“Don’t go, Tom. She’s not worth your troubles, lad. Only sadness and tragedy will come from this fool’s errand,” said his mother as the boy slowly rode away.
The sky was clear, and the moon hovered low on the horizon as he leaned close to his horse to keep warm.
Sally Mae Hanson was the prettiest girl in the tri-county area, and everyone wanted to marry her. Tom had known Sally his whole life, and she always took a shine to him, so it was natural that they should hitch up when they came of age.
“Sally, I don’t have much money, but I will give you a good and honest life and never stray from your side,” said Tom on their betrothal night.
A Spring wedding was planned when suddenly Sally called off the whole ball of wax with no explanation.
“Tom, there’s something foul in this business,” warned his mother.
For weeks, he tried to talk to Sally’s family to no avail. A rumor swirled that a merchant from the east had offered to buy all her family’s land for ten times the going price if she were his bride.
Folks were disgusted by such disrespectful behavior. Her family planned to take the proceeds and move far away to live in luxury on the coast, so they could care less about saving face.
Tom figured it was her father’s doing, and if he could talk to her, she might elope with him before she left. “I know she loves me. I need to see her and straighten things out,” he told his mother before saddleing the horse.
It was winter, and the air cut like a knife against Tom’s face, so he leaned close to the horse’s mane. “Sorry to bring you out, Molassies, but I need to see Sally,” said Tom apologetically to the horse.
Suddenly, the horse swung its head to the right and glared intently at the landscape. “What did you hear, boy? Was it a wolf,” asked the boy.
Moments later, Tom heard a distant howl and decided to push ahead rather than return to the safety of home. Urging the steed forward, the two rushed toward town and Sally’s house.
Tom spotted the pack moving quickly towards them. “We need to get off this road, or we haven’t a chance,” said the boy. He guided the horse over the fence and headed to the open country.
The wolf pack split and attempted to drive the rider and his steed into the woods. “Head for the river,” cried the boy.
The flowing water meant salvation or death. There was no time to judge the river’s depth, so Tom urged the horse to lunge upon reaching the edge.
The following day, folks got word of the missing boy and his horse and began to search high and low, but no sign of their bodies was ever found.
Sally left the following week to wed, and shortly after, her family moved to the West Coast.
It’s funny how things work out. Word came back that Sally had died in childbirth, and her entire family died of yellow fever five years on.
As far as Tom goes, some folks swear they saw him down south, married to a pretty tobacco heiress and doing fine, and Molassies is now a daddy.
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