Page 23 - Lachie MacLellan, Centreville: 2 Short Stories Told To His Granddaughter, Linda MacLellan

ISSUE : Issue 74

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1999/6/1

Lauchie MacLellan, Centreville 2 Short Stories Told to His Granddaughter, Linda lUlacLellan 1. The Shin Bone (Linda MacLellan: Do you want to tell me the story about the bone?) Lauchie MacLellan; Well, it was up at the old place up here. And there was my t7ncle Charlie and my father. They were only kids, young kids. And they were playing up at--we always called it at "The Edge of Woods," next to MacNeil's Farm. And they found this piece of bone. Or, the dog dug it up and they saw the dog with it--that's what it was. They saw the dog with this bone. They took it home • they had it--and they took it in to my grandmother, their mother. She was there and Uncle Charlie, he was a little more active--she told him it was the bone of a human being, it was a shin bone of a human being. She was smart about that. Their mother told them. And Uncle Charlie said, ''Well, I'm going to see if he's as big as I am" • and he went and he put the bone to his leg like that and he measured, see if he was bigger than he was. You know, kids, young fellows. And they didn't think any more of it when they got done talking. But after that they took it and they threw it outside. So that night, when it came bedtime, they went to bed. They had lunch and went to bed. And Uncle Charlie--he woke up in the night and he had this awful pain in the leg. He was near crazy with it. Couldn't stand it. And he was crying with it. Of course, it woke my grandmother up. She was there, and she was looking at it. She was trying this and trying that, and he couldn't stop it. Oh Lord, he was just al? most out of this world with the pain. And she said to him-- she was a smart woman • she said, ''Do you know what it is you done with that bone?" And she got the lan? tern. And they said, ''Yes, outside there." Well, she lit the lan? tern and she said, ''Jim, you come with me"--that was my fa? ther, he was older than f Uncle Charlie. She got out and got a lantern, and they had a shovel, she got a shovel, and my father found the bone, of the door anyway. They had thrown it out on the ground. It was only out They took the bone and she went back up to the edge of the woods up there between this house and the MacNeil place and (where) Father (and Charlie) found the bone. My father said, "It was here we found the bone." She dug down quite a hole--she was a strong woman anyway--and she put the bone down in the hole that she dug with the shovel and covered it over. And before they got home, the pain left Uh- cle Charlie's leg and he hadn't one pain MidA/ay Motors Ltd Now with Two Locations: HEAD OFFICE '' NEW OFFICE Middle River WS Port Hastings 295-2290 '"' 625-3641 we've BiaeD CHRYSLER Since *926 music to multimedia Cape'MonMaiit all I Ifyou' thinking of starting or expanding a business, we're here to help. Call us at'-800-880-6661 or visit www.gov.ns.ca/ecor mysmsmnPL

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