Page 16 - Stories from Visits Down North

ISSUE : Issue 25

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1980/6/1

chairs were the same way, the cards were the same way as we left them. Couldn't see anyone near them, not a thing. (Did you talk to one another about this?) Oh yes Same time. Everybody in the house heard it. That's why I know it was right. One fellow might have heard it, well you'd say, might imagine • but everybody heard it and everybody got up. And everything was the same way as we left them. So I took the cards and I threw them in the stove. And we all went back to bed. And nothing happened. (Did you ever play again?) Not that way, not the kind of games we were playing. (What kind of game?) Well, it was this dirty talk and girls and boys, and how anyone could have such a mate, do such a thing. Eddie: It wasn't gambling at all. But it wasn't proper. (And do you think that was why you were hearing things?) Simon: Well, I don't know. I couldn't see any other reason. Some people say you're not sup? posed to play cards on Sunday....(After that, did you change?) Oh yes. I don't think I ever played that game since. And I never heard the cards since. Eddie: But this isn't a story that was made up at all. I was there too. Simon: I'll tell you a story I heard. I suppose you heard it, it's so old. A fel? low one time • a bunch of them playing cards--I guess they must have been gam? bling • anyhow, this side was losing, los? ing all. They couldn't win a game at all, at all. So a knock came to the door and this stranger came in and asked, could he play cards with them. They said, "Yes." He said he'd like to go on the side that was losing. So one fellow got up and he took his place. So they were then winning every game. So one of the cards dropped on the floor. And one of the girls that was in the house, but wasn't playing, stooped down to pick up the card. And she noticed there was a clubbed foot on the stranger who had come in • a clubbed foot with a horse's hoof on it. The girl went over and told somebody in the house that wasn't playing cards. And the old fellow was supposed to be in bed, and he got up and he asked the stranger his name. He wouldn't tell them. So the old fellow went and got the Bible. He o- pened it and he started reading the Bible. And the stranger sprang from the table and jumped right up and went right up through the roof, put a hole right through it. And that was all that was ever seen of him. And they could shingle it or do whatever they liked to that hole • they could never make it tight. Every time it would rain, it would leak. That's an old, old story. Eddie: Another story of fellows playing cards, I don't know where. And this fellow was going up, to play cards. And he met this old man on the road. The old man asked him, "Where you going?" "I'm going playing cards." Said, "That's where I'm going too." Said, "I'm awful tired from walking--would you carry me for a piece?" Fellow said, "All right, get on my back." He carried him pretty well up to the door. Put him down. Old man said, "Do you know who you're carrying on your back?" "Just an old man," he said. "I'm the devil," he said. "You're carrying the devil now. I What is the Nova Scotia Museum like? there are 20 v'ays to find out... (16) At 20 locations from Yarmouth to Sydney, branches of the Nova Scotia Museum help you to appreciate the social and natural history of our province. You can choose to visit the restored houses of gentry or the humbler homes of fishermen and farmers or experience village and rural hfe of the 19th century. Specialized museums con? centrate on the history of the fisheries and firefighters, mills show how water and steam power were used to process wool, saw wood and grind grain. What is the Nova Scotia Museum? Twenty museums to visit and enjoy! For information on locations, opening dates and hours fill in and mail this coupon. : Nova Scotia Museum : 1747 Summer Street • Halifax, N.S. B3H 3A6 : 429-4610 ; Please send me inlbmiation about the Nova Scotia Museum > branches. I NAME : ADDRESS POSTAL CODE 1. Nova Scotia Museum 2. History Branch, Citadel Hill 3. Ross Farm Museum 4. Lunenburg Fisheries Museum 5. Wile Carding Mill 6. Perkins House 7. Ross-Thomson House 8. Barrington Woolen Mill 9. Firefighters Museum of Nova Scotia 10. North Hills Museum 11. Prescott House 12. Haliburton House 13. Uniacke House 14. Lawrence House 15. Balmoral Grist Mill 16. Sutherland's Steam Mill 17. McCulloch House 18- Sherbrooke Village 19. Cossit House 20. Fisherman's Life Museum

Cape Breton's Magazine