The Mockingbird's Ballad

John L. had left the coastal area of southeast North Carolina when he was seventeen, hiring out as a field hand and learning the basics of blacksmithing and farrier work.

By 1817, John L. had made his way to the Cherokee country in central western North Carolina. He was on his way to the Tennessee country around growing Nashville, but he did not make it. Smitten by a sixteen-year-old girl of the Principle People - Bear Woman, Sagonige Vlogilv - Sarah Bear, he had lingered in the Oconaluftee area long enough to court and marry her. They had pledged their togetherness one late spring morning in 1818, and left after a week for the Tennessee country. They made it on a young mare and an aging stud horse her uncle had given them. Their worldly goods were packed in deer hide wraps behind their Indian saddles. They had found the Sequatchie valley, stopped, were awed by its rough beauty, and made it their home. Mama Bear had always said they knew the valley and the valley knew them. They cleared and claimed a parcel of land by the mouth of a small creek that emptied into the river. Here they built a cabin and made a life and family. John L. did a little blacksmithing, cleared new ground and raised corn and tobacco. Sarah Bear tended a big garden and collected herbs and made medicine. Folks sought her out as a healer of minor ailments and some major ones.

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The audience went just about as J. N. figured it would. Grand John L. got sullen when Lou quietly but firmly announced what she intended. He and Mama Bear were on their front porch just before sunset. Grandfather was in his big rocker, Mama Bear was standing, taking in the sunset. The afternoon had become one of those special early fall days - clear, sunny and warm. The cool evening was not yet evident, but it would be soon by the smell and feel of the air. After the proper greetings, Lou told them the plan. John L. stopped his rocking when Lou began. When she'd completed her case, he tapped out his used up pipe tobacco, refilled it and started his pipe up, looking at her with a hurt, then hard look. He then walked to the corner of his porch, looking up for quite a spell toward the ridge and the streaks of clouds across the red/orange western sunset.

Talking to the ridge he said, "Little Sister, when John Norman went to this damnable stupid war I told him he was a gold-plated fool." He paused, sighed, and continued as if awfully weary, "I told him to come back alive. He has and now you want to go off to it and take your brother. I guess, J. N., you're going back with them to that cursed foolishness."