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Each agreed to take turns providing an animal for slaughter and they also took turns in the chorce of meat. Methods of storing meat in the summer were not satisfactory and the beefâ€"ring worked out very well. While staying at the farm. I often slept with my Grandmother in her deep feather bed. She would tell me how glad she was that hedsprings and hair mat- tresses had replaced the rope beds and straw ticks. The feather bed was still needed to soften the stiff hair mattress. Grandmother put me to sleep telling stories about life in the early days when bears would steal pigs from the pigpens. One time they saw a bear carrying away a small pig and when the pig squealed the bear would give it a slap with its paw. Grandmother would tell me of the great flocks of wild pigeons and of the last flock seen when her brother John was about thirteen years old. She told of how the land for the Boston Mills Cemetery was paid for with three grains of wheat, a symbolic payment to make the deed legal. Wheat was chosen because every settler’s dream was to grow topâ€"grade F,th because it represented endless life through rem; duction when planted in the earth and three mm. to represent the past. the present and the thing One story that I never tired of hearing u u about a pet crow that had a sense of humor. Out 4;“ n managed to get the hired man‘s pipe and t'l , \iHh it just across the rail fence. There it laid dit- I down and walked about solemnly, 01d J [1:153 coaxing and the crow flew away a little p“ ,. hm climbed the fence but before he could reach . mm the crow swooped down, picked up the pipe 1 m.“ across the fence again. Back and forth i" am across the snakevfence, Jim getting more :u more exasperated and the crow cawing excitedly Hm, mother came to the rescue with a bright Shin . m U,‘ the crow‘s favorite food. This distraction ],m a chance to retrieve his pipe. Iseldom heard the end of the story, i [t lg»? Next thing that I knew, the sweet smell t mi“. wood, burning in the stove, told me [ha titl- mother had slipped out of bed at sunrise rm another busy day had begun. Things My Grandmother Told , 70 By Annie Pearson Ontario's Third Prize Essay in the A.C.W.W. Competition 1959 Y EARLIEST MEMORY of my Grand- M mother is seeing her sitting beside my bed. Her golden hair in thick braids encircled her head and her bright blue eyes danced in merri- mcnt while with story and song she made the time go very quickly for a convalescent little girl. One day when Grandmother's hair had turned to silver, she told me that long ago. Norsemen, adven- ture bound, had come to Britain, but had remained and formed a settlement in the northern part of what is today England. Centuries later, Grandmother‘s parents, descendants of these Vikings, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and hewed a home for themselves from the forest primeval. Grandmother was born in the 16x20 log house that was the family’s first home. The nearest neigh- bour was a mile away, reached through a trail in the forest. “More than once,“ said Grandmother, “it was necessary to bring a supply of live coals from our neighbour as our own fire had gone out, and we had no matches. That is why Father took special care that the draw-knife hung by the side of the fire-place, for each night before going to bed he used it to cut' fine slivers from a dry piece of cedar that could easily be ignited. On the day that Grandmother was born. the neighbour came to give a helping hand, bringing with her enough tea to make a few cups, After digging, washing, cutting, drying and using dandelion roots for coffee, Great-Grandmother had said. “The am- brosial nectar of the gods could not have tasted better than those cups of tea." An exciting day for Grandmother and 22 other boys and girls in the section, was the completion of the little frame schoolhouse. A neighbour’s team of oxen pulling a homemade wooden roller, had smoothed down the schoolyard which waited to welcome the barefooted youngsters on that first day. 28 With slate in one hand and lunch pail in t‘llL'I Grandmother walked the oneend-a-half r. \Ci a roadway made easy for walking by at tltul were allowed to graze along the roadside Previous to this eventful day any “hool. ting“ the children possessed had been taught '. iii their parents in their own homes. Grat: the parents handed over the responsibility oi tiring the "Three R’s" to the school along with tit. =mi~e that each family would bring half a cord . mud or pay fifty cents by the first day of Fei‘: . What would Grandmother think of the i I‘llth school with electric lights, an electric clocl. lituit- ed by oil that replaces the school she km m nothing of the big bus that daily takes the “.in to the high school in the village. A warm glow would come into Gran :im‘s eyes when she told about the great event H mm: into the new house. Virgin white pine. ‘ . are! in diameter at the stump, had been cut” nit “ruled to adjacent Lake Chemong, the hEginning « ' leng journey to distant markets. The sale of Iii imhrr provided the money for the new fram. millil- roomed house, situated at the south end ot . l.tl'l'|1 where a forty-five-foot road had been bu "‘ ll“? settlers. Great-grandfather was a God-fearing ' 1 find grateful for the health, strength and Op, :iumiy that had made the dream of a new hot wmf true. On that first night under its roof ht. :ad. us was his custom, from the Book, then dedi. Ad the new home to the furtherance of God's wot i y The log house at the north end of the - ii“ m“ welcomed the saddle-bag preachers, and the uttered neighbours had joyfully gathered there to ear tlk Word. Just one service was held in the new : tame lot by that time the settlement had grown am “- “1“” frame church had been built across from [lu school. HOME AND COUNTRY