The Feud of Mason County

John Avery Whittaker, worn down by the strains of everyday life, accepts his friend Red Hollard's invitation to stay at the old family cabin Red's grandfather built as a place to get alone with God. Before Whit heads off for a few days of fishing at Boulder Lake, Red hands him homemade directions full of landmarks like a big yellow rock, warns him that there is no cell phone reception, and cautions him to stay out of Mason County to the west, where the folks are a disagreeable sort who "couldn't pour water from a boot with the directions on the bottom."

Sure enough, Whit loses his way. The landmarks never appear, his map does not match the land, and just as he admits to himself that he is lost, he stumbles onto a beautiful lake. There he is confronted by a suspicious mountain man named Theo Dagmar, who is convinced Whit must be a member of the hated McNutt clan and marches him off for trespassing on what he calls Dagmar Lake. On the way, a McNutt named Ernie shouts down at them from a tree, insisting the lake belongs to the McNutts and demanding a toll. In the middle of arguing, Ernie tumbles out of the tree and knocks himself out cold. Theo is happy to leave him lying there, defending himself with a made-up "good book" saying, but Whit quotes the real Bible, Jesus' command to love one another, and insists they carry Ernie back for help. Whit soon learns that the two clans have been feuding for generations over the lake, and that both sides constantly quote a "good book" they have never actually read, since they only pass it down from memory. Worse still, when Ernie wakes up, he declares that being carried off makes him a kidnapped prisoner, announces that the truce is broken, and dashes home to rouse his kin. Ma Dagmar, the family matriarch Mabelline, smells a war brewing, the first in these hills in thirty years, and there is no use calling the law, because Ernie McNutt is the sheriff.

Whit spends the night locked in the Dagmars' rickety chicken coop, though he stays put on purpose, hoping to help settle the feud. In the morning, Mabelline, charmed that he used a napkin, washed before dinner, and called her by her given name, startles him by announcing, "I accept... your proposal of marriage, of course." Whit gently explains he was only being considerate, so she asks him to be their preacher instead. Their talk reveals how badly the clans have garbled the Scriptures they claim to follow. Mabelline offers to let Whit slip away to Boulder Lake, but instead he asks to ride along to the little town of Bootlick, where the only telephone in the area lets him call Red Hollard with a plan.

The next day, both clans march to the lake armed to the teeth, but Mabelline forces a parley before any shooting starts. As the accusations of trespassing and kidnapping fly, Whit drops a bombshell: neither family owns the lake, because according to the county, the lake "does not even exist." Red, who grew up nearby and is actually related to both clans, explains that years ago the county sent out two separate land assessors, and their reports overlapped so badly that the whole area vanished from official records. When Red pointed out the error at the assessor's office, the county let him file first claim on the lake for a single dollar. Before the outraged clans can turn on him, Whit reveals the surprise: Red intends to sign the deed over to both families to keep and care for together. Then Whit gets to the real problem. The feud itself has been a way of declaring that God's ways are not their own. He produces his Bible, and Mabelline reads aloud words none of them have ever heard, about walking in humility, gentleness, and patience, and being diligent to preserve unity in the bond of peace. Humbled, Sheriff Ernie admits that God wants them to put away their shooting irons and try to get along, and Theo agrees to try. Whit gives his Bible to Mabelline, and Red opens a whole box of Bibles from his truck for both clans to share.

Driving home, Red marvels that if Whit had never gotten lost, the feud might have gone on for years. Whit never did get to fish, but he is not sorry. "I wound up where I was supposed to be," he says, and the two friends trade country sayings about being as happy as a hound dog on a sunny porch.