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Chapter 11: Our Christmas
The few days which intervened after my husband's return & Xmas were spent in unpacking & arranging the many addition to our house which the boxes contained & my husband & our guest employed their time in carpentering for until now we had not had any proper tools, & by the time the books, writing desks & other useful & which appear to us now ornamental things were unpacked some nice shelves were ready to receive them. Then we had about a dozen pictures which we put up to brighten our log walls & when all was done our room looked more cheerful & homelike than I had thought possible when we first entered it, Oct. 13th. The rooms upstairs were too cold to be made use of during the winter, for like a few others who were anxious to finish their houses we had put neither plaster, nor mud on the rafters & the wind came in with impunity, this was a great inconvenience, as we were all obliged to live for six months in a space 20 feet X 16 feet. We partitioned off a small bedroom for myself my sister & the children, in which we had a small stove which kept it comfortably warm, in this we now had a bed stead put & as it was not large enough to admit a second, a berth was contrived over our's for the children, being made long enough for two to sleep at each end & it answered admirably & greatly economized the room & much delighted the little occupants. It seems a delightful change to us all to have a comfortable bed with blankets & other luxuries unknown since June, for nearly 7 months we had slept on mattresses or bags filled with hay on the floor, & instead of undressing had to put on our ulsters & everything which we had to keep ourselves warm enough to sleep. My husband, my cousin & any friend had to have a large shake down on the floor of the other room, which was put aside during the day & covered with a Buffalo robe so as to form a lounge as seats were scarce. The weather was now very severe, Xmas morning was cold enough to make everyone contemplating a visit prepare against frost bites. We had rather dreaded this our first Xmas away from all our friends & were very glad to have an addition to our circle which was further increased by the arrival of another Englishman, whom we had known slightly the previous summer & who braved Jack Frost & rode a distance of 30 miles, staying at Minnedosa the night before & getting to us just in time for dinner, which though it consisted of roast beef & plum pudding was decidedly a contrast to our former dinners on that day & alas! For the dessert over which the pleasantest hour is spent in so many homes, still the hours passed happily & we not did not despise the cup of warm tea, to which we had all become accustomed, as a beverage at our mid-day meal. The next few days were as merry as it was possible to make them in our little house, it was too cold for any occupation out of doors beyond chopping the necessary wood & tending the cattle, in the evening we amused ourselves with Whist & other games & rarely were the lamps extinguished till mid-night. The days are within a few minutes the same length as in England, but the snow being always on the ground seemed to make the day light continue longer. The stars each night were lovely, so clear & bright but the northern lights though frequently visible were not so beautiful as I had hoped to see, being colourless. The severity of the frost must be felt to be understood, it was no uncommon thing to find in the morning our breath frozen in small icicles on the Buffalo robe under which we slept & the same on my husband's moustache & beard, yet this was a mild winter compared with the one of 1879 & though my husband would often come in & declare this country never was intended for Englishmen, he more frequently said, "Is not this a splendid climate, could anything be better?". Our thermometer was as low as 50º below zero at times, but the air is generally very still & the intense cold never lasted more than 3 days at a time, throughout the whole season, there were only about 5 days when it was too severe for the usual occupation of rail cutting. The snow seems to come most gradually as the whole remains on the ground from the time the first comes which is often in Oct. this year it was not until Nov. it increases with each storm & is often 4 feet deep. Some weeks before Xmas our water in the well was exhausted & we had to melt snow this at first was a tedious process, but as the snow became more closely packed, it was easy to cut huge blocks which contained as large a quantity of water & was softer & more pleasant to use than the melted ice which we tried at first, the cattle had to be taken every day to a lake about ½ half a mile north of the house, where the ice had to be chopped out for them to have a drinking place. It was about 4 feet thick. The hands & feet are the most difficult parts to keep warm the caps which come over the ears & nearly cover the face, keep you comfortable, except your nose, which is not unfrequently slightly frozen. My husband found it most difficult to keep his hands & feet warm, under the moccasins, he wore 3 pairs of knitted socks constantly & on his hands 2 pairs of woollen mitts or gloves with the fingers not divided, like infants wear, under some made of thick leather lined with lambs wool. I can imagine any Englishman laughing at the idea of using his hands so incased, yet people chop & shoot in them. In January we had some more friends to stay with us & my sister went for her first sleigh drive which she thought delightful & sometimes during these pleasant evenings we almost forgot we were in the North West, though we were not so fortunate as some of our neighbours in possessing an American organ or other musical instrument. At this time my cousin having taken land left us to get logs for his house & the beginning of Feb my husband & sister went to Minnedosa intending to return the next day, but owing to a heavy fall of snow & strong gale of wind, they were unable to start & a concert at which my sister had promised to assist had to be postponed, when they saw that it was finer the next morning, they at once prepared for their journey & left at an early hour which was most fortunate as the trail had not been used since the recent snow storm & they had almost to dig their way, it frequently taking an hour to get through a drift, at 4 o'clock they were still 5 miles from home & one of the oxen tired out, it was not so cold as it had been, or they would have been frost bitten, to walk through the deep snow was most tiring still they succeeded in reaching a house, where one of the son's good naturedly brought them home with his oxen, our's walking behind & most glad I was to welcome them & find them none the worse for their tedious journey. They had quite enjoyed their short stay at our little city & the evening before an excitement had been created by the arrival of some officers of the Mounted Police with an Indian prisoner who had been convicted of horse stealing at Edmonton, this is a most heinous crime in this country, as to deprive a man of his horses is almost as bad as taking his life for on the vast prairie further West a man my travel for days without seeing a house. In this case it was punished by a sentence of 5 years penal servitude, which to a young Indian accustomed to a free roving life must have seemed intolerable, he appeared not more than 20, but such a look of hopeless misery my sister said she never saw on any face. A heavy chain was attached to one leg. The next morning when he was brought into the dining room of the Hotel to have his breakfast, which he took seated on the floor, no knife or fork being allowed him, he had already escaped twice & was now closely guarded. Capt. Herbart & his party started early in their tobaggins drawn by native ponies, the prisoner having to walk. During my husband's absence I had not been at all alarmed either night, though it certainly seemed strange & lonely, but in Canada no one ever uses the bars or bolts so necessary in England, as an old man told my husband one day, everything was safe in this country, "A few years ago you might leave your hat on any part of the trail & there it would remain until you fetched it, but now there were so many English about everything got picked up". Neither are there any wild animals to disturb our slumbers, once or twice we have heard wolves in the distance & sometimes my husband has seen one playing with our dog, but never close enough to shoot it, I believe they have been frequently shot, but I have heard of none this year, they are cowardly creatures & do not attack people. I find I have omitted to mention a party of surveyors who went last autumn to survey a township about 30 miles north of this one, we occasionally saw some of their party when going or returning from Minnedosa & once our oldest boy went to their camp with one of them & returned greatly charmed with the novel life. In Jan. the camp was moved to another township only 8 miles west of us at this time we frequently saw the chief & his assistants which made a pleasant change from the monotony of our indoor existence. The 2nd week in Feb we were one day surprised to see 2 of them walk in, they had burnt their tent & came for our's & though feeling sorry for their discomfort this had occasioned them, we were always glad to see any visitors & our surveying friends were favorites with us all. The following Saturday the snow was so deep that 3 of them determined to come to their cache near us for some snow shoes, it was a sudden break they left the camp about 11 o'clock P.M. & feeling their way along an unfrequented trail for 8 miles through snow 3 feet deep & many drifts, was exciting enough at first, but long before they reached the shanty when they intended to finish the night, they began to repent of their hasty decision & when after a tramp of 6 hours they dragged their feet to our door, they were completely exhausted & almost asleep before explaining the object of their nocturnal visit. When we saw them the next day they were apparently quite recovered & starting back in the afternoon they accomplished their return journey much more speedily with the help of their snow shoes, which to us looked extremely cumbrous appendages, though very light ones. The Indians at this time were catching large quantities of fish in the lakes, & bringing them in their tobaggins to the different houses where they traded them for flour, at one time I believe they could be obtained very cheaply, but now they are very shrewd in making their bargains. There is only one kind of fish caught in this part of Canada, they resemble the English pike & are sometime quite large, many of the people go before the ice breaks up & through the air holes spear a quantity which their wives salt & dry. The system of trading so general in this country seems very amusing to English ways to the English people, it is one that my husband delights in & one evening a neighbour came in with a large fur cap on for which he apologised as being made by himself out of a badger skin, we admired it & my husband at once said "I will trade cap" to which our friend replied "All right" & putting on the cap my husband offered him settled the bargain. After relining the fur cap & binding the edges with scarlet I felt quite pleased at the exchange, the grey fur with bright trimming looked so warm & comfortable.
