The Men Lie Stretched
On The Straw-Heaps In The Yard, Basking And Snoozing In The Sun.
We
generally have some stray man out from Winnipeg, and are much struck
with the coolness of their ways.
Colonial manners, somehow, jar a good
deal on one; they take it quite as a matter of course that we ladies
should wait on them at table, and attend to their bodily comforts. On
the other hand, they never seem to object to any accommodation they
get, and are perfectly satisfied with the drawing-room sofa for a bed,
even with sheets taken out of the dirty linen bag, which has been once
or twice the case when our supply has run short. I don't object to
their coming, only that our Sunday dinners have to be in proportion,
and as all our provisions come out from Winnipeg it is rather
difficult catering. We have no outside larder or anywhere to keep our
meat and butter, so have instituted a lovely one by putting all our
things down the well, which is nearly dry and is under the kitchen
floor. In winter there is never any need of a larder, as the meat is
frozen so hard that it has to be twelve hours in the kitchen before
they can attempt to cook it.
Our food is very good and we have the best of all receipts,
ravenous appetites for every meal. Our breakfast consists of
porridge, bacon, and any cold meat, jam, and any quantity of
excellent butter and bread. Dinner, a hot joint and a pudding of
some sort, finishing up with coffee. Supper, much the same. We
have coffee for every meal, and, as the pot is always on the hob,
anybody can have a cup when they like. The men have about two cups
apiece before breakfast when they first get up. We never mind any
amount of coffee, but wage war against the cocktails, taken before
meals as appetisers. A cocktail is a horrid concoction of whisky,
bitters, sugar and water, which are all mixed together with a
"swidel" stick, which stick is always on the wander and for which
a search has to be made. Nipping is too much in vogue in this
country, but we are told that a lot of support is wanted, the air
is so rarefied and the water has so much alkali in it, and
therefore not supposed to be healthy, but it is most beautifully
clear and delightfully cold to drink.
It certainly does disagree with the horses and cattle when first
imported into the district.
* * * * *
June 3rd.
If you happen to know of anybody coming out here, and so many do, and
you would like to give A - - a present, I wish you would kindly send
him a few table-cloths, dusters, towels, and pairs of sheets; in short
any linen would be most acceptable as we are so short. How these men
managed when the linen went into Winnipeg to be washed, and was
sometimes kept a month ere it came home, is a mystery. These extra men
living in the house have none. They facetiously describe their ideas
of dirt by saying, if the table-cloth, however filthy it might look,
when flung against the wall didn't stick, it went on for another week;
if it stuck, was then and there consigned to the dirty-linen bag.
Since we have been here we have instituted a weekly wash, every
Monday and Tuesday. E - - and Mrs. G - - preside at the tub all
day, and even then our sheets and towels often run short.
Every colonist ought to provide himself with two pairs of sheets,
half a dozen towels, two table-cloths, and a few dusters; and as
those things and his wearing apparel, if in use six months
previously, are allowed into the country free of duty, they might
as well bring them over as everything of that sort in Winnipeg is
so fearfully dear I do not like buying anything there. We sent for
some unbleached calico the other day, worth twopence-halfpenny;
was charged twelve cents or sixpence a yard. Besides the four
yards of calico there were ten of bed-ticking, also ten of
American cloth; and the bill was six dollars seventy cents, nearly
seven-and-twenty shillings. Everything is equally dear, the demand
is so much greater than the supply. Beef is tenpence to
thirteenpence a pound, mutton about the same, bacon tenpence, pork
tenpence, chickens four and twopence each. We use a good deal of
tinned corned beef; and very good it is, it makes into such
excellent hashes and curries and is so good for breakfast.
A - - also wants a pair of long porpoise-hide waterproof boots
sending out; they are quite an essential, as after the heavy rains
water stands inches deep in our yards, and he has so much walking
into the marshes. In the spring, when the snow has melted, the
"sloughs" or mudholes along all the tracks and across the prairie
are so deep that horses and waggons are repeatedly stuck in them,
and the men have to go in, often up to their waist, to help the
poor animals out. The only way sometimes to get waggons out is to
unhitch the horses, getting them on to firm ground, and by means
of a long chain or ropes fastened to the poles, pull the waggons
out which as a rule have previously had to be unloaded. The
clothes these men wear are indescribable. A - - at the present
moment is in a blue flannel shirt, a waistcoat, the back of which
we are always threatening to renew. Inexpressibles somewhat
spotty, darned, and torn, and, thanks to one or two washings, have
shrunk, displaying a pair of boots which have not seen a blacking-
brush since the day they left England. Coats are put on for meals,
to do honour to the ladies, but seldom worn otherwise. The coarser
and stronger the clothes are the better.
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