CHAPTER 6 
     
    
   
   
    
     a variation of Marooned 
     
    
   
   
    
     Andrew Macdonald who figured in Mr. Paine’s recounting 
     
     of the three duck hunters’ forced overnight stay on Boughton 
     
     Island, is the grandfather of the boy supposedly retelling the 
     
     event. One of the other members of the trio, Billy Christian, 
     
     is his uncle. This is the story from Billy’s point of view as his 
     
     nephew, and my son, might have told it, retelling some of his 
     
     uncle’s favorite stories. 
     
    
   
   
    
     THE STORY TELLER 
     
     By Kent Macdona/d 
     
    
   
   
    
     Uncle Billy and l were leaning over the bark-covered 
     
     stringers of his pole fence, looking at his horses. They were 
     
     fat as seals as Uncle Billy said, and obviously their racing days 
     
     were over. They were really Uncle Billy’s pets. 
     
    

    
     About the time he had to quit lobstering because of inner 
     
     ear problems, Uncle Billy found himself raising and racing 
     
     horses. I guess he figured it would be safer to lose his balance 
     
     on a sulky than leaning over the side of a lobster boat. The 
     
     horses were not winning any races these days but he kept 
     
     them around anyway. He grew hay and oats and he had barns 
     
     and pasture so they didn’t cost much. They’d toss their heads 
     
     and prance around just as though they were going to race that 
     
     night. He would watch them pretending and I suppose he was 
     
     remembering when they didn’t have to pretend. 
     
    

    
     Uncle Billy is my Mom’s brother, ten years older than she is. 
     
     Their father died just about the time Mom was born and her big 
     
     brother, who was ten or eleven, had to turn to and work pretty 
     
     early in life. But he loved the fishing and farming and he never 
     
     lost his sense of fun. 
     
    

    
     I think he’s a born story-teller. Anyway, I like his stories and 
     
     he seems to like telling them. Most of them are about people 
     
     I don’t know, but he can put them in your head with a word of 
     
    
   
   
    
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