"Oh for goodness sake, what's wrong now?" "Oh, nothin' too serious. Y'know I was hoping that you fellas could have seen the battle royal 'tween the cutter and the rum vessel away offshore this morning!"

"The rum vessel must have too close to the 12 mile limit and the cutter was trying to capture her to tow her in. But the captain of the vessel was too smart for the cutter, at the last of the battle she headed away off to the east'rd, and probably went around East Point by now, maybe they had to go to Souris for supplies. Then again y'never know the captain of the cutter might be playing cat and mouse with the vessel."

"Well, for my money I'd say there's a pair of pretty smart men out there today. We were watching from the top of the hill, by Frank McDonald's barn, and while it was good fun to watch it was even better to hear Frank's speeches and his ready wit. One time the cutter was coming fast and made a quick turn, your heart would stop dead in its tracks. Oh, oh, he's got her this time, then just at the last split second the captain of the vessel would swing her off and the next minute they'd be a half mile apart before the cutter could turn."

Frank said "he got the last inch out of the wind with that moneouver." "I'm sure it was the most thrilling, spine tingling sight that I ever watched. Each time the vessel manoeuvered he was getting farther offshore and with the nice freshening west wind the battle was over, once they were both well outside the 12 mile limit."

"When you stop to think about it whose law are they breaking? A few years ago there was no law against liquor, now there is a law, and in a few years quite likely the Government will be selling just what the rum vessel is selling. Actually, you would be a rich man if you knew what the law is going to be next time you turn around. However, could you see what cutter it was?"

"Well Frank said it was the '01 Margaret, I'm no authority on such things as ships."

"Changing the subject, where's all the rest of your crowd?" "Oh, they're gone home for the weekend, just the two of us left here, sort of a night and day watchman, nothin' to do and all day to do it, great life."

"Did'ja have a feed lobsters this year yet?"

"To tell the truth this is the first time I've been down to the shore since the 1st. of June. e have been so busy farming and its slow work with the horses, and they get sort of played out much like men y'know."

"Okay, c'mon into the cookhouse, we have a nice big feed already boiled, we were out and hauled the traps at the crack of dawn." "Hide the lobsters quick, here's someone coming."

"Well Alex 'ol how're you doin' and pray tell me what brings you down to the shore? Must be something in the wind."

l'Well no doubt you've heard the saying confession is good for the soul; seems like as it I mayas well tell the truth, y'know it's a funny thing, most of the time when I do tell the truth, they accuse me of lying. D'y'believe that? Anyway, I saw a rum vessel and the cutter away off shore this morning and I kinda figgered if there was a boat geared up we might go for a I'il sail and get a I'il drink, seein' as how all hands worked hard all spring and deserve a rest, especially on a nice Saturday morning.'l "Yah, yah, good idea but whose got all the money?

V'know we never got settled up so there's no money here.'l "Okay, then lets pool our resources and see what we'll come up with among the four of us. ..m-m-mm big deal, nine dollars ...Alright how much can you buy with nine dollars?' 'Well rum is four dollars a gallon and whiskey is one dollar a quart. Well I guess that would be worth going for. Oh another thing, that trip would take two gallons of gas. Holy Moses! There's goes another 36 cents. Do you fellows really pay 18 cents a gallon, we only pay 15. All in favour of going to rum row with nine dollars, raise your right hand.'

"What'll the captain say when he sees all the money we have." "Gracious I feel terrible guilty asking the man to sell such a small amount ...y'see captain the lobster season is just ended and we never settled up yet, and this is our first trip out to the ru m vessel.

l'Tell you what I'll do boys, I'll sell you what you want and give you a good big drink each, if you'll promise to do me the favour of sending word to Charlottetown that the rum vessel is 15 miles nor east of Naufrage Harbor. Y'see we had to go to Barbadoes for the rum and then into St. Pierre for the whiskey, then we were delayed by a big storm so we're away off our estimated time of arrival and no one knows where we are. "Oh we had quite a battle alright, the fresh west wind was all the saved us ...Oh yah that was the 'ol Margaret alright, you fellows better keep a sharp eye ...y'know she might come back and your little boat is not very fast. What'll she do? Five knots? The cutter will do about sixteen.

"You can say what you like but it's quite a thrill to come ashore with nine dollars worth of illegal liquor and a wash tub full of illegal lobsters. We might have a good party tonight if we could only send word to the boys and girls.

Well it might be hard to believe but it seems the noise of the put-put-put-of our five h.p. engine was heard all along the main road for a couple of miles each way and even if you couldn't count to four you'd know that the boat was out to the rum vessel. So come dusk the visitors started arriving. Jokingly they were worried for fear we were sick, or we might be hungry for fresh vegetables, some even brought some beans and lettuce from their gardens. Cars were few and 15 miles between in those days, so the best means of transportation was shank's mare. And down through the fields they came 'skew-ways', and across the capes, each one hoping no one would see them. No one on the main road, a couple come on horseback. After they all sampled the liquor and got settled in, someone started looking for a fiddle, there was a couple of fiddles hanging on the wall upstairs, so the next sound we heard was someone playing the Girl I left Behind Me. In another room someone was playing Lord McDonald's reel for a couple of stepdancers. You'd never believe the mileage that was in that rum, cut it three times. ..no one in this world ever bought so much fun and entertainment for nine dollars. Suffice to say, there will probably never be another party quite like it in this way, so spontaneous, no rehearsals, no great plans and no organization, things just fell together. In the wee small hours ...our guests were departing one by one; one man a farmer, who lived over the hill within walking distance from the shore, decided it was time for him to climb the hill, while he was able, about halfway home, he decided to have a rest on the side of the road ... with the result, he fell sound asleep.

Along about daylight his wife wakened, and realized her husband was not home. She decided to do a little searching ...maybe the party is still in progress, so she headed towards the shore, half-way down the hill, she discovered the vagrant...sound asleep, with a very pleased smile on his beaming countenance.

Suddenly, the grim reality penetrated 'her thinking' he could not be awakened ...she returned home and hitched the horse in the dump-cart ... returned to his out-door, fresh-air, abode.

Realizing she could never lift a two hundred pound man ... and being determined to get him home ... so, without further ado, she turned the horse and cart and backed the cart down into the ditch ... the tail-end of the cart was level with the brow of the road ... removing the tail-board of the cart and all that remained to do was 'roll him in'.

Upon arriving home, she backed the cart to the front-door, removed the tail-board, unlocked the cart and tipped the cart up and out rolled her husband ... right on his own front-door step.

Via the grape-vine, the story travelled as far away as the town of Souris ... the country stores ... the post offices, were seething with the conundrum. "How! ! did that little woman lift her husband into the cart"?? One evening, a couple'a weeks later, they went to Souris to do some shopping ... afew curious, inquistive, gossipers ... politely asked her ... "Was the story true??" She replied, "Oh! yes, too true it was". "Then how in the world did you lift him in the cart"?? She replied, "Oh--h-h-h!! I made two trips"!!

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard