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af a \ ae a YA Jim Bell IT IS RASPBERRY TIME AGAIN How this time of the year brings back memories, a few of which I would just as soon forget. For instance, on a day about as hot as this on which I am writing, Harry Carnall and I started up the old base line for a day of berry pick- ‘ing. We started early, about seven o'clock. I wonder how many people get up early in the morn- ings now, particularly these sum- mer mornings. The air is fresh and clean. It gives one the feel- ing that it is good to be alive. Of course, we took off our shoes as soon as we reached the base line. The sandy road was soft and cool to our bare feet and we did not hurry. t We passed Hill’s cabin. They were coloured folk. The smoke was coming out of the make-shift chimney, a piece of stove pipe sticking through the roof. An oc- casional chipmunk, running along the rail fence, took our attention and time frequently and once or twice a cotton tail dashed across the road in front of us. It was a glorious morning, surely a day to remember. It was about ten o’clock when we got to the berry patch, Of course, we had to put on our shoes for you cannot get about in a wild berry patch without shoes. Yes, we picked berries and it was} hot work. We stuck at it, how- ever, until we got our pails full. They held five quarts. I can see and smell them yet, full of nice ripe, red raspberries. Tame ones never taste like they did. We al- ways took a lunch with ys. So finding a shady spot beneath a wide-spreading elm tree we ate our sandwiches and stretched out on the cool, green grass to rest. Dear Reader, if you have never worked in the hot sun until your clothes were sticking to you and 1 REMEMBER then laid down to rest in the cool shade, you have missed one of the great pleasures of life. I don’t know what my friend Harry thought of as we lay there look- ing at the fleecy clouds drifting across the blue, blue sky, but be- ing a dreamer, I saw visions and dreamed dreams. Starting home, it was not very long, walking in the hot sun, be- fore we were pretty hot again. Hiding our berries under some convenient bushes, we climbed a fence near where a small creek flowed and. stripping off our clothes we had a good coo) dip. It was wonderful while we were having it but it had rather serious repercussions for me. I caught a cold which settled in my eyes and Thad a lovely looking pair of eyes for the rest of the summer. They were quite sore and badly in- flamed. My mother was very much wor- ried and I believe she tried every old-time, home remedy that was suggested to her. There were pol- tices of cold tea leaves, bread and milk and carrots. I don’t know how many more but I got so sick of the smell of carrots that I couldn’t stand them for years. Gradually, however, old Mother ‘Nature took a hand and my eyes: got better. When I went back to school in September, they were completely cured. Another few words about eyes. For over forty years, I wore glasses from the time I got out of bed in the morning till I went to sleep at night. I frequently read in bed. About a year and a half) ago, I seemed to be having trouble with my eyes. I didn’t know what was happening to them. Then sud- denly, they started to improve. To-day, I am writing this without any glasses. People tell me that I have received my second sight. IT have heard of such a thing but never expected to experience it.