CHAPTER XXV
Blue Ridge.-Patrick C. If.-Paid $5,000 for a Horse, $500 for a Saddle.-Plenty of Money.-Teaching in Patrick Henry Academy.-Thirty-five Pupil,.-$3,500 a Mouth Salary.-Going to Church.-Confederate Candle.
We were now nestled in the little mountains at the foot of the Blue Ridge, that rose higher and higher, until Mount Nebo and Airy reared their tall heads, like sentinels, to the southwest of us, while towards the setting sun lay the long line of blue, from which the mountain chain takes its name.
We were fifty miles due west from Danville, and six miles from the North Carolina line. Our nearest town was fourteen miles-Henry Court-house. Our post office was three or four, at Penn's Store. Patrick Court-house was twenty miles west of us, right at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Dr. Hopson made arrangements to preach once a month at Patrick Court-house, and twice a month at Horse Pasture Church. The rest of the time Bro. Spencer was to dispose of as he thought best. The first thing to be thought of was a means of conveyance. Owing to the hilly country, and bad roads at this season of the year, he only needed a horse, for which he cheerfully paid Bro. Spencer $5,000. He also succeeded in buying a saddle and bridle, which cost him $600 more.
The horse was a very fine-looking, large gray animal, and strong enough to stand any amount of burden. [
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We had plenty of money then. Wherever the Doctor had held a meeting, he had been amply remunerated by a liberal brotherhood. He would often receive from seven to eight hundred dollars for a ten days' meeting, besides which a sister would often say, "Here, Doctor, is a little present. I sold a turkey the other day for fifty dollars, and can make no better use of it than to give the money to you;" or some brother would hand him from one to two hundred dollars as a private donation.
When we had time to look around us, we felt satisfied that there were good people all over Virginia. For away out of the United States and the Confederate States, and almost out of the world, we had discovered a home where we could write on its walls, "A la bam a." Here we could rest, and fear no evil. As soon as I had learned our geographical position, I told Dr. Hopson. "If ever a Federal soldier reaches here the cause is lost, for they will go everywhere else first."
We had no near neighbors, but we could see the houses of four or five from our own high porch. A mile away was the home of Ballard Preston, which had been made desolate by his death a few months before. Dr. Francis was on another high hill; and back of us Dr. Dillard lived. No one put his house under a bushel in that country. We could see other farms and tenements five and six miles from us. There was a great deal of wealth in the two counties, though it was confined to a few families. Of one thing you would have to be very careful-if you had an evil tongue, you must not speak ill of any one, for everybody was kin to everybody else. And as all the matrons and their mothers and daughters had been educated at the Moravian [
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school in North Carolina, thirty or forty miles south of there, this made them all double kin.
We lad been in Henry county but a short time, before the friends began to beg Dr. Hopson to open school in Patrick Henry Academy, four miles from our home. There were no schools of any kind in the county, and the children were losing much valuable time. He opened school with thirty-five boys and young men. He had to leave home early in the morning, and be away until dark. The time hung heavy on my hands, and I was glad when Sister Spencer proposed that I should teach her children who were too small to go to the Academy. I consented, and taught for a while in Bro. Spencer's office in the yard, but soon had applications for more pupils than I could accommodate there, and moved my school to a cabin a few hundred yards away. I had twenty-five pupils, and the Doctor thirty-five. I received $500 a month for all my pupils, and he $3,500 for his school. We were making money fast, and had our eyes on a nice little farm worth $26,000 which we were going to buy when we made up the amount.
It kept the Doctor busy at night renewing his studies. Some of the young gentlemen were very well advanced, as there had always been a good school kept up at the Academy. We had no candles or lamps, and had to read and study by the help of lightwood, or fat pine, which was the heart of old pine trees, and filled with resin and turpentine. It made a light by which you could see to read in the furthest part of the room. I said we had no candles. We did, and I will tell you how they were made. We had first made a square block of wood, six inches square; in the middle was inserted a stick a foot high. We then took a ball of candle [
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wicking, and dipped it in a mixture of beeswax, resin, and a little tallow, which was very scarce, as the government wanted all the grease in the country to grease the army wagons. After the wick was thickly coated, we would take our fifteen foot candle, and commence at the bottom of the stick, and coil it round and round until it formed a pyramid; then we would wind a narrow strip of tin around the stick, make a loop near the top, and draw our wick through it-and we had our candle.
But this candle was kept for Sunday and company. When the house was filled with visitors, those who retired first took the candle, with the injunction, "As soon as you are through with it, set it outside your door," as it often had to do duty for half a dozen people.
Horse Pasture was not a town; it was the name of a creek, which ran down from the mountains. Our church was two miles from Bro. Spencer's. The gentlemen always went on horseback and the ladies of the family in the carriage. Sometimes, when all the horses were at home, I would ride through the shorter route with the Doctor, but the hills were so steep and long I did not enjoy it much, finding it very difficult to keep from slipping back off the saddle. The church was a good substantial frame building, out in the woods. The people came to church, some on horseback, some in carriages, some in ox carts, some on foot, until the house would be filled.
I was particularly struck with the deference paid to women, by young men especially. If a lady rode up to the stile, unattended, two or three young men would hasten to assist her to alight and help her down from the block, and almost always escort her to the door. This was common all over Virginia, but I noticed it more [
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here than anywhere, perhaps because I thought one would not have expected it.
While many elegant and cultured people came to church, the majority of the congregation were poor people, totally uneducated, living scattered all through the hills and valleys of the country. The Doctor adapted his preaching to the latter class, and said if they could understand him the others could. The common people heard him gladly. He was successful in turning some to Christ.
Fortunately the winter was not severe, and the spring opened early. At rare intervals we heard news from the front. The scene of conflict was too far away for us to know much of it. Nearly all the really able-bodied men were gone from the country. None of them had time to spend in visiting their families. [
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