Benjamin and Harriet

Ol' Benjamin Franklin Freeman? 
Aye, law . . . Oh, I knowed him . . .

Now that there was some kind of a man!

Borned in eighteen and thirty four

Into a hard place and hard times.

And when the times got harder still,

They say he fought on both sides--

Southern gray, Yankee blue -- he done what he had to do.

When the War was over with -- according to some --

 Ben and his brother laid for a man,

What had rode off with the family's last horse,
Leaving naught behind to pull the plow.

 The thief was one of the Home Guard
Claimed the right 'count of Ben's wearing the blue.

Ben kilt that scoundrel dead and called it even,

Though the horse and its gears was long gone.

Reconstructing hisself, Ben went to Mars Hill;

Studied medicine with the doctor there

Till  he could write a prescription good as any man.

From all round, folks come to him for curing

He couldn't heal what lay between him and Harriet though.

And he went for her lover with a pocket knife --

Meaning to kill the no count feller 
But the durn knife couldn't do no good. 

So Ben packed up his young uns and took off

With ox and sled and tools 
Enough to reconstruct hisself again,

Over yon, on the far side of the mountain.

He lived out another thirty years,

Well content to be shed of that huzzzy,

Watching the young uns growing

Into lives of their own.

In later years he saw his wife once more,

Posed for one last picture at Harriet's side.

Still tall and straight he stood, unbowed by time.

Old age had got her, he told me later . . .

Yet still . . . he'd shook his head and spat before allowing

As she still had that teasing way about her

That had made him try to kill a one time friend

With naught but a  Barlow pocket knife.

Once again I'm using someone else's kin. I posted about Benjamin Franklin Freeman back in February, before I was doing Sepia Saturdays and his story is just too good to pass up. You can go HERE for more about Ben and Harriet.

And for even more pictures and stories of other folk's kin. visit Sepia Saturday.