Last Night, Just After We Had Gone To Bed, A
Loud Knock Was Made At Our Door, And A Man
Asked "if we intended
getting up to-night," at which we were furious; but he persisted
in the most determined
Way in questioning us as to whether "it
wasn't Mrs. H - - 's room," and we had time to get more than angry
before we recognised A - - 's voice and simultaneously both jumped
out of bed to receive him, _en deshabille_. It is very nice
of him coming all this way, four hundred miles, to meet us. He
looks much the same as ever, only as brown as a berry from the
reflection of a fortnight's sun on the snow. He is wonderfully
cheery, seems glad to see us, has so many questions to ask of you
all, and swears by the healthiness of the Canadian climate and the
life they lead at the farm. We are none of us ever to be sick or
sorry again!
We have been a long drive to-day, starting at 11 o'clock, and only
back just in time to do our last packing, send off this letter,
and dine before we go on to Winnipeg at about 7 o'clock. We drove
across a bridge on the Missouri to Fort Snelldon, a miniature
Aldershot, with huts and tents, and a beautiful stretch of grass
for manoeuvres or galloping, on to the Minhaha Falls, where, we
stayed some time gazing and admiring and even walking under the
falls. The volume of water falling seemed extraordinary, but was
completely eclipsed by the falls of St. Anthony at Minneopolis,
which we saw later. The latter originally fell perpendicularly;
but to utilise them for the enormous saw-mills built at the
water's edge they have been under-planked, so that the water goes
down in a slant. We were most fascinated by the sight, and watched
the torrent from various points of view.
Minneopolis is much like other Western towns we have seen, semi-
detached houses standing in their own grounds, the grass in many
instances well kept, but utterly destitute of flowers, which one
misses so much. This place, St. Paul's, is beautifully situated,
built on both sides of the river, the banks of which are very
steep. Good-night; in twenty-four hours more we hope to be at our
destination in the far North-west. But we are not to go out
immediately to the farm, as we are arriving rather earlier than
A - - expected, and the men who have been living with him all the
winter cannot turn out before Friday to make room for us; so we
are to stay in Winnipeg for a day or two.
* * * * *
WINNIPEG, May 18th.
Here we are, and we do feel ourselves really landed in the far
North, after a most prosperous journey the whole way. We arrived
"quite on time" last night, rather an unusual thing with these
trains, particularly since the floods, when the passengers were
dependent on the steamer, we saw yesterday as we passed high and
dry on the prairie, which had to convey them from one train to
another across the floods close to St. Vincent.
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