This is a page from Margaret McLeod’s autograph book, containing entries from 1877 to 1885.
“May you cheeks retain their roses
May your heart beat just as gay
Til some manly voice shall whisper
“Maggie” dear, name the day.”
Her friend’s best wishes came true: Maggie married in 1883.
The man she married also wrote an entry in 1881. “From your friend, Norman Nicholson.” You don’t give yourself away when you like someone, I guess.
His diary, from around the same time, contains another poem, most telling.
“When the courting at midnight has ended,
And he stands with his hat in his fist,
While she lovingly lingers beside him,
To bid him “Ta Ta” and be kissed,
How busy his thoughts of the future,
You bet ya his thoughts he don’t speak
He is wondering how they can manage,
To live on six dollars a week.”
He also wrote some other:
“I met you as a stranger,
But cannot part as such,
For I have come to love you
Can you not say as much?”
“While floating down the steam of life,
Within a bark canoe,
Oh may you have a jolly time
And also room for two.”
Young Margaret
Young Norman with his sisters
The couple at their marriage. Margaret McLeod and Norman Nicholson of Richmond. Read Threshold Girl
