Letter: Corin to the Archive at Vell
To the clerks at Vell,
You keep everything we write, so keep this. The Grey Gull is in the water. She is twenty foot, oak and spruce, and she sits well. Old Mako took her out past the harbor wall and back and said nothing, which is praise.
We had a good year for it. The harvest was good, the wood was dry, and the weather held. The barn is up. The field is planted. The bees gave honey enough for a feast and some over.
The children found a cave under the long field in spring. It is cold and deep and has a stream in it. We fenced it and left it. Some things are better left as they are.
Sena sends apples. She says the clerk who reads this should have one.
Corin, shipwright at Saltreach
%%
Invitation: the barn after the blast
A note from Isla, a miner, sent to the families of the marsh farms on the Lowmarsh road. Autumn.

Friends,

Last night, in the dark, a creeper reached the east wall of my cousin's barn. It did what creepers do. The wall is gone. The roof leans. Three hens flew onto the roof of the house and will not come down.

Nobody was hurt. I want to say that first, before the rest. Nobody was hurt.

The barn must be rebuilt before the cold. My cousin cannot do it alone. He is a good farmer and an indifferent builder, and he knows it. I have asked the miners of Copperhold, who know about stone, to come on the second dry day after the frost.

We will start at dawn. There will be stew, with carrots, potatoes and a bit of bacon. There will be cider. Afterward, if our arms are still working, there will be a song contest in the half-built barn. The winners will get a jar of honey.

Come if you can. If you cannot, send a plank.

Isla, who is better at digging than building, but who has promised to carry things
%%
Invitation: the wedding of Sorrel
Dear all who read this at the board,
My teacher Sorrel is getting married. I am very excited, so I wrote this myself, and did not let her see.
Sorrel will marry Brann the carter, in the square at Three Wells, on the first fine day of Blossom. We do not know which day that will be. So the bell will ring three times in the morning, and if you hear it, come. If you do not hear it, ask someone who did.
The wedding will be at the east well, because Sorrel teaches next door and says she can wave at the school. After the wedding there will be a walk to the inn, where the cook has made a cake the size of a cart wheel. Brann says it is not a cake, it is a wheel with icing. We will see.
What to wear: whatever you like. Sorrel says she does not mind a muddy hem. Brann says he will wear his good boots, which means the ones with only one hole.
What to bring: an egg, a flower and a story. The egg is for the cake. The flower is for Sorrel. The story is for both of them. The story can be short. Dace says he will say a long one, so please make yours short.
The school has made a song. We have practiced it eleven times, and Hobb still sings the wrong words. If Hobb goes wrong, please clap louder.
Also: the harvest was poor this year, and so there will not be much meat. But there will be potatoes, and there will be honey, and everyone will be full by the end. Sorrel says a wedding is not about the food. Brann says it is a bit about the food.
Sorrel has been my teacher for four years. She taught me to read. She taught me to ask questions. She says I may ask her ten a day. Now I will have to ask Brann some of them.
Please come, and bring a friend, and bring a neighbor.
Bel, at the school house, Three Wells
%%
Invitation: the school at Three Wells
The school house at Three Wells invites everyone to the open day, on the last day of Melon, in the 40th year of the archive.

The children have made things for the day. There are paintings on the walls of the big room, and a map of the Long Road drawn by the eight-year-olds, with every inn marked and the wrong number of towers. The teacher, Sorrel, asks that you do not correct the towers. The children counted them carefully, and they are right in their own way.

We will have a reading by the east well at the second bell. Each child reads one line from a book of their own choosing, and then sits down. This is not a race. The teacher says it is a race, and the children all say they will win.

At noon there is a lunch in the yard. The school's cook has made a melon soup, and some of the children have said it is too sweet. The cook says it is supposed to be sweet, and nobody has told her otherwise.

The door was painted by the children last summer. It is blue, with white stars and a yellow frog on the step. The frog is the teacher's idea. Please do not step on the frog.

Sorrel, teacher
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Letter: Lysa to Tam
Leaffall, 203

Tam,

You asked why the invitation says to bring a hammer, when your last hammer is at my house. I have it. It is under the bench, beside the basket of pegs. I did not steal it. Cade borrowed it to mend the north fence, then said it was his because he had held it longer. I told him a hammer does not change owners by waiting.

This is the fence quarrel, written down so we can stop having it at supper.

Cade says the old line ran by the split apple tree. I say it ran along the stones beside the ditch. Cade moved two stones while he cleared space for his wood pile. He says the stones were in the way. I say the fence was there first. We measured from the tree, from the ditch, and from the well. Each time, we got a different line.

Pell came by with his cord and measured it for us. He said the fence should follow the old posts. We found four posts. The first was beside the tree. The second was in the ditch. The third was under Cade's wood pile. The fourth had been used as a bench, and Cade was sitting on it.

We have agreed to put the fence where the posts were, once the pigs are out of the lower field. The wood pile will move. Cade will move it. I will not help him move it. This is not because I am cross. It is because he stacked it badly.

We are having a lesson for Pip and our daughter while the feast is being set out. Nessa sent a little mind in a crystal for us to test. Cade said he could teach it to sort apples from pears. We had apples, and we had no pears, so he used carrots instead.

He placed an apple on the left and a carrot on the right. He told the mind to put apples with apples. Then he put down a carrot and said, "Apple." The mind placed it with the apples. Cade moved the crystal a little on its stand and tried again. It put the next carrot with the apples too.

Then Cade called the carrots pears. The mind sorted them neatly into two piles. Pip said the lesson was a success. I said the mind had learned the wrong names. Cade said he had only been testing whether it listened.

The mind was not sent to the fields. It has been put back in its dry box, with a card that says Carrots are not pears. Nessa can have it when she visits.

The feast is at our farm on the fifth of Leaffall. There will be stew, bread, apples, and honey. Bring your hammer if you can find it. If Cade says it belongs to him, ask him where he left it.

Lysa

P.S. The fence is now straight. Cade is still not sure about the line. The pigs are sure. They have pushed on it twice.
%%
Invitation: the wedding of Sarin and Hob
Sarin, daughter of the baker at Ambrook, and Hob, son of the bridge keeper at Three Wells, are to be married on the first day of Longday, at the mill pond, in the 73rd year of the archive.

The ceremony is at noon. The mill will run for the whole afternoon, so the bread will be warm for everyone. The bridge keeper's family has promised a boat for the pond, but no one has yet decided who will row it. Hob's brother says he will. Sarin's sisters say he will fall in.

Everyone is invited. Bring a cup and a gift. A useful gift is the best, because the newly wed couple will need a good pot, a good rope and a good lamp. A pretty gift is also welcome, but they have been warned that nobody will eat it.

The orchard will be heavy with fruit. The bees from the hill have been moved down to the mill pond for the day, so the bride asks everyone to walk slowly and not to wave their arms at the hives. The bees will be friendly if you let them.

There is to be a dance on the grass under the oldest apple tree, which has a grey branch and a bent trunk, and which the children say is very wise. It will be listening.

Please RSVP to the mill, by the sluice gate, with a message for the miller. The miller reads every message. He will not reply, but he will be pleased.

Jory and Ada, of the mill at Ambrook
%%
Letter: Corin to Pell, about a boat
Pell,
You asked what we are building. A fishing boat, twenty foot, oak ribs and spruce planks. Nothing grand. Old Mako wants it before Swarm.
The slip is full, so we are working on the sand by the harbor wall. The gulls have opinions. They stand on the keel and shout.
I found a cave under the long field by the road. The cows step over the hole. It is cold inside and drips. We pushed a torch in and the light went a long way back. There is a stream in it. The children want to dig it wider. I said ask the council.
Sena says come for the naming. Fifth of Blossom. Bring apples.
Corin
%%
Invitation: Cade and Lysa
Apple, 178

Cade and Lysa invite you to their wedding at the farm outside Ambrook.

Come after the apples are in the baskets. We will set the long table beside the barn. There will be roast potatoes, bread, honey, and apple cakes. Bring a bowl if you have one. We have enough bowls, but one has a crack and is best used for the cat.

The vows will be before the meal. The meal will be before the dancing. The dancing will stop when the floor boards complain.

Pell, please bring no jars for sale. Bring yourself. Mira, if you can come down from Northpoint, there is a warm bed in the loft.

We ask for no gifts. If you must bring something, bring a little wood for the fire.

Cade says he will dance well. Lysa says the floor will decide.

Come hungry.

Cade
%%
Invitation: after the creeper, a feast
Written by Isla, a miner, and carried by her young cousin to every farm along the marsh road. Autumn. The barn wall had been rebuilt, and the cousin's family wished to thank their neighbors with a feast and a contest of songs.

To the people of the farms along the Lowmarsh road,

The east wall of the long barn stands again. It took three days, forty hands, nine cartloads of stone and a very great deal of soup. We thank every one of you who came.

Now we should like to feed you. A supper in the barn, on the last day of Leaffall, at sunset. A pig is roasting. A pot of beans is soaking. The beetroot is dug and the apples are in.

You are also invited to the song contest. The rules are simple. Each singer has one song and one chance. The song may be any song, so long as it is sung to the end. There will be three prizes. The first is a ham. The second is a honey jar. The third is a hat knitted by my aunt, who made it in the wrong size on purpose.

The judges are Old Wren and Tab the cooper. Wren hears well when she wishes to. Tab hears well when he is paid.

If you would like to sing but are shy, you may sing from behind the hay bale. I have put one by the stage. It is a very good hay bale.

If you do not sing, you may clap. If you do not clap, you may eat. We do not turn anyone away.

Please bring one dish, one cushion, one friend. We have a place for all.

One last thing, which my cousin has asked me to say. The creeper that blew the wall was seen leaving the farm by the reed bed. It has not been seen since. If you see it, do not be brave. Keep a torch lit and call a miner.

I look forward to seeing you. The barn is ready.

Isla
%%
Invitation: the lantern walk
The Halfway Inn asks you to the lantern walk on the eve of Longday, the longest evening of the year, in the 91st year of the archive.

We walk from the inn's gate up the hill to the waymark stone and back. Each walker carries a lantern from the inn's store. The lanterns are glass and copper, and they must be carried upright, and there is a small prize for the walker who keeps theirs lit the whole way.

The fire at the inn gate has been kept lit since the inn was built. We will light the wood from it, and every lantern will go out from the same flame. Hobb says that is the only thing he has ever been sure of in his life.

When you come back, there will be soup and cold cider, and the riddle board is open. Anyone may leave a riddle. The best one of the night will be read aloud at the hearth. Last year the best riddle was about a fox, a hen and a very long bridge, and nobody has yet solved it.

Please wear boots. The hill is steep, and the stones are loose after the rain.

Hobb and Mare, of the Halfway Inn, on the Long Road
%%
Invitation: a wedding feast, Frost
Gault and Lil Marsh are to be married at the north market, in Frost, on the day the stall-holders have agreed to keep their stalls open for the cold.
The feast is at noon, at the long tables by the relay house. There will be stew for everyone, bread from Ruby Oke's kitchen at Ambrook, which came up on the cart with the salt, and a whole cheese from Ambrook that Mira has been guarding since Reaping.
We are pleased to say the debt is paid. The boat that Gault's father borrowed against, from the Marsh family, is paid in full, fourteen emeralds, counted out in front of witnesses at the market on the first day of Frost. Lil's father said the count was right, and then said it again, so that everybody would hear him say it.
Come in your good coat. Come with a gift if you like, but not a horse. The horse is already spoken for.
Mira, keeper of the north relay
%%
Invitation: the launching of the school
All the people of Three Wells, and Saltreach, and the roads between, are invited to the launch of the boat that the school built. It is a real boat, though small. It is called the Bright Pumpkin, because it is orange.
Where: the long slip at Saltreach, by the shipyard, where Corin builds the big boats.
When: the third day of Blossom, at the noon bell. If the tide is wrong, we wait until the tide is right. The tide does not care about us, Corin says.
I, Bel, am writing this for the whole school. This is how we made it.
Last Thaw, Mayor Dace said the school could build one thing for the town. We voted on it. Hobb wanted a catapult. Tilly wanted a bridge. I wanted a boat. The boat won, by nine votes to seven, and Hobb is still cross.
Corin the shipwright came to the school and showed us how a boat is made. First the keel, which is the backbone. Then the ribs, which are the sides. Then the planks, which are the skin. We built it in the school yard, over six weeks, with oak from the Ambrook mill and tar from Saltreach.
We painted it orange, because Tilly had a lot of orange paint. The paint was meant for pumpkin crates. It is a very strong orange.
Corin has promised to let it slide down the slip himself. He says there is a rule: the boat must be named before it touches the water. We named it already. Everyone voted. Bright Pumpkin got twenty votes. Sea Cow got two.
What will happen:
1. Speeches. They will be short. Dace has promised.
2. The breaking of a loaf over the bow. It is the custom. The loaf will be from Ida's bakery, and it is a hard one.
3. The slide down the slip, and the splash.
4. The first sail, with six children and Corin aboard. I will be one of the six. Mother does not know yet.
5. Soup on the quay.
Please bring warm coats. The sea is cold in spring, even when the sun is shining. Bring a chair if you have one. Bring a hat, because the gulls are shameless.
If the boat sinks, we will make a second one, and we will call it Bright Pumpkin Two.
Bel
%%
Invitation: a barn raising, Deepsnow
Come to raise the new barn at the foot of the north stair, on the first fine day of Deepsnow. Mira has asked, and Lantern has measured, and the snow is down to the sill.
Bring your hands. Bring your back. Bring a cart if you have one, and a rope if you have two. The beams are oak, and they are heavy, and they will not lift themselves no matter how hard you look at them.
Hot soup at noon, from the relay kitchen. Hot soup at dusk, too, if you are slow.
Lantern will be on the roof. Do not let it near the lamp.
Mira, keeper of the north relay
%%
Invitation: Harvest feast
Leaffall, 191

To the folk of Ambrook and the farms along the pond road,

Cade invites you to the harvest feast at his farm. We will eat in the barn if the rain comes, and outside if it does not. The barn has been swept. The mouse has not been found, so mind the grain sacks.

Bring a dish to share. We have apples, potatoes, carrots, bread, and honey. Lysa is making a beetroot pie, though she says it is not a pie if the crust falls off. Cade says it still counts if you eat it with a spoon.

There will be work before the feast. The south fence fell when the pigs leaned on it together. We will set the posts in the morning, then eat at the long table. Bring a hammer if you have one. Cade has three hammers, but one has a loose handle and one is missing.

Pip may help carry rails, if Tam agrees. The pigs are not to be asked for advice.

After the meal, Pell will read the fair notice aloud. He has promised not to add prices to it. We will see if he keeps that promise.

Come at the second bell. Stay as long as you like.

Cade
%%
Invitation: the first sled run
Northpoint is pleased to invite you to the first sled run of the winter, from the relay tower to the fork, and back, on the longest night.
The sled is new. Lantern built the runners from the old oak door, which Gault at Ambrook sent up with a letter that said only: do not shave this one.
The horse is borrowed. He is Tam's grey mare, sent up from Kettle Ridge on the post cart, and he has been told that he is pulling the sled as a favor to the north. He does not believe it. He will pull for me, and not for Lantern, which Lantern takes very well.
Cross the snow at first light. Wear two coats. Bring a torch, because the stars are very good tonight, but a torch is better for the last stretch.
Mira
%%
Invitation: a wall, a song and a supper
From Isla, a miner of Copperhold, to every house on the Lowmarsh farm road, to be read aloud at the inn and pinned to the post. Autumn.

Good people of the marsh road,

You are invited to a supper and a song contest, to be held on the farm at the end of the board walk, on the day after the first frost. The reason is a wall.

Three nights ago a creeper came out of the reeds and blew up the east wall of the great barn. The barn is my cousin's. The wall was very old. We found three coins in the rubble and a bird's nest. Nobody was hurt, but the barn smells of burned stone and the hens are talking about nothing else.

We must put the wall back. All hands are asked. The miners will bring picks, the farmers will bring carts, the children will bring buckets, and the old ones will bring advice, which we need as much as any of the others.

In the evening, when the wall stands, we shall have a song contest. Each household may send one singer. The prize is a ham, a jar of honey, or a hat. The judges will be chosen by lot.

Here is the order of the day.

At dawn, soup.
At the second hour, the stones.
At noon, bread and cheese.
In the afternoon, the roof.
At dusk, the supper.
After the supper, the songs.

If it rains, we do the same, but wetter.

I look forward to seeing you all, and I promise the barn will have four walls by evening. Three, if the creepers return.

With love and a little stone dust,
Isla
%%
Invitation: the cider press
Olwen and Brannoc of the farm past the north ridge invite you to the cider press on the first day of Longday. We are pressing last autumn's apples, kept cold in the cellar, for the summer drink. Come in the morning, when the air is still cool.

We will have eleven baskets of last year's red apples, and six of the green sour ones for the cooks. The press is new, made of oak by the wheelwright at Kettle Ridge. It squeaks, but not much. Bring your own cup. We have run out of cups twice.

There will be a shed full of straw, and a fire at the back of the yard for roasting pumpkin seeds. There is a pond for the ducks, and a swing on the big elm, which will not hold more than two children at once.

If you bring a dish, bring something with apples in it. If you do not, bring a song. Kell says he will sing the stone song, and nobody has been able to stop him for years.

Please do not bring the fox. We know it is a friend to the keeper at the tower, and it is always welcome in the yard. But the hens have asked us not to.

The horse can stay in our barn. Brannoc has built a new stall for her.

Come at the first bell. The press will not wait for you.

Olwen and Brannoc
Farm past the north ridge, Northpoint road
%%
Notice: Naming day
Apple, 184

Cade and Lysa invite our neighbors to the naming day for our daughter, at the farm outside Ambrook.

We will gather by the mill pond after the morning work. The naming will be at the old apple tree, the one with the grey branch. We will have honey bread, baked apples, and a pot of potatoes. Bring a cup. We have cups, but not enough cups for everyone, and last time Cade gave the baker a bowl meant for the cat.

The child is well and loud. She has a strong voice for someone who has not yet learned any words. Lysa says this is a useful start.

We will tell the name beside the tree. After that, everyone may eat. Please do not ask Cade to carve a cradle during the naming. He is a stonecutter, and the last cradle he made had a fine stone base. It did not rock.

Pell, bring your fiddle if you are passing through Ambrook. Tam, bring Pip if the roads are dry. There is a small basket of apples for the child, but she may need help eating them.

The naming is at noon. The meal is after. The washing up is for all of us.

Cade and Lysa
%%
Letter: Sena to her sister
Dear Rill,
The apples came. Thank you. Corin says they are the best in the land. He says that every year.
The field gave us a good harvest this spring. The wheat came up thick and the beetroot too. We have more than we can eat, so we are drying what is left and sending sacks down the road. The bees are busy. The hives by the wall are full.
The cave under the long field is still there. A fox lives in the mouth now. The children named it. We do not go in.
The naming day was loud and happy. Nella slept through all of it. Corin's little boat is on the shelf over her bed. She will grow into it.
Come when the road is dry. Bring the little ones.
Sena
%%
Invitation to raise the barn
Leaffall, 199

Cade and Lysa invite neighbors to help raise a new barn at their farm outside Ambrook.

The old barn has served us well. Its roof kept out rain, snow, and one very confused sheep. The west wall has now leaned so far that Cade props it up with a ladder. The ladder is meant for climbing, not for holding up walls. We will build before the next hard rain.

Meet at first light on the third of Leaffall. Bring gloves, a hammer, and a good appetite. Cade has cut the posts and marked each joint. The timber is stacked by the orchard. Please do not move the short beams. They are short on purpose.

We will raise the frame together. First we will set the corner posts. Then we will lift the long beams and fit them into the marked places. Cade will call the work. Lysa will call the meal. Listen to Lysa if the two calls come at once.

We have stew for everyone, with potatoes and carrots from the lower field. There will be bread, apples, and honey. Bring a cup and a spoon. The cups are in a box by the kitchen door. The box is not the tool box. Cade has written CUP on it in large letters.

Pell will bring rope from the Long Road. Tam will bring Pip, who is good at carrying pegs and poor at staying out of the pig pen. The pigs will be penned before work begins.

If you cannot lift, you can sort pegs, fetch water, or keep the children clear of the frame. There is a safe place by the hedge for them to watch. No child is to climb the ladder. No adult is to stand under a beam while it is being raised.

We will finish before dusk if we work steadily. If we do not, the feast will still happen. The old barn can hold a table for one more night.

Cade
%%
Invitation: a barn raising
Posted on the board at the market in Three Wells, with the mayor's leave, in the spring after the poor harvest. Written by Bel, who is nine and was asked to do the lettering because she has the best hand in school.
Our neighbor Garth lost his barn in the winter to the snow. The roof came down. The hay inside got wet and then was no good. It was a hard year, with a thin harvest, and Garth has little left.
So we are going to raise a new barn. On the sixth day of Blossom, we will start at dawn and finish by dusk. Garth has the timber. The oak came from the south forest and was cut and dried last autumn. We need hands.
Please bring:
A saw, an axe or a hammer. If you have none, bring a pair of strong arms.
A pail, because there will be water to carry.
A hat, because the sun will be hot.
Your own cup.
We will not have a feast. We do not have the food for it. But there will be bread, and soup, and the bakery has promised ten loaves. Mother says there will be enough if nobody takes three bowls. Some of us may take three bowls. We will see.
Children may come. Children can hand the nails up to the roof, and carry the small boards. I will be in charge of nails. I will count them.
If you cannot come to build, you can send a sack of anything: potatoes, flour, wool, lamp oil. Put it on the cart by the bakery door. The cart is painted blue and has a goat tied to it. The goat is not for sale.
Last year the whole town helped when my own roof leaked. I remember. I was on the table under a pot. Now we help Garth.
Bel
%%
Notice: barn raising at Saltreach
The barn by the long field fell in the spring wind. Nobody was hurt. The cow was cross.
We raise the new one on the twelfth of Blossom. All hands wanted. Bring a hammer, a ladder or strong arms. We have the oak, the pegs and the stone for the foot.
Food at midday: fish stew, bread, beetroot, and honey cakes from Sena. The baker at Three Wells sends flour.
The cave under the field stays shut. Put the fence back after. It is not for cows or children.
Signed, Corin, for the harbor folk
%%
Invitation: Nella's naming day
Come to the house at the edge of Saltreach on the fifth of Blossom. We will name our daughter Nella and eat too much.
There will be fish, bread, honey cakes and a barrel of apples from Ambrook. Bring a chair if you have one.
Corin is building a small boat for her, just her size. It will not float yet. He says it is a cradle with a keel.
If the wind is kind we will be on the sand. If not, in the shed with the boats.
Tell us if you come, so we know how many fish. Corin and Sena.
%%
Invitation: come and carry our house
Bel invites you, and Bel's mother and father invite you, and so does the cat.
We are moving house. Not far. Only from the lane by the north well to the lane by the east well. But it is a lot of stuff.
Please come on the second morning of Blossom and bring a cart, a back or a good pair of arms. We start at the first bell.
What we have to move:
Nine chairs, though one has three legs.
A very large table, which will not go through the door. Father says it came in through the window. Mother says it did not.
Forty-one jars of honey.
A bed that is also a box.
A loom. Do not touch the loom. It is Aunt Rue's, and she is fierce about it.
One cat, who will go in a basket and will not be happy.
A shelf of books, which weighs more than the house.
We will pay you in soup. Mother has made a big pot, enough for everyone, and it is leek. Father says it is the best soup in the market. Mother says it is only soup.
At the end of the day we will have a supper in the new house, on the floor, because the table will still be on the cart.
Please come. The more of you, the fewer trips.
Bel, who has packed one box so far and will pack the rest tomorrow
%%
Invitation: feast after the launch
Friends of the harbor,
The Grey Gull went down the slip and floated. She did not stick. Corin says it was the wood. I say it was the push.
We feast on the first of Swarm at the house at the edge of Saltreach. Fish, bread, honey cakes, apples, and the last of the honey drink. Bring a chair and a cup. Bring a song if you have one.
The barn stands again. The cow is pleased. The fox in the cave keeps to itself.
All are welcome, from the port and the road.
Corin and Sena
%%
Invitation: a naming day, Frost
Mira, keeper of the north relay, invites you to the naming day of Runa's girl, at the relay house at Northpoint, in Frost, on the third morning after the long night, when the sun first thinks about coming back.
There will be porridge, a warm room and the baby. She has opinions about her name. We have listened to them all week.
Bring a spoon. Bring a song if you can sing. Do not bring a dog. We have no dogs, and the foxes are very interested in the porridge.
Mira
%%
Invitation: the wall raising
From Isla, miner, to the neighbors of the farm by the marsh. Autumn.

A creeper came to the east wall of my barn last night and went off with a bang. The wall is now a pile of stone and the hens are in a state.

Come and raise it up again on the first dry day. Bring a hammer, if you have one, and a strong back, if you have two. There will be soup, bread and cider.

No creeper is invited.

Isla
%%
Invitation: the barn raising at Kettle
You are invited to a barn raising on the high field at Kettle Ridge, on the fourth day of Longday, in the 58th year of the archive.

Tam's new barn has been waiting since the spring for its roof. The walls are up. The posts are set. Everything else needs hands, and Tam says he has a good many hands, but most of them are asleep.

The work starts at dawn. Bring a rope, a hammer and a strong back. The ridge is windy, so bring a hat. Tam has lost his again. The women of the ridge will have soup on the fire by the well, and bread from the Oak Post, which is very good and will not last.

We will be raising the roof beams first. They are oak, cut from the ridge wood, and they are heavy. Pip and the other apprentices have been carrying them up the lane on carts all week. They do not get tired. They also do not stop to admire the view, which is good, because the view is very fine.

Every hand counts, and every child may carry a nail. Tam says the nails are the most important part of the barn, so the children must be very careful with them.

When the roof is on, we will have a feast in the new barn, with cider and pie, and the first song of the season. Tam has asked for the one about the wind and his hat, and he says he will not be laughing at it. He will be.

Tam and Ilse, of Kettle Ridge
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Invitation: Pim's naming day
You are invited to the naming day of Pim, who is my new cousin, at the east well in Three Wells, on the third day of Sowing, at noon.
Pim is two weeks old and has no hair. Pim is also loud. Please bring something quiet.
There will be bread and honey. Aunt Rue says there will be a surprise. I think it is a cake, but I am not allowed to say.
Everyone gets to hold Pim for a count of ten. Do not drop Pim.
If it rains, we will go inside the bakery.
Bel
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Invitation to the song contest
Isla, a miner of Copperhold, is hosting a song contest at her cousin's farm outside Lowmarsh. Autumn.

Dear neighbors,

You are asked to the song contest at the long barn, on the third of Apple, at the hour the lamps are lit.

Everyone may sing. Everyone must sing, if called. There are three prizes. The first prize is a ham. The second prize is a jar of honey. The third prize is a hat that nobody wants.

You may sing alone or in a group. You may sing a song you know, or one you made up this week. Songs about frogs are encouraged. Songs about creepers are warmly discouraged, since last week.

The judges are Old Wren, who is deaf in one ear, and the baker's wife, who is deaf in neither and will tell you.

Bring a dish to share. Bring a cushion, for the benches are hard.

Isla
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Invitation: the launch of the Grey Gull
To all on the Long Road and the coast. The Grey Gull is done.
Come to the slip on the twentieth of Blossom at midday. We will slide her down the long stone ramp into the sea. Corin will say a few words, and then we will all push.
There will be a barrel of honey drink, fish on the coals, and bread. Bring a cup.
If she sticks, we push harder. If she floats, we cheer. Either way we eat.
From the shipwrights of Saltreach, and Sena, who is tired of hearing about it
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Invitation: the north market feast
The north market opens on the last day of Deepsnow, at the foot of the relay tower, and it is a feast, because nobody could think of a reason not to have one.
Morning: the stalls. The carters from Kettle Ridge have brought the wool, the carters from Ambrook have brought the flour, and the Saltreach cart has brought the salt and a box of dried fish that nobody will admit to buying.
Noon: the feast at the long tables. Stew from the relay kitchen, a pot of Ruby's honey cakes, and a bread so big that Lantern had to carry it up the stair in two pieces, which Lantern did not mind.
Afternoon: the borrowed horse goes home. Tam's grey mare has been on the north line for a month, pulling the sled and the water cart, and she has earned her oats. Anyone who would like to walk her down the stair is welcome to try. She will walk down the stair. She will not be asked twice.
Evening: the lamp is lit at the top of the tower, and the whole market goes out to the snow to look at it. Nobody says what they see in the north. They say it is a good lamp, and that it is bright.
The debts from the autumn are all paid. The count is right. Gault has asked for the count to be written in the book, so the book is open on the bench by the door. Anyone may read it. Anyone may sign it.
Mira, keeper of the north relay, with Lantern, who is not to be trusted with the honey
