Cape Breton's Magazine

A Twice-Told Tale they were going to stay all night there. The man of the house wasn't home, went o- ver to his sister's, he wouldn't be long. So Papa went to the house and went in. And my mother was there, she had all her clothes--she was going down to Green Cove, she was going to cook down there for a bunch of fishermen. And Papa was going down with her, Papa was going to fish down there. Anyhow, they went in. Dark came. They were no time there when dark came. The girl keeping the house said to Papa--she knew he was a good singer-- she said, "Sing us a song." So Papa told me he started to sing the song. He told me he put his head back like this to sing the song--first thing, boy, something struck the house, outside. So he said he stopped singing. A little while after that, he said, it came in the porch. And there was a big door, and the door was locked. And a button--an old-fashioned button they used to put on the old homes. There'd be no way you could burst the door and get in the porch. And when my mother came in, whether it was a suitcase or whatever she had, she never brought it right in the house. She left it right out on the porch. And he fig? ured it was the bear. Figured the bear burst the porch door in. He said, "Boy, it was making this racket on the porch." He called out, "Look out there, I'm going to shoot you." He said it never moved, what? ever it was. Well, boy, he told me, "Me son," and I'm not telling you a lie, boy, he said, "I went to the door and I opened the door--I went to open it. I turned the knob, and when I turned this way," he said--and he was a strong boy--"when I turned this way, it turned the other way right against me." He said, "I knew right then, boy, it was something that wasn't very nice. I knew by the feel." "Well," he said, "that's okay, boy. We went away back and sat in the sitting room, the three of us. The noise stopped, the racket stopped. So by and by," he said, "we went back out again to the door." The girl had the lamp. He said, "I went to the door, I caught the knob, I turned the knob. She had the lamp and your mother was be- CONTINUED FROM INSIDE FRONT COVER John James Whitty hind her. And," he said, "I pulled the door open--I opened the door--and when I pulled the door open this woman was there-- and she was standing," he said, "side out." And he said she had the white piece like they used to put on you when you died, to keep your mouth closed. Said, when he o- pened the door, this woman was standing, side on. He said, "I never took time to see who it was, but I shut the door." He went into the room and he said he felt for sure that they could see his mouth, because he fig? ured it went in an awful shape--his mouth. He said his tongue got that big, he didn't want them to see it, from the fright he got. He ran and grabbed the bottle that was there, full of holy water. He took a drink. An3rway, he stayed like that for a long while, with his head buried down, so they wouldn't see his mouth. He said there was nothing wrong with his mouth afterward, Woolbur Tannery TANNERS - WHOLESALERS - RETAILERS Sheepskin and Deerskin Products Open 7 Days a Week BLUES MILLS on Trans-Canada Highway 105 R. R. 1, River Denys, Inverness County Cape Breton, Nova Scotia BOE 2Y0 Tel. 756-2788 KARL REICHEL, Mgr. Midway Motors Ltd 'W Middle River %.i' R. R. No. 3, Baddeck, l'mS Victoria Co., N. S. BOE IBO Phone 295-2290 Local Dealer for TROY-BILT and GARDEN WAY Products. Ideal Ice Cream Co. Ltd. A Complete Line of Frozen Foods Ice Cream and Fountain Supplies 162 Prince Street 564-4549 Sydney (27)