continuing my first furring tripp 1931

That night I used to awake up and hear the rapids just above. it would be music to listen to if we did not have to it the next morning. I used to lie there terrified I was so afraid of these wild rapids. the canoe was like a bubble on the water. what started it was one time Pop told me to stay in the canoe while they hauled it up through the currant it was quite strong they pushed the canoe off when they did the strong currant took the canoe and tipped it on side enough for water to come in over the gunwales. in my mind I could see it flipping over and me under it. I let out a scream. they pulled the canoe ashore and let me out to walk up river. always after that I would get out and walk by the side of the river while they lined the canoe up.[as they used to call it] but I never got over me fear of the rapids till many years later.The next morning we packed our belongings. in the canoe right from the start we pushed into thr rapids Pop in the stern Uncle charley on his knees in the stem of the canoe while I sat in the middle terrified. ashort way up river we came to a place called Betsy-ek if I have not already explained how it got the name I will do so now. years before Rubel louis his Sister Harriet and Betsy Narcott was coming down those rapids what we call running the rapids Betsy sat in the middle of the canoe Terrified as they passed a big rock she jumped out on it.Ruben and his sister could do nothing but carry on down to more steady water. Ruben said he looked back I saw he on the rock he said I had a damn good mind to grab my muzzle loader and shoot the son of a gun. now he said I had to pole all the way up to get her. so ever after it was called betsy-ek by all those of us who used this river.it took us nearly all to get to shoal pond passing on the way the mouth of puppy pond brook. better known to all non native as nfld dog pond but we know better because our people named it. it is also mentioned in the book nflds untrodden ways. concerning Uncle Joe jeddore and others.We reached shoal pond a beautiful narrow about a mile long on the right all pretty white birch ttrees on the left fire mountain. here among those birch Uncle John Benoit had built a wigwam.it was gone now . one fall not long before this John Joe Benoit uncle Johns son stayed there one night while was asleep it caught fire he awoke just in time to get most of his stuff out. Father was at John Louis-ek at the time John Joe headed for there in the middle of the night got there at day break give one an idea what our people was like. he walked over four miled through the dark.we Paddled up to the head of round pond here we camped for the night. Uncle Noel kept up with us though he was alone at some rough spots pop would give him a hand. at one of our nights going in it rained so we stayed there all day just lieing in the camp I remember going down river in a cove there was fresh moose footing in the soft mud strange thing because moose were nat as plentiful then as they are now. getting back to shoal pond. I will always remember waking up to the nice warm open fire at our feet Pop always kept it going. he would always hane the kettle boiled and pancakes made before uncle charley and I got up he would just lie there on his elbow patiently waiting for us to get up keeping the kettel warm. unless he was in a hurry then he would shake us out.After breakfats we left again on our way in. Uncle Noel was ready first thing we did was paddle to the mouth of the river at the begining of rock portage [goon-dow-ne-gwan. in Micmac] we carried all our supplies over the smooth rock as our people did for hundreds of years. on the right was a deep gorge about ten feet high on either side no way getting up or down in a canoe. on the other side we put the canoe in the water again loaded it with all our stuff. it was steady water nice paddling right up to pipestone. here we parted fromUncle Noel we would not see him till we got home a month or more later in the fall/ the main river continued on up this is were uncle noel had to go all alone he would go right up to burnt pond his country a smaller branch going to the right waswere we had to go to our country. we paddled by a big hole in the clift all solid iron.