Anna's Story
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One day, quite by chance, she discovered the cause of their unhappiness. The uncle was drinking more and more often; her aunt was unhappy and disgusted with him and didn't know to whom to turn. Anna pleaded with him to stop, or, at least to cut down. He would get short with her and tell her to leave him alone. Since it was unnatural for him to be so annoyed with her, she would stay away from him feeling very hurt. After an absence of a few days, she stopped by one Sunday morning on her way to church. The uncle was delighted to see her again and offered to go to church with her. He sang in the choir every Sunday. As he was getting dressed, he asked Anna to pour him a glass of wine. "Good for the throat", he said. She asked him not to drink anything before Mass, but he insisted. She went into the kitchen to get the wine. When she entered, she saw a box of salt by the bottle of wine and, immediately, pounced on an idea. She would poison his wine with salt: not enough to kill him, but enough to make him very sick. She hurriedly poured a large amount of salt into the wine, mixed it thoroughly, brought it to her uncle and, with one big gulp, it was in his stomach. Her aunt watched the proceedings quietly and was secretly amused.
In seconds, he became nauseated. He was retching and heaving, getting sicker by the minute. Anna became frightened, but her aunt reassured her that he would be fine as soon as he had gotten rid of the salted wine. She told her to run along to church, that she would take over now; but Anna wanted to stay there to be with them. She didn't like to miss Mass, but being where her uncle might need her seemed more important at the time. She stayed for most of the day. He got better and mentioned that the wine must have been poisoned. The subject was never brought up again, but Anna suspected that he might be wise to what had happened. It was many years before he drank again!
In the early years of her life, Anna would listen to the stories people told about the big country across the sea - America. It intrigued her! She became more and more interested and asked many questions. She was told that it was a rich and spacious country with land for everyone, not just the rich. People could settle on the land, build houses, and till the soil - all free. It was called homesteading. They could have acres and acres of land; not just small plots like they had here.
As she became older, she became more fascinated with the stories and vowed that someday she would go there. The more she thought about it , the greater her desire became. She knew that if she ever went, it would have to be on her own, Her family could not afford to pay her way.
So, at 16 years of age, she went looking for work. Before long, she was hired by a doctor-dentist (a man who repaired teeth as well as bodies). He and his wife needed a girl to look after their children and do house work. For that, she would be paid $7.50 a month.