224 OVER ON THE ISLAND

Can’t you just imagine Sandy's little girl calling on Mrs. McLeod for the marrow bone, and being told to hurry back with it as Mrs. Macpherson has been promised the loan of it, and Mrs. Campbell after her?

“The Home of the Silver Fox Industry!” How many times have I heard that phrase. And here in the northern section the tale rings true. Here the story really lived, although it still sounds more like a fairy tale.

Once upon a time, an Irish emigré's son decided to raise barnyard fowl, particularly chickens. Now, if he had been successful in this venture, there would probably be nothing more to tell. He would have lived and died as other men, and few would have been any the wiser. But something did happen—first, to the chickens. The foxes ate them. War was declared. The thieving foxes were the next victims. One, which was taken in a trap, produced a pelt so beautiful that it sold for twenty-five dollars in Halifax. This incident turned the eyes of the poultryman in more lucrative directions.

Charles Dalton sees gold in those pelts. He buys pelts on the Island and sells them in Halifax. One deal leads to another. Lured by an advertisement, Dalton buys from a man in Anticosti what he thinks are thoroughbred silver foxes. The pups, however, turn out to be cross-bred, and in disappointment, the breeder kills all of them and replaces them with three genuine pure-bred silver foxes. These become the basis of the industry that sweeps over the world, and turns thousands of farmers, fishermen, bankers, and statesmen into fox-breeders.

Alberton now enters the story. Dalton invited an old friend, Robert Oulton, to form a partnership, and