Earnest West was whittling away and this thoughts must have left his mind and gone somewhere else to play. Mr. West was going through one of his stages of memory.

   “Clarence, do you remember how bad times were when the boys came back from Europe in 1918?” he finally asked.

   "Aayah, don’t think I’ll ever forget them. Why?” Clarence asked feeling a story was soon forth coming.

   “For some reason or other I was thinking about a bum that came to South Lubec. He was passing through on his way to Campobello Island and then he was heading back west to some little town in Maine. Patten I think it was. Do you remember his name?”

   “Nope,” Clarence answered, “can’t truthfully say that I do.”

   “If I tell you what he did you’ll probably remember him. I was told he was hungry and had begged for food all the way from Portland to here. He wasn’t having much success because most of the farmers he was begging from was nearly as bad off as he was. He was getting desperate and one day when he was walking along he saw a pot by the side of the road. Someone must have lost it for it was still in pretty good shape. It had a couple dents in it but no holes and the handle was still usable. He walked over to a nearby stream and searched until he found a nice round rock about the size of a baseball. He carefully washed the rock and put it in his pocket and with pot in hand walked up to the next house he came to. It just happened that the man of the house was out tending his lobster traps and his wife was there alone. She saw the bum walking toward the house and walked outside to meet him. When the bum got close to the well he asked the lady if he could have some fresh water so he could make some rock soup.

   “What in the world is rock soup?” asked an inquisitive housewife that prided herself on being a good cook.

   “You mean you haven’t had rock soup,” he asked looking surprised that she hadn’t eaten it before.

   “I don’t even know what it is,” she answered.

    “If you’ll allow me to get some water from your well I’ll show you how to make it, and I’ll let you have some so you can see how wonderful it is,” the bum said.

   “You can have all the water you want,” she said walking toward the well. He followed her and when he was close enough to get some water he took the rock from his pocket and put it in the pot. He drew some water from the well and put it into the pot with the rock being careful to completely cover the rock. Then after carefully eyeballing the height of the water in the pot he added an extra inch. After another close scrutiny of the water level he turned the pot over just enough to allow two or three drops to fall from the pot.

   “That should be just about right. Do you have a big spoon?” he asked the lady. “I need to stir this so I can get the full flavor from this special rock.”

   “I have one in the house,” she said as she walked inside and brought out a large wooden stirring spoon. She passed it to the bum and he stirred his concoction a couple times and took some of the mixture in the spoon and tasted it.

   “This is pretty good right now,” he said looking his host straight in the eye, “but it lacks something. Oh! I know it needs a little salt and pepper. Do you have any in the house?”

   “Aayah,” she said as she left to get the salt and pepper and when she returned she passed it to the master chef. He added a pinch of salt and a shake of pepper to the soup, gave it a big stir, and took a another taste.

   “My, this is so good,” he said as he smacked his lips and smiled, “do you want a taste?” and before she could answer he said, “This is good but it would be much better if it was hot. Can we heat it up on your stove?”

   "Aayah, if you think it will make it taste better,” she said and invited him inside. He put the pot on the stove and waited for a few minutes for it to get warm. He dipped the spoon into the pot two or three times and when he felt it was warm enough he smacked his lips again and rubbed his belly.

   “I can’t believe how good this batch of rock soup tastes, but it still lacks something to make it perfect. Do you by any chance have any leftovers in the icebox? Peas, beans, corn, or anything like that?”

   “I might have something left over from supper last night and the day before. Let me check.” She returned shortly with four bowls of leftover vegetables. “Here are some potatoes, corn, carrots and parsnips. Will they do?”

   “Aayah,” he said, “these should do just fine,” and he dumped them into the pot and once more gave them a good stir. After it had cooked for awhile he tasted his soup and asked the woman,       “Do you have a couple soup bowls so we can eat some of this delicious rock soup?”

   “Aayah, I’ll get a couple bowls,” she said as she walked off. “In fact I’m anxious to taste that soup, it smells pretty good.” When she returned and handed him the bowls he put some soup in his bowl and tasted it.

   “You can’t imagine how wonderful this soup is.... but it still lacks something to make it good enough for you. Do you by any chance have any leftover meat in the icebox. The flavor of a little meat would make this rock soup perfect.”

   “I have a little piece of ham left but it’s still on the bone,” she said not sure he would use it.

   “I can’t think of anything better,” came back an enthusiastic reply. "You’ll be surprised what the marrow from the bone does to add a special flavor to my soup.

   She left for a minute and when she returned with the meat and bone he added it to the rock soup. It didn’t take long for the soup to become warm enough to eat and they both enjoyed a big bowl. In fact, the bum enjoyed three big bowls of his rock soup and only stopped eating when the pot was empty.

   “You’ve been so kind to me,” the bum said to his host, “I’m going to leave my pot and special rock for you so you can have rock soup whenever you want it.”

   “You rock soup was delicious and I sure hope I can remember how to make it,” she said as the bum arose and left her house.

   “I remember that story now,” Clarence said with a smile, “but I can’t rightly recollect the bum’s name or what ever happened to him.”

   “I don’t either,” Mr. West honestly agreed.

   “Well,” Dr. Williams said, “lets see if we’re smart enough to figure it out. He was a bum.”

   Everyone agreed to that.

   “He was deceitful and he took advantage of a poor female.” That also brought a lot of affirmative head nods.

   “He was cunning in the manner he got the soup, and....”

   “I remember now,” Clarence almost shouted as it came to him who they were talking about.