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The Chignecto Isthmus And Its First Settlers [40]

By Root 777 0
one and a half miles distant, unless we count the bears and foxes, and they were far too sociable for anything like comfort. Sheep and cattle had to be folded every night for some years. "After father had built his grist mill he used to keep quite a number of hogs. In the fall of the year, when the beechnuts began to drop, the men used to drive them into the woods, where they would live and grow fat on the nuts. One evening when my mother was returning from a visit to one of the neighbors she heard a terrible squealing in the woods. She at once suspected that bruin designed to dine off one of the hogs. She hastened home to summon the men to the rescue, but darkness coming on they had to give up the chase. However, bruin did not get any pork that night; the music was too much for him, and piggie escaped with some bad scratches. "A short time after this, ominous squeaks were heard from the woods. The men armed themselves with pitchforks and ran to the rescue. What should they meet but one of my uncles coming with an ox-cart. The wooden axles had got very dry on the long, rough road, and as they neared my father's the sound as the wheels turned resembled very closely that made by a hog under the paws of bruin. "Imagine the way of travelling in those days! I have heard my father say there were only two carriages between Point de Bute and Truemanville. Their principal mode of travel was on horseback. My father and mother visited Grandfather Trueman's with their three children. Mother took the youngest on one horse, and father took the two older ones on another horse; and yet we often hear people talk of the 'good old times.' "My father was a man of generous disposition. The poor and needy always found him ready to sympathize and help them. He often supplied grain to them when there was no prospect of payment. He would say, 'A farmer can do without many things, but not without seed grain.' That reminds me of an incident I will tell you, of our Grandfather Trueman. About thirty- five years ago my mother was visiting at Stephen Oxley's, at Tidnish, where she met an old lady whose name I forget; but no matter. When she heard my mother's name she began talking about Grandfather Trueman. She said she would never forget his kindness to her in her younger days when she and her husband first came from the Old Country and began life among strangers in very straightened circumstances. After passing through a hard winter in which food had been very scarce they found themselves in the spring without any seed wheat or the means of buying any. "Her husband was almost in despair. She tried to cheer him up by telling him that if she went to Mr. Trueman she thought he would help them. So her husband agreed to let her try her chance, and she mounted a horse and set out for Prospect Farm. Just as she arrived there another woman came in and asked Mr. Trueman to sell her some wheat, telling him she had money to pay for it. Grandfather said he had very little wheat to sell but he could let her have a bushel or two. The old lady said her heart almost sank within her; she thought her case was hopeless. However, she told him she, too, had come for seed wheat, but she had no money nor the means of getting any at present, and they were entirely without seed. Grandfather turned to the other woman and said, 'You have money' go to Mr.----- (a neighbor), you can get as much as you want, and I will give this woman the grain.' Oh, how glad she felt! Words were too poor to express her thanks, and she went home rejoicing. In after years, when Providence had favored her with a goodly share of this world's goods, she could not tell this experience without the tears running down her cheeks. How true it is, 'The memory of the just is blessed.'"

The following letter received from a son of Rev. William Black, is of some interest:

"HALIFAX, N.S., "27th Sept. 1819. "MR. WILLIAM TRUEMAN, "DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 20th inst. is at hand, and in reply to it, as relates to the probable price of Butter, I would state it as my opinion that it is likely to command
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