Neil MacLean and his wife Mary , their three year old son John , and year old baby Neil , were one of the families . They sailed for a couple of weeks and got caught in several storms . The old ship sprang a bad leak and was forced to Once in a while he used to tell us stories that his mother had told him about this Atlantic crossing . I remember one in particular . There was a deaf old lady aboard who seemed to think that everything she heard was good side of us was Uncle Dan 's house . There were a lot of little farms about , mostly owned by people named MacLean . Every farm had lots of woods from which the men cut timbers for the Sydney Mines coal industry . On the farms there were she was always called Peggy - - and there were nine children : first three boys , then three girls , and then three boys again . They were John and Neil and Duncan , Mary and Katie and Flora , and Colin and me - - Angus - - and Allan . People outside the Duncan became a railway man when he was fifteen . He said he was eighteen and they believed him . He never stopped railroading . Duncan was prpbably the smartest in the family . Mary and Katie who were twins took funny songs . Uncle Hector was special . He made buggies and cutters and his shop was a kid 's dream of a play place . We loved him and his wife Aunt Jessie very much . Uncle Dan was my father 's brother and Mary , his wife , was my mother 's canes with which he felt his way . We lived near the highway , and when we saw him coming , we always ran to meet him . We would pick up his canes and lead him on . He never failed to thank us , although I 'm sure he could have got on better about dirty and queer people , one might think such were the kind of people I lived with , and that wouldn 't be true . And it is all because a young person 's interests are different , and he doesn 't feel about things the way grown - ups do . For example , I talk a lot about ghosts and devils , which I took very seriously . But most grown - ups just loved to talk him in an enjoyable sort of way . But God - - one didn 't enjoy him , at least I didn 't . People said he wrote down everything big and round like molasses barrel with long arms and short legs . The legs did not diminish his speed though . He was catching up rapidly , and pretty soon the poor man could hear him pant and felt his hot breath on the back of his neck . " Eeauw ! " he cried , and tried to yell and to give up when the Devil sprinted past him . As he got in front , the Devil I did not think of the Devil as bad at first . I just thought God send him out as a hunter of bad men . Ans I didn 't think of God as being particulary good . I certainly did not think of him as being loving and merciful . He made all the terrifying rules and he saw that we obeyed them , or else . . . . Nor did I think of him as an old man with a beard . He was an eye , as big as the sky , and always on the watch . But God wasn 't on my mind all the time . There were memory was the awareness that everybody was laughing at me , which was just too much for me to understand . Wetting the bed was something to be ashamed of , so we got over it very early . Maybe that is why one I was scared the first day because I didn 't know a thing . Can you imagine not knowing anything ? That 's the way it was with me . I had had no story books or picture books at home , so how could I know anything ? Oh , I knew about cows and horses and fish and such things , but this didn 't count at school . The teacher took me up beside her at the desk when the room was warmer and my turn had come . She put her arm aound me as she started me on the Primer . On the first page there was an alphbet in capitals , and on the next the alphabet in small letters . On the third teachers of any sort were hard to find . One of my teachers had not even passed the first year high school examinations . But we got beter teqchers as I grew older , and one or two were really good , like Mary MacLeod who loved to teach and knew bottles and most everyone who went out brought back a bottle of water from the little sprink brook by the edge of the woods . We were allowed to drink from the bottles during school hours until the teacher put a stop to it . Kenny Murdock once memorizing the Nova Scotia counties . On Fridays , following the late recess , we had recitations of memorized poems . One went up front and bobbed his head , said his piece , bobbed again and sat down . Once in a very long while we had a its sap during school hours . Often we were made to throw the delicious stuff into the stove . That was a real heartbreak . We played games . Generally , we would place one person in the middle of the road , which was by our door . The others kept saying , " I didn 't do it , " until the officer had to give up . Whatever he thought , we all believed Kenny was innocent . And that was how the fun went out of playing with trains . There were nice times on the road to and from school , too . Everyone was barefooted in summer . We put on footwear only when the frosts came , and Hector 's youngest - - Ellen and Malcolm , and Uncle Dan 's kids . Duncan Dan and I had a special liking for each other . We used to talk tirelessly about what we would do when we grew up . There were his sisters and a brother , too - - Hughie , Sophie , Jessie , Margaret , Lillian and Lena . Ruth was too young to go to school then , and the others were too old . We had great times on that road as well as some fights . mashed our big toes and got slivers from the ties in our feet . Father used to have regulr sessions doing " first aid . " He would lay us on a table and lance infected places with a razor and remove the slivers . The railway was dengerous train made very little noise . There was only one thing to do . I whirled and ran , literally for my life . When I got to where I thought the top of the bank was within reach , I leaped like a stag and somehow was able to hook my arms over the edge , and there I hung while the train went by . If the train had carried a snow plow , I would have had it ! The other youngters were some distance behind me , and when they came up we all tired to leap , but none of us could come up angry . Weel , it burned in me until it reached the top of my head , and then , suddenly , I ws not shy or afraid anymore . So I fought Johnnie , up and down between the rows of desks and finally out into the lobby . I got him against the wall resented the ruler much . But I trounced Kenneth Murdoch that day for blaming me for something he had done himself . This teacher started using the stick after Johnnie Brec had cut her whipping strap into little pieces and left them in a neat I went to school during one winter at Little Harbor , and lived with a very wondeful MacGregor family . But I didn 't learn much that year . The teacher had a high school diploma and was a very nice person , but the kids picked dart at the ceiling . It stuck with a sharp thud . The noise stopped , and everyone looked at the ceiling . The next day lmost every kid in school came with a pocketful of darts , and inside half an hour the ceiling was speckled with go back . So I went looking for a school in other places such as Valley Mills , Malagawatch , and Marble Mountain . None of them would admit me . I came home one day and threw my book bag over the wood pile and vowed I was through wtih person came to dinner . Father would ask the guest first to say the blessing , but he would signal to him to say it himself . We were a bit scornful of father for this inconsistency . But we were all deeply religious . We believed in , and red ribbon on his whip . Father said that the man had better pur some of his horse - tending time on improving his farm . Mother said , " Oh , he 's young and probably trying to find a wife . " us . The people were almost a hundred per cent Presbyterian , and all attended church , especially at " sacrement time . Every little while someone with a fast horse would come cutting in and out on the narrow road and pass everybody . We Nearer the church we could see the whole expanse of out lake . Boats with sails dotted it almost everywhere . We identified john 's boat , among those from Seal Cove and Valley Mills . Many sails came around Stony point from Orangedale , centerboard , and washboards along the sides to keep the water out when sheheeled over in the wind so she could really travel . I liked to crouch in the bow and listen to the gurgle of the water and see the spray fly out on each side . Many considered the least excitble one in the family , so everyone believed him . He said the thing had surfaced right behind the boat . It had a flat head and something like bristly mustache across its mouth . The head , he said , let out a puff of misty Everyone went to church at " sacrement " time . Old and young , good and bad , rich ( ? ) and poor . They liked the minister who could talk fast and loud , especially if he was a big husky person who could split wood or shoe a horse or do other kinds of men 's work . To be really liked , he would have to show how well he could quote the Bible . He would have to tell them they were sinners and about all the terrors of hell that waited for the wicked . But if a dare chet his people with a short one . So the prayer was long . I was curious and peeked through my fingers . Colin and Allan were peeking , too . I saw Allan getting red in the face as though he were going to giggle , and then mother 's breathed . When the prayer was over , Elder McKinnon scolded me fiercely for the sacrilege of interrupting family worship . He was so angry he shook . So I could never see him afterwards without feeling just as I did then . the very best teacher anyone could ever have . And soon we would do anything for this good and glad and wise man . I memorized the whole of the Shorter Catechism and six hundred Bible verses for him . You know , when you use the words along with Purdy and Dixie who seemed to love the heat as much as we did . The men were arguing as usual about religion . This time Peter Nicholson was saying that no matter how much of a sinner one might be he could still go to heaven . And the way the minister did . This shifted his weight and he lost his balance and went backwards into the haymow below . There was as yet only one load of hay over loose poles , so he didn 't bounce on the hay . He went clean through it ! There was a clatter of loose poles , and then a fearful commotion broke out in the hog pen way down below . There was Lord 's Day . God might punish us . What we really feared was that Duncan might be dead down there among the pigs . We slid down to the barn floor and quietly scurried around back to the entrance of the pig pen place . In the meantime , fish by netting . We had to get up about four o ' clock to be back in time for father to get to his work on the railway . He often let me go along with him because I loved so much to go . he was wonderful on these trips , full of talk about and full of good humor . We 'd run to meet him down by the shore , and Allan , being the youngest , would ride him piggyback . We would rifle his luchbox for leftovers . After supper , when the chores were done , he would tell us wonderful stories our time would call nice stories , but they were unfailingly funny . and I think we needed something funny as mush as anything . Our evening Dad was fun , and Dads are to have fun with , don 't you think ? But I have strayed away from the fishing story . the boat , in on one side and out on the other , or just along the side . We caught a half dozen codfish this morning . In a net with smaller nesh we caught several tommycod and a big trout . There was a place in the net that was knotted in a ball , and father said things about the devil as he worked over this . In the know was the backbone of a big trout . This was the work of an eel . Eels love trout , and they often got to them before we did . There was a fierce spashing britches . Mother was an expert with fish so she did the salmon . I must tell about the spring when Colin and I caught a couple of codfish . It was a windymornign and and his eyes bugged out . He actually turned green , and then what do you think happened ? You guessed it ! He was angry about losing his breakfast . Maybe it was a good idea , for I have been to sea a lot and I never have gotten ice . There was a place in a cove , sheltered from the wind , that had several holes already cut , and that 's where we went . They had given me a bent pin on a piece of string as tackle . On the pin part there was a lot of fluffy red wool , and we put a little bit of fish on the end of the pin . With katie 's help I actually caught a fish . It was only a smelt , I saw my dream fish swimming in . He couldn 't be seen all at once in the hole . The biggest trout I had ever seen . I began to shke all over . The ice was very think at that time of year and the hole was big at the top and small at the bottom , and , leaving everything right there , I ran for home . And how excited everyone got when they saw it . Father tried to weigh it on a set of stillards , or weighing scales , and said it was over fibe pounds , and that was most unusual would be out spearing eels . They cut big round holes in the ice and then poked around the muddy bottom for eels . The eels wer hibernating in the mud by then . When the prongs of the spear hit an eel , it would slide in between them a candle , although most fiercely . Father had a firepot that could be hung out in front of the bow of the boat . In this the wood was lighted . swan near , it was speared , if one knew how to use a spear . The spear for this kind of spearing was different . It had two springy hardwood jaws with a steel prod in the middle . Father hardly missed one this night . Peter missed the direction of the boat . There were eels all about our feet . The boat seemed about half full of eels . We got home at about half - past two in the morning with swollen eyes and sooty faces . It was fun , great fun ! All through the fall months we fished oysters , using wire dipnets with which we lifted them from the bottom . The net had a handle about ten to twelve feet long . The water had to be clam so we could see the oysters . We used tried it alone and we shipped a lot of water . Then we bailed frantically while the boat plowed along like a sperm whale . Suddenly , above the roar came an ear - splitting yell from the far shore . It was father standing on the railway bridge , again , but the other boys would not let me . I could choose another only if something happened to the one I had . Colin had a big black one and he won most of the fights . Allan 's was red and yellow and he lost most all his fights , more beautiful . He had style . Big Allan said to Little Allan , " Now see if this one will win some fights for you . " And could he ! When he was turned loose , he made for Colin 's champion and drove his two inch spurs into its head , leaving else to do , he grabbed the game cock by the wattles - - those things that hang under a rooster 's chin - - and just hung on . The cock could neither peck not strike with his spurs . He just looked embarrassed , and when Duckie started walking backwards of the chores . The older ones said it was our turn now . We sawed wood and stacked it in back of the kitchen stove . We brought water inf rom the well . We took the cows to pasture after miling and brought them home again in the evening . In the winter we cleaned stables and shoveled a path to the creek for the cows to go for water . The stable cleaning We once had trouble with a bull . The cows were across the creek feeding amongst scrub trees and bushes . Flora and I went to bring them home . We considered the bull a sort of pet that never showed any crossness . But this time he came right for us with lowered head and there was little doubt about the way he felt . He was out to gore us . I grabbed a stick and whacked him over the head , but the stick broke and we had to run . Whenever we found a stick I turned and whacked the bull , but they were all old brittle sticks that flew to pieces and never again . He had somehow gotten through or over the new fence . But the railway fence was too much for him . The next day father put a ring in his nose . He used to say , " Never trust a bull , " and this time we believed him . A cow can be dangerous too , under certain circumstances . door as Dandy jumped on to the porch and missed me by inches . She went crashiing through the other end of the porch . Mother said it was mother love , but I thought it was just a mean old cow , although I was always surprised to hink that she if he was enjoying his oats and didn ; t want to be harnessed . Colin got bitten very badly by him a couple of times . But Gordon was a great work - horse , and usually he was very kind . away from us - - if we didn 't have a pan of oats for him . Once even the oats didn ; t work . He just would not come to the dish Colin held out for him . Then Colin set the dish down on the ground and backed away a couple of steps . Sure enough , Gordon came and started eating the oats , but when Colin came to him to grab his forlock and halter him , he falttened again . He wa very big ! - - weighted over three hundred pounds , and had big horms except that one had been broken off . This ram was just mand at all humans . He would attack anyone who came in the same field with him . Some boys had through the fence . The peddler dropped his load and leaped the fence . Then the ram attacked the bundles . One was too bid and soft , being full of towles and sheets and clothes , to be much fun . After giving that a few bunts , fields . Finally , I got my finger untangled from the chain and dropped out of the race . I lay on the ground panting . I was scratched all over and my sides weere cut and bruised by the rams ' hooves . And to say that I was dirty would be When old Ewen Mohr ( Big Hughie ) died , father said something about him being a famous bear hunter . There was no bears on Cape Breton in our time , but there had been when father was a boy . Colin and Allan and I wished that Ewan supposed was one he had wounded years before . He was a tremendous bear and he just about lived on Ewan 's sheep . The other fears followed him around and soon became sheep killers like him . One night three sheep disappeared , and Ewan it down the gun barrel . Then he pushed in some wadding and poked it down and rammed it tight with his ram rod . The ram rod was part of the gun , and was carried on the underside of the barrel just like John 's gun . Then he put in the top of his head and pulled the trigger . The bear let our a growly squeal , shook his head , and then came for Ewan . He must have had a cast iron skull . The big hunter had no time to reload his gun so he climbed in the the maple , and the brute with the big boot he had on the other foot . The bear backed away enough so Ewan could grab his gun and run . He climbed a tree again and reloaded and shot two bears before he came down . When he did get down a bear slapped the road long after dark . His feet seemed to find the way even though he was quite drunk . He had been to a party somewhere . He swayed back and forth as he walked , but he felt like the strongest man in the world . Then he thought he saw something found him near dead from loss of blood . Murdoch wa tough and he recovered , although he wlways had a bald spot . After that , he was known as " Murdoch , the Bear . " much to her astonishment she saw an enourmous animal that looked like a cat , although it seemed almost as big as a colt . It was walking across the cleared patch about the cabin in the direction of the river . She let the dog out and he took wanted everyone to know about it . The only wild cat known in Cape Breton was the Bobcat , but this was no Bobcat . He was five times as big . The Bobcat was gray and had a stub of a tail . What was this animal ? He never found fitted father 's description perfectly . Some think pumas were once all over the continent , so maybe it was one of these . But the big cat had to remain a mystery , and those who did not see it could not believe that there ever was such an animal . This was too much . It got so that we were fishing after dark and altogether too early in the morning . We finally decided we would have a bang - up fishing spell and bring home enough food to last them several days . We had maybe that was the truth . But we were never to find out . In the morning they were both as dead as dodos . It was astonishing to evern suspect that a wild thing could eat itself to death . It was sad to have to learn about creatures Louis Joe , our summer Indian neighbor , had an adventure with a wild animal no bigger than a red squirrel . Every summer , Indians came and camped on the bit of our land that was farthest out on the shore of the cove . They caught wife , a couple of young people , and a very old and dignified man who was Maggie 's father or grandfather . He was blind . They built three teepees , as a rule , and I think one was for the old man , exclusively . One was canvas covered , bu the with people who didn 't feel they had to talk all the time to be sociable . Then I moved to Louis Joe 's teepee . His wife , Maggie , was weaving a basket with hands that moved very fast . Lois smiled at me and pulled out a box into mink . I had seen a baby mink along the shore , and once caught a glimpse of its mother . This was probably the one he now said he caught with his bare hands . Lousis pointed a finger at it and said , " He bite bad . " Then he showed me his bandaged wrist . When we next saw Louis , months later , he had no right arm . The wound from the bite had become infected , and Lousi barely lived through it . Now , if I could tell of a big grisley bear biting the arm off a man , it would make an exciting story . Yet that little bit of a squirrel - sized mink could be almost as deadly without timely medical assistance . The new owner , Mr . Lantz , built what we thought was an enormous house . It was three stories high . The two top floors were filled with beds for the workers , and the lower ones had the dining room and kitchen and lounging kiln baking the bricks was built and the drying grounds were laid out as flat and smooth as a tennis court . The horses turned the machines in which clay and sane were mixed and moulded into bricks . They hauled Colin and I had the oats to thrash . We had no great love for the task , but it was one of out responsibilities . We 'd put a pile of unthrashed oats on one side of the barn floor . Then we would stnad facing each other on opposite pile . This was done with a side movement that tended to move the oat straw to the other side of the barn floor . Adte I hit , and the flail was in the air for another hit , Colin 's flail would band the oats , then mine and then his , and so As spring came , we had little chicks and ducklings , and all but a half dozen were taken by the rats . Once mother put the ducklings , which were about a quarter grown , into a big grain box with a cover . There were just and I used then and all my muskrat traps , too . I caught dozens of then but this made not the slightest difference . It seemed that a dozen rats came to the funeral of every one I killed . I then tried fishing tackle in addition , and breach - loading shells . It looked like it would cost too much to expend a shot on every rat I killed , so I experimented . I used a modest bit of powder and just two BB 's , and made sure that the waddings were good and tight . This worked fine and topped with confectioner 's sugar . We set them out in a room in the barn that nothing could get into except rats . In the morning the stuff was all gond and a number of dead rats were lying about . What is more , there wasn 't a sign it - - not even the doctor who gave him some emulsified cod liver oil . It was something to take even if it did no good . Then one day , Belly - Button Peg came to call . She was smoking a clay pipe . She was wild - eyed , as usual . Mother wasn 't too anxious to have her get into the house because , if she did , she would stay and stan and waste people 's time . So we all met her outdoors . She sat on the porch steps and at once began telling us of the foolishness of people we When Peg left , everybody laughed at her cure . Father laughed the loudest and called her an old witch . But Colin and Allan and I wanted very much to have that wheeze cured . We had a conference in the barn and we thought didn 't work . So , one day we collected an axe and a big auger , a bread knife and a pair of scissors . It wasn 't round and the bread knife was not very sharp . When we finally got it to fit , we pounded it in with the back of the axe . Colin himself , being the best hand with an axe , cut it off clean with one blow . All we had to do then was to wait about We started home confidently , and after walking fifteen minutes or so , I spied our hollow and the tree again . I yelled to Colin , " Shut your eyes quick ! We 're back at the tree ! " We had gone around in a circle . That one of the nails and straighten it . Then she sent him to the brook for a rock from the very bottom of the stream . Next , she sent him to the woods with the nail and the rock and he drove the nail into a tree with the rock as she instructed us he had seen a ghost there . He was a such ghost with white whiskers and he cried all the time , or so Neillie said . I wanted to go and get some apples one day , but I was afraid to go alone . I think I was very young then . The door wanted the apples so much that I went . Trembling with fear and excitement , I stood at a safe distance and listened . Nothing happened . Then I went nearer , and still nothing happened . Finally I looked through the space between two panic that just breathing nearly choked me . Mother shook me and then she laughed and gave me a glass of milk . When I told her what had happened , she said pieces of the old place were falling down all the time , and that probably a squirrel string of neighbors in buggies following a cart carrying a coffin , and that he , Begob , had walked right through them all . Begob claimed later that there was such a funeral in that place two days later . Wasn 't it Dr . Doolittle 's pig that called claimed , he saw a rabbit sucking one of his best cows . He threw a rock at it and broke one of its front legs . Next time he saw one of his neighboring women , and she had her arm in a sling , and Donald believed she was a witch who could Another time when Donald was enjoying his tea , nother told Flora how to prepare the fish for dinner . Father had caught a big cod that morning . Hearing about the big fish reminded Donald of his story . opened his mouth wide with a piece of fence rail the man who fished it stood in its mouth . That was a fish to remember . " Father groaned as if hurt , and Donald , who could not miss the meaning of that goran , replied , " Say what you like , it was every We loved old Donald Nicholson for his wonderful yarns . I think he invented then just as he talked . he night believe in witches and the evil eye that could make a cow go dry or keep the cream from turning to butter and such of gold , but there was nothing there at all . I used to wonder if I could go to Big Harbor and did it for myself . The gold night still be there . Pirates might have come to the lakes to bury treasure . But I never got a chance themorning and I was a good mile and a half from home . It was very cold and still very dark , and the new snow was deep . Nothing looked as it did in the daylight , but I knew the marks I had made on the trees , and there were also big stumps and in a tight spot and then someone unexpectantly solves your problem by wiggling his finger ! That 's the way I felt . He took me into the little building where he mixed things for his bottles . he gave me forty cents for the four rabbits , bottles and flasks i could bring him . Three cents for a big bottle if it had a good cork in it , and one if without . The bottles we brought him we found mostly along the railway tracks on the way to and from school . This morning he told if swimming about can be called a ramble . And that is what I was about , Muskrats . We used the word " musquash " . Merchant Dan was paying twenty - five cents per pelt . And I needed money very much . It 's rather awful not to have I had a few traps along the shores of the river , set in the entrances to their dens in river banks . I did not go to see my traps at once . It was too early for that . Besides , there was something about the morning off their trapped legs rather than be caught . Did you ever sense your thoughts were trying hard to tell you something ? That 's how it was with me , i guess . But I was the best skinner of muskrats around , better than any of the men . Father said once I should plan to be a surgeon doctor . I almost did study medcine because of that . It was getting too light now for the water animals and it was time to see my traps along our own shore . When I got there I saw Allan with John 's old muscle - loading gun running up and down the banks of the river . I went to by the shore back of a big stump and waited . When the rat got opposite me , I took careful aim and pulled the trigger . There was a terrifying band and the back of my head and shoulders smacked against the ground , and the gun flew off in two crucified for it . Dreams , I thought , were opposite to waht would realy ahppen , so I 'd likely not be crucified for anything . But the important point in Duncan 's mind was that this dream seemed to indicate that we were right in planning to be ministers . a piece for them . We sold this carefully processed and packaged gum to the bigger boys who usually had pennies . The teacher caught me making a sale during school hours one day . She asked me if I had chewed it . I said , " Yes , would be to buy some blue denim so she could make summer pants for all three of us . That 's what happenned , too . I thought often afterwards of how mother used to collect eggs and save butter to sell to merchant Dan . So , I am sure find out who had lost it . It also stayed in the clock for a long time while I dreamed what I would get with it . One day when we came home from school , mother was very unhappy . I thought at first that someone had died . Then that he was afriad to ask for an accounting for fear he 'd find out that he was in debt for more than the farm was worth . Finally mother got really angry . She told him , " You may not own a single animal or a square foot of the land anymore ! If you don 't go this very day and find out , I 'll go myself tomorrow , and you better think over what people will think of that . " She pointed the broom handle at him . " You aren 't doing a thing any more today , and you just better go . " over - - shoes for everyone in the family , an enormous roll of print cloth for mother , socks and underwear , and al sorts of things . Then father stood up and said , " And we have twenty dollars ' credit now . " That was the time the great fear left the family , provided by the kitchen stove . There was a heater in the living - dining room , but we used it only on special occasions . We did not mind the lack of heat in the daytime when everyone was busy . It was at bedtime that we really felt it , although the big snow shoe rabbits that were so white you could not see them until you almost stepped on them . We didn 't fool around when we worked . We talked about serious things , and often counted out sticks to see how long it comfortable , but generally wet unless the weathen was very cold indeed . When they got dirty they had to be thrown away . Our other clothes were of thick tweedy material , so we never suffered when out of doors . The winter wasn 't all cold and hard work , although it must have been that to mother . To us there were would never have seen it . While I was wondering about this , the weasel returned and went into the barn again . Then I deliberately waited for him to come out , which he soon did with anothe mouse . I watched the creature take over were at such times cliffs of dnow that hung over the slope to the ice - covered stream . A sled was no good in such a place . The thing to do was jump on to a cliff and go right through it and get buried in the snow that fell to cover one up . One had to be careful not to jump before the other fellow got out of the drift . After a while , the cliff would be gone made sled about four feet long . It could really travel and we all could pile onto it any old way . There was a good hill between our house and Uncle Hector 's , and on Uncle Dan 's place north of us there was a tremendously and boys built fires near her in various places , and someone brought her a pail of warm water with oatmeal in it to drink . The kids worked hard to keep the fire going and had to drag wood from considerable distances . About ten o ' clock someine with grownups . I wans ; t at that party , but Colin and Allan were . I can 't remember why I wasn 't there , but I do the wildest nightmares and talked and hsouted . Allan even got out of bed and carried on as if he were fighting someone . He had to be forcibly put back tob ed . They slept all day and the next night , too . But they helped to save the too , before there was any ice on the lake and before we had brought the sheep in from the pasture across the creek . In a few hours the snow was so deep that the roads were impassable . Several people did ger as far as our house before with the other toes , until just one was left and that was the king toe . In the winter , when the darkness came early and we stayed about the kitchen stove , we played kaleetacoch . It went this way : We took a little stick and put one end in the fire until a red coal formed on it . Two youngsters There were many such tricks and we loved them . But the great fun was listening to father 's stories . They were in Gaelic and have never been written , folks came running to rescue their pigs . Each one grabbed a tail and pulled , but all they got were just the tails . They were so angry that they would have beaten Donald for playing such a trick on them , but Donald got away in their only In the morning , Donald got up and greeted the monster cheerfully , saying he had had a wonderful sleep . The monster began to be afraid that maybe Donald was God , after all . He became very polite again , and made afine breakfast had an idea . When lunchtime drew near , Donald said he would like soup , and that he was a champion soup eater . " I 'll bet , " he told the monster , " that I can eat more soup than you can . " shirt with the opening just under his chin , and most of the soup he spooned into the pig skin . Bowl after bowl was consumed . Donald ate the soup only when the monster was looking at him . After a while , he got bigger and bigger and rounder and through this region and heard about the robbers . One day he came to a bridge that went right over a great whirlpool . He stood gazing into the whirlpool and wondering about it . While there , one of the robbers came to him and asked what it . But there have been taller men , and maybe stouter men , but most likely he was the strongest man in the world . There is a ship 's anchor in Halifax that he lifted once , and no one has ever been able to lift it since . " that he was very small when he was born , and only weighed two or three pounds , and had to be coddled in wool for a while . Then he grew and grew and became stronger than anyone . Some say that he once smashed a bull 's skull with his fist . " Those two lone miles to Orangedale school would have been a dreary business if it hadn 't been for the railway . It provided most of the fun as wll as a good place to walk . All sorts of berries grew best along the railway line , and all the way without falling off . Colin said he did it once , but I never did . I did it with only one fall though . Wlaking on the rail without having to step off was less exciting , but helped to make life interesting . On a windy day that turned the wheels so men could make it go . It could go fast , too . The men stopped and told us to hop on . There was barely room for the three of us . It was much easier to stay on if you helped with the pumping . So we as the train went by . Then they picked it up and put it back on the tracks . It was hard to get it going good again . We had to stop at a crossing soon after , because of a man 's balky horse who had decided to have a rest right in the middle met a train with it , he could easily drag it off . He could lean over and have it fall off if he got in a terrible hurry . Sometimes either of these machines would be caught by a train and smashed , when the men didn ; t have time enough to take it When we got to the station at Orangedale , there was a crowd waiting for the morning passenger train as usual . Most everyone who was free wnet to the station to meet the train . You never knew who might be coming home direction from Orangedale . It cost us ten cents apiece . The coach was full of strange and sleepy looking people . A trainman walked through singing , " Orangedale , next stop . " That was fun to hear . THen the " news agent " , as we had brother Neil 's violin . He played beautifully for quite a while and then he switched to quick dancing music , a hornpipe . Schofield got up and danced . He wore a pair of enormous boots and nearly broke through the floor doing the Sailor 's lodging except for cigarette tobacco . When they were leaving in the morning they stuffed father 's pockets with it . They said it was also good pipe tobacco , and father thought it was o - kay . He had enough to last him several months . at school meetings and any meetings , for that matter . They loved debating and debates were populat at that time . These two brothers were always on opposite sides and both ere elequent . I remember one debate on whether or not war The cattle buyer was unuasual . . He was so convincing and busnesslike that everyone took him for real . He spent the night at our house and told us he was buying cattle . Next morning he went with father to look over some cattle . Everyone was excited about the money they would make . But the cow buyer never returned , or sent any word . He had an easy way to get food and bed for nothing . He could have stolen all the cattle , too , if he 'd had facilities a week at a time . Neillie was angry as a hornet when he heard about it . He said , " We 'll roust them out in a hurry . " Cape Breton , and he married Emma MacAulay of Malagawatch . Emma was the daughter of Margaret ( MacLeod ) MacAulay . Margaret being a full aunt of my father Duncan Robert MacLean , DDS . Margaret ( JCL02 ) was the eldest daughter of John and Christy MacLeod and a sister to Johanna ( MacLeod ) MacLean , my grandmother . . . Margaret 's years were 12 / 25 / 1835 - 10 / 07 / 1902 . She is buried with her husband , Malcolm , in the Fulton Cemetery at Malagawatch , Cape Breton . Also noted in Angus ' writings mentioned a tale of going to church and passing Mrs . MacAuley , ( MacDonald ) MacLean . Dolena 's mother Dolena died giving brith to Lena . Dolena MacLeod ( JCL07 ) 1848 - 1868 ( 20 ) and she being a sister to Margaret and Johanna . . . . . talk about keeping it in the family !