EMIGRATION TO CANADA 19 



nothing of work at all. My chief work was picking stones off 

 the summer fallow and a yoke of oxen were hitched to a "stone 

 boat" which slid over the ground and the stones were drawn to 

 the fence corners by the oxen. A little boy, nephew of the wo- 

 men, drove the oxen but, one day, he was required for something 

 else and I was asked if I could drive the oxen alone. I thought 

 that I could and got along fairly well. In the evening the men 

 questioned me and asked how I got along with the oxen and I 

 said : "Oh, very well, 'Haw* gave me a great deal of trouble, but 

 'Gee' did whatever I wished him to." Of course there was a 

 great laugh. I found that the names of the oxen were Buck and 

 Berry and that Haw and Gee meant for them to come towards 

 you or go away from you and as I had never heard the names of 

 the oxen, but the other two words in constant use, I had decided 

 that they were the names of the oxen. 



Another afternoon, I was working in a field close to the woods 

 when I heard something falling repeatedly from a large tree and 

 I crossed the fence to investigate and found that there was a large 

 butternut tree loaded with fruit and the squirrels were up amongst 

 the limbs cutting the nuts off and letting them fall to the ground. 

 I picked up over a bushel and piled them at the base of the tree 

 and went back to my work. After supper, I took a large bag and 

 went back to get my nuts, but behold, they were all gone. At 

 first I thought some person must have stolen them, but I found 

 out later that the squirrels had quietly carried them off. 



Another incident of my farming experiences stands out before 

 me. All the fields were enclosed by rail fences and usually a 

 block was placed under the lowest rail. A pea field was along- 

 side of where I was gathering stones and small pigs came along, 

 and, to my astonishment, went into the field and I could find no 

 way to get them out but by taking down the fence. I happened 

 to look where they went in and found that the block of wood 

 that had been placed to hold up the corner of the fence was hol- 

 low and the pigs crawled through the log and got into the peas. 

 Something struck me that I could stop that and I took the log 

 out of the corner and sloped it in such a way that it would appear 

 to go into the field and the next time the hogs came along I watch- 



