The Gallows Girls

Their mothers water broke as the lynch mob came for her. Screaming in pain and fear, they led her to the gallows. They strung up the pregnant woman for stealing, whoring, and witchcraft. When they let go the trap door her neck broke cleanly when her body jerked to a stop and the first of twin girls popped came out screaming.

The sheriff, who not thinking a lynch mob would hang a woman in labor, arrived with the doctor. The doctor, knowing of the second child the woman carried, reached in and pulled it from her lifeless corpse. He then cut the umbilical cords. He slapped the second daughter to make her breath as well.

Nobody knew who the father was. It was questionable if the mother had even known. She never told a soul if she had. The doctor took the newborn girls back to his office.

 The next day the doctor, sheriff, and the preacher went door-to-door asking the ladies of the town to take the twins. All refused. Even the whores refused.

The newborns were fed goats milk by the doctor, baptized Grace and Faith Gallows by the preacher. Full of guilt, the sheriff agreed to help and the three men raised them as their own.