house one evening and asked to marry his daughter and he said that if Olivia agreed then the marriage would suit him