| Page | |
| My First Place | [1] |
| Life's Battle Begins | [3] |
| I Return Home | [7] |
| On the Coal Mines | [9] |
| I go to Glasgow | [13] |
| I Change my Occupation | [16] |
| The Country of Burns | [19] |
| I go to a New Place | [20] |
| I Leave Ayrshire | [25] |
| Dr. Dykes, Dr. Guthrie, and Dr. MacLeod | [27] |
| Another New Place | [32] |
| Abraham Lincoln | [34] |
| The Isle of Arran | [35] |
| Back in Glasgow again | [41] |
| I Decide to come to Adelaide | [44] |
| On an Emigrant Ship | [46] |
| I Arrive in Adelaide | [52] |
| My Father and Brother Arrive | [60] |
| I go to the South-East | [65] |
| I Leave the Station and Return to Adelaide | [72] |
| I go back to Sunnyside | [80] |
| Prince Alfred in Adelaide | [82] |
| I Leave Government House | [86] |
| I Get Married | [91] |
| A Parting of Ways | [95] |
| I Return to Scotland | [98] |
| I Arrive in London | [104] |
| I Return to my Old Home | [109] |
| I Reach Adelaide again | [112] |
| Housekeeper at Government House | [115] |
| I Return to my Husband | [116] |
| Yet Another Parting | [118] |
Memories of My Life
FROM MY EARLIEST DAYS IN SCOTLAND TILL
THE PRESENT DAY IN ADELAIDE.
MY FIRST PLACE.
We did not talk of a "situation" in those days but of a place. My sister, who was a few years older than I, was out at a place five miles from where we lived. She came home, as she had not been well, and my father sent me to tell the people that Mary could not return for a few days. They asked me if I could stay in her stead till she was better. I was quite willing, provided that my father would allow me. They obtained my father's consent, as he said if I was any use they could keep me; so at the age of ten I began to be a house-servant.
We had no mother. She died when I was six years of age. The name of the town was Denny, not far from Falkirk. The people with whom I went to live were bakers and confectioners in a large way. With their sons and journeymen and apprentices, in addition to the master, there were, all told, 12 men living on the establishment, and the mistress, with one daughter and myself, did all the work, except that a woman came to help with the washing. Some of the journeymen and two apprentices slept over the granary or store where the flour and other materials were kept. Every night at 10 o'clock those men and boys had to be in their room; one of my duties was to see that the door was locked and to bring the keys to the master. The mistress would bring them to me again in the morning at 4 o'clock, when I had to run up this long stone stair and open the door and tell the men it was time to get up. I always went back to bed again till 6 o'clock.
It was a busy house. There was a large shop facing the front street, with two windows filled with beauteous cakes and confectionery. There were five carts to load up every morning, for the establishment served the locality for miles round with bread.