Kitty looked at her and smiled. "Really. I never had any brothers or sisters. I bet its quite a lively house when your all together! And being a fisherman's daughter ain't much of an answer. What are you, not your dad. You can be your own person now. I see lots of ladies workin in shops in towns. If you aren't something now, you can be."

"It used to be... Most have left home now..." Anne said. Or were dead. She looked down at her wrinkly red hands. "I would love to earn my own money," she admitted, quietly, almost as if confessing a crime.

Kitty put down her tea cup and nodded. "No worries, just means ya don't haveta feel bad if you want to travel too, right! So go make your own money. What can you do or want to do to make money? It ain't easy, especially if you want a lot. You gotta be really good at something or willin to do something no one else wants to."

"I got to be here to look after my brothers..." Anne said sadly. "And even if I earned money it would go to my family." She bit her lip and hesitated. It felt nice to pour her heart out, especially to a woman who was independent and did not scold her for her selfishness, but encouraged it. "I want to earn money so I can save my sister."

Kitty frowned and seemed in thought. "Well ya can't be makin money if yer spending all day here cleaning. I think.. "She slapped her hands together. "We gotta get you a job. If it pays well enough, ya can hire a maid ta do the cleanin and everyone pitch in makin money. How does that sound?" She grinned huge. "I can try to find out for ya. How smart are ya? With readin and all that?"

Anne was terrified of what the woman was proposing. It was entirely outside of the script and seemed impossible. And yet there was a small flame of hope flickering that she could not bear to extinguish. "I... don't know if me father would let me. And I ain't that clever. 't was me sister that was going to be a teacher. I'm just... average..."

Kitty waved her off. "Forget your father. You will make it up to him when you succeed. Sometimes you haveta let them down to make them proud later. And so what? I ain't smart and look at me!" She patted her chest. "I ain't pretty neither. But you know what I got? A good sense of courage and believin in my self even to a fool's extreme. O'course luck mighta played a part of it too, but you gotta believe in somethin. So tell me what can you do? What is your best feature, as small as it may seem."

Anne thought. She had never cared to pay much attention in school and hadn't had much chance to develop skills other than what was needed for her daily chores. "I can cook and clean..." she said.

Kitty seemed in thought and shook her head. "Not like that. Well, maybe that can work. Can ya handle anything? Are ya weak if something is gross or scary? Or, can ya speak loud and fast. Really force people ta pay attention to ya? If ya aren't sure but are willing to try, we can look around and see what yer cut out for."

"I... don't mind gross. And I'm not scared of things like darkness or stuff like that." But she was afraid of people. "But... I'm not very loud and people usually don't pay attention to me." She hated people looking at her.