Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/214

 smith work for the place. We made the yokes and bows for the bullocks, and mended all the chains. Horse-shoeing we did not learn, as at that period the horses did not require to be shod.

The following incident will serve as an example of how we picked up useful knowledge:—Amongst the many who sought shelter under my father’s roof in those days there came at the onset of a heavy three days’ snowstorm, a tinker. He was of a very independent disposition, and offended my father by offering payment for his board. My brother and I, overhearing the colloquy, saw our opportunity, and when we got the tinsmith outside we made an arrangement with him to give us some instruction in soldering, etc. He was only too willing to relieve his obligation, and during those three stormy days he let us into the mysteries of many branches of the tinsmith’s art, leaving in our possession, when he went away, a quantity of solder, a bolt, and a supply of resin. After that we mended all the tinware we found defective, including teapots, milk pans, etc.

Up to 1846 our diet was chiefly pigeons and wild pork, but in that year, the first