When Irene was around the age of nine or ten they used to live at Pilot Station. During the summer, she would overhear the older women talk about going out to pick berries. Irene always went with her mom. She also had two younger cousins that went with them sometimes. There was a boy and a girl,and the little boy was older than the little girl. Irene's aunt always wanted her to babysit these children if they were going to pick berries. But Irene didn't like babysitting. She liked going with them. She said that she used to think to herself, "When the berries ripen, I'll jump in the boat and go with them." One day, her aunt told her to stay home with the little boy because he wasnt feeling well, and her aunt and the other women she was going with went berry picking. Irene watched them climb the mountain they were going to pick. Then she quickly dressed the little boy in warm clothes and put him in her bag. And she tried to catch up to the women who were in front of her on a path she had to follow that was surrounded by tall grass. Her little cousin was talking all this time and he said "Where's my momma?"

"We'll try to catch up to them," Irene said. But the boy was still telling her that he wanted his mom. She shook him in her bag, but his whining started to get louder. Irene kept on trying to quiet him down, but all of a sudden he started to cry. And she started to cry with him.

She heard the women ahead of them laughing but they still didn't know that Irene was following them. Irene finally said to her cousin "Look, there's your mom, if you don't be quiet that monster will get us." And when she started to crawl up the steep part of the mountain she got a good view of everyone.

Then the boy recognized his mom and hollered, "Mom!" His mom looked up and saw them. She yelled back at them,"What are you doing here; what'd you come for?"

Irene was in luck though because her aunt didn't get upset about her bringing her little cousin along. She said that he wasn't actually that sick. So she stayed with them and picked berries all day long.