“I reckon I did feel sorry for ’er then,” Aunt Jinny admitted. “Mind, she could’a stiffened ’er spine an’ shame the divil, but she niver did hev much spine t’begin with, an’ Pa jest cosseted ’er. She wouldn’ leave the house, an’ setch a lotta weepin’ in corners!”

“So yore Granpappy figgered make a fresh start over t’ Soddy way, sold th’ farm t’ Matt’s Pa, an’ we got it from him as a weddin’ present. So thet’s how we’re here.”

“An’ yore Granny an’ yore Ma an’ Granpappy an’ me moved. He was ’bout tired of farmin’, so’s he used th’ cash from th’ farm t’rent a house offen a feller, an used the pension money fer spendin’. Arter about six months, I come back here, stayed with my Granny, an’ learnt t’ be a Root Woman. I will admit the three of them, Pa an’ yore Granny till she died and Maybelle, did live high on the hog then,” Aunt Jinny mused. “Which’s why I reckon that layabout Lew Jones thought he was a-marryin’ money. But it all went bust when Pa died. There was the bit left over in the bank from a-sellin’ th’ farm, but the pension died with Pa. Pore Pa prolly thought Maybelle was doin’ all right by marryin’ Lew. He prolly b’lieved all them stories about how Lew was a-gonna be a foreman soon. So he didn’ worry none that he wasn’t gonna leave ’er much.” Aunt Jinny sighed. “An’ thet’s how y’all ended up in Soddy, when all yore kin come from here.”

Anna had finally gotten all the Mas and Pas and Grannys and Granpappys sorted out in her head, and just had one question. “But—how’d y’all keep th’ Yanks an’ th’ Rebs from takin’ yore stock an’ crops an’ all?” she asked—because tragic tales of farms being stripped bare by invading soldiers of both sides were prevalent enough even she had heard plenty of them.

Aunt Jinny and Mrs. Holcroft exchanged a look. Aunt Jinny set her chin stubbornly and Mrs. Holcroft looked full of mischief. “Don’t go—” Aunt Jinny began.

But Mrs. Holcroft bent over the table and whispered, “It were the spirit bears!”

Aunt Jinny groaned.

“Spirit—bears?” Anna replied, in utter bewilderment now, which was more than enough to encourage Maddie Holcroft to unleash the tale.

“I heerd it from them as saw it for thesselves, so don’ y’all conter-dick me, Virginia Alscot,” Maddie Holcroft said firmly. Then she turned back to Anna. “Y’all knowed how long the road is t’git here t’ the Holler, ’cause y’all done been on it t’git here. Wall! Along comes a raidin’ party on th’ road. An’ afore they gets fur, they’s attacked by a giant black bear what kin run as fast as a horse! What’s more, bullets don’ even tech it! An’ when they try t’keep a-comin’, wall, there comes another! Them two bears is racin’ in an’ outa their lines, a-slashin’ up their hosses, an’ a-crackin’ haids right off their bodies. So they go back they gets more men—on account’a they’s sojers an’ they’s stupid—an’ try again. An’ the same thing happens. Then they try a third time, an’ they’s a third bear, as big as th’ other two put t’gether! By the time them bears git done, they’s mebbe one or two men left t’tell th’ tale. An’ the sojers cain’t take it out on anyone livin’ ’round ’bout here, nor blame ’em either, ’cause ev’one knows ain’t no way nobody c’d train a bear t’ do all thet, much less train three bears. Ain’t no side ever tried more’n three times t’get here.”