By the charts, you can see that Dora, Luke, and your great-grandfather Benjamin Hall were in line in birth. The three of them must have been something else while young!
One day, George and Mary Jane had to go to town on business. They left Dora, Luke, and Ben in the charge of Sarah Jane Hall, an aunt of George's. Sarah Jane was a handicapped lady who lived with them.
Kids will be kids, so they knew Sarah Jane couldn't tan their hides because of her disability. They put a 2x4 board across the cistern (well) in the yard and would hang inside by their hands just to pester her.
Sarah would pray to God to save them, then call them names, then pray for forgiveness! This probably went on for quite a length of time until George and Mary Jane returned.
Another time, the three of them disobeyed Mary Jane and slipped off to a wooded area. There, they chewed some hickory bark and climbed trees for nuts and wild grapes. Luke (my dad) fell out of a tree. Dora and Ben started pulling him, one on each arm, trying to get him home. They dragged off one of his shoes and when they stopped to put it back on they saw this bark coming out of the corner of his mouth. Ben said, "Oh Dora, look, he's dead! His tongue is cut off and is falling out!"
Another time, they were playing in the barn loft and Pa George had a beef hide hanging for tanning. The boys told Dora they would suck it if she would first. Thinking they were truthful, she did and the boys ran to tell Grandmother -- Poor Dora!
I've heard the three of them tell this in their late years on Uncle Ben's last visit to Arkansas. I think they were all in their seventies and still laughing about their escapades when youngsters!
Written by Mildred Collins
by Mildred Hall Collins
February 5, 1992
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