Book Title: THE SONG OF SOURWOOD MOUNTAIN by Ann H. Gabhart
Character Name: Ada June Barton
Why hello, we weren’t expecting someone so young to come tell us about the story of Sourwood Mountain, but welcome. Tell us your name and how old are you?
I’m Ada June Barton. I’m ten going on eleven. Miss Mira asked me to come talk to you. I told her you asked for her and that you might be a little sore when I showed up instead. But she’s pretty busy right now getting things ready for school to open. I wanted to help her out even though I don’t know if anybody anywhere would be all that interested in me, but I guess I can tell you about the folks in Sourwood if’n that’s what you are wanting to know. Everybody knows everybody in Sourwood and most everything about them. I reckon there are some things I don’t know about, but could be you won’t ask about them things.
Now you have us curious, but if you want, we can stick with easy questions. What about your family? Can you talk about that?
That’s some complicated and is part of those things I don’t know, but I can tell you some of what I know. Till I was five, my ma and me, we lived up on Leathers Hill. That’s way up in the hills away from most everybody else except Pap Leathers. Pap let Ma live in an old cabin he had up there when she showed up from somewhere she never told me about and didn’t have no place to say. Ma had me on the way then and no man to help her. My pa weren’t ready to claim her as a wife nor me as a daughter once I was born. He’s another of them things I don’t know. I reckon Ma knew, but she never told me. Said some things were better left not worried over. Anyhow, Pap Leathers was the nicest old man in the world. I wanted him to really be my grandpa, but he weren’t. The only real kin I ever know’d about was Ma. Her name was Sarai. She sometimes didn’t think straight and one of those times, she fell in the snow and got so cold she never woke up. Saddest day ever for me since Pap Leathers had gone on up to heaven the summer before that. Left me with nobody.
That’s so sad. Did some family come along to take you in?
I told you I never had nobody but Ma except Pap Leathers who weren’t actual family either. But the folks in Sourwood figured to do the Christian thing and made sure I had food and a place to lay my head even if’n they weren’t all that happy about seeing to me. Some of the womenfolk took turns taking me in during those first years, but I reckon they was right when they said I weren’t the easiest child to see to. They claimed I was half wild. Could be they thought that because I wouldn’t say a word to nobody back then after my ma died. Twas a struggle to speak a word even when I wanted to. That bothered some like Miss Nicey Jane who aimed to straighten me out. Guess I was some hard to get straight. I spent most of my time in the woods. Seemed I was more at home there than in any of the cabins in Sourwood although I reckon they did what they could for me.
You seem to talk fine now. What happened?
A couple of years went by. Maybe more. I couldn’t keep up with how long things were back then seeing as how I was just a little kid. And I reckon they were right about me being half wild, but I missed my ma so much. I just needed somebody to love me the way I was without trying to make me somebody different. Could be one of the women did, but I was so wrapped up in my hurt that I didn’t see she might come to love me.
I needed somebody to love me like my ma had. That’s why it was so good when I come across that scared little pup when I was out in the woods one day. I named him Bo and he helped me in ways I can’t even know how to tell. Then Preacher Gordon come to Sourwood and started a church. He told me about Jesus and how Jesus loved me even when I didn’t feel like anybody but Bo could. I took to following the preacher around. He’d sing some songs and I remembered my ma singing and how happy that made me. After a while I begun to hum along and then a word or two would pop out. Later when Preacher Gordon brought Miss Mira to Sourwood, everything got better and words started coming without them seeming to choke me up. But I think the Lord letting me find Bo was what started me back to talking cause I could talk to him about anything. Preacher Gordon said the Lord was probably listening in and answering prayers I didn’t know how to say.
Can you tell us about this Preacher Gordon and Miss Mira?
They are so good even though they’re brought in folks.
Wait. What did you say? Brought in?
Oh, that’s just something all the folks say about somebody that comes in from the flatlands instead of being born up here in the hills. Sometimes instead of brought in, they say fetched or fotched in. Preacher Gordon and Miss Mira were fetched in, for sure. Preacher Gordon come in to tell us about the Lord and Miss Mira come in to teach us how to read and figure. I did so want to learn to read. Preacher Gordon goes all over here in Sourwood to bring people out to church. Miss Mira does the same about getting kids to school. She aims to give everybody who wants to read the chance of learning how. They’re both nice to everybody and especially me. I think they must have been some of the answers the Lord give me when I was talking to Bo about how I wished somebody would try to love me even if I wasn’t always the sweetest girl. A girl can’t be sweet all the time, and I reckon I lack a lot of sweetness.
Do you have any enemies?
There is that Connor Rayburn. He’s a couple of years older than me and he’s always making fun of me. Most of the kids just leave me be, but Connor calls me a woods colt because I don’t have a pa. He gives me trouble all the time. I know the Bible says to pray for your enemies, but that sure is hard to do when that enemy is always saying mean things about you and threatening to hurt your dog.
What has been your biggest challenge, Ada June?
I guess praying for Connor is one extra big challenge and one I lack trying most of the time. Well, all the time. Miss Mira said I had to tell you the truth and not make up any stories to make me sound better than I am. Other than that, I reckon being able to speak words out loud and finding a family that could be mine because they wanted me and not just because it was something they had to do.
What makes you happy?
Learning to read. Bo. Miss Mira. Preacher Gordon telling me about Bible people.
What is your biggest problem right now?
Finding a forever family in Sourwood.
Anything else you’d like to tell us?
I reckon not. If you want to know more about me and about the folks in Sourwood, I guess you better come on to our holler and meet everybody. You might find out if there really is a song of Sourwood Mountain. Oh, and Miss Mira told me to be sure to thank you for inviting me over to talk. After I spilled all these words, I can see why you were wondering about me saying I had a spell when I wouldn’t say word one.
Thank you, Ada June, for visiting with us and being so honest with your answers. We would love to take you up on that offer to come visit you in Sourwood.
Southern Historical Romance Set in the 1910 Appalachian Mountains
While the century began with such promise, it is 1910 when Mira Dean's hopes of being a wife and mother are dashed to pieces. Her fiancé dead from tuberculosis, Mira resigns herself to being a spinster schoolteacher--until Gordon Covington shows up.
No longer the boy she knew from school, Gordon is now a preacher who is full of surprises. First, he asks Mira to come to Sourwood in eastern Kentucky to teach at his mission school. Second, he asks her to marry him. Just like that. And all at once the doors that had seemed firmly shut begin to open, just a crack.
With much trepidation, Mira steps out in faith into a life she never imagined, in a place filled with its own special challenges, to serve a people who will end up becoming the family she always dreamed of.
From the pen of bestselling author Ann H. Gabhart comes a heartwarming story of the unexpected blessings that can come when we dare to follow the Lord's leading.
Romance Historical | Christian Historical [Revell, On Sale: May 7, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780800741730 / eISBN: 9781493445547]
Ann H. Gabhart started writing when she was ten and has been writing ever since. Her first published writings were personal experience pieces, youth stories, and poems in church periodicals such as HomeLife. Her first novel, a historical romance about the settling of Kentucky, was published by Warner Books in 1978. Since then, she's published numerous books for both adults and young adults. Ann lives on a farm in Kentucky not far from where she was born.
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