The Sign of the Scales

Noreen Mitchell is a librarian with the Toronto Public Library.

This is the third book in a sequence that portrays the life of the
character Emma Anderson. The earlier books in the series are The
Tinderbox (1982) and The Quarter-Pie Window (1985). The setting for
these historical novels is the area of York in Upper Canada in the
1830s. Previously, after the death of their parents and siblings in a
fire, Emma and her younger brother John were forced into the care
of—and, in Emma’s case, into the employment of—their aunt, a hotel
owner named Mrs. McPhail. In this book, Mrs. McPhail asks 15-year-old
Emma to continue most of her duties as a servant in the hotel while also
working part-time in a small dry-goods store in which the aunt has a
financial and personal interest. Emma is quickly caught up in the lives
of the owner, his bedridden wife, and their teenage son. Gradually, she
becomes aware of a smuggling operation, and ultimately participates in
its exposure and dissolution.

The book is richly detailed and the author evokes the period in a
consistently authentic manner. The text is complemented by the lovely
wood engravings of G. Brender а Brandis, which are charming vignettes
of the past. Although the hardship of Emma’s daily routine and her
unfortunate circumstances will arouse sympathy in the reader, she is not
an object of pity; the author has created a character whose tenacity and
intelligence are admirable and whose life is interesting enough to be
enviable.