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eggs. But when the hens got up to 6 dozen eggs a day I just couldn t stand the expense. I hauled off and sold the whole lot.’ Nelson sypathized with him and said he had done exactly right. The tourists went off shaking their heads.”
“Old-timers really appreciated an honest rascal, and they loved putting something over on someone,” Elisabeth explained. Two rascals were Gray Eye and Travis:
“One time Gray Eye and Travis were put in jail over in Luray for some type of infraction which probably wouldn’t have been noticed in Rappahannock. Travis got on a bit of a crying jag and he was weeping away to Gray Eye that he was afraid they weren’t going to be given justice in that court in Luray. Gray Eye finally said, ‘Shut up, Travis, you’d better hope that we don’t get justice.’ ”
Although Elisabeth Johnson credits Ned with being the storyteller in the family, she knows a few yams herself.
“Ned was such a clever man,” she said. “He was just naturally quick-witted.”
“One time we were getting ready to go out and I said, ‘Ned, don’t wear that shirt, the cuffs are frayed.’
“As quick as anything, he replied, ‘What are they afraid of?’
“Another time, Ned picked up his hat and was walking out of church when a man stopped him. ‘I’m sorry, that’s the president’s hat,’ he said.”
“Well, sure, you’re right,” Ned said. “Mine is a much better hat.”
Elisabeth, like Ned, is ready to laugh at herself as well as at the foibles of others. She came to Rappahannock as a bride in the ’thirties. She’d spent almost a year in China after traveling around the world.
“I did have to endure some jokes on myself as I adjusted to rural life,” she said. She remembers one:
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