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|   Get to Know Her Describe what a typical day is like for you. If I'm at home in Toronto in the summer, I am supposed to amuse myself quietly. I might ask our cook if I can come into the kitchen and make some cookies, or I might go for a walk along our street with my mother when she pushes the baby in her pram. If I'm lucky, I'll get to feed sugar cubes to the ice man's horse. If I'm really lucky, I'll get to play in the back alley with neighbourhood boys and play my mouth organ. If my mother finds out though, she'll call me in to practice the piano instead, and she'll make tsking noises over the dirt on my dress. The summer I spent at the lake, staying with my cousins, was very different. Every day was much more exciting than a city day. I learned to fish, and to swim, and to paddle a canoe. No one minded if I got dirty or was late for a meal—and there was no piano for me to practice on! Summers at the lake are wonderful! Who is the most important person in your life? My parents and my sister! My dad is tall with a dark beard and twinkling blue eyes. He speaks with a Scottish accent because Scotland is where he grew up and trained to be a ship's engineer. My mother is slim and has soft blonde hair that she wears in a bun. She loves playing the piano and having lady friends over for tea and wearing swishing dresses. She speaks with an English accent because that is where she grew up, in a country house. My little sister is too small for me to play with, and sometimes I wish she was a boy so that that when she gets older we could play outside together. What thing do you love most in the world? My favorite thing used to be my mouth organ, because I like playing it outside. I can express my moods with different tunes, and if I make a mistake no one hears or cares—not like when I have to play the piano for my music teacher. Now, my new favorite thing is my canoe. The Native people made it for me by hand, from birch bark and spruce roots. I helped to stitch the bark. The bow is decorated with a picture of a beaver, because that's what I asked for. My canoe is light and strong and cuts beautifully through the lake water. When I'm paddling my canoe, I feel as free as a bird. What is your greatest wish? I wish I didn't have to wear my hair in rag curlers at night, because they pinch my head, and I wish my mother didn't tell me to brush my hair one hundred strokes every morning after the curlers come out. I wish I didn't have to sit in the parlour and practise the piano on beautiful hot sunny afternoons. Most of all, I wish that I could run around the neighbourhood like the boys do and share their adventures. I wish I didn't have to be a little lady. What is your greatest fear? Sometimes I imagine being a grown-up lady and never being able to shout or run or play my mouth organ. I don't want to be quiet and polite all the time when I'm a lady, and never lie on the grass outside or climb trees! What do you do for fun? At the lake in summer, my cousins and I like to ask my aunt for a picnic lunch. We leave the cottage early in the morning and paddle along the shoreline to find a calm, weedy spot. Then we fish for bass. By noon, it's too hot to fish so we jump into the water and swim. When we're truly starving, we eat lunch, and then we swim some more. If we've caught fish, we paddle home with them in the late afternoon so that my aunt can fry them for supper. I used to be scared of the water, and I nearly drowned twice, but now I love it more than almost anything! What aspects of the twenty-first century do you think you would love the most? I'd love to have the freedom that girls have now—I'd love to wear pants like a boy and climb trees and run around outside. I'd love to have a pony of my own or to scream on the funfair rides or to be able to telephone a friend and ask her over to play. What aspect of the twenty-first century would you dislike the most? I'd miss the horses in the streets of the city and the steamboats on the lakes. I'd miss the silence in the evening when the loons call. |
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