FOUR moonshine-valiant Brills
who lived in Lonesome Hollow,
took a long stout rope
up Lost Woman Mountain
to hog tie Kirby Deever....
Uncertain minded clouds,
like squeezed out curds of milk,
hung listless waiting
for a nudging breeze;
wood doves with wings a-droop
sat silent while
the tireless Brills perspiring
clambered up the hill.
Azariah, known as 'Jawbone,'
schemer of the tribe,
was hatching out his plan
to capture the wild boy, Kirby,
whose hut was on Lost Woman;
Jawbone thought that
'Uncle John' Robinson,
who was bringing his circus
into the Cumberlands,
might be willing to 'dicker.'
Cursing the retarding briars,
the Brills sneaked up
to the brush hut where Kirby
slept through noonday heat;
the Brills swooped down
on Kirby like vultures,
jerked him from his dreams
to bind him hand and foot,
and even then he fought them
with teeth and knees and elbows.
With the evening's cool,
the abductors having rested,
unbound Kirby's feet,
fastened a long rope around
his slim loins and drove him
down to Lonesome Hollow.
'How much yo 'low he'll fotch?'
asked 'Taterbug.'
'I don't aim to take
less'n six dollars fer him,'
said Jawbone.
With a Brill on guard,
Kirby lay in a corn crib;
Jawbone yelled to the women,
'cook half a hawg
and a bushel of grits--
we-uns had a hard day
and we got to feed Kirby heavy
to get him in dickerin' shape
agin circus mornin'.'
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Like famished wolves
the Brill men ate,
washing their victuals down
with undiluted juice of corn,
but Kirby, like any
newly captured wild creature
left his heaping pan untouched,
tho' late that night he drank
a little water from the jug.
They loaded Kirby
into a wagon and tied him,
then drove with him out
of the Hollow and followed
the creek road toward
the valley camp ground
thirty miles away....
Uncle John Robinson
scratched his head,
looked down on Kirby
in the wagon bed--
'He don't seem wild,
but he sure look dead,'
said Uncle John,
'We cotched him on Lost Woman,'
said Jawbone.
'He's only possumin'.'
said 'Taterbug.
'He looks kinder pitiful,'
said Uncle John,
whose sharp old eyes
beneath their bushy brows
were studying all the while
the wild one's captor's--
'anyhow, I got and empty cage,
the hawg maned hyeny
busted out at Middlesbourough.'
John Robinson led the Brills
inside a tent to where
there stood a steel barred
den with lemon yellow wheels,
its carven panels
painted red and gold,
which stirred the gawking
Brills with admiration.
'If the feller's really wild.
I won't take no chances,'
said Uncle John as he
unlatched and opened wide
the heavy door-- 'I want
you boys to step inside
and test them bars,
just to make certain
that they'll keep him safe.'
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Jawbone unsuspecting
hastened in,
like sheep the others followed
and grasped and tried
to shake the heavy bars.
And as they strained
the oaken door banged shut,
a steel bar fell--
a padlock clicked....
Brief silence in the den--
and then came softly muttered
curses which increased,
became hoarse yells of wrath,
and Uncle John who could
himself 'outcuss' a stevedore,
chuckled as he walked away.
From where he lay, Kirby,
sick with fright, could see
the sheltering brushing hills;
then Uncle John come quietly
to talk to him and tried
to make him understand--
the wise old showman spoke
as he would to a lion or a tiger,
softly at first as he would
to the old bull elephant, Bolivar,
and all the fear
left Kirby's eyes,
and Kirby took the tempting
popcorn brick from Uncle John,
he put some into his mouth
and found that it was sweet....
When Uncle John unbound him,
and when the wild one found
that he was free he sprang
down from the wagon
and holding tight
his popcorn brick he ran
as he had never run before--
straight for Lost Woman.
And all day long
a side show barker flailed
his banners with a buggy whip
and bawled: 'Step inside, folks!
See the four wild men
from heathen Madagascar--
Esau, Usaw, Isaw and Hesaw--
the wild cannibal brothers,
all in one cage!'
Some of the patrons
from the hills
were well acquainted
with the Brills -- but nobody
asked for his money back.
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