I were intruders -- a fact which he made evident by loud bellowing, snorting, and ground pawing the moment we came in sight. Naturally, we /paused for a space to reply in kind and to give hima poke or two with a stick -- all of which did nothing to improve his disposition. Very soon, the prospect of baiting the bull was even more intriguing than casting for trout. After a time this became rather boring and we developed a new ‘technique. While one of ‘us held the bull's attention, the other scaled the fence on the far side of the pasture, came up behind him, and gave his tail a vigorous yank. There followed a spate of fast and furious action during which we were always lucky enough to win the race back to the fence, with the pull an uncomfortably close second.at times. | |

Fortunately for us, though we didn't consider it so at the time, someone observed the performance and informed our parents. Thenceforth, we did our angling at Rogerson's. |

Outdoor activities during the winter months were quite restricted. When heavy snow blanketed the ponds, we spent our free moments "coasting" on Murphy's hill -- the only bit of high ground in our vicinity -- but this was only a stop-gap; our interest was in skating. Most of us had what were known as "spring" skates, which clamped onto the heels and soles of our everyday boots. The slightly concave contours of the blade edges were scarcely conducive to any degree of speed ~-- which was probably a good feature. The ponds in our neighborhood were limited in size, which meant numerous collisionsghat could have resulted in injuries, had we been moving at any speed. Those skates had a major defect; a tendency to part company with the boot when the skater made anything resembling a sharp turn. Sliding along on a Single skate while trying to maintain a precarious equilibrium was a frustrating and embarrassing experience that inevitably ended in a fall.

In later years when we had come into the possession of shoe-skates --

"hockey-skates," we called them -- we used to skate down the river to

. / |