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24 The Guardian, Charlottetown, Thur. March 81, 1968

_ ACROSS THE ISLAND

Unusual Stories Of Former Days

By NEIL A..MA

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NORMAN MATHESON, Forest Hill told me some un- usual yarns which I want to pass along to you. Nelson Squires. Greenwich and his brother were coming. from Farmington one night when they saw what they took to be & man on the road some distance ahead of them. He appeared to be asking \for a ride as he had his hand out at Ider level. “, the Squires got closer, though, they saw that the man was so huge his outstrefched hand was higher than the top of the car. Nelson tried to tramp on the gas pedal and

away from the spot, but his car began to slow down on i The old story_said that the car apparently was being slowed by the force]that was emanating from the gigantic \ hitch ‘hiker. But Sq¥ires managed to .keep the car moving and got -by.

The man “had a nose on him as hig az a nail keg't, and “this mouth was full of fire’ the fanciful old story said. They got a real fright, Norman told me. f

“Do you think they really saw something like that?” I asked and Norman replied “Oh, I guess they did. People used to see strange things, though you scarcely ever hear of stories like that now.”

Norman was walking to St. Peter's one, night when he

- was a young map. It was the year before the rural mail routes he told me. That would be somewhere around 1911, I believe, as the best information I. can get indicates the — rural routes started about 1912. i Mr; Matheson saw a woman on the road some distance ahead of him.’ I could walk fast then", he told»me, ‘but I —_—_——eouldn't.walk_fast enough teccatch her.”

Norman did catch up to her when. the woman stopped [~~

" guddenly on the road ahead of-him. As he drew near he saw ¢

that her face s entirely unfamiliar. She was not anyone he had ev in his life: And he got a good look at her im face to face. She was standing right in front

® for she met its ef him.

. “She Just Disappear

“BUT THE real fright came,’ he explained, ‘‘when she | <(isappeared right-in front of my eyes. She didn't go down, she didn’t go up, she didn’t go to either side. She, just disap-

, peared’’, Norman told . “I really “got a start then”, he

dded.

“At The Bay (St. Peter's), he continued, “I met Marry - Thompson with a horse and wagon, and I got a drive home with him ‘as far as he went.”

Norman had thought first of going to Thompson’ § place and staying the night with him, for he was still a bit shaken by what he had seen.

Then I thought better of it and decided to watk home,” he continued. But ‘I was stepping pretty high until I finally got in the house’, he recalled with a smile, as he told me the story more than 50 years later.

—Norman-was-going-through Gay's swamp one night with | a

his father, and a young man, Daniel MacPherson from Valley- field who was teaching school at Forest Hill. The Mathesons had a good driving horse, ’a beautiful black animal.

Suddenly all. three men noticed a well dressed man who

appeared by the front, left wheel of the wagon. Apparently the wheel had struck him, but the man appeared to sit on the wheel until they got the horse stopped.

But there was no sign of the man then, though all! three had seen him plainly. They searched: for him, but they couldn't find a trace of him. Usually only one person used

~ #o see those unnatural, or ghostly figures. “> “PETER MACPHERSON used to live over there.” Norman told me as he poidted to a house on a hill some distance away _—we were standing in*ffe Matheson yard at that time. One night Norman and his sisters were going a piece with two: neighbour girls, who had been visiting at the Matheson home.

road_toward-Dundas-until it disappeared from view’, Norman recalled. -‘It was like a ball of light”, he told me: About one week later Mrs. fe ae died, he recalled.

‘Most stories Jike I. have. been talking about are¢ usually regarded as forerunners, or omens of things to come. But none of the others had. been, so far as Mr. Matheson knew.

“Man Seen With No Head

BEN SHEPHERD, a Forest Hill neighbour, and Alan - MacKinnon were coming home fronr St. Peter's one night when Shepherd stopped and said “Look there, ahead ~—a man with no head.’’ MacKinnon said ‘I can't see him.’ When Shepherd said ‘‘Look over my left shoulder in that direction’, Alan MacKinnon replied ‘Indeed and I won't. He didn't want fp aab Cae Soret, Norman told me, and who could blame eee ee seen it anyway. —— : saa) Oo Norman told me went like this:

= one morning-—-I was only a youngster at .

the time—when two hard S came at our door. “Mother got up—it was around five o’clock—but there waaynobody there. A:week later the. same two hard knocks came again. When mother got up Dan Matheson was ‘there. His ata had died during the night. Dan asked mother if she would-go to help prepare the body—there were no under- takers to look after such things in those days as there. are

The twe knocks could be heard distinctly on both oe- easions. The first time, though, was a forerunner of ies death ef the neighbour woman. ;

Norman told me several others but I'll save then for arother time. Incidentally Norman and I are not related. T met .-him first something more than 20 years ago at the _ Dundas Plowing Match as it was called then, and we have been friends ever since.

Compton Story Is Unusual

BOB COMPTON told me this unusual forerunner story when we met some weeks ago at the 50th Wedding anniver- sary of Mr. and Mrs. Alban MacAdam in Morell, ~~

; His father was William Compton who was known as “Windmill Bill’ because he built a windmill and devised a mechanism so it could be used to drill holes in logs which were used with the wooden pumps the -Comptons-built-at ‘one time. This story will be told in a future column.

William Comptoti had seen forerunners on several oc- easions which had indicated te him that somebody in the settlement was going to die in the near future. It was the unusua! form the forerunner vision took that interested me in Particular.

Mr. Compton used th see in a dream’ a ship going across the land. The ship would stop and take someone aboard. He a tell his wife next morning that a certain neighbour is

not going to live long. And the forerunner would prove te be true. This went on for some time.

But one mofning Mr. Compton came to the breakfast table wearing a worried expression that indicated some- thing unusual was worrying -him-- Finally~-he:told— his. wife ..:|: that he had seen the forerunner of his own death; or words ito that effect. When his wife naturally tried to cheer hifh up, with the observation that he had sften seen the ship before in his dreams, he told her that it's entirely different. This time, he told her, “the ship stopped to take me aboard.”’ Mr, Compton ,died within the week, I was told.

\. Mother's Call Heard At Sea:

WILLIAM COMPTON was not a superstitions*man, T was told. far from it. But he had another unusual experience. He was at sea. when his mother died and he had heard his mother call to him and use his name.

Vater, after he had returned home, he learned that his mother had died on the. day he had heard her call to him

—“We-saw aight Jeaving. that. house; and -R0ing. _along.the ae

And the time of her death corresponded with the time he had heard her voice. In case vou are wondering -[ know you must be—William’s moiher really had called to her son just before she died. For-this latter story I have to thank Robert - Compton’s daughter, Mrs. -Rarr: MacLaren js 3 aronddeuchter of William

aaah See Peep premcrning

“WELFARE WORKER DIES |_

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Blind Council

the executive World Council for sulf 0 Ae Welfare ot the Blind. - d .

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