The house was scrupulously clean, ditto
the woman, but we couldn't quite make up our minds to share the
Only bedroom with her, her husband and two other men, one ill with
inflammation of the lungs, rejoicing in an awful cough, and rather
given to expectoration; so we had our first experience of real
camping out. Our tent was an A tent, just big enough to allow of
two people sleeping side by side; the only place to stand up in,
was exactly in the middle, but we arranged it very fairly
comfortably by putting some straw under our buffalo robes, and our
clothes as pillows. The men had to make their couch under the
carriage with whatever cloaks we didn't want, to keep the dew off
them; and by lighting a large "smudge" to keep off the mosquitoes,
we all slept pretty well, though Mother Earth is very unrelenting.
If, however, we wanted to change our position we were sure to
awake. The following morning, Tuesday, the men had a bathe in the
river, which we very much envied them; though, having brought our
india-rubber bath, and there being plenty of water handy, we did
very well. We were off again at 7 o'clock. Our breakfast bill of
fare not much varied from that of last night - tea, corned beef, ox
tongue, and bread and butter. The country through which we passed
was not so pretty as on Monday, with fewer trees. Our cavalcade
was increased by another man in his buggy, who was on his way to
Edmonton, and he travelled with us most of the day. Mid-day, after
eighteen miles, we came on a small settlement of four Canadians,
who were just finishing their dinner. They were very nice,
delighted to see ladies, placed the whole of their place at our
disposal, and though, of course, they could do but little for us,
we were not allowed to wash up our plates nor to draw our own
water. They had everything so tidy and nice, rough it was bound to
be. Like thousands of Canadians, they have taken up land, 240
acres apiece, and are working them together, with two yoke of oxen
and a pair of Indian ponies. Whilst we were resting, the Manager
drove on to find his farm; but as they have bought several
sections in different townships from the railway company, it was
difficult to find out on which section his men were working. The
only thing he knew was two of the numbers of the section and that
the Arrow river ran through the property. The Canadians told us
that Ford "Mackenzie," for which we had been steering all the
morning, was six miles further on; so that when we left them about
2 o'clock (amidst many expressions of regret; they repeated to us
several times how delighted they were seeing ladies, not having
seen a petticoat since they came up last spring), we had to wander
many a mile before finding either the ford or the farm.
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