So I told Jimmy-Cohen, I says, "I'm not going out no more with you, Jimmy, if he doesn't show up some money." I says, "I haven't got enough to pay a bair of- a pair of boots," I says, "From that man since I started to work for him." And I says, "He's had me way up in the hundreds of dollars." Well, Jimmy says, "He won't pay nobody unless you go right after him." And that man had thirty-thousand dollars in the bank in Ottawa. I don't know how much he had here.

See, I've been threatened several times with the law. One man said, "I'm just going to have you come into the cemetery another Sunday to dig a grave, I'll send for the police and have you arrested." Well I says, "Why would you do that for?" I says, "If you were that anxious about keeping Sunday, why don't you slip home and bring your Bible with you when you're coming, and read just two lines out of the Bible that countered- that condemns me for digging this grave.

... I'll take your word for it if you can read it out of the Bible," and I says, "I'll give you my word you'll never have to bother with me coming down here again on Sunday."

And we were putting in cement to go into the- into the- and he'd come- they'd come down and sting us there where we were working. And us not touching them. So there's a man passing down the street and I says "ah can you- any way you taking that- th-- that nest down?" "Yes," he says "I can take it down."

And there was a little fellow here, he'd used to say- instead of say- you'd say "Well, I said" such-a-thing, he'd say "Well, I says-". Yeah, that was the word- is what I often heard (inc), yes. Mm-hm. And ah have I told you about this "used to could" yeah? I think that's it. Yeah.

Interviewer: What were you doing? Speaker: Jigging around at everything. Some day hashing, some day helping the man with the flour, some days maybe with the boy with a load of flour. Just do whatever had to be done.

Speaker: They um- and usually, like for the evening meals, the uh- they could go to work and they'd start a meal and you'd wonder "Well, what are they going to have tonight?" First thing they'd have a big Johnny cake- Interviewer: Oh, yes. Speaker: And the big- couple of big pans of tea biscuits and uh, that would all be done in the matter of about ten min-- fifteen minutes, you-know it's- it's why they say- the older women, they can make up a meal well- well the uh-

Speaker: ... we usually would have uh, maybe cold pork for supper and um, then dessert, mother made a lot of cakes we always had dessert. She would make a white cake or a johnny-cake- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Or a scone or-something-like-that.

The back axle was soldered on the two wheels, do-you-see? Well, there's other than- had to go to a bunk on the front and put a kingbolt down, and they called it a kingbolt. Turned- they actually could turn, do-you-see? On their own.

kid, it was all in one. We just had curtains. Interviewer: Did- Speaker: Across- around our beds. Interviewer: You- you didn't build this yourself? Speaker: No, no. No, it was here. Oh, this is way over a-hundred-years-old. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: We've worked a lot on it. And ah, we got it lathed and plastered. My dad was away working out. My mother and I was here. And we got it lathed and plastered and we had to lie out in newer log buildings 'til the plaster dried (laughs). Interviewer: (laughs) What ah- what did you have on the outside? Speaker: It was- it was all

Speaker: Ah, not- well- no, it was considered a- a new building when Mother and Dad took over, because most of them were long, and it had the extra boards on the outside, and painted, and ah- the big- the wide boards were painted a deep red, and then the little lath that covered the same between was white. It looked pretty, my mother said. Interviewer: Yes, like peppermint candy. Speaker: Yes, yes.

In latter years they were always done in- in, ah, muffin tins.

And cooked with wood, ah, in a cook stove, ah, first, ah, just, ah, a thinly cooked stove latterly, ah, it was, um, our- w-- the type that we called a range which had a warming closet up above and a reservoir at the back of the stove where you could heat water.

And feather pillows and ah, sheets, I- I think that our- our linens were unbleached linen that mother made up and then bleached out on the grass until they were snow white. Ah, latterly, ah, like after, we sort of graduated from, ah, the straw ticks to what we called corn husk ticks.

You see when- ah we'd start in the spring every year and there'd be lawn socials. Maybe oh ah strawberry socials. And they'd serve you strawberries. And they'd have a ball-game. And then after that, there'd come- well it'd be just a lawn social or the ice-cream social. ... And then there'd be the church picnic.

Speaker: And then the building that was built up, you-know built up to a- a place, just slanted like that. ... They call that a lean-to. ... There was lots of farm buildings had a lean-to you-know? ... Yeah there was no- there was no upstairs in them, or loft or how they like to call it.

Interviewer: You're going to be camping in the winter? Speaker: Yeah. Without a tent. ... Or sleeping bags. Interviewer: What are you going to do? Speaker: We- we're supposed to take a ah survival kit with an emergency blanket in it and just sleep under lean-tos and-things-like-this. Interviewer: That you're going to build yourselves? Speaker: Yeah.

And the one boy crying and saying, "I'd rather take a licking."

Interviewer: And- and did you have those that, ah- that shine off and on? Speaker: Oh, lightflies! Interviewer: What- what are they? Speaker: Lightflies! Interviewer: Lightflies? Speaker: Yeah. You see them in the dark- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Flying. Oh, I couldn't think of what they're- Interviewer: Yeah. Did you have much of them? Speaker: Used to then. They stayed mostly around the fall, ah, where you're cleaning up, ah, land. Man I used to see the- almost, ah- do without a lantern. The great big fellows. Interviewer: What were they like? Speaker: Ah, just, ah, as they were putting their- lift their wings away or-something, the- the- just flashes like that. Opened up the light.

Interviewer: ... did you have any special celebration for the day after Christmas? Speaker: The day af-- no, w-- ah they celebrate Little-Christmas. Interviewer: What's that? Speaker: Well, it's about a week after. Interviewer: Uh-huh. What- Speaker: That's m-- ah m-- the more of the Catholics that- that keep that- keeps that. And that's a holiday.