Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 81 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Tall Tales
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The following story came from George H. Wilson's column OLD TIME STUFF in the Evening Citizen, Ottawa 10 Aug. 1929.
In the old days the telling and hearing of "tall yarns" was a favourite sport. The old timers who were adept at story telling loved to make their neighbours gasp at tall yarns. The man who could tell the "tallest" or most unlikely yarns was held in considerable respect by his neighbours and his presence was always sought when the pioneers or their sons foregathered.
THE STORY
One day a number of farmers were at a barn-raising. They began to talk about the merits of a certain breed of ducks which was common to the district but the origin of which none knew.
Robert Newton Sully of Wakefield who was a listener, recorded the yarn, as follows: The "artist" spoke:
Did I ever tell you" he asked "that I originated that breed of ducks?"
They hadn't and asked for further information. The tall-yarner refilled his pipe and continued in his rich Irish brogue:
"I was about nine years of age and I went fishing down in our creek (near Rupert). I had no regular hooks but used a pin with a worm on it. I wasn't fishing long when I felt a heavy pull on the line. To my great surprise a real big fish was on the line. I managed to get him to shore and finally got him to an outhouse where I got a carving knife and ripped him open intending to give him to my mother to cook for dinner. The fish was in size a cross between a big white fish and a muskalonge. I never saw one just like it in breed before or since."
"Well, judge my surprise when I ripped that fish open to find fly out of it a big he-duck of the sort we have around here now. There had never been any of that sort before. I caught that duck and locked it up in the hen house then I went back to finish cleaning the fish."
"Again judge my suprize (sic) when I found still inside a female duck setting on a hatching of eggs."
(Appropriate expression of surprise by audience)
"Yes sir, you can believe it or not as you like, but there the duck was in the fish setting on a hatching of eggs. I lifted her out, eggs and all and set her in the hen house too and not long after that there were a lot of little ducks running around and that is how this breed of ducks got to this part of the country."