around, either; so, the railroad station and post office were popular meeting—places for young and old who gathered there in the evening to get the mail, and hear the latest gossip. This was the era before the telephone; so, it was a means of communicating among neighbours.

The farmers also shipped their potatoes by rail, transporting them to the “Crossing” in truck wagons. There they would reload them on railroad cars from which they would be shipped to various destinations. The farmers used muscle mud for fertilizer, which came from Saint Peter’s Bay by rail. They would shovel it out of the railroad car into a cart and take it home, only to handle it again by depositing it on their fields. All this work was manual labor, and very time—consuming, not to mention the pain and sore bones which ensued. There was even a house that some people called “Government House.” It was built by the railroad to accommodate the station agent. Apparently, it was built of Norwegian lumber. There had been a September gale, and a ship from Norway had been lost at sea. Some of the lumber washed ashore, and was used to build this particular house. In fact, five ships were lost in that storm which lasted three days.

There was no grist mill in Bear River, but there was one not far away at Jim Mallard’s in Gowan Brae. The farmers grew their own wheat, cut, thrashed, and dried it. Some dried it in the house, in a kitchen loft. Then they placed it in the cart and took it to the mill to be ground into flour. A few days later, they would return and pick up the flour, bran, and shorts. Nothing was wasted. The flour was used for baking; the bran for livestock feed; and the shorts, when combined with oatmeal, made good porridge. They also mixed shorts and flour to make mouth—watering biscuits.

There was also a cheese factory in Gowan Brae where farmers sold their milk. The farmer transported his cans of milk to the factory with his horse and cart. It was a rough drive, since the clay roads were

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