Ladys Life on a Farm in Manitoba | Page 8

to be idle and smoke his pipe of peace; but servants are so
difficult to get in this country, and our host being on the move, having
got a better Government appointment at Perth, is anxious not to change
now, so, like everybody else, puts up with anything. The last servant
they had in this house was the son of a colonel in the English Army,
who was described as "a nice boy but very lazy"; but this man-servant
hasn't even the recommendation of being nice. He was out at the farm
working for his board and lodging, and no wages for some months, but
A---- could not stand his idleness.
We all had to cook our breakfasts this morning, and as everyone was,
by way of helping, either making toast, poaching the eggs, cooking
hunks of bacon, or mending up the fire, the stove was pronounced
much too small. The moment we had finished our meal we had to retire
upstairs and make the beds and tidy up a little; a half-breed woman
living about half-a-mile off is supposed to come in for an hour and
wash up and clean the house, but if it is bad weather she is unable to
get through the mud; therefore when the ladies of the establishment are
away the house is left a good deal to its own devices, the dust and
cobwebs not often disturbed.
* * * * *
C---- FARM, May 21st.
Our last letter to you was written with the first impression of our

colonist life whilst in Winnipeg, where we had a very good insight of
the way English people will rough it when they come out. It would
horrify our farmers to have to do what gentlemen do out here. They are
all their own servants. That lazy servant in Winnipeg, we were told,
gave notice to leave, because one night he was requested to keep the
kitchen fire in so that we might have a kettle of hot water when we
went to bed.
We spent as little time as we could at our suburban residence, so as to
save him any extra trouble, always lunching and sometimes dining in
Winnipeg; and though all the restaurants are bad, still the food was
almost as good as what we cooked ourselves. Our chief mistake for our
first meals was that we put everything on the fire at the same time, and,
funnily enough, our fish boiled quicker than the sausages, and they
again much quicker than the pudding. Once there was a
bread-and-butter one, about which there has been a good deal of chaff,
as it was supposed to be first cousin to bread-and-milk!
The weather was very bad, constant rain, and we had a fair specimen of
Winnipeg mud. To these buckboards (which is a buggy with a board
behind for luggage), or to any of the carriages, there are no wings to
protect one from the mud, so that we always came in bespattered all
over, a great trial to our clothes. But in spite of the rain and bad weather
we were determined to come out here on Friday. We hired a democrat,
a light waggon with two seats, and started during the afternoon in the
rain, hoping it might clear which it eventually did when we were about
a third of our way. It was awfully cold, and the jolting of the carriage
over the prairie so fearful that our wraps were always falling off. I had
always understood the prairie was so beautifully smooth to drive over;
but found it much resembling an English arable field thrown out of
cultivation, with innumerable mole-hills and badger-holes, and natural
cracks about an inch wide, which drain the water off into the marshes.
If your carriage is heavily weighted it runs pretty easy; but woe betide
you if driving by yourself--you bump up and down like a pea on a
shovel.
We nearly upset, shortly after leaving Winnipeg, as a house was on the
move, or, more properly speaking, had been, as it was stuck in a
mud-hole; a load of hay, trying to get round it, had stuck as well; and
the only place given us to pass was fearfully on the slant down to a

deepish dyke, into which a buggy had already capsized. We caught the
first glimpse of our future home eight miles off, the house and stables
looking like three small specks on the horizon. It is very difficult to
judge distances on the prairie, and the nearer we seemed to get to our
destination the further the houses were removed. The farm had an
imposing appearance as we drove up to it. Mr. B----, who met us at the
gate, was most anxious that on arrival we should be driven