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I GOT to town on Monday
afternoon, and left again on Tuesday morning. I went in to get a load of
lumber for S . I had arranged to cart it all out, but I am glad to say that
he has found some one else to do it, so I had only one load. It would have
meant ten or fifteen days on the road for me, and they- .are getting pretty
bad just now with the frost coming out.
We have Mrs. S---- and the
little girls staying with us till their shack is up. Jack gets on very well
with them, and flirts quite comically with the eldest. Poor S--- is laid up
at present with a touch of pleurisy. I had to go and fetch the doctor for
him, and I got home just in time to find that my little mare had foaled. The
colt was a fine one, but I am sorry to say only lived three days, the mother
had no milk to give it. I tried to bring it up with a bottle, but did not
succeed. The mare was ill, and I was afraid that I should lose her too, but
she is all right again, and I am soon going to break her in. She is only
three years old—too young to be bred from, still I think that she will make
a fair pony, and if I decide to sell her in the spring, I shall probably get
a good price for her. In the meantime she costs me nothing to keep.
The one I bought has turned
out a real good beast, a bit crazy at times, but she is always all there
when I want her. I am seeing about another one, for I must have three to do
any good ploughing. The one I am after I know is a good one. I do not
consider that I have done badly with my cattle, for if you recollect I
bought three oxen, harness and wagon, for 300 dollars. I shall have the
wagon, which is as good as new (value 70 dollars), the old ox traded for the
pony (value 45 dollars), the other two oxen sold for 200 dollars. I got one
year's work out of them, so you see I am 15 dollars to the good on that
deal.
To-morrow I am starting to
deepen the well, and next week a young fellow from the next quarter is
coming to help me. I hope that we shall not have to go very deep as it is
rather difficult work. Young A- is a very nice lad; he comes and does
chores, that is feeds the animals and does odd jobs for Mabel, whilst I am
in town, and will not take any remuneration for it, so I have taken him on
now, to help with the well, and later on to help me finish my sod-barn.
After that is finished I shall try and get a little breaking done, so as to
have a nice lot of land to crop next year, only it is useless trying till we
get rain, for the ground is far too hard and very dry underneath. Seeding
everywhere is nearly all done, and the wheat in some parts is germinating
well. The oats I have sown look as if they will do fairly by and by also.
It is really wonderful the
number of people coming out this year from the States, and from home. They
seem all substantial people too. Last year you saw people on the trail with
a wagon, a little timber, a few stores, and that was all; but this year you
meet people with all implements wanted, quite new ones, and plenty of timber
and stores. Homesteads are very hard to get now; one has to goat least 70 or
8o miles out from town to procure one any good, and land is being bought up
fast, but I am sorry to say not with any idea of settling on it, only as a
speculation.
I hear that we shall most
likely have a school here next year. We now have the required number of
children in the district to be able to claim one. I rather hope that we
shall not get it, for I do not see why I should pay school rates and taxes
before Jack is ready to go to school. He is so big that they have counted
him of school age. Mabel has sown some flowers, but I am afraid that they
will not come to much, for the hens are capital gardeners. They lay well,
however. We have only six hens and we get five eggs every day. You do not
know how they help the salt pork to go down, for we have eggs and bacon for
dinner, and bacon and eggs for tea, each day of the week; then on Sundays we
have bacon and potatoes for dinner, and potatoes and bacon for tea, just for
a change. I shall soon be ashamed to look a pig in the face; as it is I am
half ashamed to face the hens, for when I see one on a nest I invariably
lift it up, to see if there is an egg under it.
Do not be anxious about the
well digging, there is really no danger. I think that I shall not have to go
deeper than 35 feet.
My Union Jack has arrived,
and so I flew it on Sunday, to the envy of my English neighbours. One
suggested that I should cut it in half, and let him have half, or that they
should each take their turn with it, but I said that they could all come
over and look at it.
When I first hoisted it I
told Jack to take off his cap. He-evidently understood that it was the right
thing to do, for every time he went by afterwards he took his cap off and
said; How do you do, Mr. Flag. The cousins are leaving to-morrow for their
homestead, and Mrs. S---- is feeling now what we felt last year, only more
acutely, for she has not yet taken in that half the things we are used to at
home, we never get here. One shakes down to roughness after a time, and so
will she I dare say, but a little more civilization would not come amiss for
us all.
We live in hopes that some
day, not too far distant, we shall have built up a nice home. Even now our
little shanty is supposed to be as homelike as any to be seen here, and I
must confess that things appear much less hard than they did a year ago. |
