Of increasing my domestic toils, John did all in his power
to lessen them; and it always grieved him to see me iron a shirt, or
wash the least article of clothing for him. "You have too much to do
already; I cannot bear to give you the least additional work," he
would say. And he generally expressed the greatest satisfaction at
my method of managing the house, and preparing our simple fare. The
little ones he treated with the most affectionate kindness, and
gathered the whole flock about his knees the moment he came in to
his meals.
On a wet day, when no work could be done abroad, Moodie took up his
flute, or read aloud to us, while John and I sat down to work. The
young emigrant, early cast upon the world and his own resources, was
an excellent hand at the needle. He would make or mend a shirt with
the greatest precision and neatness, and cut out and manufacture his
canvas trousers and loose summer-coats with as much adroitness as
the most experienced tailor; darn his socks, and mend his boots and
shoes, and often volunteered to assist me in knitting the coarse
yarn of the country into socks for the children, while he made them
moccasins from the dressed deer-skins that we obtained from the
Indians.
Scrupulously neat and clean in his person, the only thing which
seemed to ruffle his calm temper was the dirty work of logging;
he hated to come in from the field with his person and clothes
begrimed with charcoal and smoke. Old Jenny used to laugh at him
for not being able to eat his meals without first washing his
hands and face.
"Och! my dear heart, yer too particular intirely; we've no time
in the woods to be clane." She would say to him, in answer to his
request for soap and a towel, "An' is it soap yer a-wantin'? I
tell yer that that same is not to the fore; bating the throuble
of makin', it's little soap that the misthress can get to wash
the clothes for us and the childher, widout yer wastin' it in makin'
yer purty skin as white as a leddy's. Do, darlint, go down to the
lake and wash there; that basin is big enough, any how." And John
would laugh, and go down to the lake to wash, in order to appease
the wrath of the old woman. John had a great dislike to cats, and
even regarded with an evil eye our old pet cat, Peppermint, who had
taken a great fancy to share his bed and board.
"If I tolerate our own cat," he would say, "I will not put up with
such a nuisance as your friend Emilia sends us in the shape of her
ugly Tom.
