ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES
It rained hard all next day, so I spent the time in making some things
for the caravan; in particular, a wire cage for the electric bulb, which
was always being knocked against and broken. One could never start
directly the rain ceased, the trails were too bad, and when we did take
the road on the following day we found a sea of mud. On the second day
we arrived at Outlook, and camped above the ferry. There was no resident
clergyman here, but a local lady did what she could for the spiritual
needs of the children, holding a very successful Sunday School in the
church, where she had arranged a beautiful "Children's Corner." A few
suitable pictures and simple printed prayers were pinned on the wall
within easy reach of kneeling children. They are encouraged to make this
spot their special oratory. This particular "Corner" was arranged near
the font, which seemed a specially suitable place for it. Unfortunately,
we were unable to meet this lady, as she was ill, but we went to see the
lay reader who took the services on Sunday.
After we had camped that night a young girl came to talk to us. She
explained that she was very unhappy and unsettled with regard to
religion. She had gone to the "Pentecostals," poor child, because she
was deaf, and could hear their loud declamations; but she had received
no sort of help from them. Her parents belonged to the Church of
England, but since they had been in Canada the younger children had not
been baptized. Presently the girl's mother joined us, and we made
friends at once and had "a good crack" when we each found that the other
came from Cumberland. She told me that she had been brought up a
Baptist, but had joined the Church of England. I urged her to prepare
her children for baptism herself, and have them baptized at the earliest
opportunity. This she promised to do.
Next day we had to cross the Saskatchewan River, no easy task from all
accounts. We had been regaled with hair-raising stories of how a man
drove his car too fast down the pier to the ferry boat, which had not
been linked up, and the car plunged into the river and was never seen
again. The same fate overtook a man who fell out of his boat when
mending the ferry cable. I was not quite at my best for this particular
undertaking, as I had one eye badly swollen from a mosquito bite through
forgetting to put on my net when sitting down to write a letter. There
were three ways of getting down the river bank to the ferry pier. One
road zig-zagged so sharply that the long caravan could not turn at the
bend, and the paling just there was so frail that had we run into it we
must have broken through and gone down a bank. The other road was strewn
with huge stones, so I eschewed roads altogether, and went down the
rough grass bank, swaying and bumping and almost overturning, but it
seemed the least perilous passage. I took the car down while Winifred
was on in front, looking for a better road, as there was no reason why
we should both be upset. A narrow road led on to the pier, which was a
long wooden structure built over the sand and mud of the river's edge.
The ferry, a wooden barge worked by a cable, was moored to the end of
it, and I drove on to it cautiously. The men working the ferry were
three Englishmen, who had served with the Canadian contingent, and they
hailed the van delightedly as a long-lost friend, at first thinking it
was an old motor ambulance from France. We took photos of them,
whereupon they begged that we would not exhibit them as "specimens of
the white heathen we met out there." "I felt indeed that we must look
missionaries of the fiercest type," was Winifred's comment on this
incident.
There was only one trail to Bounty, our next destination, so when we
came suddenly on a dreadful hole right across the path, with a bank on
either side of the road, there was nothing for it but to go on. I tried
to rush across, and suddenly felt an awful concussion. I was flung up
against the roof of the van and saw stars for the moment, but somehow or
other we got across. Then I went round to see what damage was done to
our baggage, etc., and found that a three-gallon tin of coal oil had
been flung up and had come down upside down. There it was, standing on
its cork. I next examined the engine, which seemed very odd. The gear
pedal had gone wrong and everything was crooked. Then I saw that the
bonnet was not fitting. I lifted it up and found that the whole engine
was two or three inches out of the straight. I saw that I could not put
things right myself, and so determined to try to reach the town.
Meanwhile, in this as in other mishaps, Winifred helped me enormously by
sitting calmly on the bank reading a novel. She never fussed or made
worrying exclamations, or hindered me by offering useless suggestions or
unwanted assistance. She never complained, either, under the most trying
circumstances, or made the slightest sound in those wild moments when we
were nearly thrown out of the van by the roughness of the road.
We were five miles from Bounty, but I found that I could get along on
low gear. A few miles farther on we came to another bad place, where the
conduit had fallen in, but we managed to crawl through somehow. I was
thankful to find a big garage at Bounty, with an efficient mechanic. He
and I examined the car and found that the frame was sprung three inches
on either side. He said that the body would have to be slung up and the
engine taken out and a new frame put in, and that this would take a week
to do. So we unloaded the van by the church, and took out the mattresses
also for use in the tent, and then left the poor invalid at the garage.
There are garages in every prairie town, even in what we should call
little villages, for in Saskatchewan there is a car for every two
people. These garages are well fitted up, and have all the latest
inventions. Outside all of them there is a petrol pump and a "Free Air"
cable for the convenience of passers-by. The latter has a gasolene
engine which pumps up the air, so that you can fill your tyres in a
second. No one thinks of using a hand-pump unless he has a burst right
out on the prairie.
We lived in the tent this week, with most of our baggage stored in the
church porch. As usual, the children helped us to arrange our things. I
had quite a holiday, with the caravan off my hands, but Winifred's
duties went on as usual. We had apportioned the work as follows: she was
to keep the interior of the van clean and do all the washing-up, whilst
I drove, cleaned the engine, did repairs, etc., and cooked. Winifred's
job was no sinecure. She hardly ever had much water for washing-up, so
she used to clean the horrid greasy dishes and things with paper and
then rinse them; and though I sometimes nearly threw her out of the van,
she in turn sometimes kept me out of it when she was having a thorough
clean up--a necessary evil after a muddy day or a dust-storm.
I wanted to telephone to Mr. W. at Regina, as he was holding my
insurance policy for the car, so I asked permission to do so from a
resident who had already greatly befriended us. When 'phoning I found it
very difficult to hear what Mr. W. said; it seemed as if all the
receivers were open. I was further distracted by hearing the owner of
the telephone remark to Winifred, as she gazed at my back, "Eh! isn't
she fat?" as who should say, "No wonder the frame was sprung!"
Next morning I walked to Conquest (six miles away) to interview the
secretary of the Municipal Council, as the inhabitants of Bounty thought
that the hole should have been attended to, and advised me to claim
damages. I failed to get any compensation, but Bounty benefited from our
misfortune, as the hole was immediately filled up. Calling at the
Conquest post-office for letters, the old postman remarked to me, "I
have heard all about your accident. You girls, you drive too fast." It
seemed that the entire district knew all the details, even to the cost
of the repairs. I now remembered having heard that a favourite winter
amusement on the prairie was to take down your receiver and listen to
the conversations along the line. Report said that a certain courtship
had in this way provided entertainment for the whole neighbourhood.