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What is it you’re sayin’, man! Are you
askin’ me tae live among savages on the other side of the warld? Where was it ye
said?" "New Zealand is where it
is, Jane. By all accounts it’s a grand country, and there’s a place for us in a
town called Dunedin. They’re building a new Scottish society there, and it’s the
Free Kirk that is doin’ it. And we wouldna be among savages - we’d be wi’
God-fearing fowk who believe what we believe. There’s more savages in this part of
Glasgow."
"But why would we want to leave the place we
were born in – where we belong? The place where all our friends and relations live?
Would we ever see them again?"
"We canna stay where we are, Jane.
You’ve been sayin’ yourself that the Saltmarket will ruin us if it doesna kill
us first. And ye know full weel that we canna afford to set up business in a better part
of town. It’s you that’s doin’ the household budgeting – you know how
things are."
"It’s just not right – how can ye
ask me to leave all we have here to go chasin’ after something that could be worse
than we already have?"
"All I’m sayin’ Jane, is that we
should tak’ a look at the notion. Will ye come wi’ me to the meetin’
tomorrow night?"
"Ye’ll be goin’ on yer own,
guidman!" |
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| John MacGibbon from a watercolour portrait
painted in Glasgow, 1840. |
Jane MacGibbon with her son Thomas, 1840
watercolour.
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