Page 43 - Hector Carmichael and Alexander Kerr

ISSUE : Issue 24

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1979/12/1

Hector: I'll tell you a story. Did you ev? er hear of the fellow that stole the skates on the Indian? That'd be a long, long time ago, when they were building the railroad through Cape Breton down here to Sydney • they were working up around Orange? dale. And this Hector MacLean, they say he was a wonderful skater • there was never a man on the harbour here that could touch him in skating. So in the wintertime he took a notion to come home, and he was walking home. And he got down to Nyanza. There was a bunch of Indians out on the ice, skating. Whatever possessed him, he went down and he pretended he never saw anybody on skates before. And they thought, you know, it would be a great joke to put the skates on Hector. Aw, Hector wasn't very fussy. He pretended, you know, and they coaxed him to put the skates on. They put the skates on, tied them on him • Hec? tor got up. And he fell down • and aw, they were laughing to beat sixty. They were gonna have a great time. But Hector got up and away he goes. And the Indians after him. And they couldn't catch him. He skated down to Baddeck Bay, then walked to South Gut, and skated from South Gut. And Hector landed in Goose Cove with the In? dian's skates. And that's a true story, you know. Did you ever hear of Ottawa Angus? He was born, I think, up at Ottawa Brook, about 30 miles above Baddeck, you know • he used to spend most of his time the other side of Boisdale--but he came up and worked at the Quarry and out in the woods there. And oh my god, he was an awful comical man • he'd make a dog laugh, you know. Anyway, he used to be witty as the deuce. He was out in the woods and a fellow was there, claimed he could cure toothache. And they were sitting in the camp one night, and they were telling stories. They asked this fellow how to cure toothache. And he told them, "Well, I have two ways; there's one way, I give the person a verse out of the Bible • write it down and give it to them, and I make a little prayer. But some other times," he says, "if there's a hole in the tooth, I put my tongue in the hole before I pray" • and Ottawa Angus was sitting down there. He was witty. And he said, "By god," he said, "I wonder would that be any good for the piles?" Ottawa Angus, he was working over at Syd? ney one time, and every meal was fish, fish, fish • pretty near every meal. This night it was fish again. After supper, An? gus came down with his suitcase filled up. "Where are you going," they asked him. "Aw W god, I think I'm going to fvkrgaree to spawn." Alex; Remember when yourself and Frank were killing the bull? Hector; It's well I do. The bull was a little cross and Frank was scared of him. I asked him, "Where are you going to hang him up?" "Oh, inside here." "Well, we'll take him in there." "Oh no, no, god," he said, "he's cross. We'll kill him out? side." So I hit the bull with the axe that was there and the bull came down and Frank bled him. And Frank's sister hollered to us, "I have tea in here. You fellas better come in and have a cup of tea before you start on that animal." Went in, had our tea. We went out and there was no sign of the bull. Well, that was all right. The door of the outhouse where we were going to hang him up was open. Look around, no sign of the bull. But I noticed a streak of blood on the door. Looked. Here was the bull. He was standing inside, just below the tackle. Vfesn't that funny? And we went in and Frank gave him a push and down he went. Alex; He was just trying to help you fel? lows along. Vfe.s I ever telling you about the time when we were kids up home • Peter and I had a .22 and we were forever • if we had money • we'd be getting bullets. Firing bullets at every damn thing. And jeez, we got to be pretty good with this .22-. But one day Danny RfecAskill was over with the old man, gonna kill the pig. Peter and I Genuine Down East Hospitality Keddy' Motor lm 600 King's Road, Sydney, N.S. Phone 539-11'0 • Telex 019-351? AIR CANADA Qfy SERVING CANADA coast to coast THE UNITED STATES • UNITED KINGDOM • EUROPE • CARRIBEAN For information cali your Travel Agent or r' i' SVONEY. NOVA SCOTIA TELEPHONE 539-C600 Ideal Ice Cream Co. Ltd. A Complete Line of Frozen Foods Ice Cream and Fountain Supplies 162 Prince Street 564-4549 Sydney

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