The Last Stetson
by John Fox Jr.

1

A MIDSUMMER freshet was running over old Gabe Bunch's
water-wheel into the Cumberland. Inside the mill Steve Marcum
lay in one dark corner with a slouched hat over his face. The boy
Isom was emptying a sack of corn into the hopper. Old Gabe was
speaking his mind.

Always the miller had been a man of peace; and there was one
time when he thought the old Stetson-Lewallen feud was done.
That was when Rome Stetson, the last but one of his name, and
Jasper Lewallen, the last but one of his, put their guns down and
fought with bare fists on a high ledge above old Gabe's mill one
morning at daybreak. The man who was beaten was to leave the
mountains; the other was to stay at home and have peace. Steve
Marcum, a Stetson, heard the sworn terms and saw the fight.
Jasper was fairly whipped; and when Rome let him up he proved
treacherous and ran for his gun. Rome ran too, but stumbled and
fell. Jasper whirled with his Winchester and was about to kill
Rome where he lay, when a bullet came from somewhere and
dropped him back to the ledge again. Both Steve Marcum and
Rome Stetson said they had not fired the shot; neither would say
who had. Some thought one man was lying, some thought the
other was, and Jasper's death lay between the two. State troops
came then, under the Governor 's order, from the Blue Grass, and
Rome had to drift down the river one night in old Gabe's canoe and
on Out of the mountains for good. Martha Lewallen, who, though