Cape Breton's Magazine

stories from Visits Down North John Eddie Angus D. MacDonald | and Simon Fraser Margaret Brown John A. Wilkie Fraser John D. MacDonald, Ingonish: I was born in Bay Road Valley near Bay St. Lawrence. My father's name was Duncan H. MacDonald. He was a farmer and he worked for the pro? vincial government on road work, and he was also councillor for quite a number of years, Bay St. Lawrence district. My father was a young man at the time this happened to him. It would be in the 1890s. He was born in 1878, and he would be 18 or 20 when this happened. And he had been to church Sunday evening. Church was at Aspy Bay, at the little church--horse and wagon days then, of course. And at that time there were people lived a short distance in the direction of Cape North from the church--Ramsey was their name. And one of the girls there was Suze Ramsey. And my father, after church he drove her to her home. I don't know what time it was • it was night--when he started back home to? ward Bay Road Valley. And I don't know if you know it or not, but at that time the first Transatlantic Cable had landed at Cabot Landfall; and there were some people working down there, living in the area • people that were involved with the cable. And there were also some local people liv? ing there. So he was coming home, and he was passing up at what was then a MacDonald home right next to the road. There was a gate when you came in from the direction of Cabot Landfall, from the direction of the shore, before you come out on the main highway-- there was a gate. So he was driving up the road, kind of a steep hill before you get to this gate--and he was just sitting back in the wagon, not taking too much notice of what was going on, the horse was walk? ing along. And it was a very bright night. The moon was out, full moon. And he looked, coming from the direction of the shore, up through those houses where people lived, a road by those houses--there was a man com? ing out toward the main road. Well, he thought nothing of that, because he thought it was one of the people that was living or working in there. But first thing he noticed, this fellow was along? side the wagon. And it struck him, the thought came to his mind, how did he open the gate or get over the fence so quickly? It didn't seem possible that he could do it. So when he got up alongside the wagon, my father said to him, "Would you like a drive?" And at the same time he noticed that the man was wearing a uniform. He had an officer's cap on • it was a kind of Navy type uniform. And he said what he really looked like was the picture of that sailor on the package of cigarettes. That's what CONTINUED NEXT PAGE (13)