Feet Sticking Up

Old Postcard Saying Indian Life, Digby

Feet Sticking Up is an amusing little ghost story that happened somewhere between Bear River and Weymouth, Nova Scotia.

Everyone knew the Mi’kmaq made the best canoes you could find. They were light, but sturdy and would travel the lakes and the streams with ease.

A man from Weymouth ordered one of these canoes from Jim Muise, the governor of the Mi’kmaq Indians in Bear River. As Joe wanted to get away for awhile he decided to deliver the canoe himself. He asked around and found a young lad willing to accompany him on the trip. He promised the lad all the trout he could catch along the way if he helped paddle.

It was a great day for travelling the lakes and the two drifted along peacefully. The lad threw in his line every once in awhile and caught a few nice trout.

At dark they pulled up to shore and made camp. They had travelled a little longer than planned and the lad was so tired. He decided that after they unloaded the canoe and turned it over he was going right to bed.

Joe decided to stay up for awhile and sit by the fire. It was nice to just sit back, relax and enjoy the evening. He was just starting to doze off when he heard footsteps. The footsteps came toward him and he sat up to see who it was. But they never came close enough to see anyone. They would stop and then a bit later would come walking up again.

After this continued for quite some time Joe woke up the lad to sit with him. Both could hear the steps coming close, but neither could see in the dark who it was. They sat there all night listening to them, not daring to go to sleep.

After the sun rose in the morning they looked around to check for clues as to who had been there during the night. All they could find, just a short distance from where they had made camp was a set of feet sticking up out of the ground!

Apparently the feet belonged to a fellow named Black who had drowned in the lake and had been buried in this spot. For some reason, maybe a bad joke at the time, he was buried with his feet sticking up. It was never said why the man’s feet were left unburied, but apparently he wanted them covered, maybe they were getting cold.

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