Chapter 62.
During the winter I had written to Fred, now Sir Fred Robinson, and asked him if he would rent us his cottage on Fairy Lake in Muskoka, which he had built some years before. Fred was now a married man, but he answered my letters very cordially, saying they did not intend to go up and we were very welcome to it. Terms were easily arranged, and he sent me a list of what was in the cottage, so that I could supplement if required.
As the time approached, June 15th, I laid in a box of things and sent them up to Fairy Lake. The box went first to Huntsville, a good sized town reached by the Grand Trunk Railway, and from there it is a three mile row to Fairy Lake. The Misses Monsells, to their great joy, rented their rooms, and all seemed going most prosperously. June 15th came on a Tuesday and on Saturday came a letter from Fred, saying his wife would not allow us to have the house. She said if we went up she would follow immediately and turn us out. She was always a peculiar woman, and I think she was jealous of our long-standing friendship.
We really felt ourselves in a bad fix, but Jack at once telegraphed to my cousin George Wilgress to know if he could find us a place. Miss Monsell was terribly upset, but we assured her we would go, even if we had to go to the hotel. However, this was not necessary. On Saturday evening came a telegram to say a place had been found, and it was at once arranged that I should go up on Monday with Dorothy and the baby and if I found the place suitable, Helen and the boys should follow on Wednesday with Mr. Hawkins.
I have not mentioned this member of our community before. He was a respectable man, an American, who had, on his health breaking down, drifted to our quiet little town. He had a wife and four young children, and was quite unequal to any hard work. Jack had been most kind to him and he worked in our large garden at Hillcrest the previous summer. As it was impossible for me to go to any Muskoka cottage alone with five little children, it had been arranged that Hawkins should accompany us.
It was quite exciting to go forth in this way, and Dorothy and I were in high spirits at the prospect. It was a long journey from Port Hope to Huntsville. You went first to Blackwater, and after a short wait got a train for Orillia. There we waited five long hours and very long they seemed, but at last our train came in and in the midst of heavy rain we landed in Huntsville. I had never been there before, but Cousin George met us and took us up in the shaky omnibus to the hotel where he was staying, for though about my age, he was not yet married.
Next morning he rowed us down to Mrs. Ware’s house where he thought we could get rooms. It was a perfect June day after the rain, and we were delighted with the beauty of the river, and when we reached our destination all seemed provided for us. The house was situated at the end of the river, so that the front faced the river and the back the lake, which the river ran into. You crossed by a narrow neck of land to the long point on which Fred’s house was built at the extreme end so that he had a view of the whole lake.
Mrs. Ware was a rough, kindly woman. She offered me a large sitting room and kitchen downstairs and four small bedrooms upstairs for the sum of $10 a month and I could come in at once. I was indeed thankful to the Lord Who had so wonderfully arranged for our comfort, for this place was far more suitable, being much safer than the cottage at the end of the point. The children were sent for and we all settled down for one of the pleasantest summers I have ever spent.
A short time before coming up I had, one night, a very vivid dream. I thought I saw a lake and a boathouse beside it, or rather in it, for it was built in the water and was reached by a rather narrow plank walk. I saw in my dream my little Christopher run down the slope to the lake and across the plank walk to the boathouse, but half way there his foot slipped and he fell into the water. Someone pulled him out but not until too late. This dream impressed me very much, but imagine my surprise, when I reached Mrs. Ware’s house, to find her boathouse and all its surroundings exactly like my dream. I felt it was a warning to me and was most careful that the children should never go down to the boathouse alone.
Speaking of warnings, on another occasion I was distinctly warned. It was a year or two before this. I had gone over to Coburg to spend the day with my cousin Mrs. Marsh, who was staying at her father’s house. Returning home by train, I heard or “felt” a voice say to me: “Pray for the boys”. I felt they were in danger and prayed earnestly for their safety. On arriving they and their father met us and the boys were full of their grand adventure. They had climbed to the top of a freight car and played on top of it. The next day I saw an account of some boys who had played the same trick. The car had been moved unexpectedly and one if not more was shaken off and killed.
It was a busy time that summer at Fairy Lake, as anyone may guess. Mr. Hawkins, in addition to managing the wood and ice, and caring for the boat which we hired, washed all the dishes. The cooking and house work I did myself, then there was the baby to care for, who was not yet walking, and many other things to do. But my rest at the Misses Monsells’ had done me great good, and each day I felt more and more able for the work. What picnics we had, and Cousin George used to be the life of them. He was frequently at the house and the boys thought no one could come up to Cousin George.
From Fairy Lake you went into a canal about a mile long, and then you reached Peninsula Lake. At the head of this lake raspberries grew in great profusion. We had one or two picnics to this spot. Then there were islands to be visited and sometimes the children and I took the boat and went to some spot on the point and undistractedly played their favorite game of “Swiss Family Robinson”. It was on the verandah of Fred’s cottage that our wee Hope took her first step.
Of course we had to get our bread and meat from Huntsville, so Hawkins used to row in about twice a week. The boys and sometimes Dorothy accompanied him. Helen was very happy playing with little Elsie Ware, a nice little girl also five years old. There was, I remember, a half-grown sheep which had been a pet lamb. It never interfered with the older children, but when either of the little five-year old’s appeared it would run at them and bunt them. At last Mr. Ware took it over to the point where he had some other sheep.
One day the same kind man led us all over to the point and showed us a nest of the Canadian goldfinch. This bird is yellow with black wings. When they fly in flocks they look gleams of gold. The nest Mr. Ware showed us had six little birds in it. He took the nest and put it into a large cage and hung it in the tree. The parent birds, nothing daunted, still fed their young. After a few days he put it on a chair at the foot of the tree and then gradually moved the chair, until at last he had it outside his own door. Still those devoted parents followed their little ones, but when he finally brought the cage into his kitchen only the mother would venture in. Who could have implanted such love in the smallest of His creatures but that One Who is Love. Mr. Ware gave me my choice of the young birds, but the one I chose turned out to be female and always retained its modest brown coat. I had it for over a year, but it moped so much that finally we gave it its freedom.
About July 1St our dear Daddy came up and there were great rejoicings, but he only had two weeks and it was a sad day when we rowed him to the station. On the way home I was obliged to row as Hawkins was not with us. Dorothy kept the baby. She began to be restless and hungry and I gave her my bag to amuse her. When I picked it up again I found she had thrown my purse overboard. It had just $5 in it but it was a great loss to us at the time and we were a very mournful party when we got in. However, kind Mrs. Ware had provided us a nice dish of peas out of her garden and they were already waiting.
I was much touched by her kind thought and have never forgotten it. They were very poor. Farming in Muskoka is never very profitable and many and many a day they dined on lettuce and dry bread.
After Jack left we had various visitors. Etta Rubidge was with us for two or three weeks and then our dear Nanny, who was a great help to any camping party. Mrs. Irwin spent one weekend with us and was a great cheer, as just at the time little Hope was very sick. The Chownes had a little house just outside Huntsville, where they spent their summers. Dagmar, our old friend whom Dora had taught with Birdie Covert and who afterwards lived at Granny’s house for a year or two, was the eldest. Then came Thyra. Three boys a few years older than ours made up the family. We often saw them and had pleasant intercourse together. One afternoon I undertook a picnic on the mountain across the river from us. The three Chownes, Reggie, Godfrey and Edgar came, besides a friend of theirs, and our own five. But the bigger boys led the younger ones into all kinds of dangerous places, till I felt myself weak with terror, and I spent the night dreaming of little boys in coffins.
About the middle of July Fred came up to his cottage, but he found it so hard to cater for himself that he begged us to at least give him his dinner. I shall never forget what a bitter pill it was to our American Hawkins to call him “Sir Frederick”, We had very pleasant times with poor Fred until his wife came up, when our house was forbidden ground. Poor Fred, it was almost the last time I saw him; he was drowned falling off his wharf a year or two afterwards. He often asked us to sing “Land ahead” and it was sung at his funeral. The weary journey was ended for him then and he was in the presence of the One he so truly loved.