69. Do you live in Lerwick?-Yes.
70. Your mother is a widow?-Yes.
71. Do you support yourself by knitting?-Yes; and partly by working outside at the fish.
72. What have you to do with the fish?-I help to cure them in the fish-curing establishment.
73. For whom do you knit?-Sometimes for myself, and sometimes for Miss Mary Hutchison.
74. Is she a dealer in hosiery?-Yes; she knits shawls herself, and sends them south.
75. Is she an agent?-Yes.
76. For whom?-I think she is agent for Mr. White, in Edinburgh.
77. Do you sometimes work for others?-No; not very often. I sometimes work for myself when I have any time. I knit a veil or a necktie, but in the summer 1 have not much time for that.
78. Do you knit these things for the purpose of selling them?- Yes.
79. Do you sometimes sell to the merchants in Lerwick?-Yes.
80. To whom?-To any one who is buying anything.
81. Do you generally get money for your shawls?-No; I got money from Miss Hutchison when I ask for it.
82. Do you get the price all in money from her?-When I want it all in money, I get it all in money, and when I want any other thing, she gives it to me.
83. Do you generally ask for it all in money from her?-Yes; I generally ask for it in money, because that is the only way we have to get it.
84. Does she deal in goods?-No. She generally brings home a little tea.
85. Does she only deal in tea?-In nothing else, so far as I know.
86. Then you sometimes get payment from her in tea?-Yes.
When I ask it, I get it; but when I ask money, I get money.
87. When you sell to the merchants in Lerwick, do you get payment in money?-No; I never asked it, because I know they would not give it to us, as it is not the custom. They do not give it here.
88. Do you get part of it in money?-No; I get no money.
89. You have to take it all in goods?-Yes.
90. Do you prefer to get it in goods or in money?-I would like to get money if I could; but I can"t get it.
91. And Miss Hutchison is not always ready to buy, from you?- No; she does not buy anything but her own. She brings home worsted, or buys worsted here, and I get it from her to knit.
92. What you sell to the merchants you knit with your own worsted?-Yes.
93. Where do you buy your worsted?-From the shops.
94. Which shops?-I used to buy from Mr. Brown, but he is not alive now; and I buy from Mr. Sinclair.
95. Do you pay ready-money for your worsted when you buy it?- Yes.
96. Do you not get worsted from the shops to knit into articles for the merchants?-No.
97. You sell to the shops only when Miss Hutchison has not got work for you?-Yes. It is only when I have it of my own that I sell to the shops.
98. Have you asked for money instead of goods at any of the shops?-No; I never asked for it.
99. Your sister also works in the same way?-Yes; she knits, but she does not work outside. She is not here to-day.
100. When was the last time you took anything of your own knitting to a shop to sell? Was it long ago?-No; it is not long,- perhaps about two or three weeks ago.
101. What was it?-A necktie.
102. Where did you take it?-I took it to Mr. Sinclair"s. I could not get it sold that night, because he was not in, and the servants could not take it in his absence. I took it home with me.
103. What did you do with it?-The woman who dressed it sold it for me at Mr. Sinclair"s. She generally dresses things, and sometimes sells them for me.
104. What is dressing?-Getting them sorted for sale. After being knitted, they are washed and dressed and starched.
105. Do you give the woman who dresses the articles a commission to sell them?-Yes; she sells them for me.
106. Why is that?-Because she is generally in the way of doing it.
She can do it better than I can.
107. Do you mean that she can make a better bargain?-She dresses goods for the merchants, and sometimes she sells them too.
She sold that article for me.
108. Who is the woman?-Mrs. William Arcus; she lives at the Docks.
109. What was the price put upon that necktie which she sold?- Eighteenpence.
110. What did you get for it?-I just got anything I required.
111. What did you require at that time?-I got a little tea, and the rest in cotton.
112. Did you want the tea?-Yes.
113. Have you sometimes asked the merchants for goods which they would not give you?-No.
114. When you go to a merchant to sell a shawl, can you get any kind of goods you want?-I don"t sell any shawls, because I don"t have any of my own. I have not had any of my own for a long time.
115. But when you go to sell any of the goods you have knitted, can you get anything you want?-I cannot get money, but I can get anything else, except worsted. They won"t give it.
116. Will they not give you worsted for your knitted goods?-No.
They won"t give it for the hosiery. They want money for the worsted.