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22 Dec 78 John Oakfield, Grand Lake, Halifax, Nova Scotia Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Decr 22nd /78

My dear Mother

The mail only went yesterday & as usual with a letter begun but unfinished from me, so altho' it is nearly a week before the next regular mail goes, I think it not amiss to start a letter now.. Not that I have much to write about.

Today has been such a wild day that we have none of us been out of the house. It snowed all last night after three or four days of pretty sharp frost & this morning it turned to rain blowing a heavy gale. The wind kept up all day today, raining again heavily in the afternoon. As there was not much prospect of a congregation & as I have a cold threatening which I want to ward off - for I take cold easily now & don't shake them off as I used to - so I gave up holding my service this morning & I stayed in to toast & wear the cold out.

This afternoon we rehearsed our Xmas hymns, for staying up here this year, we want to have a nice service on Xmas day. Frances has told you she & the children are decorating the church a couple of texts, white letters on red ground carried all round the walls & then festoons of spruce hung from the stained rafters, or rather hanging on the walls between the windows but starting from the point on the walls where the rafters spring. Of course we are not attempting anything very grand or striking this year but it is an experiment in decorating & as an experiment in staying up here for Xmas

I have never liked the idea of running off & taking our Xmas somewhere else, as if this were not home. It has a bad effect on the children & on all our people. If we keep it up here they will think more of it & will come to church & keep it in a more civilized and satisfactory manner than by merely blowing themselves out with a big dinner.

In addition to our little family of thirty, I send out or rather give to fifteen large families their Xmas dinner. It means killing 'a beef' on purpose. A nice roasting joint to each & raisins, currants, suet for their plum pudding & a gallon jar of cider apiece forms a simple but very substantial addition to their larders. I am happy to say that from one cause or another I am now reduced to 25 or 26 men but I never like to discharge any - especially married men - before or during winter. It is hard for them to pick up other employment.

I have been so busy, first in closing up my annual inspections & reports on my militia & next on a board examining some lads for our Military College, that I have hardly had time to attend to any other business. I wanted to have asked Bulley 97th up here to spend Xmas but I had no chance to see him & it is possible that the Regt. may agree to dine together & not to break up the mess on that day. It was a rule in our old Regt. to consider the mess as the family & not to separate that day. We only have one spare toom & as Frank is coming, we should have to pack the family closer for the two nights but thought it would be rather a relief as he & Frank would amuse one another. If the skating is good they can fill up their afternoons that way, & if not, they can probably find something else suitable. Oddly enough, I dare not trust Frank with a horse. He has no idea how to handle one. It is not as if he he has seen a good deal of horses & should know something about them.

He is in great trouble of course about the stoppages of the works & thinks he will get thrown out of work, but he need not be alarmed. The government & his company are playing a bluff game, each trying to bully the other to give up something. The company have got a very capital contract & the new govt. are inclined to think that the terms given by Mr Hill's government * are too good - so they are holding the company very strictly to some portions of their engagement. The company kick at this & each is holding back thinking the other will give way. Whatever happens the railway has had so much spent on it that it must go on, either in the hands of the govt. or the company & if Frank keeps quiet & attends to his work, he will be all right whoever has it. We hear very little of him or from him but I am watching his interests, so that if the government take hold, he may be kept on.

I was amused to hear the other day from my chemist in Halifax that Frank had written to him to know where would be the best place 'in Halifax' to purchase a stock of poultry etc. for the winter. The chemist asked me my opinion. I advised him to write back & say we get most of the Halifax supply from New Glasgow. Of course Frank meant dead to stock his larder, but what a case he is. Bound to spend half-a-crown out of sixpence a day. It might not be amiss for Peter to pass on the applications for payment etc. to him. It would let him know that he is not clear. It is an inveterate habit with him to spend more than his income. I doubt whether we shall ever cure him. All he has & a little more must go. He will work but he will be Duke Laurie to the end of the chapter. However don't you worry yourself about him. He is out of your way & you need not pay any attention to his creditors' applications. They milked him pretty well & trusted him without enquiry & you have no responsibility in that matter. He is not incurring any fresh liabilities at home & I don't think he can get much credit out here & I should not think he can spend any one else's money than his own as he must be well looked after. I do not encourage any one to let him get in debt altho' I encourage them to give him work & if there is any trifling trouble - altho' of course it would be an annoyance - still it will not be as much to us as it would be to you at home & after all he is in a respectable position & well thought of. What he is doing, who he associates with or what it is that he professes to like in New Glasgow I do not know, but as long as he goes on all right, we need not trouble.

Four big children reading round the table; the two smaller ones having gone to bed. It makes one feel old. Hallie, if all goes well will go to Galt, * Ontario, in the spring. It bears a capital name for pumping knowledge into its pupils. All the best men in Canada are sending their sons there & if his health remains good, we shall probably let him go up for the Military College at Kingston. It has a staff of army officers as professors & they would give a good modern education, fitting for civil engineering or such like. He has lost so much time owing to illness that I do not think he could now take a classical course, but must be drilled with the modern languages & more useful modern sciences. I am not at all in favour of his going into the army, but if my career should turn army-wards again after all, I should perhaps be justified in making him a soldier, as I could probably push him on through staff work. The service is hard to get on in unless a man has interest or an exceptional stroke of good luck. All are crowding for the good things & so many, like poor me, get pushed aside & find it almost impossible to get on to the ladder again. Fortunately, want of professional success can't destroy one's happiness. So will struggle along & hope for the best.

Dec 26th

Frances was at work till after 1 a.m. on Xmas eve, getting all her odds & ends ready. I was finishing up correspondence so as to have a free day for the day. We were all day long working away at the decorations & at last had to send over to the house - Hallie crossing the lake on skates being our messenger - to get some kerosene to light up the church & we finished about 7 p.m.

Of course Santa Claus was expected & every child had left a stocking at the foot of our bed. This all had to be attended to, but when we turned in, Santa Claus had attended to us & had got our stockings out & filled them too. The children had risen to the occasion & had invested in a most bountiful supply of sweets & odds & ends for our benefit. It must have cost the monkeys a pretty penny as they had got extravagant & choice things. Frances had put all their presents along side their beds. Bad luck to the arrangement. Long before light they were in full swing, so no sleep for us.

We got up, investigated all our stockings & after being the recipients of presents all round. I getting a very smart & pretty pair of sleeve links from Frances to match some studs she gave me in October. A very pretty carved walnut scene from Hallie & a frame ditto but not quite so neat from Georgie. Some very nicely made d'oyleys * from Meta; book markers for Church from Lena & mats from the two little ones. So I was set up. Downstairs was a light iron flower stand which I had presented to myself as F insisted the greenhouse was her birthday & Christmas present, so I could not give it to her & had to give it to myself.

We had five hymns at Church - the last a patriotic sort of hymn 'for our country' which was in our hymn book & which Frances had set to 'Auld Lang Syne' - which claimed an unusually large congregation of between 70 & 80. Frank turned up by the midday train. We dined after the servants, all dining together, then went off & all had a skate on our smaller lake & then came in & opened your box. I was half sorry that Frank should have been present at the unpacking, which of course you did not expect. The children were all round & all delighted, but as the parcel for the little ones did not come soon, May called Amy to come & get dressed - a mild hint that we had better hurry up her parcels.

Our butter dish & knife, toast rack & cruets are very pretty & we have already taken them into use for as I have no doubt mentioned, we dine early now & have a quiet tea for which they suit admirably. We use draught cider & the claret jug will, for the present, do duty for that,

Frances was much pleased with her silver necklace, earrings & bracelet which she wore last night, the caps & muffs being reserved for grander occasions. The boys were highly delighted with their drinking cups to match our set. Meta was charmed with her cabinet. Lena (who goes in for work) considers herself set up with her scissors & thimble & the necklaces were all worn last night.

Lena took one of the dolls which was beheaded in transit. Miss Moss has fastened it on again & it is now known as Mary Queen of Scots - the other dolls were quite well when opened up & the little ones delighted.. Meta is quite as well pleased as if the accident had not happened. Miss Moss being skilful has simply given dolly a high shouldered look.

There was at first great turbulence as the fiddle would not play, but Munro (Peter's gardener) solved the difficulty & Hallie could hardly be persuaded not to walk about the garden this morning with the thermo' at 18° playing a dirge. Georgie thinks the tambourine splendid.

The china dinner set turned out (as they say of jellies) in good form & will afford many an afternoon's pleasure to the little ones. I do not know whether Hallie & Georgie have played fortress yet or not. Some one sent me some Ringwood gloves * for uniform, also some knitted ones & some nice clean-looking white scarves. The children will all be writing to you & I must write to Helen if possible by this mail - if not, by next, & same with May, but I have to dine at a Masonic dinner tomorrow evg. & the mail leaves the following day. We had tea nominally at 6.30 - actually about 8 - as the box took so long to unpack. We all dressed for our evening party & had all sorts of romps, winding up about 11, Amy the brightest & freshest of the whole party. Frank is very good at children's games. Lena in Sir Roger de Coverly * would have gladdened the heart of a dancing mistress. Frank went back to New Glasgow by the first train this morning. The boys had a Xmas tree this afternoon, got up entirely by themselves & really was very neatly done & did them credit. All their presents to the other children were on it.

So ends a very happy Xmas. I think all enjoyed it & I can see by the bright faces I saw around that all my men & their families enjoyed theirs. Frances had her thirty Sunday School scholars in after church yesterday & sent them off happy with a bag of sugar plums, a huge chunk of gingerbread which Meta made & some apples.

Again thanking you very much for all your pretty & useful presents to me & to all of us & with renewed good wishes of the season & best love.

Believe me ever, my dear Mother

Your affectionate son,

J W Laurie

PS 26th I asked Bulley but he was engaged. Who & what are his family. Are there many & are they well to do?

At this time, John's children were:

John Haliburton (Hallie) 14

George Brenton (Georgie) 13

Frances Margaret (Meta) 12

Helen Louise Agnes (Lena) 7 (died aged 16)

Mary Beatrice Haliburton (May) 6

Amy Inglis 5

(Kenrick had died in infancy, two years previously. Kenrick Carteret not yet born)

* Mr Hill's government - Philip Carteret Hill was Premier 1875-1878

* Galt - founded in 1852, now Galt Collegiate Institute & Vocational School

* Ringwood gloves - the town of Ringwood in Hampshire was a glove-manufacturing hot spot in Victorian England, featuring a knitted textured stitch

* Sir Roger de Coverly - a British country dance

* d'oyleys - normally spelled 'doilys' - The word comes from Doiley, the last name of a well-known London dry goods dealer in the 17th century. Originally, the word was an adjective describing suits or fabric, and later, from doily-napkin came the doily we know today