he
summer, so that it would be dry enough to burn in the winter.

If mice came about the houses and buildings in the fall, the Icelanders
would fear a hard winter, and much damage to their sheep; for when the
winter grew very severe, and the mice could get nothing else to eat,
they would climb upon the sheep's backs, while they were lying close
together in the sheds, and would burrow into the wool, back of the
shoulder-blades, and eat the flesh, very often causing the death of the
poor animals.

The Icelanders used sheep's milk a great deal, and I liked it. Sheep's
milk is richer and sweeter than cow's milk. They used to put up a lot of
milk in barrels, and put in some rennet, which would make it curdle into
something like cottage cheese. This they would set aside for winter use,
and all were very fond of it. The family would be considered very poor
who could not put up from eight to ten barrels of this food.

They sometimes, also, would churn mutton tallow, or whale oil, in the
sheep's milk, and make a kind of butter. Whale oil makes a better butter
than the tallow, and I think I like would it even yet.

While most people had dishes and knives and forks, it was not customary
to set the table, unless there was company present. Each one had a cup
for himself, made of wood with staves like a barrel, and curiously bound
with whale-bone hoops. They had handles upon them, but I do not know how
fastened. A child's cup would hold about a quart, and a man's cup
sometimes as much as three quarts. When each one had gotten his cup
filled, he would take his place at any convenient spot in the room, on
the bed, or anywhere, and proceed to empty the cup with great haste. We
all had ravenous appetites, but did not always have enough to eat. In
the spring we had a great treat, when the eggs and flesh of wild fowl
were to be had. We fared well when fish were plenty, but at other times
a porridge made of Iceland moss and the curdled milk made up our fare.
Some seasons they can raise a few vegetables in Iceland, but this is not
often. Of late years they cannot raise grain, although they used to
raise good oats.

One of the books that we had there was a history of America, and in that
it said that money could be picked up off the streets, almost. I have
since found it quite a difficulty. But that book put me into the notion
to come out here. So when a colony of five hundred Icelanders were about
to start for Manitoba, I got my father