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[Page 45]
you sure you don't want to see her?" I said yes and please write a letter for me to give Miss Smith. She was a lovely headmistress and she used to call me 'Smiler'. So my father did this and gave it to me for Miss Smith. She told me next time my mother came she would give it to her. It was not very long before she came again. The headmistress gave it to her and told her she had had a talk with me and that I meant it. She is the makings of a good scholar, but is far too much disturbed for a young girl and the best thing for you to do Mrs Taylor is talk with her father, he is a very understanding man. Anyway, after all that things started to go wrong for me. If we were practicing sport in the playground and a bit late getting home, my stepmother would accuse me of telling lies and saying that I had seen my mother and she would not believe me. I used to cry and cry and when dad came home I would tell him about it, then there would be a big argument, then I would get a hiding the next morning for telling my father.
Anyway, Essies mother got sick and she died and she had to go to Tamworth for the funeral. She did not come back home straight away and Dad said to me one night, "you don't care if she never comes back do you?" and I said "no, I can look after you", but she came back, but things were not better at home.
It is 1923 and I am getting on for 12 years of age and doing rather well at school with some subjects and very busy making a map of the world for 3rd class as they did not have one in their school room, and seeing it was one of my good subjects, I told the headmistress (Miss Smith) that I would make one. So my father helped to make the paper for me by putting wood on the top and bottom, and I had a very strong heavy brown paper and I drew my atlas to scale also the paper for the map. My father was able to get me some wool, coal, timber and copper from Cobar mine, also silver and gold etc. and all the main rivers and towns etc. It took a long while to do but when I finished it, it was put in the classroom and years later my eldest boy Albert was attending Campsie school and I asked him to check if it was still there and he came home one day and told me yes it was still hanging in the same room, well that was the very last I heard of it, (very enjoyable).
Now we are getting to the end of year exams. It all being over and I passed my Q.C. in those days, (known as Qualifying Certificate) to go to Canterbury High School, but my stepmother said I could not go as it was only a waste of money to send girls to High School. I asked dad and he said if your mother said no, that's it, as she is more up on those things than me. So I was allowed to go back to Campsie to do another year in 7th class. But I was not very long, as I knew a girl that used to work in a shop and the lady always had a school girl there to help her, and this girl was leaving, so I went and asked Mrs Turner would I be alright to help her out and she said yes. So I waited until the day my stepmother went to tennis and I went home in my lunch hour and took some clothes and left a note for Dad not to look for me and I was not coming back.
When I turned up at Mrs Turners, she said to me "have you run away from home?" I said "yes, and I don't want to go back, we'll see, just wait in the kitchen, I will be out in a minute when I finish serving". So, when she came out she asked me a lot of questions and I told her the truth about everything and she said "well you can stay here tonight, and we will see what happens tomorrow". Well next morning she asked me