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MY husband was going to write
you a long letter, but one of our Scotch friends has come to help him build
a haystack ; the hay being all cut and ready to be carried, so they are very
busy.
Baby Jack is out with them
superintending, and carrying away the tools for his own amusement. He is
growing so fast, rather sunburnt, but his hair all rumpled up in tiny curls,
his cheeks still rosy, he looks a thoroughly healthy child and has such
pretty ways, when he is not in a rough mood. He says his little prayer very
sweetly every night, "God bless dear Ganpas and Ganmas (and never fails to
add) me have two, Daddy, Mammie, Aunties, Unkles, little Jackie, and make
him a good boy. Men." This is just as he says it.
Last week Jack and I went to
town with daddy to get thinner things, for the heat is intense, although we
have had some heavy thunderstorms. Jack was great fun; went about the town
as if it belonged to him. He walked into the largest store with 5 cents in
his fat fist, gave it to the first shopman he saw, and said quite gravely, "Chokies,"
which I had to translate into a stick of chocolate.
The garden is a great joy; I
helped to plant it; there is a little of everything in it and lots of
potatoes. Fresh vegetables are worth a great deal to us. Lately we have been
living almost entirely on mushrooms and radishes; they are nice for a
change. Of course, I have dried beans that I soak and make a white sauce of;
they are the only vegetable just now; my husband is very fond of them; but
one tires of the same thing when one has it too often. We have plenty of
milk, home-made bread, eggs, dried apples, prunes and marmalade.
This autumn we hope to build
and get things more shipshape before the winter. It will be a great comfort
to have a room apart to sleep in, and will make the life out here less hard
and rough in many ways. I will send you the plan of our wee cottage. Edward
will probably bring out some of the lumber next time and get it stacked by
degrees, then it will be seasoned and dry, so as to be able to build
directly the haying is over.
Edward had to leave off work
and go in to Saskatoon for stores; we had run nearly out of them, and I am
sorry to say one of his horses fell ill, and he had to sit up with it all
night. He has been obliged to leave it in town in the vet's care, and will
have to go back and fetch it if it recovers. He came in dreadfully tired; he
had not closed his eyes for forty-eight hours, and had been on the worry all
the time, as I was not very well when he left home. He had had previously
two weeks of sitting on the mower, for he had cut the captain's hay as well
as his own, and he will be going into town directly again to see how the
horse is doing. These long journeys take it out of one; we shall be glad
when we get a store nearer. |
