THE CAT THING

by Lewis Hare

One time Bill Craig worked at Island Lake up back of Bathurst and he come home with a contraption that looked like some kind of a wild cat. It even had two things that looked like eyes on it. But what really made it scarey was this high wire or cord on it that made a god awful noise when yon pulled it. One time he brought it to a camp up the river here and he scared quite a few people with it. Scared them was right! He scared one feeler so bad they thought he was going to take a heart attack. I know different people he scared. He'd put the contraption by a trail and when somebody come by he'd pull the cord and let off this ungodly noise. It would scare the hell out of anybody. Especially if it was dark. They were having a bit of a party at a camp down by the Cove here and one of my brothers got a hold of this cat thing. He set it up at the foot of the hill under a big spruce tree. My oldest brother knew about the set up when he was coming down the hill with this other lad in front of him. My brother was a big man and a hell of a lot bigger than the young feeler with him When the cat thing let out this screech the lad turned on his heels, grabbed my brother, picked him up, set him on the side of the road and took off running for daylight. It didn't matter how big my brother was he just wanted him out of the way so he could run for it. And run he did. Boys, it sure scared him!

DANGEROUS WOODS
by Lewis Hare

Ya know, the woods are a great source of work and wonder for man. They make a lot of jobs for people and they are great places for hunting and fishing or just to go for a walk in. I always found the woods to be a friendly place and felt comfortable in them. Sort of at home, ya know But the woods can be a dangerous place too. I know of two or three men that got killed back of here up around the Little Sevogle. One time they were cutting hardwood for a sawmill they had set up out by McNeill Brook. There was a French feller working as an edger man at that mill when one day a chunk of wood flew out of the saw and went right through his chest. Just out of nowhere it come at him and killed him. No warning or nothing. I forget just what his name was. Another time, one of my relatives, Hiram Hare,worked out back here with his son. Usually the son did the cutting and Hiram yarded with the horse but this summer the boy went out to Toronto and Hiram was cutting while he had another man drive the horse. Anyway, part of a tree come loose over his head and fell on him. He was sixty four years old when that tree killed him and he had worked awful hard all his life. Death came with no warning here neither. I remember my mother used to tell of the time a man got shot up the river here. She had a big garden out back and one day while she was working in it she heard a trotting noise. At first she thought it was a moose trotting down the road nearby but it turned out to be a man. He was coming out with the news that a man had been shot. It was a hunting accident. A bunch of men from Loggieville or Black River had gone up to a camp at Gilles Brook. They were going to spend a few days or a week hunting up there. One fellow had on a pair of those old coveralls that had a white patch on the back where the braces crossed. They were hunting along a trail when they come across a deer which took off into the woods. They split up and went in after the deer. One of the hunters mistook the white patch on the lads coveralls for a deer's tail and shot him. I think the name of the man that got shot was MacLean. His friend that shot him was in a terrible state when they brought the body out. Sad,eh? The woods can be as safe as your bed but they can be awful dangerous too.