I always get home to Uncle John’s early enough to get things ready for tea and be sure any housework is done. Uncle John’s daily woman leaves something for me to warm up for the men’s tea. It is usually a fish pie, which I don’t like too well, but I know how to make biscuits and soup and we all do very nicely.
I have to stand on a wooden box to reach the counter and the sink. Cooking and clean up are my responsibilities and I am pleased to do them as it means I can stay here and go to school. I love school and I could not go if I still lived on the farm. It is too far and would take too much time to go home every day.
While I wait for the men to come home, I sit at the big kitchen table to do my homework. It is always warm in this room because of the heat of the big stove and I can light the lamp above the table. It gets dark earlier and earlier now and the kitchen window over the sink is not very large.
I miss Pa and Ma and my brothers and sisters, especially little Ellen who is just learning to walk. I miss them most in the evenings when I am alone in the house.
Uncle John is a very church going person. He is going to Church almost every evening and he takes cousin Will with him or Will goes out to visit. I think Will has a lady friend. So I am left alone with my schoolwork.
My room upstairs has a window. It is called a dormer window. There is wallpaper on the walls. It is pretty with flowers. I sleep in Nell’s bed. I like it splendid but I miss Nell. She is already a teacher and now she has gone to Kingston for two years to become a lady doctor. Pa says she is brave. It is hard to be a lady doctor. I hope I can be as brave as Nell.
I have to stand on a wooden box to reach the counter and the sink. Cooking and clean up are my responsibilities and I am pleased to do them as it means I can stay here and go to school. I love school and I could not go if I still lived on the farm. It is too far and would take too much time to go home every day.
While I wait for the men to come home, I sit at the big kitchen table to do my homework. It is always warm in this room because of the heat of the big stove and I can light the lamp above the table. It gets dark earlier and earlier now and the kitchen window over the sink is not very large.
I miss Pa and Ma and my brothers and sisters, especially little Ellen who is just learning to walk. I miss them most in the evenings when I am alone in the house.
Uncle John is a very church going person. He is going to Church almost every evening and he takes cousin Will with him or Will goes out to visit. I think Will has a lady friend. So I am left alone with my schoolwork.
My room upstairs has a window. It is called a dormer window. There is wallpaper on the walls. It is pretty with flowers. I sleep in Nell’s bed. I like it splendid but I miss Nell. She is already a teacher and now she has gone to Kingston for two years to become a lady doctor. Pa says she is brave. It is hard to be a lady doctor. I hope I can be as brave as Nell.
I see my family on the weekends when Pa or one of my older brothers comes to fetch me in the wagon. I stay on the farm and we go to church together on Sundays. After church, if the weather is poorly, I sometimes go straight to Uncle John’s. Ma is in an interesting way right now, so I know I will have a new baby brother or sister sometime this winter. images: Kingston late 1800's and small church typical for the times |