Pennsylvania Game News - March 2021 - 23

The mules were mostly black or brown
with tan muzzles. The exception was a
white, freckled-and-spotted mare named
Kelpie in the corner stall by the alley door.
Her short mane and spots were the same
rusty color as Fiddy's hair. Going down
the line of stalls, I fed each mule a carrot
for dessert. All went well until Piper, an
impatient, vocal mule across from Kelpie,
began braying like a burning banshee. It
was deafening in the stables, yet hilarious
at the same time.
Fiddy loved his mules and would not
tolerate any cruelty to them as they were
company property. When he first brought
in this rake of eight, they each would fetch
$175. The miners and other workers were
fond of the mules as they represented
some element of the living world that
by the turn of the fates and fortune that
govern all, were assigned, like themselves,
to labor in this dimmer world. Fiddy made
sure their tenure in the mines was repaid
with kindness.

A

S TIME PASSED, I would stop by
the shanty on my way to the local
corner store and push a carrot or celery
stalk partway through the knothole in
the door next to Kelpie's stall. She would
swiftly yank it through the rest of the way.
This was always followed by the fiendish
braying of Piper.
On one visit, Fiddy told of his accident
with the mule that kicked him when he
had worked as a young mule driver. The
animal was being mistreated daily by its
driver, then, biding its time as mules will
do, it waited for the right opportunity and
pinned the driver against the rib wall of the
mine with 1,000 pounds of vengeful fury,
slowly crushing him. When Fiddy rushed
in to rescue the driver, the mule caught
MARCH 2021	

him squarely in the face.
The surgeons tried to piece back
together the jigsaw puzzle that was once
a handsome young man's face, but a few
pieces seemed to be missing. After his
third operation, Fiddy had enough and
returned to work. In time, he was promoted to stable boss.
His favorite story was how Kelpie
came to get her name. She was initially
stabled at the west brickyard across the
river, but then escaped. By chance, Fiddy
saw her pacing on the far river bank, then
ran down to the river when she started to
swim across. He intercepted her, taking
her bridle when she came up out of the
water.
Fiddy grew up near the River Spey in
Northern Scotland, where a popular myth
entailed shape-shifting water horses called
kelpies that dwelled in the depths of rivers
and lochs. The water steeds of the River
Spey, though, were unique in that they
were white. The white mule he led from
the river reminded him of his boyhood
home, which endeared the mule to him
even more, and he named her Kelpie.
He swapped another mule out for her,
as once a mule figures what is best for
it, it can be difficult to change its mind.
Some might regard this as stubbornness,
but mules have a remarkable sense of selfpreservation, and it seemed that Kelpie
sensed her fate was bound to that of the
gentle Scot.

B

Y 1960, THE DAYS of the mine
mule were approaching an end, as
mechanization began to modernize all
aspects of mining and brickmaking. Natural gas fueled the kilns, instead of coal,
and the company closed its coal operation. Clay mining continued, but battery23
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