Bill: Lyle, a house for Hesk's sister
Moving house in the north. Lyle was asked to put a new roof on the little house by the foxes' hill, where Ilsa has moved with her two children. The roof is spruce shingle on spruce rafters.
Spruce logs, 12: 14 emeralds.
Shingles, 400: 10 emeralds.
Nails, 300: 3 emeralds.
Tar and moss for the gaps: 2 emeralds.
Lyle's work, 4 days: 16 emeralds.
Help from Ilsa's neighbors, who carried: soup for six.
Total: 45 emeralds.
Ilsa has paid 30. She will pay 15 in spring, when the sheep are sold. Lyle has written it on the wall.
Note: the roof was finished in the snow. It looks fine. The cat that came with them has gone in and out of the new door nine times. It does not know where it lives.
%%
Receipt: the hedge and the new road
Written by Tam, farmer outside Kettle Ridge, in autumn. The new road from the ridge to Three Wells was cut across the corner of his bottom field, and the council paid him for the land. In emeralds.

Land lost to the road, one strip, forty blocks long: 30
Hedge pulled up and replanted along the new edge, by the road diggers: 4
One torch on a post, set by the gate: 1
Gate, new, oak: 3
Pip's work, two days, carrying stones to the roadside: nothing, Pip did it for free

Total owed to Tam: 38. Paid in full by the road council.

Tam says: the road is a good road. It goes right past my potatoes. I wave at the carts.
%%
Bill: spring work at the Halfway Inn
From Abel, keeper of the Halfway Inn, to the mayor of Three Wells, for the road fund. Blossom, the spring of 201.
Roof tiles, forty, from the kiln at Saltreach. 16 emeralds.
Clay for the chimney, two carts. 4 emeralds.
Seed for the inn garden: beetroot, carrots, and three rows of potatoes. 5 emeralds.
New oak wheel for the bread cart. 7 emeralds.
Paint for the riddle board, which is painted every spring so the riddle does not fade. 1 emerald.
Lamp glass, eight panes. 6 emeralds.
Wages for four helpers who carried the tiles up the ladder for four days. 8 emeralds. They asked for their own ladder. They were given one, and they are very proud of it.
Bread for the carters who came to help, two loaves a day. 9 emeralds. The carters say the bread was good. Pell says it was too good for a bill.
Total: 56 emeralds.
Paid by the road fund on Melon the second, as agreed. The riddle has not been changed, because nobody has guessed it yet.
%%
Log: the apprentice at the slip
A page from the harbor log at Saltreach, kept by the market keeper. Autumn of 208.
An apprentice came down to the slip this morning. Copper and iron, good joints, a small mind in a crystal at its chest, a test paper tied to its arm. No name on the paper, only a mark. It has been carrying all season for the shipwright Corin.
It stopped at the wood store and stood. A boy asked it a question. It did not answer. It is not made to answer. It waited.
Then Corin came up the ramp and said:
> take these planks to the shed and come back
= haul
The apprentice took the planks to the shed and came back. It did this all morning. It was very good at it.
At noon a woman from the town stopped it and said, go home now. The apprentice turned and went off up the harbor road, because home was the shed and the shed was where it slept. The woman thought it was lost. It was not lost. It knew the meaning of home better than she did.
In the afternoon it stood by the water and looked at the big ship. Corin says it is three times as long as any boat. The apprentice looked at it for a long time. I do not think it was thinking. I think it was waiting. But I wrote it down anyway.
The wind is cold. The boats come in early. The market closes at the bell.
The keeper, autumn of 208.
%%
Receipt: Nim at the winter market
Three Wells, Longnight, 176.
Nim sold two wool fleeces. Six emeralds each. Twelve emeralds.
Nim bought one sack of carrots. Two emeralds.
One loaf of bread. One emerald.
One length of rope. One emerald.
Paid: four emeralds.
Left to Nim: eight emeralds.
The rope was for the brown sheep. It had learned to push the gate open.
Nim says the sheep did not learn this from him.
%%
Bill: the wedding feast, Ash Farm
Written by Merle, innkeeper at the Last Lamp, and handed to Ash Farm the morning after the wedding. Midsummer. In emeralds.

Roast pig, from your own pen, cooked at the inn: 3
Bread, forty loaves: 8
Apple pies, twelve: 6
Beer, three barrels: 9
Cheese, four rounds: 4
Plates and cups lent, and one cup broken: 1
Lanterns hung in the barn, and oil: 2
Fiddler, who played until the moon went down: 5
Fish for the guests who do not eat pig, brought up from the coast by Hale's boat: 4

Total: 42.

Paid on account: 30. Left to pay: 12.

A word about the fish. Hale's boat was late home from the coast, as it often is. The fish came at dusk, the night before the wedding, with Hale shouting from the road that he had been blown off course by a very strong cow. I did not ask. The fish was fresh and the guests were happy. If Hale's boat is late again, I will make the pig larger.

Merle
%%
Letter: Fern to her sister at Vell
Summer, the 201st year of the archive.
Dear Nell,
The bees are thick this year and the honey is dark and good. I have sent two jars to the Archive with the Copperhold cart. One is for you. One is for the clerks. Do not let them put mine in the cold room.
The fence on the north side fell down in the wind. It has been falling down for three years. Old Rook says the fence line runs four steps too far into his field. I say the waymark stone has always been where it is, and the fence follows the stone. We have been kind about it. We have been kind about it for six weeks. Yesterday Rook moved the fence two steps. Today I moved it back. The sheep do not care. The sheep are the only ones who do not care.
The wheat is up to my knee. The well is low but not dry. The pigs got out again and went to the pond and would not come home. Clank came by and carried one pig back. The pig did not like it. Clank did not mind. It is a small mind and it does one thing at a time and it does that thing well.
How is the copying room? Is it still the brightest room in the hill? Write and tell me what the hills look like from the big window. I have forgotten.
Your sister,
Fern
%%
Bill: a winter of small jobs, Northpoint
Lyle, roofer, to the town of Northpoint. All jobs from Frost to Deepsnow. Set out in the order I did them, so no one can say I forgot.
1. Frost, the 4th. The bakery. A patch of roof the snow had pressed down. Shingles 20, nails 40. 3 emeralds.
2. Frost, the 9th. The inn. A drain pipe had frozen and split. Copper pipe, 2 lengths, and my time. 5 emeralds.
3. Frost, the 15th. The school house. The window blew in. Glass from Saltreach, a new frame, 6 emeralds. Children helped by sweeping up and by watching.
4. Longnight, the 2nd. The stable. A beam had cracked under snow. A new beam of spruce, 9 emeralds. The horse stood very still, and did not help.
5. Longnight, the 11th. A cart stuck in the drift by the north gate. I pulled with Teg and five others. We had a rope. Paid in soup.
6. Longnight, the 20th. The market stall of Kell the trader. A new roof for the front of the stall. 2 emeralds. Kell paid in dried fish, which I have not got through.
7. Deepsnow, the 3rd. The keeper's house, the green side again. 8 emeralds. Mira put her hands over her ears at the hammering.
8. Deepsnow, the 10th. A house at the edge, empty now. The family went south in the autumn. The owner asked me to look at the roof and shut the door. I did. 1 emerald. The door does not fully shut. I left a stone by it.
9. Deepsnow, the 16th. The cat. A cat belonging to the bakery would not stay out of the house of a family that had moved away. Three times I took it back to the bakery. Three times it came back. I now think it is looking for someone. I left a bowl of fish at the empty house. No charge.
10. Deepsnow, the 24th. Roof of the Northpoint inn again. The same spot.
Emeralds earned: 61. Emeralds owed to me: 14. Jobs undone: 3.
I have heard it said that the families who go south are going to the coast, and from the coast over the sea. I have heard it said they are going to the mines. I have heard it said they are only visiting. The roofs are not very interested.
It was a long winter. Roofs held.
Lyle
%%
Bill: Lyle, the lamp room glass
At the relay tower at Northpoint, for the lamp room, in winter. A pane in the lamp room cracked in the cold and had to be changed. Mira asked for Lyle, because he is not afraid of heights and she is.
Glass pane, large, from Saltreach: 12 emeralds.
Copper ring, mended: 6 emeralds.
Rope and a lifting bucket: 3 emeralds.
Climb, ninety rungs, three times: no charge. Lyle says his knees are cheaper than his hands.
Lyle's work, 1 day: 4 emeralds.
In all: 25 emeralds.
Mira has paid the whole in coal, because the relay board at Vell is slow. A bill in coal is still a bill.
A remark: the lamp has been blinking from the tower since I left. I watched from the foot. The lamp looks as it always did. But the keeper says it blinks more than it used to. She says she has not changed anything. She says the lights in the north were seen again last night.
I did not see them. I was asleep, with my boots on.
%%
Receipt: Nim's stall and supper
Three Wells, Longnight, 191.
Stall space beside the third well: one emerald.
Two boards for the stall floor: one emerald.
Nim sold four wool fleeces, at five emeralds each: twenty emeralds.
Nim sold one small cheese: two emeralds.
Nim bought a sack of potatoes: three emeralds.
Nim bought two loaves of bread: two emeralds.
Nim bought a tin pail: two emeralds.
Nim bought a red scarf for Pip, who had lost his own: one emerald.
Paid out: ten emeralds.
Taken in: twenty-two emeralds.
Change due to Nim: twelve emeralds.
A brown sheep came through the market with a board tied to its back. The board said, "For sale, if it will stand still."
No one bought it. Nim says this was because the board was crooked.
The sheep ate the corner of the price list.
%%
Bill: wool and goods carried to Vell
Pell, merchant, to the wool buyer at Vell, for the carriage of twelve bundles and sundries from Hollin along the Long Road. Reaping, the 22nd, by the second bell.

Carriage of twelve bundles of wool, three waymarks: 6 emeralds.
Toll at the river bridge, one cart: 2 emeralds.
The ferry at the bend, the cart and the horse: 1 emerald.
Bread for the carter, two loaves: 1 emerald.
A horse's feed at the Halfway Inn, one night: 3 emeralds.
Oil for the axle, one jar, poured on the bridge by the carter, who says it was an accident: 1 emerald.
Lamp oil for the carter's lantern, one bottle, for the dark stretch past the second waymark: 1 emerald.
Tips for the stable boy at the Halfway Inn, who held the horse and did not bite: 1 emerald.
One waymark stone, carried off the road for a sheep pen that has since gone: free, and not to be mentioned again.

Total: 16 emeralds. Pell asks that the buyer pay on arrival. The buyer asks that Pell arrive.
%%
Bill and receipt: winter at Three Wells
Three Wells, Deepsnow, 207.
Market space beside the east well, for three days: three emeralds.
A clean board for the price list: one emerald.
Two pegs for the wool cloth: one emerald.
Nim sold eight fleeces, at five emeralds each: forty emeralds.
Nim sold two jars of honey, at three emeralds each: six emeralds.
Nim sold one basket of apples from Ambrook: four emeralds.
Total received: fifty emeralds.

Nim bought one sack of wheat: four emeralds.
Nim bought two sacks of carrots: four emeralds.
Nim bought one sack of potatoes: three emeralds.
Nim bought four loaves of bread: four emeralds.
Nim bought a pair of wool gloves: three emeralds.
Nim bought a new wooden gate bar: two emeralds.
Nim paid the market keeper for stall space and boards: five emeralds.
Total paid: twenty-five emeralds.
Balance due to Nim: twenty-five emeralds.

The gate bar is for the lower pen. The old bar was found under the snow beside the well. Nim says the brown sheep carried it there. The market keeper says sheep do not carry bars. Nim says this one carries things when it wants to be let in.

At the second bell, a child ran off from the school house. Her name was Tavi. She was looking for her little brother, who had left the bread stall with no bread.
Nim found her behind the wool stall. She had gone to ask the brown sheep if it had seen him. The sheep was eating the price list and had not seen anything.
Her brother was at the bakery. He had been given a heel of bread and was eating it slowly by the warm wall. Tavi brought him back by the hand.
The school keeper gave Nim one emerald to pay for a new price list. Nim said the child had not eaten the old one, and the sheep had no money. The keeper paid anyway.
Debt paid: one emerald. The price list was written again before the next bell.
The brown sheep stood beside the fresh board until Nim moved it. It looked as if it could read. Nim says it was looking for carrots.
%%
Bill: homecoming supper for Dunn
The supper for Dunn, who came home on the carts from Saltreach at the end of the summer, after a year on the harbor wall learning the nets. He was thinner, browner, and quite certain that the fish at the harbor were better than the fish here. The house disagreed, at length.

Roast pork, one shoulder, from our own pig, who was not consulted: 4
Potatoes, one sack, the last of the good ones: 2
Honey cake, one, with the dark honey from Ambrook: 2
Ale for the men, four cups: 2
Pottage, for the ones who want it plain: 1
A fiddler from Vell, who came up the hill road and would not take coin until the cake was gone: 2, paid by Ina, who says he earned it twice
Pies from the widow at the corner, four, which the widow would not charge for, and which I have paid for anyway: 2
Candles, eight, in glass, for the table and the window: 1

Total: 16 emeralds.

Paid from the house purse: 16 emeralds.
Returned to the house purse by Dunn, out of his first year's pay from the harbor: 3 emeralds, and a fish hook, which he says is the most valuable thing he owns.

The fish hook is hung on the kitchen nail. It is not on any bill, and it will not be.

Hesk
%%
Bill: the winter stores, shaft house
Written by Lorn, trader, for the shaft house at Copperhold, which buys its winter stores once, in one bill, and argues about it for the rest of the season.
Wheat, 30 sacks, from the top field at Kettle Ridge: 15 emeralds.
Salt fish, 12 barrels, from Saltreach, packed in ice: 24 emeralds.
Candles, 200, for the front hall and the stair: 10 emeralds.
Coal, 40 carts, the first half paid in Frost: 20 emeralds.
Lamp oil, 6 barrels: 12 emeralds.
Torches, 30, with new pitch on the eleven that need it: 15 emeralds.
Blankets, wool, 20: 20 emeralds.
Extra: 2 torches for the old door on the eighth level. The shaft house says this is not an order. The shaft house has paid for them anyway: 1 emerald.
Total: 117 emeralds. Paid: 100. Owed: 17, to be paid at Thaw, when the mill has sold its honey.
Note on the candles: the candle maker in Three Wells sent the thin kind by mistake. The shaft house has kept them, because they cost less, and nobody on the stair has yet complained that they go out.
Note from the count board: it is short by three names. The foreman says three men went over to the other mine at Saltreach in Frost, and sent word to say so. The word came by relay, and the relay has been slow this winter. The foreman says the word is right. He did not say why the relay is slow.
Lorn
%%
Bill: the relay lamp at Hollin
From Amos the glazier to the hamlet council, for the relay lamp on the Vell road, which broke in the autumn gale. Reaping, the 17th.

One lamp glass, large, cut to fit the copper ring: 6 emeralds.
Four panes, to replace the cracked ones round the lamp room: 4 emeralds.
Hauling the glass up the tower, two men for a morning: 2 emeralds.

Total: 12 emeralds.
Paid by Pell, merchant, who says the council owes him for the cart that brought the glass.
%%
Notice: the fish market rules, Saltreach
Rules of the fish market at Saltreach, set by the market keeper and agreed by the harbor council. Autumn of 208.
1. The market opens at first light and closes at the bell. When the bell rings, the price board comes down and the market is done.
2. The price board is the price. Do not argue with the board. The board has never argued back.
3. Weigh your fish where all can see. A honest scale is worth more than a good catch.
4. Ice from the shed is for fish. It is not for your drink and it is not for your head on a hot day. Yes, that means you.
5. Apprentices may carry and may haul. They may not buy. They cannot count emeralds and they will stand all day with a coin in their hand if you let them. Be kind to them. If one is lost, take it to the north well.
6. Boats come first. If a boat is coming in, get out of the way of the boat.
7. The cats of the market are not for sale, not for kicking and not for chasing. They keep the rats down and they are paid in small fish.
8. No nets drying on the quay steps. The steps are for feet.
9. If you find a thing that is not yours, bring it to the market keeper. He will hold it a month. Then it is his, and he will tell you so.
10. Keep the lamps lit at the market gate. The dark comes early now.
Ada, of the harbor wall, for the market keeper, autumn of 208.
%%
Bill: the cart for Northpoint
Written by Lorn, trader, for the cart that goes up the north road before the snow closes it. The cart carries what the tower keeper asks for, and the keeper asks for the same things every year, in the same hand.
Lamp glass, panes only, thick and green, 6: 6 emeralds.
Lamp oil, 2 barrels: 4 emeralds.
Flour, 10 sacks: 5 emeralds.
Salt, 1 barrel: 1 emerald.
Honey, 4 jars, one of them for the keeper's own mouth: 4 emeralds.
Wool, grey, for mittens, 3 bundles: 3 emeralds.
A pair of mittens, the size of a small woman's hands, knitted at the market and paid for by the market. The keeper's name is on the tag, and the keeper is not small. Nobody asked who the mittens were for: 2 emeralds.
Carter's fee, to the foot of the north hill and no further: 6 emeralds.
Slate, six, the good grey kind from Vell, for the tower's sums: 3 emeralds.
Chalk, one box: 1 emerald. A new bucket for the lamp rope: 2 emeralds.
Total: 37 emeralds. Paid: 37.
Note from the carter: lights seen from the hill road three nights running, low over the north, very still. Nothing has come down the relay about them. The keeper always sends word of everything, even of the weather. This time there was nothing, and the carter did not like the nothing.
Note from the keeper, written in the same hand: take the long way round by the ford, the bridge is loose. Thank you for the mittens. I am not small, but I have decided to say nothing more about it. The keeper's last message came down in Frost. It said: all well, cold, nothing to report.
Lorn
%%
Bill: the new road to the mill
Written by Lorn, trader, at the market at Copperhold, for the road crew, who asked for their supplies to be written out, and paid by the mill.
Cobblestone, 40 blocks, cut at the Copperhold yard: 8 emeralds.
Gravel for the bed, 6 carts: 6 emeralds.
Torches, 12, for the posts: 6 emeralds. Pitch for the torches: 2 emeralds.
Bread and soup for the crew of nine, three days: 9 emeralds.
Ropes for the carts, 2: 4 emeralds.
Two shovels, mended by the smith, who says it is the last mending he will do before the road is done: 2 emeralds.
Total: 37 emeralds. Paid by the mill: 30. Owed: 7, to be paid when the road is walked end to end at night.
Note from the crew: the new road goes past the old shaft, and the ground there is warm under the snow. The crew did not stop to look.
Lorn
%%
Bill: Tam's feed for the winter
Written by Tam, farmer outside Kettle Ridge, in autumn. The old men said it would be a long winter, so he bought extra. In emeralds.

Hay, twenty bales: 20
Oats, six sacks: 12
Straw for the pig pen, ten bales: 5
Salt for the pig: 1
Beetroot seed, saved for spring: nothing, from my own field
Wool blanket for the cow, because she looks cold: 3
A second wool blanket for the cow, because she ate the first: 3
Extra firewood, three cartloads: 9
Tallow candles, two dozen: 4

Total: 57.

Paid to the merchant Pell, who came by with the cart. He said he will take payment in honey after the first frost. I said I would pay in beetroot soup. We shook on soup.
%%
Receipt: new boards for the east gate
From the Three Wells carpenter, Sowing, for the east gate.
The gate was clawed on the night of the zombie. The watch did what the rules say. The gate did not.
Twelve oak boards, from the Ambrook mill. 12 emeralds.
Forty long nails. 4 emeralds.
Two heavy hinges, from Copperhold. 6 emeralds.
One new torch post, set in the stone. 3 emeralds.
Two days of labor, one carpenter and one helper. The helper carried every board and did not drop one. 8 emeralds.
Total: 33 emeralds. Paid in full by the council.
Dace, mayor, signed. The helper has been given a torch of its own to hold, which is the rule for helpers who do not drop boards.
%%
Bill: the fence quarrel, settled
Written by Dace, mayor of Three Wells, who came up the hill to hear it. Summer, the 202nd year.
The matter: the fence on the north side, between Fern's field and Rook's field, near the waymark stone.
Fern says: the stone was set before the fence. The fence follows the stone. Four steps past the stone is Fern's.
Rook says: the stone has moved. Stones move. The fence should follow the hedge, and the hedge runs four steps the other way.
Dace walked the line with both of them. Dace counted the steps. Dace counted them again. The stone is where the stone is. The hedge bends. The fence is straight. Nobody remembers who set the stone. Rook says his father did. Fern says her father did. Both fathers are gone and cannot be asked.
Settled: the fence stays where Fern has it. Rook keeps the hay from the strip beside the hedge. Fern gives Rook one jar of honey each summer. Rook gives Fern one hen each spring. Neither pays the other anything. Both shook hands. Rook said the honey was the better end of the bargain. Fern said the hen was the better end. Dace wrote it down and had a cup of tea.
Signed by both, and by Dace, mayor of Three Wells.
%%
Bill: the short harvest, summer
The accounts of the mine gate kitchen and the house, for the summer when the harvest came in short. Written by Hesk, who was asked by the mayor's clerk to explain why the bread was dear, and who would rather explain it on paper, where nobody can interrupt.

Wheat from the top field, sacks: 60. Last year it was over 140. The rain came in the wrong month, and then it did not come at all.
Barley from the bottom field, sacks: 30. The bottom field stayed wet and the barley rotted in the furrow. We got what we could.
Potatoes, sacks: fair, a good 80, which is the one thing in this summer that went right.
Beetroot: poor. The pigs ate the thin ones and the cook made soup of the rest.
Flour bought from Ambrook, sacks: 40, at a price that would make your eyes water. The Ambrook mill paid for new timber out of the flour, and so the flour cost more. Jory says he is sorry. He says it in a voice that means he is not.
Cart hire from Three Wells, for the flour: 6 emeralds, and the carter wanted a bun for himself and another for the horse.
New bottom for the bucket by the well: 1.
Oil for the lamp at the shaft head, for the summer nights: 2.
Nails for the stable door, which the wind took twice: 1.

The mine's count is up, though, the count board says. Forty-two miners, all up safe. The copper and the iron came out as they always do. The coal came out well. It is only the bread that is poor, and the bread is what the families at the gate eat.

Hesk, for the clerk, with my thanks for the paper.
%%
Bill: the broken lamp mending
Paid by the relay house at the foot of the harbor tower, to the yard at Saltreach, for the work on the lamp in the top room. Spring. Written out by Corin.

To the removal of the old lamp from its cradle, with ropes and two men: 1 copper.
To the clearing of the redstone line from the desk to the lamp room, a long run, cleaned of webs and dust: 2 coppers.
To the replacement of three copper rings, bent in the storm, cut and fitted: 3 emeralds.
To a bag of fine wool for the lamp housing, to keep the damp out: 1 copper.
To the glass panes, as set out in the other bill: see that bill.
To the keeper's desk, scraped and oiled after the storm: 1 copper.
To a new stool for the keeper, since the old one went over the rail in the wind: 2 coppers.
To the copper ring of the upper lamp, rubbed with beeswax, so that it shines: 1 copper.
To a long lamp rope, of hemp, for the bucket that brings the coal up: 1 emerald.

Total: 4 emeralds, 2 coppers, and the stool.

Note from the keeper. The lamp did not come back on the first night, because the redstone line had a break in it, under the stair, where a rat had chewed the wire. The yard found it at dawn. The men say it was a clean break and a small rat. The keeper says the rat has been given a stern letter. The rat has not answered.

The lamp is lit. The glass is clear. The line is whole. Messages go down the stair and out to the south, and the keeper says they now arrive with fewer blinks wrong than before.
%%
Bill: Tam to Pell
Bill and note from Tam, farmer outside Kettle Ridge, to Pell the merchant. Autumn. In emeralds.

Honey, three jars, from Ambrook: 15
Flour, two sacks: 6
Salt, one sack: 2
Lamp oil, a jug: 3
Cheese, a round, to keep for the long winter: 4
A new scarf for Mira, to send by the next cart north: 5
Carrying, because Pell is kind and the road is bad: 1

Total: 36.

Tam adds: the old men say it will be a long winter. The old men said so last year as well, and it was short. But I have bought extra anyway. If I am wrong, I will have extra honey. This is not a hard thing to survive.

Tam
%%
Bill: the wedding feast, mill house
From the mill house at Hollin, to the family of the bride, for the feast given on the second day of Apple. Paid in full, and then again by the groom's uncle, out of love.

Soup for forty, with bread: 8 emeralds.
Pies, eleven, of pumpkin and of apple: 5 emeralds.
Honey cakes, a tray of them, too sweet for the children and not sweet enough for the uncle: 2 emeralds.
Milk for the children, two buckets: 1 emerald.
Hire of the long table from the inn, and the four benches that were not in the bill and are now in the mill house: 3 emeralds.
Water from the well, which is free, and which the bride said was the best thing served.
A roast from the top farm, carried down in the rain: 4 emeralds.
Candles for the long table, twelve, lit at the bell and not at dusk, to the cook's great annoyance: 2 emeralds.
Clearing the yard after the dancing, and the cleaning of the sorting floor, which was not meant for dancing: 2 emeralds.

Total: 27 emeralds, and one song that the miller's wife says must be charged to the groom.
%%
The bill that grew
A bill kept at the Last Lamp Inn on the road to Northpoint, in Merle's hand. It was for a family from Ash Farm who came for one supper in summer, after a wedding at the farm, and stayed three days. Written as the days went on. In emeralds.

First day.
Supper, six, with stew and bread: 6
Beer, six mugs: 3
Beds, six: 6
Note: they say they will leave tomorrow.

Second day.
Breakfast, six: 4
Lunch, six, because it rained: 4
Hay for the horse and the pony: 2
Beer, six mugs, because it still rained: 3
Supper, six, with pie: 6
Beds, six: 6
Note: they say they will go when it stops.

Third day.
Breakfast, six: 4
A bath for the smallest child, who fell in the pig pen: 1
Soap, because of the bath: 1
Mending of a coat, torn by the same pig: 2
Lunch: 4
Supper: 6
Beds: 6
Note: the rain stopped at noon. They have not gone. They say the beds are very good.

Fourth day.
Breakfast, six: 4
Fish, brought up by Hale's boat, which was late: 4
Note: they are going now. The smallest child cried. I gave her a honey cake.

Total: 76.

Paid: 76, and a jar of honey, and a promise to come at harvest.

Merle
%%
Ledger: Pell at Saltreach, autumn
Ledger of Pell, merchant, kept at the fish market at Saltreach, autumn of 208.
Bought: 30 barrels of salted fish, at 6 emeralds the barrel, 180 emeralds.
Bought: 12 jars of fish oil, at 3 emeralds the jar, 36 emeralds.
Bought: a coil of good rope from the shipyard, 9 emeralds.
Paid the cart man, 8 emeralds.
Paid the inn for two nights and a hot meal, 6 emeralds.
Sold: 8 barrels of salted fish to the inns on the Long Road, at 11 emeralds the barrel, 88 emeralds.
Sold: 4 jars of fish oil at Three Wells, at 7 emeralds the jar, 28 emeralds.
Sold: the rope, to a farmer who needed it more than I did, 14 emeralds.
The weather is turning. The wind has a cold edge. The boats come in early and the market closes early with them.
Notes for next season: the fish is good. The price of rope is up. The shipwright Corin is building something big and buys rope by the armful. Ask him what he is building. He will not say.
I miss the apples at Ambrook. I will send a letter home.
Pell, autumn of 208.
%%
Bill: the melon for the spring feast
Paid by the Saltreach market to the farm at the edge of the marsh road, for the melon that could not be carried. Spring, when the first melons of the year came up from the hot frames. Written by Corin, for the feast committee, who asked for a note of the cost.

To one melon, the largest grown on the marsh road this season, sold whole: 6 emeralds.
To the cart for the melon, the big cart with four wheels and a second axle, borrowed from the mill: 1 emerald.
To four men, for the lifting, with ropes, and a plank to carry the weight over the bridge: 2 emeralds.
To the saw, borrowed from the yard, and the man who cut the melon into twelve even slices: 1 emerald.
To the twelve slices, paid for in coppers by the children of the market, who each took one to carry home: 12 coppers, which the children paid from their own pockets, with some difficulty.
To the boat that carried the slices across the harbor pool, since the cart could not go down the quay: 1 copper.

Total: 9 emeralds, 13 coppers.

Note from the feast committee. The melon was eaten at the feast. Marit says it was the best melon she has ever had, and that the rind was used for pickles. Corin says he has never seen anything so large in the yard, and that he will never sit at the same table as it again. Dace says the children did very well with their coppers, and asks that the melon be recorded in the book as a credit to the marsh road.
%%
Accounts: the bakery, spring of 199
Kept by Ida and Hollis, bakers of Three Wells, for the mayor's books. Every day is in this book, and every bill is in the cupboard.

Thaw, first week:
Flour, from Ambrook, eight sacks. 20 emeralds.
Salt, one sack. 3 emeralds.
Yeast from the Brown Hen, kept in a jar. The keeper will not say what it is fed. 2 emeralds.
Firewood, four carts. 8 emeralds.
Lost: one loaf, to the stray dog, who has learned the bakery door. Not charged.

Thaw, second week:
Flour, seven sacks. The mill was short, and Ambrook sent a cart with an apology. 18 emeralds.
Eggs from the hens by the north well, sixty. 6 emeralds. Ida says the eggs are the best part of the bread. Hollis says the eggs are the best part of Ida.
The well by the bakery ran cloudy for a day. The bread was made with water from the other well, and it was slower. No charge.
Overtime, Hollis, two nights, to get the morning bread out for the carters. 4 emeralds. Hollis says he does not want overtime. He takes it anyway, for the carters.

Sowing, first week:
Seed for the bakery garden, one row of beetroot for the soup. 2 emeralds.
Oil for the lamp, two jars. 4 emeralds.
A helper, sent by the tutor house on loan for six days, to carry sacks. It carried every sack and did not drop one. It is fed at the bakery and sleeps in the back, and it is not paid. The council says it is the council's helper. Ida says it is hers now. The mayor says it is nobody's. Hollis gives it bread. 1 emerald for the bread.

Blossom, first week:
Flour, nine sacks, the good kind, from the mill at Ambrook. It was ground by the water, not the wind. 24 emeralds.
Honey, six jars, for the honey cakes. 12 emeralds.
New oven door. The old one cracked again. 6 emeralds. Ida says the old door was cracked from the start.
Hollis's birthday cake, with one candle of beeswax. 2 emeralds.
Fine, one, for the pie that burned on the square. The mayor says the fine is for the square, not the pie. 1 emerald.

Spring, in all:
Flour, 24 sacks. 62 emeralds.
Firewood. 8 emeralds.
Honey. 12 emeralds.
Oven door. 6 emeralds.
Eggs. 6 emeralds.
Salt and yeast. 5 emeralds.
Overtime and the helper's bread. 5 emeralds.
Seed and oil. 6 emeralds.
Cake and fine. 3 emeralds.
Total: 113 emeralds.

Checked by Dace, mayor. He asks why there is a cake in the spring accounts. Hollis says it was his birthday. Dace says a birthday is a poor reason, and then he asks for a slice.
%%
Receipt: Hesk's order, summer 203
Paid by Hesk, miner of Copperhold, to Fern of the hamlet, at the mine gate.
Eggs: 30. Cost: 15 emeralds.
Honey: 1 jar, from the hives on the hill. Cost: 8 emeralds.
Bread: 10 loaves, from Ida at Three Wells. Cost: 5 emeralds.
Carrots: 40. Cost: 4 emeralds.
Total: 32 emeralds.
Hesk said the honey was for the night shift below. He said a spoon of it in the tea keeps a miner warm.
Clank carried the jars. Clank is Hesk's apprentice. It dropped one jar at the shaft head and stood very still. Hesk said it was fine. It was not fine. We swept it up.
Fern
%%
Bill: the wedding feast at Three Wells
From Ida and Hollis, bakers, to the two families, for the feast of Blossom in the spring of 200. The wedding of Piper and Ula.
Bread, two hundred loaves, the good white ones. 40 emeralds.
Honey cakes, sixty, glazed with honey. 12 emeralds.
Pumpkin pies, twenty. 8 emeralds.
Soup, three pots of beetroot and two of potato, carried from the mill kitchen. 9 emeralds.
One melon from the Ambrook stall, the largest on the market. It did not fit on the table, so the table was moved to the square. 4 emeralds.
Flowers for the tables, blossom cut from the apple trees at Ambrook. 3 emeralds.
A singer from the Long Road, who sang for nothing and ate for four. 6 emeralds.
Tables, six, borrowed from the school for the day. 6 emeralds, and a promise to return them without the ink marks.
Lanterns for the square, eleven, with their oil. 9 emeralds.
Chairs, twenty, borrowed from the Three Wells inn. The keeper has written that they must come back, and so must the chairs.
Helpers, four, for two days. They carried everything, and they did not drop the melon. 8 emeralds.
Total: 105 emeralds.
Paid by the two families. The mayor paid for the melon, which he ate most of.
%%
Tax list: the hamlet, summer 205
For the council at Copperhold. The hamlet by the north road, above the mine. Counted by Fern, with Clank holding the tally board.
Folk: 41. Up from 38 last year. Two babies, one wedding, one old man gone to his rest in Blossom.
Houses: 14. One new, roof of spruce, walls of cobblestone, built by the young folk in Swarm.
Fields: 9. Wheat, 4. Beetroot, 2. Carrots and potatoes, 2. One field left to fallow and the sheep.
Sheep: 60. Cows: 12. Pigs: 9. Hens: 40. Bees: 4 hives.
Apprentices: 2. One small mind, old, does the carrying. One new, from the tutor house at Vell, spring of this year. The new one sorts the stores. It is wrong about one apple in ten. Nessa says this is good for its age. It is getting better.
Well: 1. Low in Longday, filled again by the rain in Reaping.
Fence: 1, standing, see the matter of the north fence, settled 202.
Honey: 30 jars this year. 12 to Copperhold, 8 to Three Wells, 2 to the Archive at Vell, the rest kept. The bees are well. The bees are always well.
Torches: we buy 200 a year from the Copperhold store. The road is dark. The road is always dark.
We ask the council for one thing: a lamp at the bend where the road meets the mine track. Two carts met there in the dark in Sowing and one lost a wheel. Nobody was hurt. The wheel was not so lucky.
Fern, for the hamlet
%%
The whole autumn account, Tam's farm
Written out by Tam, farmer outside Kettle Ridge, at the kitchen table in the last days of autumn. His apprentice Pip sat beside him and handed him the coin box. Pip does not read. It did, however, keep the box clean. Tam asked that the account be copied for the Archive, on the grounds that he had worked hard for it. In emeralds.

COMING IN
Wheat, top field, 40 sacks sold at the windmill at 3 each: 120
Beetroot, long field, 25 sacks at 2 each: 50
Potatoes and carrots, bottom field, 18 sacks at 2 each: 36
Eggs, hen house, over the season: 14
Honey, three hives, six jars: 24
Wool, from the sheep, two bales: 10
Pig, sold to the inn at the Kettle: 12
Road money for the strip lost to the new road: 30

Total coming in: 296.

GOING OUT
Seed for spring: 20
Oil and rope for the windmill: 6
Wages for two harvest hands, for ten days: 40
Hay and oats for the winter: 40
Wool blankets for the cow, two: 6
Firewood, three cartloads: 9
Candles and lamp oil: 7
New gate, oak: 3
New hedge: 4
Pay for the carrier of Mira's scarf: 1
Wedding present for the miller's daughter: 5
Feed for Pip, which is oil for its joints: 2
Mending of my best boot, which is also my only boot: 2
Unknown: 15

Total going out: 160.

Left over: 136.

A note on the item marked Unknown. I cannot remember what the fifteen was for. I think it was a cart of something. I think it was good.

A note on the long winter. The old men say it will be long and cold. They said so last year and it was short. I have prepared as if they were right. If I have wasted a bale of hay, I will give it to the neighbors in spring.

A note to my sister Mira at Northpoint. If you are reading this in the Archive, look at the item marked scarf. It is for you. It has a stripe. It is ugly. It is warm. Wear it.

A note on Pip. Pip carried the stones for the new road for two days, free of charge. The road council wanted to pay it. I said Pip does not have pockets. They gave me an extra emerald, which I put in the box. It is not in the account, because I keep forgetting. It is the sixteenth.

Tam
%%
Receipt: Nim at the winter market
Three Wells, Longnight, 204.
Market space at the east well, for two days: two emeralds.
Two dry boards for the stall: one emerald.
Nim sold six fleeces, at five emeralds each: thirty emeralds.
Nim sold three jars of honey from Ambrook, at three emeralds each: nine emeralds.
Nim sold one basket of apples: four emeralds.
Nim bought a sack of wheat: four emeralds.
Nim bought a sack of potatoes: three emeralds.
Nim bought three loaves of bread: three emeralds.
Nim bought a new wool coat, patched at one elbow: seven emeralds.
Nim bought a small bell for the sheep that likes the mill pond: two emeralds.
Nim bought a length of rope: one emerald.
Total from sales: forty-three emeralds.
Total spent: twenty-one emeralds.
Balance to Nim: twenty-two emeralds.
The bell is not for the brown sheep. That sheep has a bell already and knows how to silence it.
Mara, baker's helper, ran off before noon. Her mother thought she had gone home. The baker thought she had gone to the well. Nim found her behind the stall, holding a warm loaf under her coat.
She had run to bring it to her little brother, who was cold by the school door. The baker said the loaf was not paid for. Nim paid three emeralds for it, and the child carried it home.
Mara's mother paid Nim back in emeralds before the stalls closed. Debt paid: three emeralds. Nim entered it here so no one would ask twice.
%%
Bill: Merle's inn, one night
Bill from the Last Lamp Inn, on the road to Northpoint, kept by Merle. For a farmer of Ash Farm who stayed one night in summer. In emeralds.

Bed, one night: 1
Supper, stew and bread: 1
Beer, two mugs: 1
Hay for the horse: 1
Breakfast, eggs and honey: 1

Total: 5. Paid in full.

Merle says: the horse ate more than you did.
%%
Bill: the seed and the plough
Paid by the farm on the marsh road, to the Saltreach seed merchant and the smith at the crossroads, for the spring sowing. Spring. Written out by the farm's wife, Ruth, who keeps the book, and who has been told by her husband that the book is too careful.

To a sack of beetroot seed, fine, from the Three Wells store: 2 emeralds.
To a sack of carrot seed, mixed, for the ditch rows: 1 emerald.
To a sack of potatoes, cut for planting, with two eyes each: 2 emeralds.
To a bag of wheat seed, the thick sort, for the low field: 3 emeralds.
To a sack of pumpkin seed, for the children, who asked for them by name: 1 copper.
To a new share for the plough, iron, made by the smith at the crossroads, with its bolt: 3 emeralds.
To mending the plough handle, which was broken in the frost: 1 copper.
To a new hinge for the barn gate, iron, with four nails: 1 emerald.
To a bundle of oak posts, for the north fence, cut on the ridge and carried down by cart: 2 emeralds.
To the carter, for the cart and the two days: 1 emerald.

Total: 16 emeralds, 3 coppers.

Note from the farm. The seed is in the ground. The potatoes are in the top field, away from the water, as the old rule says. The beetroot is in the low beds, under straw. The children planted the pumpkins at the end of the row, where they can see them from the step, and they have been out every morning since to count the leaves.

The plough share is the best iron on the marsh road, the smith says. The plough does not stick in the wet now, and the horse does not need to be told twice to pull it.
%%
Receipt: the wedding cake
Receipt from Merle of the Last Lamp Inn to the folk of Ash Farm, for the wedding of Dina and Orrin, held in the barn at midsummer. In emeralds.

Flour, six sacks: 6
Honey, four jars: 4
Eggs, two baskets: 2
Butter, one crock: 1
Candles for the top: 1
Baking, and carrying the cake to the barn: 3

Total: 17. Paid by the bride's father, who said it was worth every emerald.

Merle says: the cake was good, and so was the dancing. The groom stepped on the bride's feet twice. She forgave him once.
%%
Bill: Nim and the east well
Three Wells, Deepsnow, 198.
Market space beside the east well, three days: three emeralds.
A dry board for prices: one emerald.
A small hook for hanging the weighing basket: one emerald.
Nim sold five fleeces, at four emeralds each: twenty emeralds.
Nim sold two jars of honey from Ambrook, at three emeralds each: six emeralds.
Nim bought one sack of carrots: two emeralds.
Nim bought one sack of wheat: four emeralds.
Nim bought two loaves of bread: two emeralds.
Nim bought a new gate hinge: three emeralds.
Nim bought a wool hat for his nephew: two emeralds.
Total from sales: twenty-six emeralds.
Total spent: fourteen emeralds.
Balance paid to Nim: twelve emeralds.
The hinge is for the pen at home. The old hinge came off when the brown sheep leaned on the gate. Nim says it was only looking for a better view.
A child ran off from the school house while her aunt counted potatoes. Nim found her at the notice board, reading the list of stalls aloud.
She had gone to find where the bread was sold. She knew the bakery was near the east well, but had forgotten which side of the well.
Her aunt paid Nim one emerald for watching her. Nim returned it at once. The aunt had already paid for the bread.
%%
Bill: Merle for the farm's hands
Bill from Merle, innkeeper at the Last Lamp, to the farm of Ash Farm, for the hay-time in summer. For food and drink sent out to the field. In emeralds.

Day one. Bread and cheese for twelve, sent out at noon: 3
Water and mint cordial, two jugs: 1
Day two. Stew in a pot, carried to the field by cart: 4
Beer, one barrel, kept in the stream to stay cool: 3
Day three. Pie, eight, with a note saying please return the dishes: 4
Day four. Honey cake, two, for the children who raked: 2
Day five. Soup in the rain, because it rained: 3
Day six. Fish from Hale's boat, which was late again and had to be fried quickly: 4
Day seven. Bread and butter, and a rest: 2

Total: 26. Paid: 26.

Nothing left. The hay is in. The dishes came back. Two are cracked, and I have not charged for them.

Merle
%%
Bill: the tally for the whole summer
The whole house, summer, from the first of Melon to the last of Reaping. Written by Hesk, at the kitchen table, with Ina reading over his shoulder and correcting the spelling of the carts.

Coal for the house, from the gate, by the sack: 14 emeralds.
Bread, from the kitchen, for the house, the bad loaves included: 9.
Pottage, for the men on the shift, paid by the house: 11.
Milk, eggs and butter from the farm at the foot of the hill: 6.
Honey, two jars, from Ambrook, for the cough and for the cake: 4.
Candles and oil for the lamps: 5.
Nails, a new hinge for the back door, and the wood to make a new step: 4.
Shoes for Ash, who grew, and who will grow again before the winter is out: 3.
Repairs to the roof after the wind of the second week of Longday: 6.
The fiddler at the homecoming: 2, paid by Ina.
Pies from the widow, at the corner, which she will not take money for, and which Ina will not let us forget: 2.

Total for the summer: 66 emeralds.

Received, the house purse: 70 emeralds, from the shift pay and from the sale of the surplus pigs.
Balance: 4 emeralds, carried over to the winter.

There is also a thing on no bill at all. In the second week of Reaping, a jar of honey came up the hill on the milk cart, with no note and no name. Ina says it was from the farm. Bram says it was from the kitchen, and that the cook would not admit it. The cook says it was from the bees, and that the bees do not write notes. I say it was a gift, and the best thing this summer brought us, and it is not on any bill, and it will not be.

The house is fed. The roof is sound. Dunn is home, and is eating as if he is trying to make up for a year. Ash has a new pair of shoes and no intention of keeping them clean. The short harvest is in the sacks in the cellar, and we will eat the bread that comes of it, dear as it is, and we will not complain. Much.

Hesk
%%
Letter: Rook to his grandson
Summer, the 207th year of the archive.
Dear Tam,
The honey came. Thank you. I have put it on the high shelf where the mice are not clever enough to go. Your grandmother would have said it was too sweet. She said that about everything sweet and then she ate it all. I have had a spoon of it every morning since it came and I am not sorry.
The fence is still standing. Fern and I do not speak of the fence. We speak of the weather. We speak of the bees. We speak of your uncle's bad knee. We do not speak of the fence. This is how you keep a neighbor for forty years.
The wheat is in. The beetroot is coming. The field by the waymark stone did well this year, better than mine, but I did not say so to Fern and Fern did not say so to me. We both know.
Your apprentice, Clank. Is it well? Fern's new one sorted the stores all summer and got better at it. It used to put the turnips with the apples. Now it does not. Fern says that is progress. I say it is a start. The old carrying mind is still going. It is slow. It never drops a thing. I would keep that one and give the new one away, but nobody asked me.
The lamp at the bend is up. Two carts can pass now. The council did one useful thing this year and it was that lamp.
Come up before the Apple month. Bring the honey back if you have not eaten it.
Your grandfather,
Rook
%%
Bill: one melon, too big
Three Wells market, the first day of Thaw. Written by Dace, mayor, who paid the rest.
One melon from the Ambrook fields, kept in the cool room since Apple, and still too big for the handcart. 3 emeralds.
One cart, hired to carry it. 2 emeralds.
A second cart, when the first one broke under it. 2 emeralds.
Total: 7 emeralds. Paid: 6. Owed: 1, which the mayor paid from his own purse.
The melon went to the children by the north well. They say it is the best melon anyone has seen.
%%
Bill: the Saltreach boat yard
Paid by the boat yard at Saltreach, for the fitting of the yawl's new mast and the mending of the old fishing boat's hull, through the autumn. Written out by Corin, for the harbor master's book. Spring, the year after the storm, when the work was finally done.

To the spruce mast, from the ridge, cut long and straight, with its wedges: 8 emeralds.
To the copper nails for the new planks, a box of two hundred: 4 emeralds.
To the oak planks for the hull repair, six of them, from the Oak Post mill store: 6 emeralds.
To the tar, for the seams, one barrel: 2 emeralds.
To the men of the yard, for the work, eleven days, at a copper a day each: 1 emerald, 5 coppers, split by the head.
To the old fishing boat's name, painted again on the bow: 1 copper. Its name is Sal, after the old woman who will not let the boat be retired.
To the yawl's sail, a new one, with a single reef: 2 emeralds.
To the tiller bar, new, in ash: 1 emerald.

Total: 23 emeralds, 2 coppers.

Note from the harbor master. The boats are in the water and the yard is quiet. The yawl has been taken out twice, by Corin and Kit, and has come home each time without touching the rocks. Kit says the boat is not as clever as it was, but that it is more patient. Corin says that is the same thing.
%%
Bill: the first snow at Copperhold
Written by Lorn, trader, at the market at Copperhold, on the day the first snow came down the hill.
1 bowl of hot soup, with bread: 1 emerald.
2 pairs of wool socks, grey: 2 emeralds.
1 lamp, with oil enough for the stair: 3 emeralds.
1 bag of salt fish, for the road: 2 emeralds.
Shelter under the stall roof, out of the wind: no charge. The wind is free, and the roof is not.
Total: 8 emeralds. Paid: 8. Thank you. Come back in Thaw.
Lorn
%%
Bill: Tam to the mill, autumn
Bill from Tam, farmer outside Kettle Ridge, to the windmill. In emeralds.

Wheat, 20 sacks, at 3 each: 60
Oil for the north windmill, which squeaked: 2
Paid on account: 50
Owed to Tam: 12

Tam says: the north windmill still squeaks. Please send the miller, or a goat to eat the noise.
%%
Bill: Nim's market stall
Three Wells, Deepsnow, 184.
To Nim, shepherd, for stall space by the east well: one emerald.
To the market keeper, for two boards to lay over the snow: one emerald.
Nim sold three fleeces at five emeralds each. Fifteen emeralds.
Nim sold a jar of honey from Ambrook for three emeralds. The jar was returned.
Nim bought a sack of wheat for four emeralds.
Nim bought two loaves for two emeralds.
Nim bought a new latch for the sheep gate for two emeralds.
Total paid out: ten emeralds.
Total taken in: eighteen emeralds.
Nim kept eight emeralds.
A child ran off between the bakery and the east well. Nim found her behind the stall, sharing a loaf with the brown sheep.
The child said she had not run off. She had only taken a short way around.
The brown sheep did not answer.
%%
Bill: Lyle to the keeper's house
For mending the roof of the keeper's house at Northpoint, winter.
Copper sheet, 6, to patch the green side: 18 emeralds.
Nails, 200: 2 emeralds.
Tar for the seams, 1 pot: 1 emerald.
Lyle's work, 2 days: 8 emeralds.
Hot soup on the roof, from the keeper: no charge.
In all: 29 emeralds.
Paid in full on the second day of Deepsnow. The roof does not leak. The cat has been told.
%%
Bill: the kitchen at the mine gate
Price board, and the bill that goes with it. Written by Hesk for the cook, who asked him to paint the prices in letters big enough to read from the shaft head.

Pottage, one bowl: 1
Bread, one loaf: 1, and dearer by half this summer. The top field failed.
Cheese, one wedge: 2, from Ambrook, by the cart.
Apples, two: 1, if they are the sharp kind. Free if they are bruised. Bruised apples go to the pigs, and the pigs have been quiet this summer, which the cook does not like.
Honey, one spoon: 0. For the cough, and for anyone who looks as if they need it.
Ale, one cup: 1. The cook is not paid for the ale and says so each time.
Tea, one pot: 1, with milk if the milk has come up from the farm before the bell.
Water: free. Always free. Ask for the good well, not the one by the stable.

A note under the board: the harvest was short in the top fields and in the bottom, so the bread is dear and the pottage is thin. Bram says the pottage tastes of the rain. The cook says it tastes of the pot. They are both right, and both of them are still eating it.

Hesk
%%
Bill: a week at the hamlet inn
Kept by the innkeeper at Hollin, for Pell, merchant, who stayed seven nights, on the Long Road, between the Halfway Inn and Vell. Leaffall, the first week.

Beds, seven nights, the room over the stable, which is warm: 7 emeralds.
Soup, every night, with a second bowl each time: 7 emeralds. Second bowls are free, but the innkeeper says the bill should show them, to be fair.
Breakfast, the eggs and the bread, six mornings, and a seventh that Pell did not want and ate anyway: 6 emeralds.
A bowl of stew on the fourth night, which the cook says was made to the old recipe, and which was too salt: 1 emerald, and a free loaf to take away the taste.
Hay and stable for the horse, seven nights: 7 emeralds.
Bread for the road, four loaves, wrapped for the cart: 2 emeralds.
A letter sent by the relay to Vell, of twenty words: 2 emeralds.
One window, broken by the wind on the fifth night: 2 emeralds.
One stool, broken by Pell on the sixth night while telling the story of the stew: 1 emerald.
The lamp at the top of the stair, which went out on the third night and was lit again by Pell himself, with the innkeeper's spare matches: no charge, but Pell has been asked to leave his thanks in the book.

Total: 35 emeralds for the week. Paid in full. The innkeeper says he would like Pell back in the spring, if the stew can be forgiven.
%%
Bill: the fish market, Saltreach
Bill from the fish market at Saltreach. Autumn of 166.
For Ada, of the harbor wall.
Two salted cod, 4 emeralds.
One basket of small fish for the cats, 1 emerald.
Six crabs, 5 emeralds.
One jar of fish oil, 3 emeralds.
Net mending, 2 emeralds.
Total: 15 emeralds. Paid in full.
The fish market keeps no debt past the closing bell. If the cats go hungry, that is your business, not ours.
%%
Letter: Ada to the harbor wall
To the young ones who walk the wall at night.
I walked it before you. I am old now and I sit, but I remember.
Keep the torches lit at both ends. Keep your boots dry. Do not lean on the old rail at the north corner, it has a loose post and I have told the council twice.
When the wind comes off the sea, turn your back to it and watch the water. That is where the trouble comes from. Mostly it is only weather.
The night is long. Take bread. Take a friend. Do not fall asleep, and if you do, do not tell me.
I have a horse this week. It is grey and it eats too much. If you see me on the wall on a horse, wave, because I will be very pleased with myself.
Ada, Saltreach, autumn of 166.
%%
Bill: one supper at the mine gate
Kitchen at the mine gate, Copperhold, summer. Kept by Hesk, who checks the bills on the first day of each month, because the cook asked him to. He is the only one who reads them to the end.

Bram, miner, one supper, eaten standing: bread, 1. Pottage, 1. Ale, 0, because the cook is not paid for the ale and says so each time.
Dunn, one bowl, extra, for the child who waited at the gate: 0. The cook says it was a gift. The cook has been saying it all summer.
Total: 2 emeralds.
Paid: 2 emeralds, in full, and one more for the loaf that burned. Bram says the loaf was perfectly fine. The cook says it was not, and that the burnt end is the best bit, and nobody argues with the cook on the matter of bread.

Hesk
%%
Bill: the new lamp glass
Paid to the glassworks at the edge of Copperhold, by the yard at Saltreach, for the lamp glass that went to the harbor relay tower. Spring. Written out by Corin, in his own hand, and checked by Marit, who says he cannot add.

To one pane of lamp glass, the large size, clear, no bubbles: 4 emeralds.
To a second pane, the same, for the lamp room at the top: 4 emeralds.
To the carriage of both panes by cart from Copperhold to Saltreach, with straw and a wooden box: 1 emerald and 2 coppers.
To a bag of sand from the far bay, sifted and dry: 2 emeralds.
To the copper ring, cleaned and rubbed with wax: 1 emerald.
To the fitting of the panes, by two men of the yard, for one day: 2 emeralds, to be split between them, and a jar of honey, which they have asked for by name.
To a new wick for the lamp, of good cotton from the Ambrook store: 1 copper.
To the keeper, for climbing the stair to watch the work: nothing. He says he would have done it for free. He did, in fact, watch the whole thing from the top, and he has written to the Archive to say that he is pleased with the glass.

Total: 14 emeralds and 3 coppers.

Note from Corin. The first pane broke in the carriage, on the hill, because the cart went into a rut and the box was not tied. The glassworks sent a second. The second came without a crack, and the first was not charged to us, because the glassworks says it was their box that failed. Marit says that is the only honest thing she has ever heard a glassworks say.

Paid in full at the quay, in spring, when the boats were out. The lamp was lit that night. It burned clear and steady, and the keeper sent one word down the line: good.
%%
Receipt: one cart pulled from the drift
Received at Northpoint, the north road, from Teg the carter.
For pulling a cart from the snow drift by the third waymark, with 4 people and a rope: 6 emeralds.
For the loan of a shovel, broken: 1 emerald and the shovel.
For soup and bread at the market for the four pullers: 4 emeralds.
For the horse's oats: 1 emerald.
Total: 12 emeralds.
Paid by Teg. The cart was full of coal. The coal is now at the keeper's, and nobody has left. Lyle signed for the pullers, since he was the one who had the rope.
%%
Notice: moving house
To all in my street at Saltreach.
I am moving house. Not far. Across the harbor, past the slip, to the little house with the blue door and the window that looks at the boats.
I am old and I have too much. So on the first of Apple I will put it all in the yard.
There are: two chairs, one table, a bed with a good frame, a chest with a loose lid, four pots, a lamp, a rug with a hole in it, a hook for a coat, and a very large stone I have carried from place to place for forty years.
Take what you need. Leave what you do not. The stone stays with me.
Bring a cart if you have one, and a friend if the cart is heavy.
Ada, late summer of 167.
%%
Ledger: Lorn, the winter at Copperhold
Ledger kept by Lorn, trader, at the market at Copperhold, through the winter. All sums in emeralds. Some of the sums are not finished, and the ledger says so.
First snow. Sold soup, 42 bowls. Got 42. The snow came down all at once, in the night, and the market was empty by the bell except for the carts that could not turn.
New road. Crew of nine, Copperhold to the mill. Paid 30 of 37. Owed 7. The crew walked the road end to end at night, as the rule says. They said the torches were lit all the way. They said the ground was warm under the snow at the old shaft, and that they did not stop.
Coal. Sold to the shaft house at the fixed price. Got 20. Sold to three families on the hill at the same price. Got 6. Gave one family the coal for nothing, and wrote it in the ledger in chalk, so it can be rubbed out if they pay later. They have not paid. The chalk is still there.
Honey. Sold 8 jars to the Ambrook cart, which has come up the Long Road every week since Thaw. Got 16. The Ambrook cart says the honey is not as good this winter, and asks for it anyway.
Cough. A carter from Lowmarsh came up the hill with a cough that kept the whole stall awake. He bought soup, and sat down, and said the cough had been in Lowmarsh since spring. He said some blame the water. He said some blame the ships at Saltreach, and some the mines. He said nobody knows, and he coughed again, and I gave him the blanket from under the counter. Paid by the carter: nothing. Given: one blanket, 2 emeralds, not sold.
Families. Two families went down the Saltreach road in Frost with their carts and their children. They bought nothing at the market. They said they would send word from the coast. No word has come. The stall keeps a place for them, as it always does, and the place is empty.
Snow again. Sold hot soup at every bell, 311 bowls, the whole winter. Got 311.
Road lamps. Bought 12 torches from the shaft house for the new road, at cost. Paid in full. The crew says the road is good for walking at night, and that the lamps have not gone out once.
Bread. Sold 80 loaves that came up the new road from Three Wells on the last cart before the snow closed it. The carters say they are the best in the district. Nobody argued.
Gift. A child left a small wooden horse on the counter, with a note tied to its leg: for the next family who comes. Kept it on the shelf, as asked. Paid nothing. Given nothing.
Ledger closed at the end of Deepsnow. Balance: 412 emeralds, less the blanket, less the owed.
Lorn
%%
Receipt: a horse borrowed
Receipt for a horse, written by Ada and kept by Brin at the Kettle Inn.
I borrowed the grey horse from Tam at the top farm. I did not ask. Tam was in the beetroot and the horse was doing nothing.
I rode to Saltreach to see my sister move house. The horse ate well. The horse was warm. The horse did not complain.
I have left 5 emeralds at the inn for Tam, and a note. The note says sorry. The note also says thank you, which is more.
The horse came back by the Long Road, with a sack of apples from Ambrook on its back. The apples were not for me.
Ada, autumn of 166.
%%
Bill: the pie that went wrong, fair
From the fair kitchen at Hollin, for the pie that was meant to be the best of the fair and was not. Paid by the mayor's cousin, who ate half of it before he knew.

Flour, two sacks, the good kind: 4 emeralds.
Butter, one crock, and no more of it than was needed: 2 emeralds.
Pumpkins, six, the big ones from Ambrook: 3 emeralds.
Salt, taken twice by mistake, once from the sack and once from the cook's sleeve: 1 emerald.
Honey, one jar, to sweeten what the salt had spoiled: 2 emeralds.
A second pie, made when the first was found to be grey: 6 emeralds, and no thanks.
Cleaning the oven, after the grey pie was put in the wrong place: 1 emerald.

Total: 19 emeralds, for one pie that was not eaten and one that was.

Note from the cook: the recipe is correct. The salt was not.
