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WE have been having fearful
weather all this time, blizzard after blizzard. I went to town again with
one of the neighbours and we got caught in a blizzard, rather a bad one, but
luckily we were only half a mile from the stopping place, and our teams had
the sense to make straight for it. The snow was so thick that I could not
see my horses' heads, and the cold was terrible; I have never, I think, been
so cold in my life. However, we got to town and back without being
frost-bitten. Others did not fare so well, for I heard that poor S was in
hospital, with both feet frozen. It is a sad business for him, and a great
trial for his wife.
I also heard that a school
teacher had been found frozen to death, lost on the prairie. Certainly this
winter has commenced rather badly. I only hope that it will not get worse,
for I have all my firewood still to get up.
Next year ought to be a good
year for the crops, for no one remembers such deep snow as we have now, over
2 feet deep; not very pleasant to walk through, I can assure you.
We are beginning to think
about Christmas. We are going to have the same crowd as last year, so you
can think of us on that day, a few forlorn Englishmen doing their best to
imagine that they are at home. New Year's Day, if fine, we go and spend with
our Scotch neighbours. Some other people invited us, but they are too far
off for us to go there at this time of the year; we might be caught in a
storm and not be able to get home for two or three days.
My animals are all well up to
now; my heifer has calved and given me a fine bull calf, which I shall try
and keep, as he will do for our winter's food next year.
You must not mind or get
anxious, if you do not get letters so frequently for a month or two. We
avoid as much as possible going far from our shacks, unless obliged to, when
the snow lies so deep over everything, for it is not easy to find one's way
for one reason, and another is the fear of being overcome by the intense
cold. |
