November 1
Dear Papa and Mama,
This morning as we walked to work we noticed everybody on Mill Street pointing and laughing. Some Hallowe’en roustabouts had put new signs on many of the businesses. Here is what they said:
On the doctor’s office: Undertaker and Practical Embalmer
On the tavern: Bible Depository
On the milliner’s: Hats for Horses
On the barber’s: Tonsorial Artist
On the livery stable: French Perfumes
Everybody was saying it was the work of the high-school boys. Uncle James said, “Only the moon knows and she’s not telling.”
By the time work was over everything was put to rights. This was one day when I was glad to be up and in town before seven o’clock to see it all.
While all the businesses were being renamed, Kathleen and I were telling the future. She came upstairs after supper and she showed me how to predict the man you’ll marry. You peel an apple and throw the apple peeling over your left shoulder and when it falls it makes the shape of the first letter of the name of the man you will marry. Hers was C. Mine was either a U or a J or a flipped-over L. Uncle James said that he feels sorry for all the Arthurs and Alfreds and Andrews, for when would an apple peel fall in the shape of an A? Then Auntie told ghost stories. I went outside last thing to have a look for fairies, but no luck.
November 5
Dear Papa and Mama,
Snow this morning. And cold. It is suddenly winter. I was very glad of my new shoes and my shawl. Mungo went out the window this morning and as soon as his paws touched the snow he pulled them up in horror and gave me a look that said, “Do something about this right now!”
The warmth of the mill was welcome.
November 6
Dear Papa and Mama,
I went to Bible Study without Auntie Janet today. She had something to do at home, but she would not say what. At Bible Study we talked about when David is angry and he’s going to kill Nabal and Nabal’s wife Abigail smoothes everything over and tells David that his life is carried by the Lord in a bundle. Mrs. Parfitt told us that in Bible times people did not have satchels or trunks, so they put their most precious things in a bundle when they had to move them from one place to another.
Mrs. Parfitt served tiny tea pancakes with jam. It took me an effort to only eat a polite number. I’ve changed my mind about what manna is.
November 7
Dear Papa and Mama,
More snow. There is ice at the edge of the river. Mungo has changed his mind and now he loves bouncing around in the snow.
November 10
Dear Papa and Mama,
There was a surprise visitor in the spinning room this morning. I had just finished doffing the frame when I saw someone, out of the corner of my eye, walking in the alley between the frames. I got the impression of someone large and angry. I turned to look and I saw a rough-looking man with a scraggly beard and a pack on his back. He stopped at the frame of Mrs. Brown and I saw her turn. She gave a little cry and then she turned white, like a piece of paper. The man started to yell and wave his fist in the air and Mrs. Brown was trying to edge away from him. Then Mr. Haskin appeared and he went up to the man, but the man just grabbed him by the coat and tossed him away, like you would toss away an apple core.
Auntie Janet grabbed my arm and said, “Get James, quick.” I practically flew down the stairs. All I could say to Uncle James was “Come quick” and he came running. Some of the other men set off after him. I could not climb the stairs as fast as they did, so by the time I got up Uncle James had the rough man pinned against the wall. Mrs. Brown was sitting on the floor and some of the women were fanning her. Mrs. Campbell was holding a hankie against Mr. Haskin’s bleeding nose. Soon thereafter Mr. Flanagan came with a policeman and he took the rough man away. Mr. Flanagan said that Mrs. Brown should take the rest of the day off, but she said a cup of tea was all she needed. Mr. Haskin went home to change his bloody shirt.
Now it is dinnertime and Auntie Janet is sitting with Mrs. Brown. They are having a long talk. I went to join them, but Auntie looked up at me and shook her head. So I’m writing this instead.
November 11
Dear Papa and Mama,
This evening Auntie told me about Mrs. Brown. The rough man is her husband. We thought that Mrs. Brown was a widow, but that is just a story that she told when she came to Almonte to look for work. She ran away from her husband, taking her children with her, because he was a drinking man and violent with it. She said that she was afraid for herself and the children. She thought she was safe in Almonte but now he has found her again and he won’t let her alone.
I thought about Miss Beulah Young and the temperance pledge. Suddenly the stories she told seemed very real. I don’t think I’m going to get married. Or, if I do, I am going to make sure that my husband has signed the pledge.
November 13
Dear Papa and Mama,
After church today we went to see Mrs. Brown. I took the Brown children for a walk while the adults visited. Down by the river I met up with Murdo, who tagged along. The two little girls are dear, but five-year-old Charlie is a horror, given to kicking. I guess I know why now, with such a father. He kept trying to run out onto the ice on the river and I had to keep chasing him because the ice isn’t safe yet.
The only thing that made him happy on the walk was when Murdo fought with him. Charlie kept punching and Murdo, who is very strong, just kept him at arm’s length, but didn’t mock him. I could see that Charlie wasn’t really wanting to hit Murdo, but just hit out at anything. Then Charlie got tired and Murdo told him that he could become a prize-fighter and then Murdo gave him a piggyback ride home.
November 16
Dear Papa and Mama,
Today I am twelve years old and the happiest girl in Almonte, or maybe all of Ontario. I did not mention my birthday to Auntie Janet and Uncle James. I do remember a birthday with you. I remember a skipping rope and a doll with a blue dress named Wee One (what happened to Wee One?), but at the Home we did not celebrate birthdays because Matron said that if we did it for one we would have to do it for all. That was often the way there — there were many things we could not do because it would not be fair. But in a family I guess you can do things for everybody. But back to my story of the day.
When I got up this morning there was a large brown paper parcel on the table. Auntie and Uncle were just waiting for me to wake up. I opened it before I even washed. It was a dress. It is beautiful, a dress for a princess. Auntie cut down a dress of her own that was worn and she is so clever that she made a dress that looks like new. It is made of wool in a colour so deep red that it just makes you warm to look at it. Now I know what she was doing on Sundays afternoons when she wasn’t at Bible Study.
I could not even talk. I tried to say thank you, but I just burst out crying. Uncle James was worried and thought that something was wrong, but Auntie understood. She told me that she thought it was time I had a Sunday dress now that I’m growing up and that I could sew some of my crocheted lace onto the collar.
Then Uncle said that Mungo had a present for me too and he reached into the woodbox where Mungo likes to hide in the morning, and pulled him out and he had two shiny blue hair ribbons around his neck!
I wondered how I could bear to wait for Sunday to wear my new dress. I think being twelve is grand.
November 17
Dear Papa and Mama,
Today it is Thanksgiving, but we do not have a holiday because it is a busy time at the mill. Mr. Flanagan has many orders to fill. Between bobbins I thought about thankfulness, though. I am truly thankful, for Auntie and Uncle, for Mungo, and for my new red dress.
November 18
Dear Papa and Mama,
I read in the Gazette today that the Canada Atlantic Railway has equipped their trains with electric lights. Electric light would be a very welcome thing in that black tunnel out of Brockville.
November 20
Dear Papa and Mama,
Sunday, and a chance to wear my new dress. Soon I will change out of it to save it, but I just want to wear it for part of the afternoon. I feel like a new person in it.
November 23
Mr. Flanagan is constructing something on his property, between the Point and the railway track. There are posts in the ground, high at one end, low at the other. It does not look like a building, but it is going to be big.
November 24
Dear Papa and Mama,
Of course Murdo knows what Mr. Flanagan is building. I would be peeved that Murdo is a know-it-all yet again, except that I have no time for peeving because the news is so exciting. It is to be a toboggan run!
November 26
Dear Papa and Mama,
The toboggan run is finished. It officially opened today and we all went to look at it. Mr. Flanagan lets the mill workers use it for free in the evenings. It looks like the most glorious fun, but of course we do not have a toboggan.
Murdo did not let that stop him. He ran home and came back with an iron scoop shovel. He went down the slide spinning around and when he got to the bottom he jumped up lickety-split and sat himself right down in the snow. I guess the shovel heated up some, sliding on that icy slope. The boys were shouting, “In the hot seat, Murd?” But then he just went and did it again.
I long to do it, and lots of girls and even women were whooshing down, but I would have to do it on a shovel and I know that would not be proper.
November 27
Dear Papa and Mama,
In church today Rev. Parfitt said that the text for his sermon was going to be about tobogganing. Psalm 26, Verse 1: “I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide.” At first I thought he was serious and that he would say that tobogganing was sinful, but he was joking. I saw Mrs. Parfitt shaking her head. I don’t think she approves of jokes in a sermon.
November 29
Dear Papa and Mama,
There is so much to tell you about this evening. As we were walking home we saw Mr. McFarlane, from the dry goods store, and little Millie McFarlane travelling along in their cutter. The moon was bright. It was being pulled by their lovely brown and white horse. He’s called Billy. They were stopped at the railway crossing near the bridge. But when the train sounded its whistle the horse panicked and jumped ahead, pulling the cutter across the tracks.
Mr. McFarlane yelled and then he picked up Millie and threw her into a snowbank and then he whipped the reins and tried to get Billy to move, but he wouldn’t. So then Mr. McFarlane jumped out of the cutter himself. The shunting engine came across the bridge with brakes squealing. It hit the cutter and smashed it to bits. Then Billy panicked even more and ran down the steep bank, onto the ice on the river, dragging all the wrecked cutter behind him.
Then, there was just noise and darkness and confusion and Billy disappeared. Suddenly one of the men shouted, “There he is!”
I looked down. It was even darker on the river, but I thought I saw Billy standing on the ice. But then there was a great crack and that terrible sound of a horse screaming and somebody shouted, “He’s gone under.” Mr. McFarlane rushed by me and put little Millie into my arms. Then he and Uncle James and some of the other mill men slithered down to the shore.
There was shouting. I could not see what was happening, but soon we saw them leading Billy onto firm ground. Little Millie was just snugged into me. I just kept telling her that she was safe and Billy was safe and everybody was safe. Then Mr. McFarlane came and collected her, and Auntie Janet and I went home. Uncle James stayed to help with Billy. This all happened in less time than it takes to write it down. Time is not always like an ever-rolling stream, but like a rushing river.
November 30
Dear Papa and Mama,
Great surprise today. Mr. McFarlane came by the house today, after supper. He said that Billy is fine and then he told Uncle James that he had never seen a man with a better way of calming a horse. “I would have lost him if it had not been for you.” And then he thanked me for taking care of Millie.
He brought us two thank-you presents. The small present was a bag of candies, Scotch mixture. A mint is in my mouth right now. I’m making it last as long as possible. The big present is the splendid thing. It is a toboggan! We none of us ever thought we would have a toboggan. Mr. McFarlane says that he had it from when he was a boy, but that Mrs. McFarlane doesn’t care for tobogganing and that Millie is too small. We cannot wait to try it. Is a toboggan as fast as a train? It looks even faster. What is the fastest thing in the world?