Page:Through South Westland.djvu/275

Rh all because they just smiled up and talked to him same as if it was their dad! I could have cried with vexation.”

I looked at the copy-books and drawing-books, and found the elder children could read quite nicely; and I conceived a tremendous respect for this lonely woman without a soul to encourage or help her; who goes on cheerfully doing the work of mother, teacher, farmer, and housekeeper combined.

Many a difficulty has to be faced, and not least the want of water in winter, when the waterfalls are solid ice, and icicles fifteen feet long hang from the rocks; and the only water is melted snow, or that which they fetch from the main river.

“It’s a beautiful sight,” said Mrs. Macpherson, “in winter, when everything is white, and the blue shadows lie on the snow; but the sun gets above the mountains for only two hours and a half in mid-winter, and there’s a long time of darkness.”

Once the chimney caught fire, and they were all running this way and that with the buckets to find water to put it out; they thought the house would be burnt: “and Macpherson got on a ladder, and the whole thing fell down with him. But, praise God, he wasn’t hurt, and we just stood and laughed,” said cheerful Mrs. Macpherson; “we could not help it! and we couldn’t have a fire till he could fix up the chimney again.”

One point she always came back to: the river. It was an enemy—something to be dreaded and