After Mass today there was a lot of talk about how young people are being asked to think about emigrating to Canada – they say if you sign up as a worker this group in Canada will pay your passage and see that you get good employment as a servant or farm worker. You have to work for free until your passage is paid off, then they will pay you good wages. There are a lot of bachelors in Canada, and before long you could find yourself married to a farmer with more land than you can imagine! One of the girls saw a poster in the shops. She told a group of us she was going to go as soon as she could. “You go to Canada,” she said,
“ There’s so much money in Canada you’ll be picking up money in your apron!”
Maybe this would be a good way to at least see one other country. But I could never leave my Mam and Da, I can’t imagine life without them.
Mam showed me a letter she got from her sister near Inverness. They just placed my cousin Heather in service with a large family on an estate. It sounds very grand – 20 rooms, including a ballroom and picture gallery, and the servants all sleep up in the attic. They are allowed one weekend every month to go home to see their families, and one half-day every week. I will have to write a letter to Heather myself, and get her to tell me all about it.
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