‘You’ll be for it!’ Billy had grinned as Mary had tearfully waved them goodbye from the small window at her grandmother’s cottage. ‘Our Ellen won’t be happy to be missing one of her bairns.’

‘I know,’ Harry had sighed. ‘But I did it for ’best. Mary’s not well and I’m hoping that being away from ’smoke and being warm and dry will help her.’

‘Aye,’ Billy agreed. ‘Ma allus has a good fire and broth constantly on ’simmer.’

‘I can’t believe ’difference between town and country,’ Harry muttered. ‘I know there’s plenty o’ folk in poverty in ’countryside, probably as many as in town, but it doesn’t seem as obvious – and, well, my da was allus in work while we were growing up even though he didn’t earn much and we too allus had a good fire to come home to.’

Billy shook his head. ‘There are plenty o’ countryfolk in poverty, but we don’t allus see them; they’re camping out under hedges or in an open barn, or trudging towards ’nearest village or town. Trouble is, Harry, you were lucky to work for Ozzie and you’d have eventually been foreman if he hadn’t upped and died, and if Charlesworth hadn’t tekken over then sooner or later you’d mebbe have had your own patch o’ land to grow what you needed to keep your family. I reckon Charlesworth looked at ’accounts and saw that things weren’t as good as they seemed; there’s fruit and flowers coming in from Holland and wheat from America and Canada and it’s all a lot cheaper than we can produce and grow cos transportation to bring it here is getting cheaper.’

Harry looked in astonishment at his brother-in-law. They’d been pals since they were five-year-olds, and Billy was the one who always acted on instinct; Harry had never put him down as a thinker. Have I been living with my eyes closed, never noticing what’s been going on around me?

‘Why do you think I haven’t married?’ Billy continued. ‘I could have done, any time.’ He grinned again. ‘And I’m not boasting. But ’fact is, I live at home and pay my board ’n’ lodgings and save a bit, and one day I’ll have enough to pay my passage to Canada, cos ’time will come when there’ll be no work here on ’land and I don’t want to work in industry. I like to breathe clean air. If I had a wife she might not share my ideas about leaving ’country.’

‘So – when are you planning this new life?’ Harry was almost lost for words. ‘And why Canada? Why not America? Folks are flocking there, or so I’ve heard!’ He was thinking of the Bosco family who had considered it; he knew no one else.