Luckily From The Club He Went To
A - - 's Livery Stable, Which Is Exactly Behind It, Where A Man
Offered
To drive him out forthwith, having driven another man here
only four days ago; but he preferred waiting till the
Morning,
getting here somewhere about 9 o'clock, when he was set down
immediately to work to stone the raisins for a plum cake, and when
tired of that had to help A - - planting potatoes. He declares he
never will come here with his best clothes and a "boiled" shirt on
again, as we have worked him so hard.
The accounts he gives, in an exaggerated Irish brogue, of his
experiences in Minnesota have kept us in fits of laughter. The
description of their first drive, when both he and his companions
were all bogged; and how that twenty-seven mules and twenty-eight
horses bought at St. Louis all arrived one night at the station
about 5 o'clock, after sixty hours' travelling with no food or
water, had to be unloaded from the cars, and they hadn't a halter
or even a rope to do it with. Eventually they got all the poor
beasts into a yard with wooden pailing round, but, something
startling them, they made a rush, the fence gave way, for which
damage the proprietor charged them ten pounds, and all galloped
straight on to the prairie, and it took the men all night getting
them together again. One pair of horses disappeared altogether;
but were brought back when a reward of thirty dollars was offered;
they had wandered nineteen miles.
Mike slept in A - - 's room. They talked so much, and told so many
funny stories, that we despaired of ever getting them down to
breakfast; Mike declaring he would like to bring his bed along
with him, as he hadn't slept in one, or been between sheets since
leaving New York, six weeks previously. We drove him over one
afternoon to fish in the creek about two and a half miles off; but
as we had to go in a light waggon, and with only one spring seat,
both Mike and A - - had to hang on behind, with a plank as seat,
which was always slipping and landing them on their backs at the
bottom of the waggon. When we were about half a mile from home
E - - made a wager that she would get through the wire fence and
home across the prairie before we could get round and the horses
be in their stable. We had a most exciting race; the gates, which
are only poles run from one end of the wire to another, were a
great impediment, and I believe it was really a dead heat, through
all the labourers entering into the joke and rushing to unhitch the
horses, which were disappearing into the stable as E - - was at
the kitchen-door.
I fancy that on the whole, in spite of his hard work, Mike enjoyed
his visit, not only for the pleasure of our society, but as he had
never seen a piece of meat, nor anything but pork and beans and
bad coffee at Warren, nor had a bed to lie on, nor as much water
as could be held in a tea-cup to wash in; he must have felt he had
dropped into a land of Goshen by some happy mistake.
To give you a clearer insight into our daily life, and as I have
nothing really to write about this week, I think I cannot do
better than copy out our journals, which we try to keep regularly,
though in our monotonous every-day life it is sometimes difficult
to find incidents to chronicle.
_Monday_. - Wash and cook all the morning; E - - and A - - plant
willows in the marsh during the afternoon. I wander about the prairie
in search of a duck's nest I saw yesterday and thought I had marked;
but the tracks, stones, and ridges on the prairie are so alike, that
it is almost impossible to remember any place; anyhow, I cannot find
the nest. I could not take it yesterday, as I was riding, and the
animal will not stand still to let you mount, and had I had to
scramble up on to her I should certainly have broken all the eggs I
took. An exhausting day with a hot wind blowing; we are craving for
rain, and thankful for the slight showers that fell during last night.
It is marvellous how quickly vegetation will grow. Some sample wheat
planted in the garden, of which there was no sign yesterday, thanks to
the rain and sun has grown quite an inch by 6 o'clock this evening.
The grass is beginning to look so green and nice.
_Tuesday_. - E - - and Mrs. G - - finish their wash which they could
not get through yesterday. I go up to the tent, with Mr. H - - to
drive his waggon, and help to unlumber the wood he brought out
yesterday from Winnipeg. Riding on these waggons loaded, and
without a spring seat, is anything but pleasant over the prairie,
but Mr. H - - is so accustomed to it now that he can stretch
himself on the top and sleep soundly; and once or twice, coming
out from town, has found himself in quite the wrong direction by
allowing the horses to go their own way.
E - - and I spend our afternoon cleaning up the tent.
_Wednesday_. - A - - and I drive into Winnipeg. We have had various
commissions to do, and A - - had to attend a meeting at the Club. Mr.
W. H - - has most amiably put his house, consisting of two rooms and a
kitchen below, at our disposal whenever we want to rest; so I spent my
whole afternoon there, nominally reading the "St. James's Gazette,"
but, I fancy, indulging in "forty winks" whilst waiting for A - - . We
afterward dined with the judge in his very nice pretty house called
"The Willows," driving home later. The cold was so great that A - - ,
who had brought no great-coat, was forced to run behind the buggy some
way to get warm and produce circulation.
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