Nicknames 
     
    
   
   
    
     Nicknames were given in familiarity or friendliness to mark pe- 
     
     culiarities or infirmities, or to indicate locality or occupation. Such 
     
     s “Billy nine toes”, “John tailor”, “Duncan harbour”, “Sandy the 
     
     marsh”, “Sonny” was a highly respected man, few people knew his 
     
     proper name. Abbreviating names was common. Some names were 
     
     changed in the abbreviating, Bill for William; Stephen became Teed. 
     
     There was a peculiar custom of running names back to ancestors to 
     
     distinguish between them. Where James’ father’s name was John 
     
     and his father’s name James, the first was called “Jimmy Johnny Jim- 
     
     my” and so “Hughie Joe Hughie”. The surnames were not given 
     
     and to many were unknown. In some families two children would 
     
     have the same name in which case one might be known as “Little 
     
     Donald” and the other “Big Donald”, Little Jim” and “Big Jim”. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The same method would be applied to persons of the same name in 
     
    
   
   
    
     different families: “Big Herb” and “Little Herb”. Features would 
     
     also distinguish persons as “Red Angus”, “Black Dan”. We under- 
     
     stood one another very well b-ut it would have been more convenient if 
     
     they had been numbered as we number soldiers, especially if we had 
     
     to write the names. 
     
    
   
   
    
     School and Education 
     
    
   
   
    
     In another chapter I will tell you of my school days, but I want 
     
     to give some account here of our school affairs. While our educa- 
     
     tional privileges were meagre they were far more than our fathers and 
     
     mothers had. My father could read very little; he could not write or 
     
     make figures; yet he was intelligent and could make up sums mental- 
     
     ly and keep records in his memory. Mother went to school only three 
     
     months; she could read well, but could not write or make figures. 
     
     Some of the members of the School Board could not spell simple 
     
     Words, or do a sum in addition. When they came to examine the 
     
     school they frequently made such blunders that they put the scholars 
     
     into convulsions of laughter, that even the master’s hardwood ruler 
     
     could not control. One who, as we all knew, was very illiterate, ven- 
     
     tured one day to correct a scholar’s spelling the word school; the schol- 
     
     ar spelled the word correctly, but the man thought it was not correct 
     
    
   
   
    
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