1898

Robert was here again today. We went for a walk and had a lovely visit. Robert is talking of studying to be a doctor. I would be a doctor’s wife if we married. Nell would like that very much and she is encouraging him to study at Queen’s her old alma mater. I think I would like to live in Kingston, but I would miss Nell and the children and T J who is very kind to me, almost like a second father. 
Robert is quite strong and handsome and seems very kind. He is quite an outdoorsman. I know Nell and Mrs. McKenzie talked about Robert’s prospects on Mrs. McKenzie’s last visit here. I think I could be happy with him but it is early days yet. I am not sure I want to leave Sudbury but Nell tells me that Robert’s people have a grand home in Montreal and his mother hopes he will go to medical school at McGill and we would live with her. I am nervous about living with her. She is quite stern in appearance, a very forceful woman.

​1897
Nell has had another baby, another girl, Aimee Margaret Scott Ryan is her name. She is beautiful and I love to hold her. The other children are happy with their new baby sister, but I think Nell and TJ would like a son. Nell has a nursemaid for baby and has gone back to her growing medical practice very quickly. 
Mrs. Ross is now Mrs. McKenzie and lives in Montreal. We don’t see as much of Robert as when his mother  was staying here, but he was here for a visit last Christmas. Nell tells me he wrote her a long letter and asked her to give me his best wishes. 
Mrs. McKenzie is coming to visit us soon and I know Robert will be here when she comes. I have written a long letter to Ma and Pa telling them how happy I am here and how well I feel. It seems that as long as I stay warm and don’t try to do too much, my pain and fatigue are lessened.  
My teaching is very successful. The trustees have renewed my contract for another year, and I still have time to be the bookkeeper for TJ and Nell. So I am busy but happy living here. I think Nell has given up presenting me with suitors which I am glad of...I know she worries that I will be an old maid but I am earning money and am quite independent which was always my goal. I think I would be quite happy living here and Nell’s children are as dear to me as any I might have.

1897

Tea today was very interesting. Robert arrived from his Hudson’s Bay Posting in Dinorwic and met with his mother alone for some time in the parlour. Then the other children and Nell and I joined them for tea.  He was pleased to see his sister and his younger brothers and they had a good visit. But sometimes he looked at me and smiled. 
He is handsome and a gentleman. You can tell he is kind and he has beautiful manners. He has a very nice smile. I saw Nell watching me carefully when I looked at him. I know she likes him a great deal and has told me that he is well established as a Trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company. They provide him with good housing. 
I must learn more about Dinorwic. I know it is quite far west, almost on the border with the new province of Manitoba but it is served by the rail line and is growing quickly with all the gold prospectors and settlers. It is about two days from Sudbury.

Sudbury 1897

I am now teaching in Sudbury and enjoy it very much. I go home to TJ and Nell and the children each night and the cook always has a good hot meal ready for us. I have gained a little weight as Nell said it would help me deal with the cold and it does. Mind you, a warm house also helps.
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Nell has asked several young men from Sudbury to come to tea on a number of occasions. She is concerned that I do not seem to be interested in any of them. They are none of them very clever and all are quite clear that they are looking for a wife to look after them and have their children and of course I would not be allowed to continue working after marriage. One fellow went so far as to say he liked me well enough but was bit worried that I had too much learning. What does he expect from a school teacher? 

1897 
I have seen Mr. Black again. He is still a minister with the Anglican Church but I hear that he is going to go prospecting for gold. I suppose being paid to do the Lord’s work is not so lucrative as finding a gold mine. He has asked me if I would go walking with him on a fine day, I suppose I will decline as I do not think I want to be paid court by a gold prospector or a minister…His prospects are not very good either way. He will be going to Dinorwic as that is where the gold strikes are.  
I suppose he will see Robert Ross there as he is the trader at the HBC post and has all the supplies for gold mining. On Robert’s last visit here he told T J and Nell and I that most of the gold prospectors return empty handed and empty pocketed.

​1897

I now live in Sudbury with my cousin Nell and her family. I am very happy here. I enjoy doing the books and spending time with the children.  Nell is so kind to me and she works so hard. Just today she had to take the train to Naughton and then go overland and by canoe to Whitefish Lake to see how her old friend Mrs. Ross was managing. Mrs. Ross has been very ill but she is getting better now. She had 10 children in the wilds and they often come to visit Nell. The oldest are men now and have left home to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. I have met one of them several times. He is called Thomas Robert but every one calls him Robert because his father is called Thomas. He is always most courteous to me when he comes for tea. He is tall and strong and always has a gentle smile for me. I think he is handsome.

​Robert is coming to visit this next fortnight. The big news is that his mother, Mrs. Maggie McLeod-Ross, has left her husband and will live with Nell in Sudbury until she decides what she will do next. The gossip in the town is that she left Thomas B Ross because he was carrying on with another woman. But I have also heard from Miss Henry at the store that Mrs Ross was being courted by Mr Mckenzie. He is a Chief Factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company so quite a step up from a trader’s wife for her.  
Nell is very loyal to her friend and says nothing about the situation. Mrs. Ross and the younger children will be here in a few days. I imagine we will see a good deal of Robert when his mother is here. I am not sure how I feel about that. I think I am glad.

1897 
Nell has invited me to come and live with her and her husband, Mr. TJ Ryan in Sudbury. She says I can get a job teaching there. If not I can work for Thomas doing the books and keep her medical practice books as well. I can also help her with the children until a teaching position is open for me. I have to think hard on this offer as Sudbury is a long way off and I would not see my family very often and I would surely miss them. But I would not have to live in a cold boarding house and bear the nagging and the gossip. I will think hard on the matter and talk to Pa but I think I have already decided.

After school I was still upset by the morning so I rushed off to Uncle John’s and then to home and Pa said not to stay another day with Mrs. Mac. But the roads were knee deep in mud and I could not get to school from home, so Uncle John came in with me and gave the old lady and her daughters some plain old Anglo Saxon. He made it clear that I was only to stay there if I had all rights and liberties and if on one point offended I’d leave on the very moment. He told me private that he thought it best to stay on under the circumstances lest people say I was driven off at this particular time and give credence to the rumours the old lady would spread. I am so bothered and I’ve worried so much that I am half sick. I feel almost like doing some rash and foolish thing. But things will soon brighten and then all will be well.

1896 

I am so happy that the hours spent with my students absorb me completely. I have no time to think on the bitterness of my life as a boarder with Mrs. Mac. Even if she was my old teacher and once deserving of my respect I say, Bah! let her be deserving of my respect and friendship now.