The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [19]
Looking back at one point, he saw that not just the loafers but a crowd of people were following him. When he got as far as the courthouse, he saw that a man wearing a silver star on his chest was tying a rope to a big maple tree in the courthouse yard, and on the end of the rope was a hangman’s noose. Then the man wearing the star came up to Jacob and said, “Do you know what we do to cattle rustlers in this town?” No, Jacob said, he didn’t know. The man pointed at the rope and said, “We hang ’em.” By this time, the town square was full of people. The man wearing the star took Jacob’s arm and started leading him toward the gallows. I aint rustled no cattle! Jacob protested. “Where’d you get that heifer?” the man demanded. Jacob explained that he had bought it for six dollars and sixty-three cents plus commission at the Spadra Stock Exchange and the feller there told him to come here to Kansas City to get it. “This here aint Kansas City,” the man said. “It’s Fayetteville, state of Arkansas. Come on,” and the man led him on over to the noose.
Jacob felt just terrible. Didn’t they at least give a feller a decent trial before hangin him? Take the heifer back! Jacob pled. But the man went on, and slipped the noose over Jacob’s head. Just then a man in the crowd, a distinguished looking old gentleman with white hair and dressed in a suit, stepped up and said, “All right, Bradshaw. This has gone far enough.” Then he said to Jacob, “I’m Judge Walker, and it just so happens I’m also the owner of the stockyard. These men have played their joke on you. Those men in Spadra also played their joke on you. But enough is enough. Take the heifer. You, Bradshaw, kindly escort this gentleman out of town and see to it that he meets no more fools along the way.” So Jacob and his heifer were allowed to leave.
He didn’t know how to get home, but he had a general notion that it was somewhere to the east, so he led the heifer in that direction. Although Jacob had no knowledge of geography, he had a sixth sense of direction which brought him, after a week of walking and leading the heifer, right back to Stay More. The effort and humiliation that he had been subjected to in order to obtain his cow would leave him sour on city people for the rest of his life, and for many years after this incident he preferred to remain in Stay More rather than venturing out into the world. In fact, thirty years later when he would be offered the governorship of the whole state practically on a platter, he would at first decline, out of his reluctance to have any further dealings with city people. We may thus consider one more quality of his cabin: it is insulation not alone against weather and wilderness but also against any intrusion from the more sophisticated city world, a fortress against cosmopolitans. If Jacob’s cabin would look ridiculous on a city street corner, no less ridiculous would a city man look, standing here in front of his cabin.
Jacob found his brother Noah practically dead from cold and starvation during his long absence. Apparently Noah had lacked the simple will or motivation to get up and keep the fire going and eat the food that Jacob had left for him. Now Jacob had to force him to eat something. Even after eating, Noah was too weak to talk. Jacob yearned to hear him say shitfire, but Noah couldn’t. So Jacob did all of the talking, telling him of his recent adventures in Spadra and Fayetteville and along the way. By the time he was finished telling it, Noah had recovered enough strength to say shitfire. And then he added, “All that bother and trouble fer nuthin. You should of stood in bed, like