Cape Breton's Magazine

gave him hay. You wouldn't give him grain because he was hot inside, too--colic. So. He came out of it all right. But I was worried. You would, too. And such a day for it to happen--a snowstorm. Not a pleasant thought. (No. And the risk you take going down in that well was quite a risk.) Well, he had all excess to move his head if he wanted to. And a big horse hits you with his head, he could flatten you. You know. His head was free to move. But his legs were locked. And we had to get there, get a rope, reaching him down around the top and get that piece of rope and pull it through, get it and fish it around the best you could. (But he did nothing that would hurt you?) No. I thought he'd get excited, you know. He wouldn't know what we were going to do, maybe. You know, al? though probably he would, probably, have more sense than I knew. That is a very true story, and there's no use to add anything more to it--that's the way it happened.... For another good story, see "Percy Peters and the Wild Cow" In issue 51 of Cape Breton's IHIagazine. More About... Christy MacKinnon's Silent Observer Continued from Inside Front Cover ing." He was later a teacher and principal in Glace Bay. While in Beaver Cove, Christy went to his one-room school. Christy credits her father with starting her to draw. "Pa kept en? couraging me to draw pictures on my slate." And of her father's sec? ond wife, Mary Catherine: "She was a natural artist. I followed her drawing pictures and it started my career." Christy graduated from the Halifax School for the Deaf in 1908. Then she studied art at the Victoria School of Arts (which became the present-day Nova Scotia College of Art and Design). From 1912 to 1915, she studied on a scholarship at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Then she worked as an illustrator for the famous toy company, FOA im ' m'.- I'fv's v> : ??- Schwarz. "Illustrator" at that time ' • *'... ' . '' '?? • : ,. ... .," '"' '.'''4f'-?,''lts*>>- included painting the toys, decorat- "One of our happiest days after our mother died was when Pa brought home his new wife. ing the trains, and putting faces on We were so excited, we ran out to pick flowers and berries for her. Alec went fishing and the dolls. She retumed to Canada brought her a string of trout. Our eagerness to please our new mother charmed her. We all and taught at the Halifax School for called her Mama, and it didn't take us long to love her. the Deaf from 1920 until her mar- "Mama learned to use gestures and facial expressions with me, and she talked clearly so I riage in 1928 to John Maxcy from could read her lips. I loved her even more for this and did whatever I could to please her." Blissville, Long Island, a painter who was also deaf. They had no children. After John died, she and her sister Sadie lived out their lives in apartments side by side.... But Christy never forgot the family farm at Beaver Cove, recording it in drawings and words. Her niece, Inez Simeone, knew about her artwork, but until bags of it tumbled from a basement storage space, no one suspected the work that would be? come Silent Observer. Inez took Christy's manu? scripts to Gallaudet University • 'the liberal arts uni? versity for the deaf • certain that they would be STOP AT DINO'S fresh baked goods * souvenirs magazines * film * charcoal gifts * novels * camp fuel * ice Ingonish One Stop Store & Deli STAY AT DINO'S Trailer Park Laundromat close to the National Park Ingonish