“We were once here” resonates through this collection of short stories set in the small town of Fernie high in the Rocky Mountains. The gossips, the busy bodies, the do-gooders, the miscreants, society high-born and low, they are all here: little Zarah, immigrant girl, Mr. Kenneth Trites Wood, potentate, Ivy Greenleaf, the Reverend’s wife, Andy, cheeky boy from Slavtown, Mrs. Arthur Young, tea table heroine.