AIN'T THAT SOMETHIN' ?

Historic little tale from Southeast Indiana during the Civil War

AIN'T THAT SOMETHIN’ ?

Well, Pap, g’mornin’! Oh, you fired up the stove ! Thanks. I'll fix you a good strong mullein tea for your sore throat, soon as the kittle starts a-singin’.

So glad there wasn't no white patches when I checked your mouth last night, so ‘tain't strep, for goodness sake. But still, you ought to take you a rest day, y’ hear?

Oh look, Solly done brung in a pile of firewood already, and the big basket of breakfast eggs. Ain't that somethin’? He's so thoughty. No doubt he remembered that William’s gonna be carryin’ Mary and Sissy over here for the day, so’s him and Ben and Simon and you, and Solly, o’course, can git to fixing’ them thar ole fences back o’er yonder.

That Solly, he’s sure nuff turnin’ into a strikin’ young man, ain’t he ? And who knows what would’uv come of him if you and Jacob hadn't seen the smoke and went pounding over to Scoot’s place.

Poor ole Scoot, he was just hangin’ on by a thread, what with all the burns and the smoke in his lungs, couldn't be saved. And all the time his little bitty grandson had been plunked down the hill in the barn, with just a torn scrap of paper that his no-good dad had put on him : “This is Solomon. Beth left.”

Lessee, he'll be 12 next week, so that's 10 years since you and Jacob brung ‘im home, Pap, and him so little you an’ me decided to jist let ‘im think he was born to us - no need fer him to ever find out about all that past awfulness, and that's how it'll stay. No need to burden him.

Aw, Pap, when you see Solly, you can't help but see Jacob, can you? Sure and that was a manly thing Jacob done, to go sign up for the Union Army - when was it ? 1862 … And as much as anything, it tore his heart to know how hard it was gonna be for Solly, who would miss him every minute.

It's been real hard for everybody these 3 years he's been gone an’ nary a word, not even from some of his buddies who already come home from the war, them that made it home…

Well here, Pap, drink this ‘ere tea, it'll soothe your throat. And keep downin’ as much as you kin all day. Oh yeah, let me get you them bridles you wus a-workin’ on. That's something you could do while you're a-settin’ here.

Oh, Lord a mercy! Hear all that ruckus? That's Sissy out there jumping up on Solly like he was her own personal ridey horse!

Oh, you know what Solly tole me, when I sent him over to Mary's with that batch of starter dough? Sissy was out in the garden trying to plant some apple seeds to get her some apple trees, and she had her a banana she was trying to plant too - ain't that somethin’ ?

Oh, and she asked Solly if he'd help her move some ‘varnish’ around in her playhouse - Mary whispered ‘Furniture’ so Solly could follow - that li’l pistol !

Oh good, here come our Sommers boys, Ben and Simon, all woked up now. G’mornin’, and would you please set up the big table, sons? And here's William and Mary and Sissy. Great big old hugs, ever’body!

Well now, may’s well set yerselves on down around the table, everything's ready to serve all you’uns. Ben ! You set up an extry seat ! Was you thinking about Jacob ? I know, ever since he went off to join the 83rd Indiana, him feeling’ like that's what a man orter do, it's like there's always going to be his spot here waiting for him.

Here, pass this food around, y'all. Take plenty, you'll be needing lotsa energy to work on them old fences today. And Mary, you better eat up too, because you and me got work to do here at the house. Yep, we gotta red up the back room, for a poor Union soldier that a family over in Richmond, Virginia been a-takin’ care of, but they found out he’s from back here, so they're a-sending him back on the train, and Pap and me said we'd bring him to our place. One of our boys, you know, a-course we'll take ‘im in, right?

So what happened is, after the big fire over there, Mr. an' Miz Randall come back to Richmond to see if their property had survived, and lo an’ behold, here was this young Union soldier laying up by their stables, with burns all over ‘him an’ had been layin’ there for days. He’d gone up in there to let their horses out before the fire got ‘em. So they brought him in and got their doctor son to tend to him, and now he’s better, they're sending him back to Indiana. Oh yeah, turns out me and Pap know the young feller. Yep, his name is Jacob Sommers - now ain't that somethin’?
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