tales-of-Fogo-Island

their faces and it was the worst kind. They had a hard job and soon gottired. Their clothes bags seemed too heavy to carry, so they hung themon a tree.When they got close to the camps, the dogs hear'd them, and started tobark. They followed the sound to safety. They told the crowd there thatthey left their clothes bags about three miles up the shore. The next day,the men in Roger's Cove found the bags about a half mile away. Theyknew there was no way them fellers went three miles, unless they wentin circles. They must have been so beat out and cold that they did notknow where they were to.I met one of them later and he said, "By, we only just done it. Yes, weonly just done it. I thinks if we had to go another half a mile we wouldhave had to lie down and give it up - perish. We only made it 'cause weheard the dogs barking."They had a close enough call that time. They were lucky.When I leaved the camp for home, I would usually go as far as Loon Bay.One time, the going was bad and by the time I reached Loon Bay, myclothes was soaking wet. I stopped at a house and the people did whatthey could to make me comfortable. They dried my clothes by the woodstove and gave me something to eat. Don't forget, I wasn't the only manthere like that. P'raps there was ten or twelve more besides me. They didwhat they could fer us, but it was still pretty rough.After walking for a couple of days, I got to Port Albert where I met upwith Jimmy John Perry and them. They was on their way to St. John'sfor the seal hunt. Mr. Perry said, "When you gets down to Duck Island becareful because the ice is bad. It's froze, but it's not very strong. Whenyou gets to it, you should get down and crawl and drag your luggagebehind you."When I left to cross the ice, I met two more fellers who was on their wayhome. We was already drenching wet and the sloppy snow was up overour logans. That wasn't good, walking with your boots right full of water.When we reached the bad ice, I told them to take their luggage off theirbacks, but they would not listen. They walked on ahead and then theyfell in the water. I pushed a stick along to them and hauled them out. Itell you, when they got out of the water they was satisfied to listen tome!