The Eldest, Who Had Been Educated
For The Church, First Came To Canada In The Hope Of Getting Some
Professorship
In the college, or of opening a classical school.
He was a handsome, gentlemanly, well-educated young man, but
constitutionally
Indolent - a natural defect which seemed common to
all the males of the family, and which was sufficiently indicated
by their soft, silky, fair hair and milky complexions. R - - had
the good sense to perceive that Canada was not the country for him.
He spent a week under our roof, and we were much pleased with his
elegant tastes and pursuits; but my husband strongly advised him to
try and get a situation as a tutor in some family at home. This he
afterwards obtained. He became tutor and travelling companion to
the young Lord M - -, and has since got an excellent living.
John, who had followed his brother to Canada without the means of
transporting himself back again, was forced to remain, and was
working with Mr. S - - for his board. He proposed to Moodie working
his farm upon shares; and as we were unable to hire a man, Moodie
gladly closed with his offer; and, during the time he remained with
us, we had every reason to be pleased with the arrangement.
It was always a humiliating feeling to our proud minds, that
hirelings should witness our dreadful struggle with poverty, and the
strange shifts we were forced to make in order to obtain even food.
But John E - - had known and experienced all that we had suffered,
in his own person, and was willing to share our home with all its
privations. Warm-hearted, sincere, and truly affectionate - a
gentleman in word, thought, and deed - we found his society and
cheerful help a great comfort. Our odd meals became a subject of
merriment, and the peppermint and sage tea drank with a better
flavour when we had one who sympathised in all our trials, and
shared all our toils, to partake of it with us.
The whole family soon became attached to our young friend; and
after the work of the day was over, greatly we enjoyed an hour's
fishing on the lake. John E - - said that we had no right to murmur,
as long as we had health, a happy home, and plenty of fresh fish,
milk, and potatoes. Early in May, we received an old Irishwoman
into our service, who for four years proved a most faithful and
industrious creature. And what with John E - - to assist my husband
on the farm, and old Jenny to help me to nurse the children, and
manage the house, our affairs, if they were no better in a
pecuniary point of view, at least presented a more pleasing aspect
at home. We were always cheerful, and sometimes contented and even
happy.
How great was the contrast between the character of our new inmate
and that of Mr. Malcolm! The sufferings of the past year had been
greatly increased by the intolerable nuisance of his company, while
many additional debts had been contracted in order to obtain
luxuries for him which we never dreamed of purchasing for ourselves.
Instead of increasing my domestic toils, John did all in his power
to lessen them; and it always grieved him to see me iron a shirt, or
wash the least article of clothing for him. "You have too much to do
already; I cannot bear to give you the least additional work," he
would say. And he generally expressed the greatest satisfaction at
my method of managing the house, and preparing our simple fare. The
little ones he treated with the most affectionate kindness, and
gathered the whole flock about his knees the moment he came in to
his meals.
On a wet day, when no work could be done abroad, Moodie took up his
flute, or read aloud to us, while John and I sat down to work. The
young emigrant, early cast upon the world and his own resources, was
an excellent hand at the needle. He would make or mend a shirt with
the greatest precision and neatness, and cut out and manufacture his
canvas trousers and loose summer-coats with as much adroitness as
the most experienced tailor; darn his socks, and mend his boots and
shoes, and often volunteered to assist me in knitting the coarse
yarn of the country into socks for the children, while he made them
moccasins from the dressed deer-skins that we obtained from the
Indians.
Scrupulously neat and clean in his person, the only thing which
seemed to ruffle his calm temper was the dirty work of logging;
he hated to come in from the field with his person and clothes
begrimed with charcoal and smoke. Old Jenny used to laugh at him
for not being able to eat his meals without first washing his
hands and face.
"Och! my dear heart, yer too particular intirely; we've no time
in the woods to be clane." She would say to him, in answer to his
request for soap and a towel, "An' is it soap yer a-wantin'? I
tell yer that that same is not to the fore; bating the throuble
of makin', it's little soap that the misthress can get to wash
the clothes for us and the childher, widout yer wastin' it in makin'
yer purty skin as white as a leddy's. Do, darlint, go down to the
lake and wash there; that basin is big enough, any how." And John
would laugh, and go down to the lake to wash, in order to appease
the wrath of the old woman. John had a great dislike to cats, and
even regarded with an evil eye our old pet cat, Peppermint, who had
taken a great fancy to share his bed and board.
"If I tolerate our own cat," he would say, "I will not put up with
such a nuisance as your friend Emilia sends us in the shape of her
ugly Tom.
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