Old Rail Fence Corners | Page 8

Canada. Her husband bought some dried apples as a treat
and she served them just as they were. Poor thing! She was very young
when her baby came and she used to get wildly homesick. One day, she
started to walk to Little Canada carrying her baby. A cold rain came on
and she was drenched when she was only half way there. She took cold
and died in a few weeks from quick consumption. Strange how so
many who had it east, came here and were cured, while she got it here.
In the Spring when the wheat was sprouting, the wild ducks and geese
would light in the field and pull it all up. They would seize the little
sprouts and jerk the seeds up. They came by battalions. I have seen the
fields covered with them. They made a terrible noise when rising in the
air. I have seen the sun darkened by the countless myriads of pigeons

coming in the spring. They would be talking to each other, making
ready to build their nests. In the woods, nothing else could be heard.
We had one wild pair of almost unbroken steers and a yoke of old staid
oxen. The only way father could drive the steers was to tie ropes to
their horns and then jump in the wagon and let them go. They would
run for miles. I was always afraid of them. They were apt to stampede
and make trouble in finding them if there was a bad storm. One evening
father was away and a bad storm approached. I took the ropes and told
mother I was going to tie the oxen. She begged me not to, as she feared
they would hurt me. I had a scheme--I opened the front gate and as they
came through the partly opened gate, threw the ropes over them and
quickly tied them in the barn. The old oxen, I got in without any trouble.
I tied them and went to reach in behind one, to close the barn door and
bolt it. He was scared and kicked out, knocking me with his shod hoof.
I did not get my breath for a long time. The calk of the iron shoe was
left sticking in the barn door.
Some drovers stayed near us with a large drove of cattle in '45 or '46.
They were on their way to the Red River of the north country. We kept
the cattle in our yard and used to milk them. I picked out a cow for Mr.
Larpenteur to buy as I had milked them and knew which gave the
richest milk. He put her in a poorly fenced barnyard. She was homesick
and bellowed terribly. The herd started on and was gone two days when
she broke out and followed them and the Larpenteurs never saw her
again. They had paid thirty dollars for her.
I was very anxious to see the Falls of St. Anthony so in the summer of
1844, my brother borrowed an old Red River cart and an old horse
from Mr. Francis who lived in St. Anthony. He drove it over to our
house in the evening. The next day, Sunday, we put a board in for a
seat and all three climbed onto it. We drove over and saw the Falls
which roared so we could hear them a long way off and were high and
grand. We did not see a person either going or coming the six miles
although we were on what was called the Main Road.
The French people always kissed all the ladies on the cheek on New
Year's day, when they made calls.

In the early day, Irvine built a new house of red brick. A little boy,
Alfred Furnell, took a hatchet and went out to play. He got to hewing
things and finally hewed a piece about a foot long out of the corner of
that red brick house making it look very queer. His father asked him
who did it. Unlike George Washington, he could tell a lie and said, "A
little nigger boy did it." His father 'tended to the only little boy that was
near, regardless of color.
Once there was a Sunday school convention in St. Paul. When lunch
was called, Mr. Cressey, the minister, said, "Now, we will go out and
have refreshments provided by the young girls who will wait on us.
May God bless them, the young men catch them and the devil miss
them."
They used to call my sister-in-law, "Sweet Adeline Pratt."
Mrs. Gideon Pond--1843, Ninety years old.
In 1843 in Lac qui Parle, we had a cow. We paid thirty dollars to the
Red River men for her. She had short legs and a shaggy