Why Joe David Burned the House

Place Names Richmond County Petit de Grat

(This is a retelling of a story that you can find in Cape Breton Book of the Night by Ron Caplan. The story was first told in French. Many people in Richmond County are descended from French-speaking people. Ron Caplan also publishes Cape Breton’s Magazine. There are lots of other Cape Breton stories in these magazines.)

I was born in Petit de Grat in 1911. The old women from Petit de Grat told stories to scare people. They would say, “If you go out tonight and you don’t say your prayers, you’re going to see the devil.” I didn’t pay much attention to them. I went out and came home as I pleased.

We moved to our house outside the village when I was nine years old. My mother used to visit an old woman who lived up the road. One day my mother told her, “Last night I went to my room to put something there. When I looked out the window I saw a man. I thought it was my husband Fred. But he told me later he had not gone outside.”