334 Sport and Life. 



to initiate him in the ways of an English household than any 

 average Continental domestic, and I have had a fair experience of 

 the training of Bohemian, North and South German, Tyrolese, as 

 well as English and American servants. But perhaps a few 

 incidents of personal experience will be more interesting than 

 generalities, and I will give a few from my period of housekeeping 

 in British Columbia. 



On arriving in Victoria we were undecided whether we would 

 winter there or not, so we took some furnished rooms in a cottage 

 belonging to a widow and her daughter, with whom I lived and 

 boarded during some months while my husband was up in the 

 Kootenay country. The widow did the cooking, but a small 

 Chinese boy of about fourteen years old was trained by her to 

 wash dishes, scrub floors, and do all the little menial " chores." 

 The first day of my arrival, just before luncheon was to be 

 announced, I became aware of a scuffle going on outside the door, 

 and remonstrances being exchanged between the widow and the 

 boy. " Me no likey, me no likey," he exclaimed, as the door 

 opened suddenly and Sing was shoved into the room, the widow 

 prompting him from behind. He spread out his hands, made an 

 awkward bow, saying, " Dinner he ready," and then, ducking his 

 head, turned tail and escaped out of the room from the widow's 

 clutches. " I am trying to teach him manners, but he has no 

 savey" explained the widow. This was my first introduction 

 to the Chinese domestic. 



After a few weeks the widow fell ill, with bronchitis if I 

 remember rightly. On the second day I was coming out of her 

 room, when I met Sing rushing up from the kitchen stairs. " Come 

 quick, she got debil," he 'cried. On going into the kitchen, I found 

 the daughter in a fainting fit on the floor ; she came to in a few 

 minutes, and I helped her to her room. A few minutes later, in 

 came Sing, with a bundle done up in a red handkerchief. 



" Good-bye, Mrs. Gloman, I go now." 



" When will you be back? " 



" No more. Debil in this house, I no stay." 



