The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1946, Page 43

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
41
wait, with the people milling about in
the mud, two of our countrymen came,
bringing a faint light, and directed us
to a hovel which was under construction,
and at the building of which a few Ice-
landers had worked.
Tired and hungry, we arrived at
these miserable quarters. There was
some food on the table, but only the
strongest secured this, while the weak
and the sick received nothing. Each
thought of self, and of no one else. 1
could not bring myself to act like a wild
beast.
The following day the people were
allocated to the newly built huts, which
were numbered, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. There
was considerable space between them.
Our family, and eight others, were as-
signed to number four hut. It will be
left to the imagination what the atmos-
phere was like inside.
The houses were built thus: the walls
and gable ends of logs, and the roof of
boards. The beds were one above the
other, with end to the wall. It was
scarcely possible to sit upright in the
side-beds. Such illness prevailed in these
huts that the poor children were strick-
en wholesale.
Sigtryggur’s plan was to have a com-
munal table, with all alike sharing ex-
penses. This system, however, did not
last. There were those who tried to cook
and did not do so well, and there were
those who pilfered supplies. . . I do not
care to describe it now, after twenty
years; this was an unhappy period of
my life. Also, we had to wait for our
bed-comforters several days. All this
was hard on the children, who were con-
tinuously taking ill. As for the men
they were unused to the work, and all
were ignorant of the language. Most
bitter of all, for me, it was to see my
little GuSrun suffering intensely and to
be unable to ease her suffering. She
kept nothing down. There was little milk
to be had and what little there was, was
not good. About nine days from the time
GuSrun became ill, God took her to him-
self, in his merciful embrace. She died
at ten o’clock in the evening of Satur-
day, the eighteenth of October. Jon
Ivarson made the coffin. She was buried
on the twentieth, in Kinmount cemet-
ery. Jon and Jakob Espolin dug the
grave and were pall-bearers. GuSrun
was a lovely and pleasant child, well
developed for her years, and appeared
to be endowed with good intelligence,
I shall mourn the loss of my loved one
as long as I live.
The weather was extremely hot and
it was often with a most painful effort
that I kept at work, but I forced myself
to do so.
The pay was one dollar a day, till the
New Year, and ninety cents thereafter.
It appears that I worked thirteen days
in October; 19% days in November;
twenty-four days in December; 16%
days in January; 14% days in Febuary;
and twelve days in March. During that
period I earned $95.45.
At first the foremen were exceedingly
harsh with us, but towards the last they
were very well disposed, and preferred
to have only Icelanders in their employ-
ment, and gave us the best of reports.
I worked for a considerable time for one
employer, and a short while for two
others, until all work ceased for lack of
funds.
Sigtryggur and FriSjon set up a store
in Kinmount for us Icelanders.
The surrounding country was not at
all pretty and it was difficult to cult-
ivate. It was hilly, out with gullies,
stony, and wooded, and it was very
sparsely settled. Throughout the dist-
dict, farm wages were exceedingly low.
We suffered no real mishap during
the winter, apart from the grievous in-
fant mortality. Upwards of thirty child-
ren must have died, and also upwards of
ten grown-ups, chiefly old people. It was
a sad time for the bereaved among us.
Johannes Arngrimsson came from
Nova Scotia, on behalf of the govern-
ment of that province, to induce people
to settle there. Some of our group who
had taken land north of Kinmount, but
had abandoned the undertaking, decid-
ed to go east with Johannes. The party