Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/99

 those Scottish pioneers found in Sir George Grey a staunch and loyal friend. Ultimately Mr. Godley also became friendly with them, and I can remember his staying repeatedly at my father’s house when on his way to and from Akaroa. I can remember, at his request, my mother hanging out a clean sheet at night. In the morning early, when the sheet was frozen, it fell to the lot of one of us boys to carry the sheet quickly up to Mr. Godley’s room. He rolled himself in it, and then rubbed himself briskly with a rough towel in lieu of a bath.

At this period the Maori bush tracks were quite a maze to travellers, and when a “cooee” was heard at night we boys had to go off with a lantern to find the travellers, and bring them home, and whilst we were so occupied, my mother would be preparing a meal for them that they might have it on arrival. At the openings of several of those tracks we were accustomed to keep bottle lanterns with candles, or totara bark torches (wrapped round dried supple-jacks to make them last longer) concealed to be ready for emergency. It was not until the middle of the “fifties” that proper tracks were made enabling travellers to find their way easily.