Village Squire, 1980-02, Page 13Rafer and me
by A.M.
Rafer Jackson and me had the name of being the two worst
kids in our school section. Everyone from our teacher to the local
Baptist minister agreed on that. This really didn't worry us, in
fact it gave us a certain status in the neighbourhood. Although I
contributed some to the alliance, I had to admit most of our
reputation was due to Rafer.
Rafer was really Raiph Everett Frederick Jackson. His mother
counted on his being a doctor when he grew up -that's why she'd
given him the extra name. We kids learned early though that you
never mentioned those other names around Rafer-it was a very
sore subject. Still, it was a lot more than his three names which
made him different. He was clever and there was no getting
around it. Right from the start you knew Rafer was one of those
people cut out to be a success in life.
Anyway, like I said before, we had the worst reputation of any
two boys in the neighbourhood. And it didn't improve after Rafer
made the acquaintance of Ernest Thompson Seton. When the
teacher handed him that book, "Two Little Savages" written by
that man Seton, then she set us on a whole new course of
destruction. Rafer took to being a naturalist with a venegeance.
The first thing we decided to test from the book was an animal
snare. Now according to the writer, you could build snares which
just caught the animal by the leg and didn't injure it. Rafer
thought he'd like to try breeding some rabbits and this seemed
like a good way of getting some.
We decided to try the experiment on the Lucas place. Miss
Lucas was an old maid who lived on the family farm but rented
out her fields to a neighbouring farmer. She wasn't particularly
fond of either of us, so we very carefully snuck back through to
her woodlot. Then we set up three snares for a start since Rafer
didn't want to catch too many at once.
Luck was against us. The third evening after we'd put out the
snares, my mother happened to mention that Miss Lucas's big
ginger cat was missing. Suddenly I had a sick feeling in the pit of
my stomach and I peddled over to Rafer's as quickly as I could.
We were too late!
By the time we reached the snares in the woodlot, Miss Lucas
had found them too. When she went to release the frantic
tomcat, he temporarily forgot his usual affection for his mistress
and ran his claws down both her boney arms. In angry calls to
our mothers, she said if the good Lord didn't intervene with a
miracle, she could see both of us behind bars before we were
twenty. My mother said she was disappointed too and washed
my mouth out with some evil -tasting soap. Rafer said he was
pretty disappointed too, because he really had counted on
catching those rabbits.
The second experiment nearly finished us. It was that man
Seton's fault again. This time Rafer decided to practise starting
fires without using matches. It was a handy thing to know if you
were ever stranded out in the woods and wanted to keep warm.
course me and Hater didn't really have to worry match about this ,
happening, with biggest woods around was a few acres at the back
of some farmer's place. But Rafer's enthusiasms always made
me lose track of my commonsense.
On this particular Sunday we picked old man Swanson's farm.
It was set right in the middle of Skunk's Misery and had about
the biggest bush around. Of course, most of the bush was swamp
and bog and a foul smell hung over the place like a mist. That's
how it got its name. No one but a fool like Swanson would have
tried to farm the land in the first place.
Rafer started his experiment right on the edge of one of the
VILLAGE $OUIREI FEBRUARY 1NB6 PG. 11