News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1913-07-02
PART ONE
CHAPTER !.
On the Labrador.

Don't you write anything down yet
cause l amt ready.
If wrote this yarn myself, I'd make
1t good and red from tip to tip claws
out, teeth bare, fur crawling with emo
lions. 1t wouldn't be dull, no, or evi
dence.
But then it's to please you, ant
that's what I'm, for.
So / proceeds to stroke the full
smooth, lay the paws down soft, folt
up the smile, and purr. A sort Of
be dull, too.
No, | dunno how to begin. If this
yarn was a rope, I'd coil it down be
fore began to pay out. You lays the
end, so, and flemish down, ring by ring
until the bight's coiled, smooth, ready
to fake off as it runs. l delayed a
lynching once to do just that, and re.
1ieve the patients mind. 1t all went
off SO we'll!
When we kids were good, mother
she used to own we came of pedigree
stock; but when we're bad, seems we
took after father. You see mothers
folk was the elect, sort of born saved.
They allowed there'd be room in
Heaven for one hundred and forty-four
thousand just persons, mostly from
Nova Scotia, but when they took to
sorting the neignbors, they'd get ex-
elusive.
Anyway, mclher's folk as tribe, is
nillionaires in grace and pretty we'll
fixed in Nova Scotia. Then she's found
out, secretly married among the goats.
Her names scratched out of the fam
lily Bible, with strong hint to the
Lord to scratch her entry from the
Book of Life. She's married a sailor
man, before the mast, Liveyere from
the Labrador, a man without dollar,
suspected of being Episcopalian.
In them days the Labrador amt
laid out exactly to suit mother. She's
used to luxury-coal in the lean-to,
taties in the cellar, COWS in the barn,
barter store round the corner, mails,
church, school, and Jail right handy,
so she can enjoy the ungodly getting
of their just deserts But in our time
the Labrador was just Gods country,
all rocks, ice, and sea, to put the fear
into proud hearts-no need of teach
ers. 1t kills off the weaklings-no
need of doctors. A school to raise
men-no need of preachers. The law
was work or starve"-no place for
lawyers. It's police, and court, and
hangman all complete, fire and hail,
snow and vapors, wind and storm full
filling His word.
Fathers home was an overturned
schooner, turfed in, and he was surely
proud of having bigger place than
any other Liveyere on the coast There
was the hold overhead for slowing
winter fish, and room downstairs for
the family, the team of seven husky
dogs, and even a cord or two of fire.
wood We kids used to play at New
f'nlanders up in the hold, when the
winter storms were tearing the tops
off the hills, and the Eskimo devil
howled blue shrieks outside. The hus-
kies makes wolf songs all about the
lC" VI ll0ll, anu we VI ucdl lllOlHCl
give father piece Of her mind. That's
about the first l remember, but all
what mother thought about poor ia
Their took years and years to say.
I used to be kind of sorry for father
You see he worked the bones through
his hide, Turing all winter and fish
Ing summers, and what he earned he'd
get in truck from the company. All
us Liveyeres owed to the Hudson Bay,
but father worked hardest and he
owed most, hundreds and hundreds of
skins. The company trusted him.
There wasn't man on the coast
more trusted than he was, with moth
er to feed, and six kids, besides seven
huskies, and fathers aunt, Thessa-
1onika, a widow with four children
and tumor, living down to Last
Hope beyond the Rocks.
There was secrets about father, and
If mother ever found out! You see,
he looked like a white man, curly
ya]ler hair same as me, and he was
fearful strong. But in his inside
don't ever tell!-he was partly small
boy same's me, and the other half of
him-dont ever let on!-was noun.
taineer injun. l seen his three broth.
ers, the finest fellers you ever-yes,
Scotch half-breeds-and mother never
knew.
Thar's me on fathers knee, with
my nose in his buckskin shirt, and
even to this day the wood smoke in
aramp brings back the wuff, whereas
summers his boots smelt fishy. What
happened first or afterwards is all
mixed up, but there's the smoke smell
and sister Maggie lying in the bunk,
all white and froze.
There's fish smell, and Polly who
used to wallop me with slipper,
lying white and froze. And yet
knew she couldn't get froze in sum-
mer.
Then there's smoke smell, and big
Tommy, bigger nor father, throwing
up blood l said he'd catch it from
mother for messing the floor, but