CHAPTER ONE

The year was 1900.  It was Halloween, and my parents had sent me (along with my three older sisters,  Mary, Ida, and Millie) to spend the weekend at my grandparents farm in Nova Scotia. 

 Because I was the baby of the family ( the youngest grandchild) and named Violet (after my grandmother) I was grandpa's "favorite". He always called me his "little Violet flower" or "little Vi".  I loved being at the farm. Mary, Ida, Millie, and I were going to have a great time!

I was seven years old. Grandpa and grandma Gugins always made it fun for us kids at Halloween.  Their old Victorian-style home and farm land sat on the great "banks" overlooking the ocean and the rock jetty below.  The barn and fields lay to the west of the house. From the house, I could watch the sailing ships with their tall masts and white sails coming and going from the harbor in an endless parade. Other ships at anchor, sat bobbing and rocking like corks in the ruffled blue water.  Waves splashed against the rocks while the seagulls screeched in the windswept sky overhead.  At night, the blinking eye of  the old lighthouse out on the jetty gave an eerie, yellow glow to the fog as it rolled in over the water.  I loved it here! It was fun...and spooky, all at the same time. I could hardly wait for the sun to set and the night of fun to begin.

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