I must have heard the story ten or twelve times in all, and I recollect
many of Grandsir Billy's words and expressions. But the old man's
vocabulary was "picturesque"; when he was describing exciting events he
was apt to drift into language that was more forceful than choice. It
will be best therefore to give this account substantially as years
later--long after Grandsir Billy had passed away--the old Squire told it
one afternoon when he and I were driving home together from a field day
of the grange.
It seems that back in the days when the county was first settled the
pioneers found the ponds and streams in peaceful possession of an
ancient trapper whom they called Daddy Goss. Trapping was his business;
he did nothing else. Every fall and winter while he was tending his trap
lines he used to stay for a week or a month at a time at the settlers'
houses. Frequently the wife of a settler at whose house he was staying
would have to take drastic measures to get rid of him; no gentler
measures than taking his chair and his plate away from the table or
putting his bundle of things out on the doorstep would move him. "As
slow to take the hint as old Daddy Goss," came to be a local proverb.
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