Cape Breton's Magazine

I 11% box. Tvl'o hundred pounds. (Two hundred pounds of smelt, done head to tail, through layers of ice.) Yeah. Margaret: Big wooden boxes. Frank: The whole bunch of us, we shipped smelts to the States. Then we got a word back from the company--a telegram that the smelts arrived in A-1 condition--"Ship more. The price is holding good." And we went like fools, fishing on the ice there, and paying a man that would take them to Baddeck. I'm after forgetting how much did we have to pay a box. We shipped it. And we told the guy, the fellow that took it up: when we'd get the money, we'll pay you. We never got one 5 cents! Nothing, nothing! After shipping and the work we had to do. We didn't get 5 cents back. The next word we got--we were trying to get our money back--next thing, the com? pany went broke. That was the end of the States. We'd never send another smelt to them. (But for awhile there, you thought you were going to get rich.) Oh heavens, yes, good money, you know. And the funny part of it, you know, "Ship more. The price is holding good." (Did you do a lot of hunting?) Oh, yes. But I'll tell you, I didn't lose too much time hunting. I was always busy: working, working, working, working. And the license was then only two dollars. And two dollars was hard to get, those years. Hard to get. Sometimes I would get the deer, and then I'd run down to (the store) down here-- "Well, I want my license!" Another time, you know, there were 4 or 5 men. They were hunting--this was hunting time. And I was working on the roof of the house, on the kitchen, on that end. They were out hunting this day in the morning, and then they came home for dinner, and back again, hunting and hunting. I was working on the roof of the house, patching it up--there was a leak in it. And I came in. It was just around suppertime. The boys, 4 or 5 of them came, and they were a- round the farm, you know, right around it. I told Margaret, I said, "You get me my supper." She had the table all set. I said, "Get mine, before they come in." I was af? ter cleaning my hands that were full of tar and all that. That was all right. I had my supper. And the boys came in, the 4 or 5 of them came. I asked Sandy--he had then a .30/.30, a new one. I asked him, "Where's your gun?" "It's right here. Where are you going?" I said, "I'm going outside. Give me the gun." "Well, there's two shells in it." I said, "All right." "Where you going?" I said, "Just going outside. Going to have a look around, anything around." The boys sat at the table; they were hav? ing their supper. I just took a walk. And then there was a barn, a little ways down "Superb Dining in a Relaxing Atmosphere' Cape Breton's Finest Dining Specializing in Chinese Cuisine and Canadian Dishes Charlotte Street, Downtown Sydney Five Minutes from Centre 200 539-7775 Take Out and Delivery Service Available (73)