The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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THEY SLEPT IN THE BED TICK
By S. C. Turnbo
Some of the amusing accounts relating to the children of an old settler is from the neighbors of old Jimmie Forest who lived on Little North Fork near the mouth of Barren Fork. Mrs. Mary L. Holt wife of Uncle Billy Holt told the following. One spring season in the early forties I made a lot of soap at Mr. Forests. His wife was known as Mom Forest. Her real name was True Love. The children were very mischevious and some of their exploits were very amusing. One night while I was there Mrs. Forest told Bob, Dave and Steadman to go upstairs and sleep in the bed. Of course their mother meant for them to sleep on the bed tick and not in it, and for once they decided to obey her. The bed tick was filled with new feathers but little did they care for this for on getting upstairs they took the pen knives out of their pockets and proceeded to rip open the bed tick which was a new home made one and both of them crawled in it and turning around so their heads would stick out they went to sleep. On the following morning the boys seemed to be very slow in getting up and at late breakfast time the boys had not yet showed themselves and Mrs. True Love Forest become impatient and she sent her daughter Sally Forest upstairs to wake the boys up. They were already awake but they pretended that they were in a deep slumber and snored loud and lay perfectly still and seemingly as innocent as young lambs. But appearances indicated that the youngsters were not as sinless as they appeared to be for their sister found them tacked snugly on the inside of the bed tick and feathers were scattered all over the floor. Seeing how matters stood with her brothers Sally rushed back downstairs to report to her mother. Mrs. Forest went out into the yard and picked up a small club and started upstairs to raise war with the boys. They heard her coming and knew it was time for them to get out and they crawled out of the bed tick much faster than they had went in and just as their mothers head appeared above the level of the floor of the loft, they both darted downstairs to make their escape from the wrath of their mother and in an attempt to pass the woman they struck against her and knocked her down stairs and out of doors they both went like a message on a telegraph wire and Into the woods to get rid of a severe drubbing. A confusion and a cloud of feathers and a bruised woman was the result when the boys made their exit out of the bed and house. It was astonishing to see the feathers flying as the two youngsters rushed downstairs. The boys lay out for a week but would come in late at night and get something to eat but finally they grew tame and ventured back to stay when their mother had got in a better humor.
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