Cape Smoky 
over their heads, and the bright sickle in their 
hands, for the barley is cut with sickles here. 
One in search of pictures of peasant life need 
not go farther than the barley fields of Cape 
Breton. 
The men fish and the women work the 
farms. I asked a girl which was the harder. 
" Oh, the fishing," she replied ; " that is much 
harder; the field work will be easy." She told 
us the men sometimes went out at four o'clock 
in the morning and did not get back until four 
in the afternoon, and all that time without 
food, " for they will never eat on the boats." 
The people are industrious and temperate. 
One of them told us Cape Breton folks had to 
be ; they had to work continually, and strong 
drink meant immediate ruin. 
The fare is principally salt fish and potatoes, 
strong tea and oatmeal porridge. Each family 
keeps a cow and a few hens, and some have 
sheep. No attempt seems ever to be made to 
prepare the food in any but the simplest and 
to our minds least palatable manner. The fish 
is boiled, the potatoes are boiled, and the meal 
is served without any further trouble. 
The children, brought up on a diet of oat- 
223 
