Some of those first Fire Rangers never mastered the driving of a car so they were given small patrols that they could work with a horse and buggy. Arthur Mershaw was one of those lads. Arthur’s patrol was along the Madawaska River north west of Griffith. He was an old country Frenchman who had been a chef in fancy French restaurants so Arthur used to be our cook when we would be working on building phone lines and access roads.

One day the Chief Ranger and Hazen Crosbie, the District Forester from Tweed, phoned Arthur to tell him they were going to pay him a visit. Arthur went to work to prepare a good dinner for his guests. We went out and picked some blueberries and made a pie. When the guests arrived Arthur was the perfect host. He waited on the table while the District Forester and Chief ate.

When the guests came to dessert Arthur noticed that they weren’t eating the blueberry pie. He urged them on by saying to Mr. Crosbie,  “ Have annuder piece of dat pie,Mr. Crosbie. Dat’s dam good pie. I pick de berrie specially for you.”

But Mr. Crosbie didn’t finish what he had.

After Arthur’s guests had left to go to Dacre, Arthur proceeded to eat his dinner. Then he found to his horror why they had not eaten the pie. You see, Arthur had two syrup cans. One held sugar, the other one salt; with no labels on either. Arthur had made his pie seasoned with salt.

Well, when a Frenchman gets excited he sometimes makes a queer hash of the English language. Arthur ran to the phone to call through to Dacre. He had to call on his single wire telephone on to the two wire line at Griffith Central, where Ranger Bob Johnson was. So he called Griffith Central.

When Johnson answered, Arthur said, “ Hello!Hello! Is this the middle?”

Johnson answered that it was. Then Arthur said,  “ Get me into Dacre.”

When Arthur got Mick Mulvihill at Dacre he said, “ Has dat Crosbie and Legris got dere yet?”

Mulvihill replied,  “ No.”

So Arthur said, “ Well when dey get dar and they say anyting about me you tell dem it’s a dam lie.”