Chapter 61.
I suppose it was partly on account of losing our sweet little Elizabeth that all the family were so delighted with our new baby. She was a plump little seven pound baby, with a lot of fair hair with quite a curl in it even at first and big blue eyes, and the tiniest and sweetest little hands I ever saw. As for Edie words could not describe the enjoyment she had in the little creature, though she never supplanted Helen in Edie’s love. Dorothy in her quiet way made much of her, and Christopher loved her with a strong and tender love from the first. Even when she was a few days old, he would do anything for Miss Gausby if she would lay the baby beside him in his little bed. As she grew older, he constituted himself her special champion and protector, and though still often “Mr. Benoyer” to Helen and Somerville, I never remember his teasing her. She was very like him, only so tiny and gentle, and she repaid his love with all the warmth of her little heart. But I am looking ahead.
That summer was a quiet, uneventful one. I was a long time gaining any strength, but at the end of August we all went to Gore’s Landing on the Rice Lake, and spent a fortnight at the hotel there. We much enjoyed meeting General and Mrs. Hamilton there. We used to get a boat and row to the islands, and as we had Edie with us, we could safely leave the baby for an hour or two. One picnic we had to an island and made a big bonfire. Dorothy had got her boots wet, and while we ate our tea, she put them by the fire to dry, but alas, when she went to get them they were all dried up and spoiled with the heat and would not go on her feet.
When we returned home, Dora began her school. Dorothy and Christopher, Katie Baines, Rita Henderson and Philip Passey were, I think, her first pupils, though I fancy Lewis Clark also joined them very soon. They were all nice children and I think Dora enjoyed teaching them. She certainly made a great success of it. She was a born teacher and so intellectual and widely read that on any subject she had interesting information to impart. Katie soon became in inseparable companion of our children, and from that time on we always included her in any little plan or expedition.
As the winter went on, Edie got a bad felon on her finger and was a number of weeks at home. I was very weary with the care of that big house and all my little children. Perhaps that was what made me suggest to Jack that we should go and board for three months and then go for three months to Muskoka. We could give the house up when we liked, as the owner Mr. Gould was intending to come and live in it himself. Jack was in favor of the plan at once, and that very evening we went over to see the Miss Monsells. They were in the habit of taking summer boarders, but the rooms were usually empty in the winter. They were much pleased at the prospect of having us and said they would give us three bedrooms and a sitting room, with board, for a very low figure—I forget exactly what. They were also willing to have Edie, who could sleep at home and come to us every day after dinner. Furthermore, our furniture could be stored in their barn. All seemed most propitious and we soon came to terms.
Though Hillcrest was a large house, we were not overburdened with belongings and had not then the seventy cases of books with which we moved from Toronto in 1918. So our moving was not so formidable as it might have been. Indeed, I used to say in those days I preferred moving to house cleaning. One thing, however, happened. Our faithful Ada was taken sick with bronchial asthma just at the critical moment, and either wouldn’t or couldn’t move out of bed. She also refused to take any food unless I fed her. The day we moved we had to leave her in the house, Edie and Jack also remaining there. I was naturally very tired, but I got up early and came over to see how the girl was. I had just brought up something for her to eat when I went off in a faint. My invalid was startled into jumping up to see after me. However, she really was very sick and we were much puzzled to know what to do with her; there was no hospital in Port Hope and her home was eighty miles away. But dear Mother came to the rescue as usual. She had a girl named Annie, of Salvation Army persuasion. She also came from the same place as Ada, Fenelon Falls, so she undertook to nurse her, if Mother would have her there. She was carried downstairs in a chair and conveyed over to Augusta Street, where she speedily got well enough to go home, with many promises to come back to me when we took up house again. When that time arrived and I called upon her I found her very happily married.
We were very comfortable at Miss Monsells’ and I had the real rest I needed. Dorothy and Christopher went to school and I devoted my attention to teaching Somerville to read. He had learned absolutely nothing from Miss Hicks, though he could repeat his little primer from cover to cover, but he was easily taught and I had not much to do. We went to our new abode on March 15, 1898, and our stay was so quiet and so comfortable and delightfully uneventful that I really think there is nothing to record regarding it except gratitude to our kind hostesses, and a feeling of regret at leaving them.
During our stay we invested in a bicycle for Jack. They were beginning to be much used at that time. He found it a great help in his trips to the country, and on one occasion he went as far as Toronto, spending the night in Bowmanville.