the couples lined up, as many as could get on the floor, for the old four-hand reel in which the women step-danced as well as the men. And, if the fiddler was a little late coming, my oldest sister “jigged” for the dance — and she could jig any tune that was known! I was always allowed to watch for a while — “a little longer” — , I would coax my mother. But the next day, with my sister “jigging” for me, I would dance the steps danced the night before! How I longed to grow up so that I could have a partner in the reels too!

In those days the people were very close to each other — they had no entertainment except what they made for themselves; they had to help each other in order to get along at all; they worked together; they enjoyed the simple pleasures together; they laughed together, and cried together in time of trouble. As children we had no skiis or toboggans — but on the long winter nights with a full moon shining and a hard crust on the snow, we would take the shaves out of the old wood—sleigh and coast down the long grade from our house to the river. Once I was left hang- ing on a picket as the crowded sleigh shot over a snow-bank and past the old picket fence!

I shall never forget my first store—bought doll! How I delighted in it! She had beautiful flaxen hair. An older sister had brought it home from Boston for me. The first sewing I ever did was when I was eleven, and I made a dress for that doll. Mother gave me two dozen eggs to take to the store to buy the material. Eggs were then worth about six cents a dozen, and I walked the two miles to the store, carrying my little basket. I remember the material was paisley and cost exactly 12 cents for the yard that I needed. Having the treasured “yard of goods” safely in my basket, I hurried home by a short-cut across the fields for Mother to give me instructions on cut- ting out the dress. Then in the evening, I would take my sewing and my books to a big stump

where I herded the cows, studied, and sewed on my dress.

A big event in my life was my first trip to Charlottetown when I was about eight or nine. I remember my father bought me a pair of new button-shoes. This trip made me the envy of my school chums! Going to Charlottetown then meant driving by horse and truck—wagon to the Bush Wharf, and my father often left home the night before and stayed overnight with friends, in order to take the boat, “Heather Belle” early in the morning. The trip was wonderful for me — and those new shoes made it perfect for me. Quite a change in travelling has taken place in

these last eighty years!

School was a mile and a half away. I never had a woman teacher — those days we always had a “school master”; we sat on long benches which on cold winter days were always drawn up around the stove. We had no desks and used slates with “scratchy” pencils. But there was a long high desk built along the wall and seven or eight pupils would sit there when it came time

for writing in our “copy books”.

A favourite pastime during dinner hour was getting balsam off the trees on the end of a long stick which we hurried to dip in the stream below the school; the balsam made beautiful rain— bow colours in the water. Sometimes we played “catch” with a yarn ball, which was of little

use with a bat.

On the way home from school I often lingered to eat “lady—berries” — a sweet little red berry which grew in the damp mossy places in the woods. Another place we lingered at was at the grist—mill on the day oats were being ground for oatmeal. We loved to eat the piping hot kernels as they came from the hopper and many a time the owner chased us away! On Sunday I went to church with the rest of the family, and more often than not we walked the four miles as the horses would be tired. I sat beside my mother through the hour of English service followed by the hour of Gaelic. No one left the second service. I would swing my feet in their button shoes which were far from reaching the floor — but too afraid to wriggle lest the gimlet eye of the old Scotch minister might pin-point me from the pulpit. I remember only one minister being in that

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