Cape Breton's Magazine

Willy Rat Fitzgsrald continued from inside front cover Petrie's casket • that I was going to fool the Almighty, that I was sawing for cart boards • every board I had cut had split in half. Now the log was perfect. There wasn't a rent of any kind in it. It was a red spruce and it was a beautiful log. You know, I heard talk of people seeing the devil. My grandmother, father's moth? er • that was Margaret Dunphy before she married my grandfather • she was great a- bout telling stories about people that had seen the devil. I used to think she used to tell me those stories to scare me • but she claimed she didn't. She told me a story one time. A fellow over at Glace Bay here, he sold himself to the devil, for money. And when the time was up, he hadn't paid the money back some way or another. He was in bed. And his wife was on her knees washing up the floor. This man came in. And he asked her where was her husband. She told him. And when he was going for the room, she looked and she saw his clo? ven foot. And she ran for the servant boy and told him to go for the priest. Well, when the priest came, he told the devil to leave. And the devil said, "I'm not leaving till I get ray own." The priest told him, "He's not yours, he's mine." And the devil said, "No, he's mine. And I'm going to take him." And the priest took vestment from his arm and threw it across the man that was sick. And he told the devil, "Take him now." And the devil said, "No. But you take that off him and I'll take him," Priest said, "No, but you take him." The priest said, "Leave." Devil said, "Can I go through the door?" The priest said, "No, the blessed people go in and out through the door." He said, "Can I go out through the window?" The priest said, "No, the blessed sun shines through the window." The devil said, "How will I go?" Priest said, "Go through the roof of the house." And my grandmother told me she saw the hole shingled over in the roof in that house in Glace Bay, where the devil went through. You know, they talk about seeing people after they die • I don't believe that. I don't think that people come back after they die. But you will see forerunners, and hear it. Now there was a family living next to father, a Macintosh. And Macintosh had a girl • the oldest one, her name was Mabel • she and I were about the same age and we were good chums, we were good friends. So, she got sick. And me and my brother and my aunt • we were out in the field below father's house, just at dusk. And we were playing with a wooden barrel hoop • and everyone had a stick. See, we were hitting this barrel hoop, rolling it to one another • this is what we were at. And there was a woman, I call it, came down from father's house and passed be-t tween me and my brother, going towards the road, leaning right ahead like that. Leaned ahead and going pretty fast, going towards the road • and it was just dark. And when it happened • me and my brother weren't too far apart • far as frpm here to the truck, I guess • she went right between us. And I fired the stick I had and I said, "Oh, look at the woman." Well, he didn't see anything. But I saw her. And I watched her for quite a little ways after she went by. Well, that night this Mabel, my friend, died. And they made the casket in at fa? ther's. And they carried it down through the field the same way as I saw that woman going. It wasn't a living person I saw • I knew that. I didn't know who it was, but I knew it wasn't living. And it kind of "Tires Our Specialty" SYL'S SERVICE CENTRE 295-2911 295-2911 Located in Dovmtown Baddeck 24-Hour Towing Service TROPICANA Restaurant Now Becomes Your Gentleman Jk Fully Licensed Restaurant 7 DAYS A WEEK at Sydney Shopping Mall