A Tale from the Hills Read Online Free PDF Page A

representative at Mountain School. She was a no nonsense, strict disciplinarian.
    Second grade arithmetic was proving to be a tough subject for all three of the older Hills, but especially for Josh. Although he and Alan worked on it together at home and to and from school, fractions were inconceivable to him. It was as if the teacher was speaking a foreign language when she started talking about fractions. It did not help the situation that the boys started school well into the term, and Mrs. Roberts had not fully realized that the only schooling previous to now was from their father. She gave Josh a paddling when she saw him gaze at another boy’s paper. The paddling itself was not so bad, but he was embarrassed in front of his classmates. Before the term was over two things would happen to ease his predicament, the Principal would reaffirm that the boys might need extra help, and Josh would see many paddlings for many students besides himself. It was a part of Mrs. Robert’s routine to be generous with the rod and staff, so to speak. Josh figured that it was part of her personal exercise regimen. By the end of the school year, and in years to come, Josh would respect Mrs. Roberts as the best teacher that he ever had. She inspired him to study, to learn, and to want to know about the world around him.
    Each of the Hill children took at least one book home every afternoon from school. Tom had no idea that his kids would be so excited about school. It had been a differentstory for him. By the time that he had finished the third grade, his own daddy said that he was smart enough.
    Tom Hill was born the year before the Twentieth Century began. He was much too young to remember, but his daddy told him that the fireworks displays ushering in 1900 were the most spectacular that he had ever seen. Of course his daddy had never seen any fireworks displays before that one. Firecrackers and sparklers had been the extent of his previous experience with fireworks all together.
    Farming had been the Hill family vocation for generations, even in Ireland. Tom’s father thought that they had first immigrated to Pennsylvania, and then Alleghany County in North Carolina, in the 1820s or 30s. Tom came from a large family of seven brothers and two sisters. It was common in those days to have many children in order to keep the farm going, and the same farm had been in their family for generations.
    There was a short period of time just before crops were harvested that farmhands could take a little time off. Tom would usually visit a cousin who lived in Ashe County, North Carolina, for his short vacation. It was in Ashe County that Tom met a fragile, dark haired girl named Mary Hart. Their short courtship resulted in Mary getting pregnant. Tom was sixteen and Mary was barely fifteen. When Mary wrote to Tom in Alleghany County, telling him the news of her pregnancy, his father read the letter first and became furious. He called Mary a tramp and demanded that Tom leave the farm at once. Tom’s mother and siblings dared not to contradict his father’s wishes. Tom cried as he said goodbye to his family. He and Mary were married and they moved to Virginia that same day. Six years later, Mary was dead and Tom was away from his family with five small mouths to feed.
    Four of Tom’s brothers saw combat in Europe during World War 1. One of them was killed in Germany, but the others returned to Alleghany County in 1918. No one was sure which brother, if any, carried the virus back from Europe with him, but the deadly influenza strain that had killedmillions of men women and children all over the world, was about to take its toll in their own community. Before anyone hardly realized what was going on, an epidemic was underway. Antibiotics had not been discovered yet to combat the infections from the virus, so doctors were powerless to help. Aspirin was prescribed only in case of extreme emergency. In house after house the virus was rampant. Whole