The Red Flannel Rag

madder. Finally, she let out a high-pitched scream and told Grandma Molly to get the

old man out of the house, take him to the graveyard and bury him so she could sweep

the floors.

Pauline’s character in Hopkins Gap proved to be useful to the locals. When kids

cried loud and for a long time, frustrated parents would say, "Stop squalling. You sound

like Pauline." I can only speak for myself, but the image that came to mind when I heard

that statement stopped my crying immediately.

Aunt Pauline never married, but lived with a man named John Raleigh Carr for a

long time. He was known as Raleigh and was the husband of Zilla Morris Carr. One day

while Rawley was out working, a drunk from the Peak came into his house. Pauline had

Raleigh's supper on the table so he could eat when he got home. The drunk grabbed the

edges of the table, upset it and the food went all over the floor. Just at that moment

Raleigh walked into the house. He walked quietly to the bedroom, got his gun, and

killed the man from the Peak. Raleigh spent only six months in prison because the court

decided he had a right to protect his home.

It was about ten years after the incident that Raleigh suffered the repercussions

of his actions. Early one evening as the sunset blazed red over the Allegheny Mountains

to be west, Raleigh was in the barn milking his cow. A car drove up to the barn and a

man, hidden in the shadows, beckoned him to the driver's window. When Raleigh

leaned over to speak to the person in the car, it was the brother of the man from the

Peak that he had killed years before. The brother shot him in the throat. Raleigh died

on the spot.

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