SILVER FOXES AND SEACOWS 223

church there held about two hundred. Here they spent their Sabbath day, and on Monday, they retraced their steps to their home in the northern forest. I wonder how often they came. At that time, the Dock church, and the one at West Cape, comprised the entire church accommodation for the whole western part of Prince County.

But people began to trickle in. They heard of the marvellous Island where the fish came right up to the doors (and begged to be taken in and cooked, I suppose). Singly or in groups they sailed to Char- lottetown. Then, learning more of the wonders of the western district, they moved along, taking about a week for the journey. The first thing one family saw was a field of buckwheat in bloom. So “Bloom- field” became a reality with a name.

As Stump Town became Cascumpeque, Cascum- peque became Alberton in honour of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward VII). In those days there was only one darning needle and one marrow bone in the whole district. If the needle were lost, a journey to Charlottetown was necessary to replace it. And that was no mere child’s play, for there was no modern road. The journey had to be made on horse- back, and there was the constant danger of hold-ups from thugs or bears, and the consequent loss of the precious darning needle, and other valuables.

As for the marrow bone—the Scots people, especially, felt that soup could not be prepared without a marrow bone. So the bone went the rounds of the community. It must have been swished in and out of the soup like the chicken in our modern restaurant Chicken Soup. For, as far as the effects were concerned—a mere

superstition.