Living in poverty- the trapper and family

Born high in the mountains of Tennessee

With no running water, or electricity.

Living in rags that her father found in the woods

Was her only salvation, her only goods.

They put her in pampers that they had found

Dirty and filthy and pulled from the ground.

A rock stove and firewood

They would eat when they could.

He did fishing and trapping just to survive.

The closest neighbor was twenty miles away

By the time he walked there he would have to stay.

The neighbor would take all that he trapped

In return give him food, clothing, ammunition and fat.

The neighbor then told him:

This is no way to raise a child.

You’ve been in the mountains quite a while.

Things have changed drastically

In school is where this child should be.

This child must learn how to read and write

What you’re doing to her, just isn’t right.

He packed up his knapsack and up the mountain he fled

Putting her with other children, was something he did dread.

He finally got home where his wife and child awaited

He looked at them and then hesitated.

With gleams in their eyes of the goodies he brought.

The child looked in the bag for a doll that she sought.

Not finding the doll in the bag, she turned and walked

From the room looking so sad

She went outside deep in the woods

her head hung down and there she stood.

The tears started to form in her eyes

And then she did cry.

Her father saw this and his heart broke in two

Now he knew what he had to do.

The following morning he went back down the mountain again

To speak to his neighbor, his only friend.

He asked his friend what should I do

My daughter is suffering and feeling blue.

I don’t have the money to buy her things, or send her to school

And living in the mountains is not the right tool.

He said: you are a natural born mountain man

And for you I do have a plan.

How would you like to teach others how to survive

And into your mountains they would climb.

You can teach them how to hunt and fish

This is on a city dwellers wish list.

You will get paid for what you love to do

And to your heart you will be true.

Looking at his family and the way they lived

An education for his child he had to give.

His friend set up flyers and posted them all over town

And on the internet this mountain man was found.

He brought his child down from the mountain top

And until she had an education he would not stop.

She stayed with this neighbor and friend

And saw all that she had missed

She was in heaven, she was in bliss.

Her father now made enough to continue her education

And to learn those golden rules, now he knew she had the tools.

She grew up with hope in their heart

And her father and neighbor gave her the start.

Now don’t ever think that there is nothing

That you can’t do.

With hope in your heart, you can follow thru.

HOPE IS THE KEY TO SET OURSELVES FREE.

© L . RAMS