Cannington Manor

Assiniboia

N.W.T.

Canada

Sunday 2 nd

 

My Dear Namesake

I received your kind letter a fortnight tomorrow - also I had your photo the following week after the other letter. It is indeed a splendid one - real life-like.. I should think you feel glad you did not go to .Botching' Moxon in Hay. I am sure that William was pleased with it. I have sent you just a skip of the wedding that was here. It is taken by the eldest son. He cannot take photographs well.? If you will send it back, he is going to mount it for me. Standing in the doorway is the bride & bridegroom - so-called Slopers - next our boss & the best man.? The 3 sisters - bridesmaids. the eldest you can see is nearly 20 and then the next is 17 in school in London, and the other 2 you see is 14 & 10 - but there is boys between them - the youngest is 5. Mrs. Humphreys is a very quiet sort of person.? You can never tell what those sort of people mean but she is really very kind to me.? She makes a lot more cooking and washing. We wash once a fortnight. The daughter always helps and she does the ironing but I have to iron all the starch things.? I have had a lot of collars & white shirts all the summer. The boys call them boiled rags, but it is for my good. I have learned more here than I have ever learned before. Girls can get, in laundries in Montreal from ?3 to ?4 per month. I have had 2 letters from Johnnie - he is getting on very well & he told me that girls are getting 5 to 6 dollars a week about Walla Walla - that's where he is. He asked me to remember him to you & I was to tell you that he was everything that was expected of an old man. Oh I do wish you were here at nights. It is most awful dull & quiet. I won't go where there is only one girl never again. Church is now at 3 o'clock in the afternoon & every Sunday night in the house .moping - nowhere to go.? I really cannot stand it no longer than next May but Christmas will soon be here & then the time goes wonderful fast after.? I have been thinking about going to British Columbia - that is just like English climate.? I don't feel the least that I want to go home. I cannot forget the sea voyage. I will never cross it again without someone I know. I am very sorry that you have to work so hard - more especially that your health is so bad. Mrs. P. ought to come out to the northwest. She would not make so much work here or else do it herself. My health is fare but I do suffer very much with headache. I have got to take medicine very often.? You bet I have not forgotten the night I had my bed warmed. I hope you won't have to go out in the dark mornings in the snow to chop firewood this winter. The boys are down first in the morning and they light the fire. The stoves are much better than in England.? They have a fall top and just a pipe to carry the smoke. They are so easy to clean. I can blacklead it easy in 10 minutes. No one listens to hear me clean the flues. Poor Dame Burden must have had some trouble this summer.? I expect a letter from the Dufferin this week so I may hear some Cusop news. I paid for a brown box the same size as the white I had with you at Stephens. They promised to send it.? Did you ever get it? Oh what do you think about our little house now. I think out here would be a fine place. I will try and get a half-breed shack. There is lots of bachelors living by themselves, so it would be nothing out of the common. I did not make a mistake about the presents.? I told you that it was put wrong in the paper.? If you can get me a copy of the song .Tar Ra Ra Boom De Ray, I should be very pleased. I heard it sung on board.? People wear moccasins instead of boots because they are warm.? They are yellow buckskin. I won't wear them if I can help it.? They do look awful thing.? So i will tell you about the Red Indians next time if I have not told you. I do make an awful muddle over my letters sometimes - write the same thing over & over. Have you forgotten our supper some nights. Upstairs and the ting ting in the morning. I can't write more now.

I have other letters to write & to Johnnie, so I must close.

 

With best love

From your old friend

???????????????????????????????????????????? Martha