The Legend of the Old Hermit
For years the Dailey family went to bed hungry, wore hand-me-downs and shivered through the winters. They never imagined that the family's fortune was within their reach for years.
Thirteen years ago while out hunting turkey Halsey Dailey met up with a reclusive hermit
that lived in the hills. The Hermit mentioned how he hadn't any luck hunting and might not
have that good of a Thanksgiving. Halsey, always willing to help, invited the Hermit for
Thanksgiving meal at his modest home.
When the Hermit arrived he enjoyed the meal and company, staying late into the evening.
About two weeks later the Hermit returned with his mule saying that he has a gift for the
family. He spent a long time out back, when he finished there was a large set of wind
chimes hanging on a huge oak tree. Halsey remembers the old hermit telling him that if he
made a wish while the chime was ringing, one day his wish would come true. Shortly after
that, the hermit passed away, and was buried penniless in a pauper's grave.
One night this January, Halsey and his wife were trying to sleep, when a winter storm
kicked out of the north and started the chimes ringing. "I never remember that thing
being so loud" Halsey said, "thinking back to what the old hermit had told me, I
wished aloud that my children would have a better life than I do." All of a sudden
with a crash the chiming stopped.
The next evening after working all day, Halsey had a chance to see that the limb with the
chime on it had snapped off. When he went to move the chime he found it to be very heavy.
" that's when noticed the shine coming from under the cracked white paint." I
took the chimes to the sheriff, that's when we found they were made out of 23.8 pounds of
solid gold. According to Sheriff Cornelius O'Connell little was known about the Hermit,
but all of the gold belongs to the Dailey's fair and Square. The first thing that the
Dailey's did was erect a stone marker over the Hermit's grave.