Cape Breton's Magazine

keep going. They'll be there when you get there." So I didn't go too far anyway. And the road was soft, but I figured I could have made it home with my horse. And I said, talking to myself, "My God, if that man happens to die on the road...." He told me he lay down 2 or 3 times and put the suit? case under his head, and quit. And then he decided he'd try to go a little further. I thought, "I know I'd never forgive myself for letting that man die there." So I turned the horse around, and I was started back for Neil's Harbour. So I didn't go any distance at all before I picked him up again. And when I took him aboard, we didn't go any distance before we could see the other horse in the road ahead of us. And the fellows (that) had been at Neil's Harbour. So I said to him, "The boys are here from Neil's Harbour, anyway." And as I got up to them, they were holding the horse's head up and they had a bottle, pouring into the horse's mouth. And this Jack Costigan said, "What's he doin'? What have they got in the bottle?" I said, "That's rum." I said, "If you're good and tired, if you got a good big shot of rum into your belly--now don't you think that'll warm you up and give you spirit for a little while?" I said, "That's what they're doing to him." I said, "They've got a 26-ouncer there." And this is Prohi? bition days, when you get the good stuff. I had bought a 2 l/2-gallon can of it, for THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Today you can connect with Peru as easily as Pugwash. You can hear your cousin in Sydney, Australia as clearly as your uncle in Sydney, Cape Breton. Keeping Nova Scotia in the forefront of telecommunication' technology is keeping you in touch with the world. Born in Nova Scotia, heard around the world. MT&T; YOUR QUALITY CONNECTION myself for the winter, just for hot tod? dies when I come in out of the cold. Twen? ty-five dollars for 2 1/2 gallons. So, he said, "It's rum?!" When we got up to where they were at, "By God, boys, I don't know youse but I've got to have a drink of that stuff if it's rum." And he took that old bottle that was in the horse's mouth, slung the thing--put it up and he let it run. He let it run. I know he took, like, half a glassful. And he put it down. Well, they put the rest of it in? to the horse, anyway. And this time the horse got up. I said, "That'll warm his belly up for him, and he'll have lots of spirit to get to Neil's Harbour." Well, in no time at all he was on his feet. And I said, "Now, you fellows go ahead of me, and I'll keep behind you, so if the horse happens to play out, I'll be behind you anyway." So this fellow got in with me again, this Costigan. And by the time he got out to Neil's Harbour, he was as fresh as you'd be and singing like a lark! Laugh? ter. Oh, but wasn't he glad to get that big drink of rum, he was so tired. (You were 7 years hauling the mail. Did you have the same horse all the time?) No. I had three while I was there. I had Char? lie for my first years--first 5 or 6 years. And then I sold him to my brother who was on the job with me. The last year that I ran the mail, my brother ran be? tween Ingonish and New Haven with me. He had been on from Wreck Cove to Ingonish for the other 6 years that I was on. But the last year I was on, another chap got the job from Ingonish to Wreck Cove. So my brother had nothing to do. So I sold him one of my horses--the oldest fellow I had --and gave him half of my job, to Neil's Harbour. I was doing well then. Ninety dollars a month (including) to feed two horses, to buy my harness for sleighs. (When would the heaviest mail be coming?) Well, in the spring, when the Eaton's cat? alogues would be coming through. And then again in the fall, when you'd get the fall and winter catalogue. Spring and summer would be coming, like, late in the fall-- the winter--and the other way around. But you'd get two lots of catalogues, one in the spring and one in the fall. And those darn things, they were about an inch and a half thick. And they'd probably be-- PARSONS & ASSOCIATES BARRISTERS & SOLICITORS 240 KINGS ROAD, SYDNEY 539-2777 FAX UNE 539-4282 DAVID L. PARSONS, Q.C.. Res 539-7240 GERARD X. MacKENZlE.. Res 539-5610 RONALD JACKSON Res 567-1368 GLENN FRANCIS Res 794-8645 A GENERAL PRACTICE INCLUDING: Criminal Law, Real Estate, Family Law & Divorce, Personal Injury, Insurance Law, Civil Litigation, Commercial & Corporate Law