A Diary of My Younger Years - The Autobiography of Ivan Hall

The Life of Randolph Hall

THE LIFE OF RANDOLPH HALL

This is a short description of his adventures, sayings, and writings. All stories are told the same as he had written them in his memorandum. Recopied February, 1900

Chapter I

I can imagine there is a very true little story, and it would be very interesting if we only knew it all, but I don't suppose it will ever be all known. Even if I had space in my little book, it would be too tedious to tell it all in every detail. But I will write a few particulars of it in my diary that I can remember best.

The story is the life of my eldest brother, Randolph. In the following piece the opening scene represents Randolph and Sam, my two oldest brothers, and myself. The first view shows a beautiful stream -- a river flowing along in all its majestic loveliness. A heavy forest of timber grows along its banks. Three boys now come up to the stream, with the two largest each carrying a dead fowl.

Scene 1

"That was my hen that went under first, boys" said the oldest boy, as the form of a chicken disappeared in the waters of a great suck hole. "Now I shall never see my pet midler again" and he cried very bitterly. Then he said to his next brother, "There goes the olur hen." and it became this young gentleman's turn to shed a few tears over his pet, which he had called Toppy. These two hens had been killed by eating an overdiet of salt and were carried by their respective owners and thrown into this great suck hole, which is in Stone River. The three boys were brothers, whose ages were nine, seven, and four. They were all very jolly fellows, very fond of pets and all of the stock about the farm.

But the sun shone very brightly that day. The field larks chirped - merrily - as the boys wended their way back home, and the mockingbird seemed to fairly outdo himself, as in the midst of his hymn he would fly straight into the air, singing as if he were starting to heaven, then alighting in the same place again, never ceasing for a moment his overflowing and melodius song.

"How would you like to be that bird?" asked the oldest boy of the other one. "I guess it would be all right now, but it wouldn't do so well when the boys threw rocks at me." The oldest boy's name was Randolph. He was born in Crockett County near Alimo, Tennessee on January 3, 1872. He left Crockett County when very little and lived in Rutherford and then in Bedford County and vicinity until 1881, when we moved to Cannon County, and this is where the present story is being told. But here the scene changes.

Scene 2

Randolph was very earnest and sincere in everything he said and did; but one of his greatest pleasures was hunting. He had never been hunting before, so when several of the small boys proposed to go to go on a hunt, he asked permission to go too. But Mother said, "You are too young and rather too small to go yet, but when you are twelve, you may go hunting." This was a rather hard pill to swallow for the nine-year-old boy. Three long years to wait was really a heart-rending thought.

"Then I shall try to wait," he said, and we shall see how he did. It did seem a long three years to wait, but he waited patiently the whole three years, never asking once during that time to go hunting. Everyone was surprised at his patience. But before the three years were over he was given permission to use a gun. He had read the story of Job and many other very patient fellows, and he echoed the sentiment of these pieces by his uncomplaining wait for the gun. I have often heard him say, "Patience is the first step to contentment, and contentment is the first step to happiness." And his patience and contentment continued unabated as time went by.

Scene 3

But here the scene changes again.

Watching the time pass by,