A Lady's Life on a Farm in ManitobaHall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
History
A Lady's Life on a Farm in Manitoba
Hall, M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Manitoba; Manitoba -- Description and travel
The two young men, Messrs. H---- and L----, who inhabit a tent
about two miles from here, and who are building themselves a
stable, are going into Winnipeg to-morrow for more lumber; and as
I don't know when I shall have another opportunity of sending
letters in, I send you a few lines. These two men have been living
with A---- all the winter, and only turned out for us the day we
arrived. It was such bad weather they hoped and speculated on our
not coming; so that when we were seen in the distance there was a
general stampede to clear out. I must say I should have been very
loth to turn out, during this cold weather, of a comfortable house
into a tent, and, had I been they, should have wished us somewhere. We
have already had a taste of the cold in these regions. Friday, when we
drove out here, was bad enough; but on Saturday, when E---- and A----
went into town again to take our carriage back, they were nearly
frozen with the biting wind and sleet they had to face the whole of
the sixteen miles home. On Sunday the thermometer was down to 22, or
ten degrees of frost, with a bitter north-west wind, and we had an
inch of snow on the ground; and though the sun melted most of it, the
thermometer at night went down again to 24. I don't think I ever felt
so cold in bed, in spite of a ton weight of clothes. Luckily the
stoves are still up in the house--in summer they are generally put
away in the warehouse to give them room--so that we have been able to
make a light both night and day. We are told the weather is most
unusual; anyhow, it is mighty cold. Those poor men in the tent
have suffered a good deal; one night the pegs to the windward
gave, and the snow drifted against their beds as high as their
pillows. They luckily have got a stove, but are obliged to leave
their door open to allow of the pipe going out; unfortunately they
have no extra tin or iron to put on the canvas round the pipe,
which is the usual way to prevent it catching fire.
To describe our life here will take some doing, and, after the
novelty has worn off, it will not amuse us quite so much; nor
shall we be so keen of helping our Abigail, who is the wife of the
carpenter and maid-of-all-work, in everything, excepting that she
must always have a great deal to do for a large household like
ours, consisting of four men and our two selves, and we shall
always want employment, and I don't think we shall either of us
care to ride or drive much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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