238. Could you not get anything from them you wanted, except
what you have mentioned?-Sometimes I would get a sixpence
and sometimes a shilling, but just occasionally.
239. Was that given you as a favour?-Yes, and because they
knew I really needed it. It was a mere favour.
240. Were you supporting your stepmother at that time?-No; not
at that time. I had only myself to support.
241. But you had no other means of support than your knitting?-
No other means at all.
242. Did you ask for money at that time?-Yes; I always asked for
money, because I required it so much.
243. Was it generally on a Saturday that you were with?-I did not
make any particular settlement; it was just any time that I went.
244. When you got a settlement and took home some of these soft
goods, did you go to your neighbours, or to the baker's or
provision dealer's shop, and ask for what you wanted in the way of
food?-No; but any neighbours that knew me would take from me
some of the goods I had, and perhaps give them to a country friend
of theirs, and get the money for them.
245. During the last six years you have got into the way of knitting
with your own wool?-Yes.
246. Where do you buy your wool, or how do you get it?-There is
a lady in the town-a dressmaker and milliner-who deals very
largely in hosiery.
247. What is her name?-Miss Robertson. She takes goods from
me on lines which I get for my shawls and she gives me wool and
cash to favour me, because she knows I have no other way of
getting money.
248. What do you mean by taking goods on lines-When I sell a
shawl to any hosiery merchant in the town, I get any sort of goods
that are in the shop, except wool to knit with; but if I don't want
the goods at the time, then the gentleman will give me a line to the
amount I have to get.
249. Is that an I O U?-That used to be on them. I think there are
other two letters now; but they mean all the same thing.
250. Have you any of these lines?-I have one home. I shall bring
it. If I go back to the shop with the line, or send anybody back
with it, the merchant's servants will serve the party who brings it
with the amount.
251. They will give you full value for it?-Yes, to the full value of
the lines.
252. Then Miss Robertson takes these I O U's from you, and gives
you worsted for them?-Yes.
253. That worsted you knit into shawls, and these shawls you sell
to the merchants, getting from them I O U's?-Yes.
254. Are you any better off under this system than you were
before?-Yes. She brings home the wools, and shows me the
invoice for them, and I get the wools at what she pays for them.
That is much cheaper than I can purchase them for in Lerwick.
255. But you did not buy the wool under the old way of working:
you got the wool supplied to you, and were paid for your work?-
Yes.
256. Do you think you make more money under the present
system?-Yes.
257. When you get these I O U's, you spend only part of them in
purchasing worsted?-I get no worsted on them except what I get
from Miss Robertson.
258. But you spend only part of them in paying Miss Robertson for
worsted?-Yes; and I get part money from her for them, because
they serve her just the same as money would do, in getting articles
from the merchants. She favours me in that way, and enables me
to support my stepmother and myself, and pay rent and taxation.
259. Do you hand all your I O U's to Miss Robertson?-No; only
what I can spare.
260. You sometimes take one of them yourself to the merchant
from whom you got it, and you get goods from him for it?-Yes.
261. You have more money passing through your hands now than
you had formerly?-Yes. I am able now to pay my rent.
262. How did you pay your rent formerly?-I did not require it
then so much. My father was alive then.
263. But you have now to pay rent?-Yes; and to support my
stepmother partly.
264. Have you within the last six years asked for money instead of
these lines?-Yes; I have asked almost daily for money, and I get a
little.