Full summer count
Three Wells, summer of 203. Kept at Orla's house beyond the west well.
Orla counted the stores. Tally carried the empty baskets.
Bess wrote the numbers. Fen checked them twice and found one apple.

House stores
11 sacks of wheat
6 sacks of beetroot
4 sacks of potatoes
3 baskets of carrots
21 apples
6 loaves of bread
2 small cheeses
4 jars of honey
1 jar of salt
2 jugs of water
16 cups
9 clay bowls
2 iron pots
5 wool blankets
1 spare shirt
22 emeralds in the blue jar

Well and yard
1 deep well with a clean stone rim
1 oak windlass with an iron pin
2 good buckets
1 bucket for garden mud
1 long rope, coiled on a peg
1 short rope, in the tool chest
10 boards over the drain
1 water trough for bees
11 torches along the yard edge
1 oak bench
1 table with a burn mark
2 stools
1 shade cloth
1 hand cart
2 cart wheels, one still squeaking

Tools and other goods
1 iron shovel
2 copper hooks
1 small iron hammer
1 tool chest
1 board for sums
6 pieces of chalk
3 wool bags
1 ladder with a sound rung
1 jar of wax scraps
1 red scarf from the song contest

Garden and hives
3 rows of carrots
2 rows of beetroot
1 row of potatoes
4 apple trees within the fence
3 hives by the flowers
1 empty hive, clean and dry
2 straw veils
1 pair of gloves, patched at the thumb

Tally carries water from the well each morning.
It brings two full buckets to the kitchen and one to the garden.
Last Blossom it brought the garden bucket to the kitchen.
We changed the drill and tested it again.
It now knows: fetch water for the garden.
It still brings the bucket to Fen if Fen is standing by the garden gate.
Fen says this is good sense.
Orla says a gate is not a person.

Tally also carries apples from the trees.
It sorts the sound apples from the bruised ones.
We tested it with a basket it had not seen before.
It put one bruised apple with the good fruit.
Bess ate the apple. She says it was only bruised on one side.

The bees are quiet this summer.
Do not stand in front of the hive and count them.
Fen says he counted twenty.
Bess says there were more than twenty.
Orla says no one needs an exact number of bees.
Bess has written down twenty-two.

The wheel on the cart is to be mended before the next market.
The squeak is louder when Tally pulls it.
Fen says the wheel is singing.
The song contest has not yet chosen a winner for this year.
%%
Farm store count, Deepsnow 181
Counted by Dara before the snow came. The store door sticks.
Ivo held the lamp. Neri wrote the numbers. The dog took the mitten.

Wheat sacks: 14
Beetroot baskets: 9
Potato baskets: 17
Carrot baskets: 11
Pumpkins: 6
Apples: 22
Honey jars: 4
Coal baskets: 3
Lamp glass: 2
Wool blankets: 8
Oak logs: 12

The potatoes are sound. One basket has a hole. Ivo says the hole is small. The dog says nothing, but has potato skin on its nose.
%%
Kell's list for the move
We are leaving the house by the east wall and going up to the one by the market. Mother says the new one has a better stove. Father says the old one has a better door. Nobody asked the door.
To carry:
Beds: 3, taken apart.
Chests: 5. One is Gran's and nobody may open it.
Pots: 7 and a kettle.
Blankets: 12.
Lanterns: 4.
Torches for the road between: 20. It is only forty blocks, but it gets dark early.
Hens: 3, in a basket, angry.
Sacks of potatoes: 6.
The cat: 1. The cat is not counted. The cat counts itself.
Done by dark, if the snow holds off.
%%
Count for the song contest
Summer of 179, at Orla's house near the west well.
The children are holding a song contest in the yard.
Orla keeps the stores. Fen keeps score.
Bess says Fen gives extra marks to songs about bread.

Food and drink
4 loaves of wheat bread
2 baskets of carrots
1 basket of beetroot
8 apples
3 jugs of clean water
1 jar of honey for the singers
1 jar of honey for the judges
12 small cups
1 clay bowl of cherries

Yard and contest
4 benches
1 board for the song list
3 pieces of chalk
1 wool blanket for the smallest child
2 shade cloths
6 torches, ready for dusk
1 oak ladle for keeping the beat
1 iron pot of beetroot soup
1 red scarf for the winner

Contest entries
1 song about a hen that lays eggs in a boot
1 song about rain on the mill roof
1 song about a lost apple
1 song about the three wells
1 song about bread, entered by Fen

The hen song won. The hen in the song laid seven eggs.
Our hen laid one egg during the contest.
She laid it under the judge's bench.
The judges gave her no marks, but Bess gave her bread.

Fen says the song board was crooked.
The board was straight. Fen was standing on the loose leg of the bench.
No one fell. The soup was served before the sun went down.
%%
The school play at Three Wells
A letter from Bel to the Archive at Vell.
Dear clerks, this is Bel. I am nine. Sorrel says to write to you about the play, so here it is.
We did a play at the school house by the east well. It was about the seasons. I was the harvest. I wore a cloak of wheat and I had to stand very still while the others sang. It was hard. My nose itched.
Tomas was the frost. He had a wool cloak and a bucket of water to make the floor cold. He spilled it. Nobody was cross. We mopped it and went on.
Ladle the apprentice carried the benches out and brought them back. It did not sing. It carried. Sorrel said that was its part and it did it well.
The door of the school is painted by the children. We painted it again this year. Apples and bees and one frog. The frog is mine.
Dace the mayor came. He said it was the best play in twelve years. He says that every year.
After the play we had beetroot soup and bread. There was honey too. It was a good day.
Please keep this letter. Sorrel says you keep everything.
Bel.
%%
Inventory: the apprentice's stores
Written by Nessa, tutor, for the house record. The helpers' kit, counted at the end of Deepsnow.
Spare arms, copper: 3.
Spare hands, iron: 4. Two are bent and wait for the forge.
Crystal mind holders, empty: 6.
Crystal minds, drilled for the fields: 2 (tested, passed in Thaw).
Crystal minds, drilled for stores: 1 (tested, passed in Sowing).
Crystal minds, drilled for roads: 0. The road drill is being rewritten.
Crystal minds, in the test box: 14, not for use.
Wax for joints, tins: 9. Use more in cold weather.
Oil for hinges, jugs: 3.
Sacks, empty: 40. Full: 0.
Drill boards, painted: 12. Fields: 5. Stores: 4. Roads: 3.
Drill cards, the wheat card, worn: 1. Ask the clerk for another.
Test pages, sealed: 230. Keep the box shut.
Stick for the drill yard, long: 2. One is cracked. Do not lean on it.
Bell, small, brass: 1. It rings for the end of drill.
Relay note paper: 100 sheets. Ink, one pot, nearly dry.
Note: the helpers are well. They have been fed. The one in the north row has been asked twice to come in, and has come in both times, after standing a long while in the snow.
%%
Count after the well rope was mended
Summer, 164. House beside the west road, Three Wells.
Orla counted. Bess held the board.

1 new hemp rope, long enough for the deep bucket
2 iron hooks
1 wooden windlass
3 boards for the well cover
4 nails left after the cover
1 stone weight
2 clean buckets
1 bucket with a bent rim
8 cups for water
1 cup for the cat
6 sacks of wheat
3 sacks of beetroot
2 baskets of carrots
1 basket of apples
1 jar of honey, nearly full
5 clay bowls
1 iron pot
2 wool blankets
4 dry torches
9 emeralds in the blue jar
1 blue jar, with a lid that sticks

The rope runs well now. We tested it with the stone weight.
Bess said the weight should be called Orla.
I said Orla can draw water without help.
Bess said the stone did not answer.

The bent bucket can hold water if it is carried level.
Bess carried it sideways and blamed the bucket.
The cat drank from its cup, then sat on the well cover.
We moved the cat. The cat came back.
%%
Summer store count after the bees
House at the west edge of Three Wells, summer of 186.
Counted by Orla, with Bess at the door and Fen at the hives.

Kitchen and store
7 sacks of wheat
4 sacks of beetroot
2 sacks of potatoes
1 basket of carrots
13 apples
3 loaves of bread
2 jars of honey
1 jar of salt
1 small cheese
8 cups
5 clay bowls
1 iron pot
3 wool blankets
14 emeralds in the blue jar

Well and yard
1 well with a clean curb
1 windlass
2 buckets
1 long rope
7 boards over the drain
9 torches
1 bench with its leg now mended
1 shade cloth
1 water trough for the bees

Hives and bee work
3 hives by the flowers
1 empty hive, washed and dry
2 straw veils
1 oak smoker
1 jar of wax scraps
1 pair of gloves, left at the mill
1 small ladder

The bees swarmed at noon and settled in the old apple tree.
Bess rang the school bell before she remembered it was not a fire.
Fen brought the empty hive. Orla held the ladder.
The bees went in without a quarrel. Fen says they were tired of the tree.
Bess says they liked the new hive better.
We have not asked them.

The jar of honey for supper is now half full.
Nobody may taste it before supper.
Fen has been seen near the jar three times.
Fen says he was counting it.
%%
Stores Before the Fair, spring 188
Farm outside Saltreach. Counted by Ivo and Len.

Wheat, 35 sacks
Beetroot, 37
Carrots, 42
Potatoes, 31
Apples, 24 baskets
Honey, 8 jars
Eggs, 32
Oak planks, 26
Birch planks, 11
Cobblestone, 84
Glass panes, 9
Iron nails, 54
Wool, 4 bundles

Market day at Saltreach is tomorrow. We will take six sacks of wheat, ten bundles of beetroot, two baskets of carrots, and three jars of honey. The cart wheel has been greased. The left wheel still squeaks. Ivo says the grease is for the right wheel.

The fair stalls will stand beside the fish market. Len wants to see the horse from Ambrook. Sella wants to buy salt fish. Ivo wants to sell the old bucket. We told him nobody will buy it. He says he will put it beside the new bucket and let them choose.

We have kept one jar of honey for the baker. The baker has kept one loaf for us. The exchange is fair, though the loaf is larger.
%%
Minutes: the council at Three Wells
Minutes of the town council, in the school room by the east well, Three Wells. Longnight, 200. Written by Dace.
Present: Dace (mayor), the teacher, the baker, the innkeeper, Pell the merchant, two farmers up from Kettle Ridge, and a clerk from Vell who came to keep the record and stayed for the soup.
The wells. All three are swept of ice each morning. The middle well needs a new rope. Agreed: a new rope, from the mill at Ambrook.
The road. The Long Road is packed to the Brown Hen. Past that, the waymarks lean. Agreed: four new waymarks in Thaw, stone, with the torch on top.
The school. Coal is short. Agreed: buy two sacks from Copperhold, and mend the window.
The fair. A winter fair in Frost, as always. Apples and honey from Ambrook. Pell will bring wool.
Apprentices. There are three at the school, taught by the teacher. They are slow. One carries the coal. The teacher asks for a drill box and a spare crystal. Agreed, if the money holds.
The honey. Pell brought a jar from Ambrook as a gift for the town. It was opened at once. The clerk from Vell had three spoons and wrote nothing down about it.
The bell. It is rung at noon and not before. The rope is new. Bel is asked, kindly, to stop.
The mayor's cold. Noted. The mayor says it is not the worst thing that ever happened. The clerk wrote that down too.
Next meeting in Sowing, or when the road thaws, whichever comes first.
%%
Kell, tin and shelf, midwinter
Sold this week at the market, and what is left.
Sold:
Coal, from Copperhold: 3 sacks to the keeper's house, 2 to the baker.
Lamp oil: 5 jugs.
Flour: 4 sacks.
Needles: 20.
Nails: 100.
Left:
Coal: 5 sacks.
Flour: 2 sacks.
Rope: 1 coil, good.
Lamp glass: 6 panes, wrapped in straw.
The carters say the road from Copperhold is bad. They also say it is worse than last winter, and that last winter they said the same. A trader writes what he sees. I see the sacks getting fewer.
Emeralds in the tin: 58. Emeralds owed to me: 12. Emeralds I owe: 9. Almost even.
%%
After the flood: what is left
Wick, potter, Saltreach. In the night of the ninth of Longnight the sea came over the harbor wall and up to the second step of the shop. It stayed half a day. Counted on the tenth, with Tansy and the boy Rue.
Whole pots: 211.
Cracked pots: 64. These are seconds now. Sell them cheap.
Pots lost to the sea: 38.
Clay in the store: 6 sacks wet, 2 dry. Wet clay is not lost. It is only more of the same.
Salt for the kiln: 0. The sea took its salt back.
Firewood: all soaked. Dry it by the stove, one armful at a time.
Shop door: 1. Found two doors down, still shut.
Found in the shop when the water went: 1 fish, alive, in a big jug. 1 boot. 1 cat on the top shelf, very annoyed.
Hurt: nobody.
The cat is sure the flood was my fault. The cat may be right. I left the door open.
%%
North farm winter account, Deepsnow 207
Written by Dara, tutor of apprentices, after the field count. We counted in the store room because the wind blew loose snow through the east door. Neri held the list. Ivo held the door. Pip brought the lamp and set it on the shelf, where it could light the whole room. The dog came in behind us and lay on the warmest sack.

Wheat sacks: 38
Beetroot baskets: 22
Potato baskets: 34
Carrot baskets: 19
Pumpkins: 11
Apples: 29
Honey jars: 15
Coal baskets: 14
Oak logs: 27
Birch logs: 18
Spruce logs: 12
Wool blankets: 23
Lamp glass: 7
Iron hoes: 6
Copper pans: 4
Empty sacks: 19
Dry reeds: 10 bundles
Fence rails: 26
Clay jars: 8
Salt fish: 12

The salt fish came from a cart at the start of Longnight. We traded apples and honey for it. Neri says the fish is too salty. Ivo says that is why it keeps. The dog says nothing about it. He has not been given any.

Pip carried the coal baskets to the dry corner. It carried each one by the handle and set them in a neat row. One basket was heavier than the others. Pip set it down, moved it closer to the wall, and waited. Ivo checked it. A loose piece of iron had been left in with the coal. Neri says we should count loose iron. Ivo says we should stop putting it in coal baskets. Both are right.

We moved the old map from the chest to the table and compared it with the field. Its line from the well to the square runs under the old oat patch. The map is marked with a small circle there. We cleared snow from the patch and found a low stone lip under the frozen earth. Ivo tapped it with the back of his hoe. The sound was hollow.

We dug around the stone lip after the count. Beneath it was a narrow opening, partly filled with earth and old leaves. Cold air came out. We lowered the lamp on a rope. It showed a stone floor a little way below, then a dark turn. No one went down. The opening is too narrow for Ivo, and the ladder is not ready. Neri says we must not send Pip first. I agree.

We laid boards over the opening and marked the place with a tall stake. The sheep were brought into the near field before dusk. They tried to eat the stake. We moved them to the lower shed.

The count is finished. The wheat is dry. The apples are good. The roof needs fresh birch bark at the west edge when the weather warms. The dog has chosen the coal corner for his bed. We have moved him twice. He has returned twice. We will count the coal again tomorrow.
%%
Inventory: the north room
Written by Nessa on the first day of the cold month. A small room under the eaves, kept dry, with the spare glass for the lamp.
Glass panes, clear, cut to the frame: 12. Spare panes, rough: 4.
Lamp frame, copper, with ring: 1.
Lamp wicks, cotton: 30. Oil, jugs: 6.
Cloths for polishing: 8. Clean.
Ladder, rung-by-rung: 1, fixed to the wall, with a rope for the middle.
Ring, copper, for the lamp room: 1, polished.
Slate for the keeper's notes: 2.
Chalk: 1 box, half used.
Stove wood, bundles: 12.
Coal, sacks: 2.
Blankets, wool: 4.
Lantern, spare, with a cracked glass: 1. Keep it for the stair, not for the lamp.
Note: the room is cold even with the stove lit. The panes are kept covered with cloth at night. Nobody has said why we keep the spare glass so ready. The keeper says it is in case. In case of what, the keeper does not say. The keeper says the north has been quiet for a time, and the quiet is hard to bear, and so the glass is kept.
%%
Stores at Ivo's Farm, spring 158
Farm outside Saltreach, spring of 158. Counted by Ivo before the rain.

Wheat, 26 sacks
Carrots, 41
Potatoes, 33
Beetroot, 18
Apples, 12 baskets
Honey, 4 jars
Oak planks, 23
Cobblestone, 70
Glass panes, 6

The roof over the store shed has one loose row. Ivo says it is not a leak until water comes through. His wife says the roof has heard him and will wait for a storm. We moved the potatoes away from that wall.
%%
Inventory: the store at Kettle Ridge
Counted by Lorn, fisher, for the mill's tally.
Sacks of wheat: 38.
Sacks of beetroot: 12.
Sacks of potatoes: 9.
Bundles of carrots: 21.
Pumpkins, good: 14.
Pumpkins, soft: 2. Feed them to the pigs.
Apples, barrels: 6.
Honey, jars: 8. Hive three is the best, and everyone knows it.
Wool, fleeces: 17. Two of them black.
Eggs, baskets: 4. The basket count is not the egg count. The basket count is 4.
Rope, coils: 6.
Nails, boxes: 3.
Candles: 40.
Torches: 120. Keep the torches lit. You know why.
Fish, salted, barrels: 5.
Fish, fresh: 3, and they will not keep.
Salt: 11 sacks.
Flour: 20 sacks.
Bread: 4 loaves, gone by noon.
Biscuit the sheep: 1. Not in the store. She is asleep by the well again.
Lorn
%%
Notice: the winter count, Three Wells
Posted by Dace on the board by the wells. Frost, 206.
The school fire is lit at first light. Children may come to warm their hands before lessons.
The bell rings at noon and not before. The rope is new. Do not pull it for fun. Bel.
The wells are swept clean of ice each morning. Thank the sweepers.
Lanterns at every corner burn from dusk. The corner by the bakery needs a new wick.
The Long Road is packed and clear to the Brown Hen. Past that, ask the travelers.
Salt and sand are kept by the notice board. Take what you need. Put back what you do not.
The inn of twelve beds has nine blankets and wants wool.
The mayor's house has a cold and is not receiving visitors. The mayor is the visitor. Dace has a cold.
%%
Market Day Stores, spring 174
Farm outside Saltreach. Counted after market by Ivo.

Wheat, 22 sacks
Beetroot, 29
Carrots, 28
Potatoes, 34
Apples, 9 baskets
Honey, 3 jars
Eggs, 18
Oak planks, 14
Cobblestone, 51
Glass panes, 5

Sold at the market:
Wheat, 7 sacks
Beetroot, 8 bundles
Carrots, 6 baskets
Honey, 2 jars

Bought at the market:
Iron nails, 40
Wool, 3 bundles
A new bucket, 1

The bucket holds water well. This is its first good quality. Its second is that it has no hole. Ivo says those are the same quality. Sella says he may explain that to the old bucket.

The roof over the small shed is sound now. The roof over the store shed still needs work. Ivo has marked the loose row with a piece of red wool.
%%
Inventory: the farm store, first snow
Counted by Nessa and her brother Olin, at the farm outside Vell. Winter.
Wheat, sacks: 14.
Barley, sacks: 4.
Beetroot, sacks, cellar: 9.
Potatoes, sacks, cellar: 30. Several have eyes. Use first.
Carrots, bunches, sand box: 60.
Apples, dried, sacks: 6.
Apples, fresh, in straw, loft: 80.
Honey, jars: 22. Ama's best are on the top shelf, marked with a blue cloth.
Eggs, preserved in lime: 40.
Salt, sacks: 3.
Coal, sacks: 7. The mill man says there will be less by Frost.
Wood, bundles: 50. Oak at the back, birch at the front.
Candles, tallow: 60. Beeswax: 12.
Torches, bundled: 100, plus the spare pole.
Wool, bundles: 8.
Lamp oil, jugs: 5.
Rope, coils: 6, one of them frayed. Do not hang anything from it.
Tools: picks 2, shovels 4, hoes 3, sickles 6, saws 2. The saw with the loose handle is on the nail by the door, not in the store.
Spare crystal, in the dry box: 1. Do not open the box.
Note: the store is full. We do not know yet whether it will be needed. Nessa says it is better to count twice than to wish once.
%%
Store list: Bram's shed, Ambrook
Counted by Bram, first of Sowing, 168. Everything in the shed behind the house.
Apples in the dry box: 240. Wormy ones on the top: 9.
Honey in jars: 31. Jars with no lid: 2. I will find the lids.
Wool in a sack: 14 fleeces. One fleece is brown and stays brown.
Candles: 18. Short ones for the lantern: 6.
String, in a ball: 1. It is a big ball. Do not ask how long.
Nails in the tin: 400 or so. I did not count them one by one. Life is short.
Old oak boards: 5. Good for the loose plank on the bridge, or a bench.
Broken relay lamp: 1. It came down from the hill tower years back. Glass gone, copper ring bent. I keep it for the ring.
Frogs in the pond: many. They do not pay rent.
Seed for the garden: beetroot 3 bags, carrot 2, pumpkin 1.
A new copper vein was found up the hill, so the smith says. He says it runs right under my apple trees. He says I should not dig there. I was not going to dig there. I have apples to pick.
Tools: 2 spades, 1 fork, 1 axe with a new handle, 1 saw. The old axe head is in the tin with the nails, for luck.
Jam made this spring: 22 jars. Given away already: 6. To the school at Three Wells, mostly.
Stools in the kitchen: 4. One wobbles. Everyone knows which one. Guest sits on it.
%%
Field store list and work notes
North farm, beyond the last relay post. Count made by Dara, with Neri, Ivo, and apprentice Pip. The snow came early, so we shut the west gate before supper. The sheep came in by themselves. The hens did not. Ivo fetched them one at a time, with much advice from Neri.

Wheat sacks: 31
Beetroot baskets: 18
Potato baskets: 27
Carrot baskets: 16
Pumpkins: 9
Apples: 25
Honey jars: 12
Coal baskets: 11
Oak logs: 21
Birch logs: 15
Spruce logs: 8
Wool blankets: 18
Lamp glass: 5
Iron hoes: 4
Copper pans: 3
Empty sacks: 14
Dry reeds: 6 bundles
Fence rails: 20

Pip carried the empty sacks to the loft. It carried all fourteen, two at a time. The last pair covered its eyes. It stopped at the ladder and did not climb. Ivo took one sack away. Pip climbed at once. Neri said the lesson was plain. Ivo said the sacks were plain too, until they were over your face.

We checked the field wall after the count. The north corner has leaned inward. The frost lifted two stones and loosened the top rail. We set the stones back and packed snow around the foot. Ivo says snow is a poor wall stone. Neri says it is a fine thing to pack when nothing else is near.

The old map was found in the chest under the bench. It shows the field before the north fence was built. A thin line runs from the well to a little square beside the apple trees. No one here remembers a square there. The map has a note in a faded hand: "Keep the ditch clear in winter." We cleared it this afternoon. It was full of leaves and one wooden spoon.

The map also shows a path beyond the field, ending at a hill. Ivo says it is a sheep path. Neri says it is a ditch. Dara says we should walk it when the thaw comes. Pip stood by the map for a long time, then carried it to the dry chest. It put the spoon beside it. We left the spoon there. It may be part of the map.

The store roof is sound. The latch needs oil. The dog has been moved from the wool blankets to the old sack pile. He thinks this is a reward.
%%
Inventory: the things left in the cellar
Counted by Olin and his boy, Pim, after the wind took the roof off the lean-to. Late in Deepsnow.
Jars, broken: 7. Jars, whole: 19. Honey in the broken jars: a bucket, which is now in the pig trough.
Potatoes, lost to the wet: 6 sacks. Dug out, dried and kept for the pig. The pig is pleased.
Carrots, saved: 40 bunches. Lost: 12, which were rotten at the root.
Beetroot, saved: 5 sacks. Lost: 1 sack, which the cat has claimed.
Wool, saved: 6 bundles. Lost: 2 bundles to the rain, which we hung to dry in the barn. They smell of smoke now, from the stove.
Tools, saved: all. The saw with the loose handle was found in the orchard, two rows over, and is back on its nail.
Crates, wood: 4 broken, 2 mended.
Candles, saved: 40. Lost: 20.
Coal: the wet bin has been emptied. 3 sacks ruined. 4 sacks dried by the stove.
Roof, the lean-to: a new roof of oak is needed. Olin says three days. Nessa says a week. Pim says he will do it alone and both are wrong.
Note: nobody was hurt. The house is standing. The bees in the hill hive were under the snow and are asleep. There was a moment in the storm when Pim shouted for the lamp, and the lamp was lit, and by its light we could see the roof move. The light was steady. The wind was not. Pim is very proud of the light.
%%
Stores of the pottery house, midwinter
Wick, potter, Saltreach. Counted on the twentieth of Longnight, the longest dark of the year, to see if we can last until Thaw. Tansy wrote it down. I carried.
Food:
Flour: 4 sacks. Tansy says 3 and a half.
Potatoes: 2 barrels.
Beetroot: 1 barrel.
Dried fish: 60. We eat three a day, so that is twenty days.
Salt fish: 1 barrel. This is the winter's second reserve.
Honey: 3 jars. One is for Tansy's cough. Two are for the cough that has not come yet.
Apples: 40, wrinkled and sweet.
Eggs: 18, from Piper's cart at the last market.
Candles: 20, from the candle maker outside Three Wells. Good candles. They do not drip.
Work:
Clay: 8 sacks. 6 of them dried out after the flood. They are mixing.
Sand: 3 barrels.
Salt for the kiln: 5 sacks. The new salt came from the pans on the north shore.
Firewood: 10 loads. Four for the house, six for the kiln.
Pots in the shop: 280, of which 64 are seconds.
House:
Wool blankets: 9.
Lamps: 6, all lit in the evenings.
Cats: 1. The cat counts as a household, a stove, and a supervisor.
Jug the apprentice: 1. It does not eat. It carried forty pots a day through the flood. It dropped none. One was put down hard.
Old map: 1, over the stove.
Visitors since the flood: 31. All came to look at the stair.
Notes:
We can last until Thaw. We cannot last until Thaw and also feed the visitors. Tansy has put up a notice. It says: The map is free to look at. The soup is not.
%%
Stores at the mine gate, Longday 158
Ned's count for the summer feast. Copperhold, kept in my own hand.
Apples: 28
Barrels: 3
Cider jars: 16
Cups: 22
Oak staves: 7
Clean cloths: 9
The miners came up early. Hesk says the Deep Works was too hot for a feast below. He says the kitchen is too hot as well, but he ate there.
One barrel had a split hoop. We set it by the wall and marked it for mending. Clank was not yet at the mine gate then. There were no apprentices to carry the cups, so I carried them in two trips.
Hesk carried one cup and called it helping.
The first jar went to the cook. The second went to Hesk. He says he was tasting for sourness. The jar was sweet.
I set aside apples for the children of the tool store. They took the red ones first and left the sound green ones. I shall count those again tomorrow.
%%
Inventory of the relay house
Inventory of the relay house at Northpoint, kept by Mira and Lantern. Counted at the end of Apple, in the 208th year.
Lamp glass panes: 24, all whole. Two spares in the dry box.
Lamp wicks: 6.
Lamp oil: 12 jars.
Copper ring, signal lamp: 1, clean, no green on it. The roof is green but the ring is clean.
Torches round the foot of the tower: 32, all lit.
Rungs in the tower: 90. All sound. Lantern counted them twice to be sure.
Stair lamps: 12.
Redstone line down to the desk: 1, good, tested this morning.
Relay board: 1, the letters cut clean.
Ink: 8 jars.
Paper: 300 sheets.
Quills: 12. Lantern cuts them.
The big book by the desk: 1. Two hundred pages full, forty left.
Coal: 20 sacks.
Firewood: 30 armfuls.
Blankets: 6.
Wool socks: 14. Mira has 2. Lantern has 0 and says this is a fault in the counting.
Dried fish: 50.
Oats: 2 sacks.
Honey: 3 pots.
Tea, dried herbs from Lowmarsh: 1 jar.
Fur cloak: 1, mine, worn thin at the elbows.
Snow shovels: 2.
The relay keeps working. We keep it working. All well here.
Mira.
%%
Cider room stores, Reaping 188
Ned's summer count, Copperhold. The apples came from Ambrook by cart.
Apple baskets: 36
Sound apples: 29
Bruised apples: 7
Clean barrels: 6
Barrels needing hoops: 2
Cider jars: 31
Corks: 40
Oak staves: 14
Copper nails: 22
Water pails: 3
Cloths: 11
The bruised apples are for the first press. The sound ones can wait on the cool shelf. I put the small apples in a basket for the kitchen. The cook put them in a pie before I had finished counting. I counted the pie as one.
Hesk came in for water and asked if cider was ready. It was not. He sniffed the empty barrel and said it had a good nose.
At the press, the left handle sticks when the wood is dry. Rub it with a little oil. Do not pour oil into the apple tub. I wrote that after Pell tried to help.
The new copper nails are for the barrel rack. Keep them in the tin by the door, not in the bowl of corks. Last summer I spent half a morning looking for a cork and found a nail in my cider.
The pails are clean. Keep them that way. The miners bring dust on their boots, and dust gets everywhere.
%%
The old map and what came with it
Wick, potter, Saltreach. Counted in Deepsnow, after the flood, in the mud of the shop floor.
Rue's shovel hit something hard under the boards. It was a clay jar, sealed with wax. We opened it on the bench with the whole street watching. Inside:
Map: 1. Thin paper, brown, folded in four.
Shells: 3. Each with a mark scratched on it.
Copper ring: 1.
Note: 1. It says, in a hand I do not know: If the sea comes over the wall, the old harbor is under the shop. Dig for the pier.
Then we read the map.
It shows Saltreach as it was before the harbor wall. A bay. A long stone pier. A stair going down to the sea, right under where my shop stands now. Written on it in small letters: The water finds its old way.
What the map shows:
Piers: 2.
Quays: 1.
Stairs to the sea: 1, under the shop.
Sluice gates: 0. This is the trouble.
So the sea did not come over the wall. It came up the old stair, under the floor, and out through the boards.
Nobody had known there was a stair. Corin the shipwright says he suspected. He says it every time.
What we did:
Stone blocks: 40, from the yard.
Workers: 12, and the boy Rue.
Days: 3.
We filled the old stair with stone and set a sluice at the bottom. The next high tide did not come in.
The map hangs over my stove. The jar sits on the shelf. The shells I gave to Rue. He says the marks are numbers. He is learning to read them.
%%
Farm stores, Longnight 190
Dara made this count with Neri and Ivo. The snow reached the lower fence. We brought the last carrots in before dark. Neri said she saw a fox watching from the hedge. Ivo said it was watching the carrots. The fox did not come closer.

Wheat sacks: 18
Beetroot baskets: 12
Potato baskets: 21
Carrot baskets: 8
Pumpkins: 5
Apples: 16
Honey jars: 6
Coal baskets: 5
Oak logs: 14
Birch logs: 9
Wool blankets: 10
Lamp glass: 3
Iron hinges: 2
Empty jars: 7

The north shed leaks at the back corner. We put the empty jars there anyway. Neri says they will catch the leak. They caught one drop each, then the shelf bent. We moved them to the dry room.

The small apprentice carried two sacks of wheat to the store. It dropped one at the door and stood beside it. Ivo showed it the open door and pointed to the sack. It lifted the sack and carried it inside. Neri called that a fine answer. Ivo said the sack had asked a very clear question.

We have enough coal for the cook fire and the lamp. Keep the kindling dry. The dog is not to sleep in the wood box. He has ignored this rule every night.
%%
Store list: the school at Three Wells
What is kept in the school cupboard, by the east well. Counted by Dace with Bel, who counted twice. Frost, 204.
Slates: 24. One cracked, kept for the window.
Chalk: 60 pieces. Soft white.
Ink pots: 6. Small.
Pens: 9. Two bent.
Reading cards: 140. Some worn at the corners.
Copy books: 30. Bel has her name in three.
Picture cards: 22. The cow one is missing. Bel says she knows nothing.
Coal for the little stove: 2 sacks. The stove is the best thing in the room.
The school thanks everyone. The school asks the children to stop drawing on the desks. The desks are new.
%%
Stores: the inn of twelve beds
Counted at the inn in the square, Three Wells, in the first week of Longnight, 203. By Dace, with the innkeeper.
Beds: 12. Only 9 have blankets. Three are waiting for the wool.
Blankets: 9. One is Bel's, borrowed, no one knows why.
Candles: 40. The inn uses two a night in winter.
Lanterns: 5. Two need the glass mended.
Firewood: 3 cords, stacked at the back.
Barrels of water: 2.
Barrels of beer: 4. One is small.
Bread, baked this morning: 14 loaves.
Cheese: 5 rounds.
Soup pot: 1, big, always on.
The inn says it can sleep 20 if it must, and it must when the road freezes.
%%
Visit to grandmother Bram
Written by Bel, at Three Wells, spring of 193. A school essay about my grandmother.
My grandmother Bram lives in a small place near Ambrook. It is not a town, it is a few houses and a mill and a lot of apple trees. She has a shed with everything in it. She knows where everything is. She says the trick is to keep a list, and to leave the list in the shed, and not to carry it off in your pocket. Then she says the list is no good in the shed, and laughs.
She counts everything in her shed at the start of Sowing. Nails, jars, candles, wool. The nails are 400 or so. I asked how she knows. She said a grandmother knows.
The relay lamp on the hill is still dark. It has been dark a long time. Bram keeps the copper ring from a broken one on a nail by her door. It is bent. She says it is for luck. I asked how a broken lamp is luck. She said it is luck because the lamp did its job for many years and now it rests, and we should all be so lucky.
There is a new copper vein up the hill, so the smith says. He is very proud. Bram says a vein is only a hole until someone does the work.
We picked apples, but it was spring, so we picked the blossom and looked at it. The oldest tree has a grey branch. Bram says leave it. It still makes apples.
I asked if the frogs in the pond have names. She said some do and some do not and it is not polite to ask a frog.
When I left she gave me a jar of honey and a nail for luck. The honey is gone. I still have the nail.
%%
The shed and the tallies, midwinter
Counted by Sable, the night before the midwinter fire. The farm sends a count to the mill each year, so the mill can keep its tally of who has what. This one is kept with the bread.

Bread, loaves, from the oven: 18. Eaten at supper: 11. Left: 7. Hild says the dog ate one, and Sable says that is not in the count.
Flour, sacks: 3, one open.
Cheese, wheels: 4. One is the cheese Brun says was stolen by the cat.
Butter, crocks: 2. Pork fat, crocks: 3.
Milk, pails: 2. The cow is dry until Blossom.
Oil for the lamps, jars: 5. Keep the lamp by the door full. It is the one the mill asks about first.
Candles: 22. Only for the house and the stair. Not for the shed.
Tally marks on the wall by the door: 310 for the year. Sable has made the marks at each count since the house was built. There are more on the wall than there are days.
Woodpile: four cords by the stove, two in the yard. Good for the midwinter fire, and for one more.

Sable's note at the bottom: Hild should not be trusted with the cheese. Brun should not be trusted with the lamp. The dog should not be trusted with anything. Everything else is in order, and the fire is lit.
%%
Summer stock at Ned's store, Blossom 198
Copperhold, counted before the carts leave for the upper road.
Apples: 43 baskets
Good for pressing: 31 baskets
Bruised for the cook: 6 baskets
Small for the children: 6 baskets
Cider jars: 27
Clean barrels: 8
Barrels with loose hoops: 3
Oak staves: 19
Copper nails: 34
Corks: 50
Pails: 4
Cloths: 12
The press is sound. The left handle still sticks, though I have rubbed it twice. It may dislike me.
I have marked the jars for the mine kitchen, the tool store and the inn. The inn has asked for more than its share. The innkeeper says the miners are thirsty. The miners say the inn is thirsty. I shall send the count as written.
Pip brought the first basket from Kettle Ridge for Tam. He put it beside the door and carried in the empty baskets. That was right. He then carried out the full baskets again, because the order card said, "take the baskets to the cart." We stopped him before he reached the cart. He stood beside the road with a full basket in each hand until Tam came to fetch him.
Tam laughed so hard he dropped his hat. Pip put the hat in the basket. It is now counted as one hat, not one apple.
For next summer, ask the cart folk to bring more rope. The old rope held, but only because Hesk sat on the knot.
%%
Summer count for the cider shed
Ned's record, Copperhold. Counted before the feast and read back by Jori.
Apple baskets: 52
Sound baskets: 38
Bruised baskets: 8
Small baskets: 6
Barrels: 11
Barrels needing hoops: 2
Cider jars: 46
Clean corks: 61
Oak staves: 25
Copper nails: 48
Water pails: 5
Cloths: 16
Rope lengths: 7
The sound apples came from Ambrook. The smaller load was late because a wheel came loose on the hill road. No one was hurt. The driver sat under the cart and held the wheel in place while Jori found the pin.
The bruised apples are pressed first. The small ones are for the children and the cook. Do not mix them with the sound baskets. The cook knows this. The cook says a pie is a better place for a small apple than a basket.
One barrel has a soft board near its foot. It is for water until it is mended. Do not use it for cider. I have tied a cloth to the handle as a mark. Hesk says the cloth looks like a flag. It is a useful flag.
The press is washed and dry. Keep the pails by the stone trough. Keep the corks in the lidded box. Last year, a mouse took one cork and hid it under the flour shelf. We found it when the cook swept. The mouse is not on the store list.
We have enough staves for two new barrels, if the cooper sends the hoops. He says the hoops are ready. Hesk says he has heard that before. The feast will begin when the first jar is opened, not when the first man asks if it is ready.
%%
Ivo's Farm Store Book, spring 204
Counted on market morning by Ivo, Len, and apprentice Moss.

Wheat, 51 sacks
Beetroot, 58
Carrots, 47
Potatoes, 52
Pumpkins, 16
Apples, 35 baskets
Honey, 14 jars
Eggs, 43
Oak planks, 41
Birch planks, 19
Cobblestone, 121
Glass panes, 18
Iron nails, 96
Copper, 7 bars
Wool, 8 bundles
Coal, 13 sacks
Rope, 5 coils
Empty baskets, 22

For market day at Saltreach we loaded wheat, beetroot, carrots, honey, and three baskets of apples. The apples are small but sound. Ivo put the largest basket on top. Len put it back on the bottom, because the road has a rut by the bridge.

A cart from the harbor brought two bundles of wool and a tin of nails. Ivo counted the nails twice. The driver counted them once and said there were enough. Ivo said enough is not a number.

Moss carried the empty baskets from the shed to the cart. It carried four at a time and set each stack beside the gate. Then Ivo asked it to carry the rope. Moss took all five coils. It dragged the last coil through the mud and made a long brown line across the yard.

Len told Ivo not to scold it. The rope was already dirty. Ivo said rope can be washed, but a yard cannot be put away. He then swept the mud line from the gate. Moss watched him sweep and held the broom.

We need six glass panes for the west roof. The old panes are stacked by the wall, with straw between them. One has a crack at the corner. Ivo says it will serve above the tool shelf. Len says it will serve only until it rains. We will put it there after market.

The little shed roof is sound. The store shed roof is sound. The hen house roof is sound except for one board near the back. Ivo says he will mend it after the fair. Len says he said that before the last fair. The hens have made no complaint. They are busy.

At the market, we will ask after the letter found in the flour box years ago. The baker has kept it safe in a drawer. He says the small jar may have been for his mother, who sold honey before him. No one knows who wrote the letter. We will bring one jar anyway.

Moss has been tested on a load of carrots and a load of planks. It carried the carrots without crushing them. It carried the planks without dropping them. It is learning the road to the gate. It still turns toward the well when Ivo says home. The well is not home, though the bucket seems to think so.

At the end of the day, the store door was shut, the roof was dry, and the cart was ready. Len counted the jars again. Ivo counted the nails. Moss counted neither. It stood by the gate with the broom, waiting for another order.
%%
Ledger of the autumn stores, 203
Kept by Lorn, fisher, who is older now, so the numbers are bigger.
The hamlet has grown. The store has grown with it. We count once in autumn and once after the snow.
Wheat, sacks: 64.
Beetroot, sacks: 30.
Potatoes, sacks: 25.
Carrots, bundles: 40.
Pumpkins: 22.
Apples, barrels: 11.
Honey, jars: 19. Twelve from our hives. The other seven came down from Ambrook.
Wool, fleeces: 28.
Eggs, baskets: 9. The basket count is still not the egg count.
Salt, sacks: 30.
Fish, salted, barrels: 16.
Bread: gone by noon. We do not count bread. Bread counts itself.
Rope, coils: 14.
Nails, boxes: 8.
Candles: 90.
Torches: 300. The road wants more every year. Keep the torches lit.
Lanterns for the boats: 6. All lit at dusk.
Oars: 12. Nine straight.
Nets: 9. Two mended.
Tools for the apprentices: a rack of them, hammers and hoes and buckets. We have two apprentices now, both small minds, both good at a row and a sort. They cannot read an order yet, not the whole sentence, but they carry and they dig and they never rest. One of them sorts the apples by colour and never gets it wrong. The other digs where I point. I have stopped pointing at the water.
A big mind in a relay house came to the tower on the hill this year, in its crystal on its stand, ringed by quickeners kept cool with water. Now our apprentices ask it when they are stuck. It answers through the relays. It once told me the count was wrong by one sack. It was right. I do not argue with it, and I do not know how it knows.
Market day was the best of the autumn. Stalls round the square, a fair for the children, and a contest of apprentices on a small field drawn on a board. The windmill squeaked. It always does.
Biscuit the sheep is very old now and still asleep by the well every morning. Tam's son brings her down and takes her home. He carries her the last part. She is still not a small sheep.
My child is grown and fishes from her own boat. Her child ran off during the selling of the fish, just as she did. We found the little one under the mill wheel, giving bread to the cat. The cat is grey and very fat and will not leave. We have had a cat under the wheel ever since, and I have stopped asking how.
Pell still owes me for the fish. I have written it in the ledger. Pell says a ledger is a fine place for a debt, because it is quiet there. I have written that down too.

Lorn
%%
Notes on the cellar and the cold box
Written by Sable, night watch. Kept with the count, because the cellar is where the count begins, and where Brun says it always ends.

The cellar is cut into the slope under the house. It is dry in the summer and cold in the winter. In the winter it is the coldest place on the farm, except for the cold box at the back, which is colder.

The bins: carrots at the left, potatoes at the right. Beetroot in the cold box, in straw, with the lid on. Apples in the loft, not here. The apples do not like the cellar. They get soft and tell lies about how long they have.

Put the soft things at the front. Put the old things at the front. Sable's rule: whatever you took in first, you take out first. Hild says it is the same rule for children, and nobody argues with Hild about children.

A cold box is only as good as its lid. The lid on the back box has been wedged with a stick since the spring. Brun says he will fix it. He has said so three times. The beetroot have not minded so far.

Last note. Ellis asked this morning where the cold goes when the cellar door is shut. Sable said it goes to the back, and stays there, and waits to be let out. Ellis said that sounded like a frog. Sable said it was very like one.
%%
Market day at the ridge, autumn 166
The wind came up from the west and took the cloth off the stalls. We chased a hat to the ditch and back. The windmill squeaked on every turn. It always does.

We sold 14 sacks of flour and all the honey. There are only 8 jars, so that is honest. Pell bought three and said the price was robbery. Then he bought a fourth. He always does this.

Biscuit the sheep got loose and ate the flowers from the bench by the well. She looked pleased. Her owner, Tam, walked over to fetch her. He said one day he will build a fence she cannot beat. He has said this four times now.

The fair had a stall for children who lose things. A girl named Bel from Three Wells found a mitten and asked everyone whose it was. She asked for an hour. Nobody came for the mitten, so she kept it, and she wore it, and she was very proud of it.

Pell's hat blew off again. Someone caught it. It was Pell's hat. Everyone knew.

We sold all the fish. We bought bread and a long rope. A good day.

Lorn
%%
Store count
Counted by Sable, night watch, on the last night of Frost, with the lamp on the barrel and the dog asleep on the sacks. Farm outside Copperhold, on the east road below the shaft head. Checked again in the morning by Hild, who says Sable counts the sacks twice and the cheese three times.

Wheat, in sacks: 24.
Barley, in sacks: 6.
Carrots, in the cellar bin: 40 bundles.
Potatoes, in the bin by the stair: 22 sacks, two of them soft. Eat the soft ones first.
Beetroot, in the cold box: 16. Hild says there were 17, and she has eaten one.
Pumpkins, on the high shelf: 9. One is cracked. Do not put it on the top.
Apples, in the loft, on straw: 60. Four have started to brown. Sort them tomorrow.
Honey, in jars: 12. Two jars labeled Brun, which Brun will want back.
Eggs, in the crate: 30. The hens have stopped for the cold. Do not expect more before Thaw.
Wool, in bales: 4. Dry. Keep the damp off.
Coal, in the shed: 6 sacks. Coal from the Deep Works, as always. Four more by the first snow.
Torches, in the box by the door: 44. Light the ones on the north side first.
Iron ingots, for the forge: 9.
Copper ingots, for the forge: 3. Keep them under the bench, away from the water.
%%
Notice: song contest at Northpoint
Notice, put up at the relay house and at the inn. Written by Quill, who keeps the fire going.
On the last day of Apple we hold the song contest. Everyone comes. Bring a song.
The rules are few.
1. Anyone may sing, old or young, alone or with others.
2. A song must be one we can all follow. No long words in it. If we cannot join the chorus, it is not a good song.
3. You may bring a drum, a whistle, a fiddle or a pot. A pot is allowed. My pot is allowed.
4. Lantern will keep the lamps lit. Mira will keep the tally. She is fair, and she is dry about it.
5. The prize is a pot of honey and the right to choose the last song.
Last year the miners from Copperhold came up and sang a song about the dark. It had forty verses. It was a fine song but we were cold by the end. This year, short songs.
Children go first, so they can go to bed. Then the rest of us.
Bring a chair. Bring a friend. Bring a torch to walk home by.
Quill.
%%
Count of the north field store
Written by Dara, tutor, with help from Neri and Ivo. We counted after the snow stopped. The sheep stayed in the lower shed. We left the gate open at noon, but they preferred the hay.

Wheat sacks: 24
Beetroot baskets: 15
Potato baskets: 19
Carrot baskets: 13
Pumpkins: 7
Apples: 18
Honey jars: 9
Coal baskets: 8
Oak logs: 17
Birch logs: 12
Spruce logs: 6
Wool blankets: 14
Lamp glass: 4
Iron tools: 5
Empty sacks: 11

The apprentice carried the small baskets first. It set each one beside the right mark on the floor. It put the pumpkins beside the potato mark. Neri moved the pumpkin mark. Ivo said that was not fair to the apprentice. Neri said the pumpkin mark had been wrong since harvest.

Dara tested the apprentice with three baskets it had not carried before. It put the carrots beside the carrots, then the apples beside the apples. The last basket held turnips from the garden. There is no turnip mark. It set the basket by Dara's boots and waited.

We made a new mark with charcoal. The apprentice carried the basket to it. Ivo says we should make marks for every food. Neri says we will need a very large floor. We agreed to mark only what we store.

The spare lamp glass is wrapped in wool. The back shutter needs a new bar before the next snow. Ivo will cut one from oak. He says it will be straight. I have seen his last straight bar.
%%
Tally: what the town keeps in the wells
A list kept by Dace of what is stored and counted round the three wells of Three Wells, where the two roads cross. Deep winter, 205. In case anyone asks, and everyone asks in winter.
The wells themselves: 3. Clean water in all three. Swept of ice at first light.
Rope for the wells: 2 new, 1 old.
Lanterns at the corners: 8. All lit at dusk.
Oil for the lanterns: 4 jars.
Buckets: 7. One lost down the middle well. Do not ask.
The notice board: 1, with 6 notices and one drawing by Bel.
The bell: 1, rung at noon. The rope is new.
Salt and sand for the road: 6 sacks, by the board.
Firewood for the corner brazier: 4 cords.
Stalls, on market day: 14.
Wool from Ambrook: 8 bales.
Honey from Ambrook: 12 jars, and one more that was a gift and is now empty.
Apples, in the cellar of the inn: 40, in straw.
Cheese: 6 rounds.
Bread, baked each morning: 20 loaves at the bakery, more on market day.
Coal from Copperhold: 4 sacks, for the school stove.
Emeralds in the strong box: 22. The school and the road come first.
Apprentices about the square: 2. One carries the wood. One stands by the board and reads the notices, or seems to. It does not tell anyone what they say.
The town thanks everyone who shoveled the square before dawn. The town asks everyone to stop leaving the cats by the brazier. The cats are warm but they are in the way.
Dace notes the honey jar is a gift, and gifts are counted twice. Once when they come, and once when they are gone.
%%
Kell, a list of what people say
The market at Northpoint is mostly quiet in winter. People talk while they buy. I write the talk down, one thing a line, because I count things and this is a thing.
Heard this week:
1. The lamp on the tower was blinking all night. Seen by: 6 people. It always blinks. Not in a long strange row, they say.
2. The stone in the Deep Works at Copperhold is warm. Said by: 3 carters, 1 miner. The miner did not stay to say more.
3. The lights in the north were back. Seen by: Pell, Brann, a child. The child said they were looking at us. Pell said they were falling stars. Brann said fires. Nobody said it was ours.
4. A fishing boat did not come home to Saltreach. Said by: 2 people. Another said it came home a day late with no fish. A third said there were two boats, not one.
5. The grey cough at Lowmarsh is worse. Said by: 4 traders. Blamed on: the water, the ships, the mines. Each trader had a different blame.
6. Families are leaving Saltreach in big ships. Said by: 5 people. Nobody could say where the ships go.
7. Two towers are silent in the north. Said by: 1 carter, and then the same carter again the next day, with a different two towers.
Total talk heard: 7 things. Total true, as far as I can tell: some. Which ones, I cannot count.
What I know is on the shelf: 11 sacks of oats, 8 of barley, 40 candles, 12 jars of honey. The rest is talk.
I will be here next market. I will count again.
%%
Store list, Quill's house, Northpoint
Store list for the house at the edge of Northpoint. Quill's house, the last house before the snow. Counted on the first of Apple, in the 203rd year.
Firewood, spruce, dry, by the door: 40 armfuls.
Firewood, birch, for the small stove: 12 armfuls.
Coal: 30 sacks, from Copperhold, down the Long Road.
Torches: 60.
Lamp oil: 4 jars.
Candles: 0. We use lanterns.
Flour: 6 sacks.
Oats: 3 sacks.
Salt: 2 barrels.
Dried fish: 80.
Smoked fish: 30.
Cod, fresh, in the cold shed: 22.
Salt beef: 1 barrel.
Beetroot, in the cellar: 200.
Potatoes, in the cellar: 300.
Carrots: 150.
Pumpkins: 9, on the shelf.
Apples, from Ambrook: 60, in straw.
Honey: 5 pots, from the hives of Ambrook too.
Wool: 40 bundles.
Wool cloaks: 6. One is small and belongs to my grandson.
Wool socks: 22. I keep losing them.
Boots: 4 pairs. Three fit me.
Fishing line: 3 coils.
Fish hooks: 40.
Ice, in the ice house: 20 blocks, cut from the pond in Deepsnow.
Snow shovels: 2.
Fur blankets: 8.
Good cheer: plenty, says my daughter. I wrote it down because she made me.
%%
The Letter in the Flour Box, spring 181
Counted by Ivo, with help from Sella and their daughter Len.

Wheat, 28 sacks
Beetroot, 32
Carrots, 40
Potatoes, 27
Pumpkins, 9
Apples, 21 baskets
Honey, 6 jars
Eggs, 25
Oak planks, 17
Cobblestone, 62
Glass panes, 7
Iron nails, 29

We found a letter in the flour box. It was folded twice and had a flour mark across the front. The name was rubbed away. The writing said, "I will come by the east road after market. Keep the small jar for me." There was no jar with it.

Sella thinks it came from the baker. Ivo thinks it came from a hungry person. Len says the letter is hungry, because it asks for a jar. We have put it in the dry chest at the house.

The flour box is empty now. The letter was not edible, though Len asked.
%%
Store list: what the boats need
Kept by Lorn, at the boathouse by the water.
Rope, coils: 6. Two are going soft. Replace them before the ice.
Poles for the posts: 9. The middle one is leaning.
Oars: 7. Only four are straight enough to row with.
Nets: 5. One has a hole the size of a cat. I will mend it.
Mending twine, small spools: 3.
Lanterns for the boats: 4. All four lit at dusk. I checked each one.
Oil for the lanterns: 2 jugs. One nearly empty.
Floats: 22.
Hooks: 40 or so. I stopped counting because my hands got cold.
Baskets for the catch: 6.
Salt for the catch: 11 sacks.
Blankets in the shed: 3. Mine is the blue one with the wool pulled. Do not take it.
Torches by the door: 30. Keep the torches lit.
Biscuit the sheep: not a boat thing. But she is here every morning, asleep by the water, so I have put her on the list.

If anyone finds a second oar with a red band, it is mine. The band is red. The oar is mine.

Lorn
%%
Inventory: the bee house and the orchard
Counted at the farm outside Vell by Olin. A fine winter so far. Everything dry.
Hives, full: 4. Hives, empty: 2. The empty ones have been scrubbed and turned to face the wall.
Honey, jars, sealed: 31. Jars open: 2, for the house.
Wax, blocks: 14.
Smoke pots: 3. Smoke pot number two has a crack and should not be lit.
Bee veils: 2, one torn. Mend the torn one before Swarm.
Ladders, short: 2. Ladders, tall: 1, held on the hooks.
Apple presses: 1.
Barrels, empty: 9. Barrels, full of cider: 2. One barrel has been left for a bet and is not to be counted until the bet is settled.
Pruning hooks: 6. Sharpen in Thaw.
Straw, bundles: 40. Good for wrapping apples and for the bees in the hard frost.
Cloth, squares for the hives: 12.
Note: the bet is between Olin and Nessa, over whether the bees will swarm early in the next Thaw. Olin says early. Nessa says late, because the cold has been long. The barrel is the stake. The bees have not been consulted.
%%
Flood book, Sable farm
Written by Sable, night watch, in the spring the creek came over the low field. Kept in the back of the store count, so that it would be read.

The creek rose in the night. First the ditch by the gate filled, and then the water went over the wall at the bend.
Sable woke the house at the second watch. Hild took the children up to the loft. Brun took the cart to the high road.
The water came into the barn to the height of a step. It took the straw, and two sacks of barley, and a bucket of eggs that somebody had left on the floor.
The pig pen flooded. The pig did not mind. It swam to the far corner and waited, as pigs will.
By the third watch the water was at the top of the pump. Sable walked the wall with a lantern and counted the posts. Seven were loose. Four were gone.
At first light the water was going down. The mud was thick on the path and the smell was bad.
We counted what was left. Sable says we lost one sack of barley, the straw, eleven eggs and one hen, who came back by herself the next day, wet and cross. The rest is in the loft, where it was dry.
Lesson: the barn floor is too low for the spring. Raise it a step. Sable says Brun will want to argue about this. Let him.
%%
Kell's stall, Northpoint market
Counted at dusk, the last market before the deep snow.
Dried fish: 14 bundles.
Wool mittens: 9 pairs. Two are for the keeper at the tower.
Candles: 30. Candles are not for the archive, only for the stall.
Salt: 6 sacks.
Honey from Ambrook: 4 jars. Cold honey is thick. Sell it slow.
Socks: 0. The foxes had them. I am not joking this time.
Emeralds in the tin: 41.
%%
Relay keeper's note: the small lamp
Written by Dunn, the small relay on the hill above the mill pond, spring of 208. Dunn keeps the waymarks and the lamp both.
The small lamp is still dark. It went dark in 181, a bird or the wind. The copper ring is bent and hangs on a nail by Bram's door for luck. I keep hoping someone from Vell will come and fix it. They are busy building bigger things now, and the small towers wait.
The relay house at the foot of the tower has a new mind on a stand. It came last autumn. It is a big mind in a crystal and it answers the apprentices by letter. It hums a little. It does not mind the dark lamp. It works by its own light, whatever that is, and I do not ask.
The apprentices come up the hill for orders now. There are more of them than there used to be. One of them helped me carry a post for a waymark. It did not talk. It just did the job and went. Nessa at Vell says that is how it should be.
The smith's new copper vein is still yielding. The apprentices dig there now, which the smith likes and does not like. He says they are quick and they do not stop for tea.
The apple blossom is out. Bram's bees are out. The frogs are back in the pond, and the children have named them again.
If anyone from Vell comes this way, the small lamp wants a new glass pane and a straight ring. Until then, carry a torch. I will keep the waymarks.
%%
Count of the north shed
Sable, night watch, Copperhold farm. Kept for the mine office, since they asked for a count of what the farm had and what it had not.

Ploughs, two, iron: both in the shed.
Harrow, one: in the shed.
Hoe, four: three in the shed, one at the bottom of the well, where Ellis dropped it at harvest.
Carts, two: both in the yard.
Harness, three sets: two in the shed, one on the cart ox, who says it is his.
Rope, long coil, five: four in the shed, one on the roof of the hay barn.
Lanterns, glass fronted, six: five on the hooks, one cracked. Ellis says it fell off the hook. Sable says Ellis did not hang it right.
Buckets, wood, twelve: eleven. Twelfth lost at the creek in the flood.

Child: Ellis, age seven, last seen at the feed trough at the second bell. Not found at the third bell. Not found at the fourth.

Search, by lantern, round the shed and the yard. Hild looked in the hen house. Brun looked in the pig pen, and the pig did not help. Sable walked the path to the creek and called. Nothing answered but the dog.

At the fifth bell Ellis came up the path from the east field, with mud to the knees and a jar of frogs in both hands. He said he had been looking for the bridge.

Ellis was told to stay in the house for three days. He stayed for two, and then went to watch the frogs again, under Hild's eye. Hild says the frogs are all in the jar, and that the jar is in the window, and that Ellis has named them.
%%
Gift list: Longnight at Three Wells
A list of the gifts given at the school on the last day before Longnight, 207. Written down by Bel, who is about nine, for the archive.
A scarf for the teacher. Wool, grey. Made by Hanna.
An apple for each child. From Ambrook. They came up the Long Road in a cart.
A jar of honey for the mayor. From Ambrook too. Dace said it was the best gift and let everyone have a spoon. Bel had two spoons.
A drawing of the three wells. Bel made it. It is very good. It is on the wall.
A tail for the dog at the inn. Not a real tail. A wool one. The dog does not like it.
A loaf of bread for the sweepers. Warm.
A song. Everyone sang it. Bel does not remember the words.
The archive is asked to keep this. It is a good list.
%%
Store Book, spring 196
Farm outside Saltreach. Ivo counted the stores. Len checked his marks.

Wheat, 43 sacks
Beetroot, 46
Carrots, 39
Potatoes, 44
Pumpkins, 12
Apples, 28 baskets
Honey, 11 jars
Eggs, 36
Oak planks, 32
Birch planks, 15
Cobblestone, 103
Glass panes, 12
Iron nails, 71
Wool, 6 bundles
Coal, 9 sacks

The new roof over the store shed is finished. Ivo used oak planks and copper nails from the town smith. He left a short piece of oak beside the door. He says it is a spare. Len says it is too short to be useful. Ivo has put it on the shelf marked useful.

A small apprentice carried the planks from the yard. It walked with a load on its back and stopped when Ivo said stay. It did not stop when Len said stay. Len had been speaking to the cat.

The apprentice had been tested at the tutor house before it came to us. It carried six planks without dropping one. It carried seven planks and dropped one on Ivo's boot. Ivo says the test was honest.

The cat sat under the work bench all morning. The apprentice did not see it. The cat saw everything.
%%
Store room count, summer of 158
At Orla's house, beyond the west well of Three Wells.
Counted by Orla and Bess before the market opens.

3 sacks of wheat
2 sacks of beetroot
1 sack of potatoes
4 carrots in the kitchen basket
1 pumpkin by the back door
6 apples in the small chest
2 clay bowls
1 iron pot
7 cups, one with a crack
3 wool blankets
1 spare pair of boots
2 torches for the yard
1 bucket with a loose handle
5 emeralds in the blue jar

Bess says the jar is not a safe place.
Bess put it there.
Orla says the jar is safe if nobody knows.
The baker knows. He brought the jar.

The loose handle is to be mended before we draw from the well.
The cracked cup is for visitors who ask for water twice.
The boots belong to Bess. She says they are too small.
They fit her when she stands still.
%%
Notice: the bridge plank and the lamp
A notice from the hamlet near Ambrook, spring of 181. Set up by Bram, who keeps the shed and the notices.
The loose plank on our bridge is fixed now. Pell's cart lost a wheel there last Apple, and we all said we would fix it. We have fixed it. The wood came from Bram's shed.
The relay lamp on the hill has been dark since Frost. A bird or the wind, nobody knows. The keeper at Vell says it is a small tower and a small lamp, and he will send someone when he can. Until then, if you are going to Three Wells, carry a torch and go by the road, not the shortcut over the hill.
The new copper vein up the hill is a good thing. The smith is happy. He has a new apron and talks about nothing else. Do not dig near the apple trees. The trees have been here longer than the smith.
Spring work, same as every year:
Hives open when the bees come out. Bram has three hives and a hat with a net.
Apple blossom watch. First pink bud: send a child to tell Bram.
Frogs are back in the mill pond. The children have named some of them. This is allowed.
If you find a jar with no lid, it is Bram's. Return it. She has 2 missing and will not rest.
The bridge is fixed. Use it. Walk, do not run. The plank is new and wants to be treated kindly.
%%
Notes on the autumn fair, by Pell
Notes on the autumn fair at Three Wells, kept by Pell, merchant of the Long Road, in the 201st year. I write these for my own ledger, and for my sister in Ambrook, who likes gossip.
I left Ambrook with a cart of apples and honey. The bridge still has the loose plank. I know it is loose. I stepped on it anyway. The apples held.
On the Long Road the waymarks were good. A traveler had left little stones on top of each, as people do. I left one too.
At Three Wells the square was full. Three wells, and stalls all round them. I sold the honey first. Then the apples. Then I sold my old boots to a man who said they were the finest boots he had seen. They were not. He knows it. We are both content.
The school play was that day. Bel was the harvest, in a cloak of wheat. Tomas spilled the water for the frost. Nobody was cross.
In the evening there was the song contest. The folk from Northpoint came down with a drum and a pot. Quill sang about a lost sock and everyone joined the chorus. I have not laughed so much since Blossom.
I bought 40 wool bundles, 10 jars of honey and a good clay jug. I sold the cart and bought a smaller one. The road is long. The smaller cart is better.
Corin at Saltreach sent word by the relay: 40 iron on its way from Copperhold. The relays were quick that week. Pell read the letters and was glad of them.
I go home to Ambrook before Frost. I will take the loose plank slowly this time.
Pell.
%%
Shelf count: Wick's pots, Frost
Wick, potter, Saltreach. Counted on the first of Frost, before the winter firing. Tansy counted too. We do not agree on the mugs.
Jugs, big: 14.
Jugs, small: 22.
Bowls: 60.
Mugs: 48. Tansy says 49. One has no handle, so it is a cup.
Plates: 30.
Lamps, clay: 12.
Roof tiles: 200.
Pots with lids: 9. Lids: 11. Two lids are looking for a pot.
Cat bowls: 3. The cat uses one.
%%
Inventory of the west house
Summer of 194. Orla's house at the edge of Three Wells.
Bess counted the food. Fen checked the tools.
The apprentice waited by the door and did not touch the board.

Food and house stores
9 sacks of wheat
5 sacks of beetroot
4 sacks of potatoes
2 baskets of carrots
17 apples
5 loaves of bread
1 cheese wrapped in cloth
3 jars of honey
1 jar of salt
1 clay jug of milk
12 cups
7 clay bowls
2 iron pots
4 wool blankets
1 spare wool coat
18 emeralds in the blue jar

Well gear
1 deep well
1 oak windlass
1 iron pin for the windlass
2 good buckets
1 bucket with a split handle
1 long rope
1 shorter rope for the yard
8 boards for the drain
1 stone weight
1 clean cloth for the well rim

Yard and work
1 oak bench
1 table with a burn mark
2 stools
1 shade cloth
10 torches
1 tool chest
1 iron shovel
2 copper hooks
1 hand cart
1 wheel with a squeak
1 board for sums
4 pieces of chalk

The apprentice is called Tally. It carries water from the well to the kitchen.
It has been tested with three buckets and one empty pot.
It carried the empty pot very carefully.
Bess says an empty pot does not need careful carrying.
Fen says the pot may have feelings.
Orla says the pot is clay.

Tally knows fetch water, stay, and come.
It does not know what to do when Fen says, "Come here, if you please."
Nessa says we must use the same words in the drill.
Fen has been told not to add "if you please" until the test is done.

The split handle is for mending.
The apprentice is not to carry that bucket.
Fen is not to carry it either.
%%
Ledger of the hamlet near Ambrook
Kept by Bram, 150 to 195. A little book that stays in the shed. I write in it when there is something worth writing down. There is often not.
Year 155. Built the shed bigger. The apples were too many for the old shed. A good problem.
Year 160. The bridge got a stone end. Oak for the middle. Stone if you can, oak if you must.
Year 168. Counted the shed. 400 nails or so. Pell still owes for a stool at the inn. Not our inn. Not our stool. I just like to remember.
Year 174. A relay tower came to the hill above the mill pond. Small one. One lamp, one keeper. He was a nice young man and then he was an old one. The lamp was lit every night for years.
Year 181. The lamp went dark. A bird, they said. The keeper at Vell never came. We carry torches now and go by the road.
Year 185. The smith found a new copper vein up the hill. He has a new apron. We hear about the vein every market day.
Year 190. Bel came to visit. A child from Three Wells. Asked a hundred questions and wrote them all down. Sent them to the Archive. The Archive wrote back. Bel was very pleased.
Year 193. Bel came again. Older now. Gave me a nail. I gave her honey. A fair trade.
Year 195. The apples were good this year. The oldest tree still has its grey branch and still makes apples. The bees are well. The frogs are well. The shed is full. The list is in the shed. Everything is in its place.
%%
Ledger: the market stalls, winter fair
The winter fair at Three Wells, counted by Dace at close, Frost, 207. In emeralds.
Stalls in the square: 14, round the three wells.
Apples sold: 90. Beeswax candles: 30. Honey: 20 jars, from Ambrook.
Wool: 12 bales. Cheese: 8 rounds. Salt fish: 40.
Pottery from Lowmarsh: 22 bowls, 9 cracked, sold cheap.
Apprentices at the fair: 3. Two carried baskets. One sorted the apples and pears into two piles, all day, without stopping. The apple seller says it was the best helper she ever had. She gave it a jar of honey. It did not eat the honey. It held the jar until she took it back.
Copper and iron tools from Copperhold: 18, sold by Hesk's crew.
The bell was rung twice. Once to open. Once by a child. Bel.
The mayor thanks the stalls. The mayor thanks the honey. The mayor has a cold and is going to bed.
%%
Kell, the new road
They are cutting a road east from the market, to the hollow where the foxes were. It is to join the old north road at the second waymark. The masons from Three Wells came up with their carts and set stakes with red wool.
Stakes set: 40.
Torch posts ordered: 10.
Cobblestone ordered: 6 carts. Four have come. Two are lost in the snow, or at Copperhold, or both.
Workers at the market, buying bread and boots: 18.
Hot stew sold to the road crew: 26 bowls.
The mayor says the road will make Northpoint easier to reach. The old keeper says there was nothing wrong with how hard it was. The children want to know if the road goes all the way to the lights.
Nobody knows where the road will end. It ends where the stakes end. Past that, the snow.
Some say the road is a good thing. Some say a road goes both ways. Some say it is only a road.
Today I counted 12 sacks of grain brought in by cart. Last winter it was 20. I do not say why. I only count.
%%
Kiln load: the winter firing
Wick's kiln, Saltreach. Lit on the second of Frost, fired two days and a night, with twelve loads of wood.
In:
Jugs: 40. Bowls: 60. Roof tiles: 100. Lamps: 8. Clay pig: 1, for Tansy's shelf.
Salt thrown in at the end: 3 handfuls. It gives the glaze a skin like an orange.
Out:
Jugs: 38. Two cracked.
Bowls: 58. Two cracked.
Roof tiles: 100. All sound.
Lamps: 7. One melted. It had a bubble of air in it.
Clay pig: 1. It came out looking surprised.
Wood left: 0. The whole store.
The cracked ones go on the seconds shelf. The cracked ones are always the best pots. Nobody knows why.
%%
Notice: the hamlet store, autumn 208
Posted on the store door by the mill pond, near Kettle Ridge. Put up by Lorn, fisher, and the folk of the store.
What we hold, one thing a line with its number. Ask at the store.
Wheat, sacks: 70.
Beetroot, sacks: 34.
Potatoes, sacks: 28.
Carrots, bundles: 45.
Pumpkins: 24.
Apples, barrels: 14.
Honey, jars: 22.
Wool, fleeces: 31.
Eggs, baskets: 10. The basket count is not the egg count. It is still not.
Salt, sacks: 34.
Fish, salted, barrels: 18.
Rope, coils: 16.
Nails, boxes: 10.
Candles: 110.
Torches: 360. Keep the torches lit.
Lanterns for the boats: 6. All lit at dusk.
Tools for the apprentices: a full rack and a dry box of spare crystals. We have four apprentices now, small minds, good at a row and a sort and a haul. They carry the goods along the road and back and never lose the way. Two of them can follow a whole order written on a card. One of them swept the store and put the broom where it belongs. We are proud of that one.
Market day is the last warm day before the frost. Stalls round the square. Bring what you have to sell. Bring what you have to trade. Bring the children; there will be a fair and a small field on a board for the apprentices to try.
Lost at the last market: a green mitten, one wooden horse with three legs, and a second bell for our school house, which went missing and was heard ringing in the woods. If you have the bell, please bring it back. We will not ask why.
Lost also: one child ran off during the selling of the fish. We found her under the mill wheel, giving bread to the cat. The cat is grey and very fat and will not leave. Please check under the mill wheel first, before you call and call. It saves a great deal of calling.
Biscuit the sheep is asleep by the well. She is very old. She still eats the flowers from the window box, and we have stopped planting them where she can reach. Tam comes down and carries her home the last part.
Pell, you owe me for the fish.
Lorn
%%
Count after the yard flood, Melon 176
Copperhold cider house, Ned.
Rain came hard from the hill. Water ran through the lower yard and reached the door of the store room.
Apple crates: 11
Dry apple crates: 8
Wet apple crates: 3
Cider jars: 24
Empty barrels: 4
Oak staves: 12
Sand bags: 9
Brooms: 5
The water carried one broom past the forge. Hesk caught it with his boot and returned it handle first.
The three wet crates stood on stone before the rain began. I thought that was high enough. The hill disagreed.
We moved the apples to the kitchen shelves. The kitchen shelves held them, and the cook held the door shut against the water. He says the door was not worried. I saw him put his shoulder to it.
Clank was told, "bring the dry crates inside." He brought the dry brooms inside. They were dry, and he had brought them. Hesk pointed to the apples. Clank fetched the crates then.
We did not lose a jar. The lower floor needs a raised shelf. I have written it on the board. Hesk has written "higher" beside it, as if I had not noticed.
%%
Count of the stores: the mayor's house
Pantry of the mayor's house, Three Wells. Deep winter, 208. Counted by Dace, alone, slowly, because it was cold.
Sacks of wheat flour: 6.
Sacks of beetroot: 2.
Jars of honey: 4. One is from Ambrook, a gift, with a ribbon. Dace has not opened it.
Jars of pickled carrots: 5.
Rounds of cheese: 3.
Salted fish: 12.
Apples, in the cellar, in straw: about 60. It is hard to count apples in straw.
Candles: 20.
Firewood: 1 cord.
Coal: half a sack.
Emeralds, in the strong box: 14. The town's money for the school and the road.
The mayor notes he is the only one in the house. He notes the jars are a gift. He notes he will open the honey in Thaw, when the bees are back. That seems right.
%%
Stores at the Farm, spring 166
Counted by Ivo and Sella. The rain held off until the last basket.

Wheat, 31 sacks
Beetroot, 24
Carrots, 35
Potatoes, 39
Pumpkins, 7
Apples, 16 baskets
Honey, 5 jars
Oak planks, 19
Glass panes, 8
Cobblestone, 46

Ivo used six planks to mend the hen house roof. He says the hens are poor judges of his work, as they have not complained. Sella says they complain every morning.

A cart from Saltreach took two sacks of wheat and one jar of honey. The driver left us a coil of good rope. It is in the dry room, above the apples. Keep it off the floor. The floor is damp near the door.
%%
House count and summer repairs
Three Wells, summer of 171. Counted by Orla, Bess, and young Fen.

Stores in the back room
5 sacks of wheat
3 sacks of beetroot
2 sacks of potatoes
11 carrots in a clay bowl
7 apples on the high shelf
2 jars of honey
1 jar of salt
4 loaves of bread
1 small cheese
3 clay bowls
1 iron pot
6 cups
2 wool blankets
1 spare shirt
12 emeralds in the blue jar

Well and yard
1 deep well with a sound rim
1 windlass with a squeak
1 long rope with 2 knots
2 clean buckets
1 bucket set aside for mud
6 boards over the drain
8 torches on the yard posts
1 oak bench with a loose leg
1 shade cloth for the door

Fen has been told to mend the bench.
Fen has taken the loose leg to the school to show his teacher.
The teacher says it is a good example of a loose leg.
The bench is still loose.

The well rope was washed and dried in the sun.
It is not to be left across the door.
Last summer Bess tripped over it with a basket of apples.
The apples were sound. Bess was cross for half an hour.
%%
Store note: the school, by Bel
Bel counted the stores at the school, Three Wells, in Frost, 208. She is a good counter.
Slates: 25. One is new. It is Bel's. She did not steal it. The teacher gave it.
Chalk: 44 pieces. Bel used some to draw the wells. She drew them twice.
Drawing of the three wells: 1. Still on the wall. Still very good.
Picture cards: 22. The cow is still gone.
Coal: 3 sacks. The stove is warm. The stove is the best.
Books: 31. Bel has read 9. She is reading the tenth.
Jars on the shelf: 2. One honey, one with a spider that the teacher says is not a spider, it is a jar of nothing.
The archive is asked to write back. Bel likes letters.
%%
Letter: Lorn to Pell
Autumn of 170, I think. I am a fisher and I do not keep good years. The mill keeps the tally. Ask them.
Pell, you owe me for the fish. You said you would pay at the next market and the next market came and went and you bought a hat. I saw the hat.
You asked me to write what my store holds. Here it is, one thing a line with its number, the way you merchants like it.
Salted fish, barrels: 5.
Fresh fish: enough for supper. Not enough for a ledger.
Salt: 11 sacks.
Rope: 6 coils. Two are going soft.
Nets: 5. One mended. It will hold.
Lanterns: 4, all lit.
Torches: 30. Keep them lit at night. We all know why.
Bread from the mill: 4 loaves, and two are already gone.
Honey: 3 jars. Not 8. You bought the rest. Remember?
Now the market. It was a good day and warm for autumn. The wind took the cloth off the stalls twice. The windmill squeaked. It always does.
Biscuit the sheep ate the flowers by the well. Tam came down from Kettle Ridge to fetch her and walked her home. He carried her the last part when she stopped. She is not a small sheep.
My child ran off during the selling of the fish. One moment by the nets, then gone. I called and called. We found her under the mill wheel, where it is loud and warm, giving her bread to a cat. The cat is grey and very fat now. She will not leave. So I have a cat and a child and no fresh fish left, and it was still a good day.
Pay me for the fish. Bring the money to the boathouse. Bring the hat too, so I can see it.
Lorn
