In a land where the winter is long, and sometimes very cold, it is to be expected that a good deal of time is spent at home. Moreover, in many of the small towns there is little attraction out of doors to draw one from the fireside except skating and sleighing; and as there is only a small theatre, there is little in the way of operas, dramas, or musical entertainments. Concerts are given occasionally in the churches or public halls, but these are mostly amateur performances in the interest of charity.

The houses are nearly all built of timber, and the residences of the upper and middle classes are very artistic in design. Beautiful verandas add to the appearance of these houses, and in the summer people spend many hours under their shade.

It is possible to keep warm in winter without the assistance of a heating apparatus; but the majority of people install them in their homes, so that a uniform heat may be maintained in every room. It is imagined by people who have never lived in a wooden house that they must be very draughty. Such is not the case. They are even warmer than a brick or stone house.

At Christmas-time home-life is much the same as in other English-speaking countries. Santa Claus makes his visits to the bedrooms of the boys and girls, and on Christmas morning a good supply of toys and books is waiting for them when they awaken. The church-bells ring out joyously, and the earth is usually covered with a carpet of snow. Games are indulged in during the evening, and on the whole the children have a very good time. The mummers used to go through the streets, much to the delight of the boys and girls, who made a practice of pelting them with snowballs; but this treatment finally drove them from the streets, and so a romantic and historic pageant has been abandoned, much to the regret of those who appreciate time-honoured customs. The visitor from England, however, misses the dark green holly leaves, with their bright red berries, and also the mistletoe bough. Nor are there any waits. If no one tells you that carol-singing is not practised in the country, you wait patiently for “Hark, the herald angels sing,” only to be disappointed, for the singers never come.

Very often, when the boys are making their snowmen on the ice, a cry goes up, “Seals! seals!” and men and women, boys and girls, go helter-skelter across the snow-covered pans, with clubs and sticks to kill the “white-coats.” Sometimes, however, very sad fatalities attend these haphazard hunting-trips. The sky may be clear and blue when they start, with a bright sun turning the particles of frozen snow into glittering diamonds. But when they are about a mile from the shore, the wind suddenly changes, the distant sky grows black, and a blinding snow comes whistling through the air before they have time to return to the shore. The ice begins to grind on the coast, which is the first sign that the great sheets and blocks have decided to move out to sea. All available boats are then pushed into the sea to follow up closely the drifting ice, so that when the band of casual hunters reach the edge they can be lifted into them and rowed safely to the land. Alas! many of them have either perished in the blizzard, or have drifted out to sea on a sheet of ice that has broken away from the main body, where death awaits them in the Atlantic, unless they are sighted and picked up by a passing steamer.

The majority of the houses in the capital are fitted up with the telephone, and a good deal of the shopping is done by its aid. And here it may be well to tell the English boys and girls that the British method of calculating in pounds, shillings, and pence is not in vogue in Newfoundland. All buying is transacted in dollars and cents, the dollar being about equal to four shillings. There are copper coins for 1 cent and 2 cents, and silver coins for 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents. The paper money is in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, or more dollars. This system may appear strange at first, but it is much more simple than calculating in British currency.

Life in the summer-time is one round of pleasure. When the vacation is announced the boys and girls scamper from the schools and colleges, singing:

All books are laid aside, and picnics in the country are the favourite holiday pastime. Many of the city families erect tents by the side of a large river or lake, and stay there during the summer vacation. Rowing-boats are on the most popular waters, and the boys and girls can row together across the magnificent lakes; for every Newfoundland boy and almost every girl knows how to manage a pair of oars. Every boy knows how to use a fishing-rod, too, and as many as fifty trout have been drawn out of the water in a single day by one boy, and these trout weigh from one to five pounds.

When they are tired of rowing and fishing, they scamper away to the woods, where raspberries, strawberries, partridge-berries, and blue-berries grow abundantly in luscious clusters. While father and mother are preparing tea around the camp-fire, the children are gathering raspberries and bringing cream from the farm; and then all settle down on their camp-stools or on the ground to do justice to a meal for which the invigorating air has given them such a keen appetite.

There is not the same enthusiasm exhibited with regard to football as is shown by the English boy. Moreover, football is played in the summer, and not in the winter. Matches are played weekly between the various college teams; but as they are so few, the same teams have to oppose each other very frequently. The league tables are in operation, and there are certain trophies offered that excite a good deal of interest among both players and spectators.

There is an impression prevailing in the old world that if European boys and girls came to the homes of the boys and girls in Newfoundland, they would find that they were all Eskimos. That is a very erroneous impression, and unfair to Newfoundland. As a matter of fact, they are just like British or American children in appearance and manner, and it may be that a larger proportion of bigger and braver boys would be found amongst them. English papers and magazines are to be found in all their homes, and all the British school games and pranks are quite familiar to them.