Chapter 1:The Varmint Of Cow Creek
image: Stone spring house "Jesse, no Jimmy, no Lewy," stammers Charity Reed attempting to call her grandson who's rolling jacks beside the woodstove in the chilly pre-dawn of an October morning. "Go get the milk from the spring house so's I can start the biscuits, will you honey?" "Yeah Mamaw," answers the four-year-old already running for the back door of the two story log house, a flop-eared hound at his heels. Lewis and his twin brother Jesse loved to play in the low stone structure built over the nearest of the many springs that formed Reed Branch. Tucked up into a shady nook on the north slope above the cabin, the spring house was cooler than the outside air in the summer and warmer in the winter. The clear water tinkling down a moss-covered aquaduct muffled the boys exclamations about Indian raids or panther attacks. Or so they thought. At seventy-two-years-old, Benjamin Reed spent many a morning on a log cha...