Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Emigration and immigration
Everybody assured us that nothing but a personal interview would be
any use, so we cruised about the country in a very nice little buggy
for five hours under the escort of old Kemp, and I must say we
should have been nowhere without him. I should never have known how
to conduct the business with some of the specimens we came across,
not to mention that we should have been sure to have lost ourselves
half-a-dozen times over, and so should not have seen half the number
of people. Well, the upshot of the day's campaign was that I think
Henry stands a good chance of a place. Everyone assures me that he
could not do better than go to the farm in question. It belongs to
an old man called Crabtree, or something like that, I don't know
exactly how he spells himself. He is a very rough-and-tumble old
fellow, but, it seems, a capital farmer, and a good honest dealing
man. He has one of the best farms in the county, and is very well
off, having made all his money on his farm. Henry would get his
board and lodging, and most probably somewhere about $10 a month
besides. Of course nothing is fixed yet; the old chap's wife was
away, and he could do nothing without consulting her, but he said he
would want help during the winter, and he would not engage anyone
without letting us know. He cannot, however, do anything for the
next fortnight, which is a nuisance. None of the others that, we
called on came to very much, so we are going up to Montreal to-night
to deliver introductions and stir up the mud generally. Both Ibotson
and Kemp are going to make enquiries for us here, and write to us if
anything turns up. It's very good of them, they have both taken a
lot of trouble, and it's all done for love. In fact everybody is
most good-natured, and willing to do everything in their power to
help us. They all say they have no doubt we shall be able to get
work very soon, but it cannot be done in a day; so it seems to me,
having got these two old fellows to look out for us here, we had
better go and present ourselves in Montreal, and so be as it were in
two places at once. Moreover, I should like to see Roland Stanley if
possible before I clinch any bargain. We are perfectly certain of
getting disinterested advice from him, though I see no reason
whatever to doubt the policy of what I have done or the intentions
of our backers. I don't know if I have made all our doings and plans
sufficiently clear. I am writing in a very rambling sort of way, but
that is a fault inseparable from having to write at odd times. We
are living here for about a dollar a day each, not at all bad, with
three good big meals included, still it's spending money instead of
making it, so I hope it won't last long. It's not such a bad
beginning, though, when you come to think of it, we've only had two
clear days in the country, and Henry is in a very fair way to be
settled at a really good farm. Apart from business, the drive this
afternoon was delightful, the country in places quite equal to any
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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