-4 j=

pampled well in advance of the proper time -- with the usual consequences. Summer meant wild strawberries in the pastures and raspberries ripening in the partially cleared woodlands. A day among the raspberry canes was a small counterpart of the school picnic. Carrying our lunches, we trekked across farms to MacKaig's Woods, where we made a day of it: basking in the pleasant warmth, listening to the drowsy hum of the bees: and the lazy murmur of the brook, while, in leisurely fashion, we filled our pails with berries. Picking raspberries had but one serious disadvantage: the woodland: were infested by snakes -- large, medium, and small. Although we had been repeatedly assured that they were absolutely harmless so far as being venomous was concerned, we knew that they were capable of biting, if steppe: upon, so that the innate aversion persisted. We were thoroughly convinced

of the danger -- to the extent that we always carried our boots along and willingly donned them before entering the berry patch.

Summer was a time when a leisure hour or two meant digging a few worms, seizing the fishing pole, and heading for the brook. There were two streams within the district boundaries -- Rogerson's and McElroy's. Rogerson's Brook flowed into a marshy cove that formed a part or West River; in Spring, when great schools of smelts came up to spawn, we used to catch them in dip nets.

This brook was a popular spot for juvenile anglers; for this reason, tho trout were wary and not over-plentiful. Mcklroy's, on the other hand, though not so easily reached, was well stocked, so that Dan MacPhee and r/ most of our fishing there. There was also gnother attraction in that vicinity.

At the back of the McElroy farm, in a field close to the brook, there lived an outsized, very arrogant, very i11-tempered ‘Ayrshire bull. This bull regarded his pasture and all the adjacent tevyitory as his personal

domain, and strongly resented any sort of intrusion. In his view, Dan and