Well, well, well, how art thou? I'm Mary Outhwate, a mother of two sweet bairns, Ann and my little boy. My heart's filled with love fer my darlings, but since their father's passing, life's been hard as flint for us, and we could barely make ends meet. The only choice we had left was to turn to the workhouse...

Me and the bairns have been staying in the workhouse for a bit now. Ann's been spinning worsted with other young lads and lasses, while I'm doing house chores. Mr Borrow, the new boss who just arrive in July, always drives us to work harder to earn a crust. We toil and moil, but what kind of a life do we have? No need to tell ya, the grub they serve us was mighty poor. And if that wasn't enough, we're not even allowed to have a bit of fire in the lobby because Mr Borrow says the coals are too dear. What a cold-hearted beast he is!

Eeh, have you heard the latest gossip? There's a cotton mill opening in our town! I never heard of such a thing before and tell hard about it, but I hear the pay's a sight better than what we do in the house. The lads and lasses are all talking about going there. But that Master Borrow, he's always waving his rod around and threatening them with highest severity to get their spinning work done.

Mr. Borrow has finally given in to the cotton mill. Bramley girl and Elizabeth Thorp have been working there for two weeks now, and the pay's 2 shillings and 6 pence per week! It might not be a fortune, but it's certainly better than scraping by doing unpaid chores in the workhouse. I want to get me wee ones out of here and earn some real bread. So I asked if I could tag along with them.

Listen up, lasses, the mill is the new place to be! There's five of us now, all working as line spinners. Even my little Ann is working there with me. It's hard work, don't get me wrong, but it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the workhouse. This week, we had the nerve to ask for a holiday, but those mill gents weren't having any of it. So we took matters into our own hands and staged a protest! Mr Borrow was steaming, but we showed him we won't be pushed around like sheep again!