He Gets Up Very Early, As
He Has To Fetch The Water, Milk The Cow, Feed The Calf, Etc., All
Before Breakfast And Starting Off For His Office.
There is a man-servant here who gets 5 to 6 pounds a month, apparently
to do nothing, as
He is the only one on the premises who can
afford to be idle and smoke his pipe of peace; but servants are so
difficult to get in this country, and our host being on the move,
having got a better Government appointment at Perth, is anxious
not to change now, so, like everybody else, puts up with anything.
The last servant they had in this house was the son of a colonel
in the English Army, who was described as "a nice boy but very
lazy"; but this man-servant hasn't even the recommendation of
being nice. He was out at the farm working for his board and
lodging, and no wages for some months, but A - - could not stand
his idleness.
We all had to cook our breakfasts this morning, and as everyone
was, by way of helping, either making toast, poaching the eggs,
cooking hunks of bacon, or mending up the fire, the stove was
pronounced much too small. The moment we had finished our meal we
had to retire upstairs and make the beds and tidy up a little; a
half-breed woman living about half-a-mile off is supposed to come
in for an hour and wash up and clean the house, but if it is bad
weather she is unable to get through the mud; therefore when the
ladies of the establishment are away the house is left a good deal
to its own devices, the dust and cobwebs not often disturbed.
* * * * *
C - - FARM, May 21st.
Our last letter to you was written with the first impression of
our colonist life whilst in Winnipeg, where we had a very good
insight of the way English people will rough it when they come
out. It would horrify our farmers to have to do what gentlemen do
out here. They are all their own servants. That lazy servant in
Winnipeg, we were told, gave notice to leave, because one night he
was requested to keep the kitchen fire in so that we might have a
kettle of hot water when we went to bed.
We spent as little time as we could at our suburban residence, so
as to save him any extra trouble, always lunching and sometimes
dining in Winnipeg; and though all the restaurants are bad, still
the food was almost as good as what we cooked ourselves. Our chief
mistake for our first meals was that we put everything on the fire
at the same time, and, funnily enough, our fish boiled quicker
than the sausages, and they again much quicker than the pudding.
Once there was a bread-and-butter one, about which there has been
a good deal of chaff, as it was supposed to be first cousin to
bread-and-milk!
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