Timetable: the Reedend cart
The cart from Reedend to Lowmarsh, autumn. Posted at the boardwalk by Wren.
Leaves Reedend: at first light, when the mist lifts off the water.
Reaches the Lowmarsh boardwalk: before the noon bell, if the mud is kind.
Leaves Lowmarsh: after the noon bell, when the cart is full.
Reaches Reedend: before dark. Not after. The planks are bad in the dark.
Runs on: market days only. Not on days of heavy rain, because the cart sinks.
Fare: 1 emerald each way. Children free. Chickens half.
%%
Notice: the lower bridge wheel
The water wheel on the lower bridge is cracked across two spokes. The mill is closed until the wheel is mended, which will be ten days if the carpenters stay sober and twenty if they do not.

Grain for the market may still be ground at the upper mill on the Three Wells road. Carry it there yourself. The upper mill does not wait for anyone, and its miller does not like a cart in the yard.

The lower bridge stays open to people on foot. Carts take the ford. The ford is shallow in Blossom, so it is safe for the lighter carts only. Heavy loads go by the bridge at the east end, which is slow but holds.

The carpenters have asked for oak. There is none in the store. Oren has written to Ambrook for two good planks, and the orchard men say they will send them with the honey cart, if the honey cart is not full. It is full, so the planks will come later.

When the wheel turns again, the bell at the lower gate will ring three times. Then you may all go back to grinding your own opinions about the wheel.

The mill closes on the first day of Blossom. Please do not ask the miller why. He has told everyone, twice, and he is tired of it.
%%
Northpoint: the day of the play
Timetable for the visit of the Three Wells school, in Longday. By Pim, who has been put in charge. He says it is the hardest watch he has ever kept. There are eleven children.
The children come with Sorrel their teacher, on two carts. Teg drives the first. Dace drives the second, badly.
Noon: the carts reach the tower. Everyone looks up. Everyone says "Ooh." This takes some time.
First hour after noon: bread, cheese and cold potatoes at the long table in the yard. One cup of milk each. Mira has milked nobody. The milk came in a barrel.
Second hour: Pim's drill. The children walk once round the tower in twos, to learn where the torches are. Nobody touches a torch. Torches are for Pim.
Third hour: a climb to the first landing, in twos. Only to the landing. Ninety rungs are for keepers. Bel asks if she may go higher. The answer is no. Bel asks again at the landing. The answer is still no.
Afternoon: sweet berries on the lower path. Children stay on the path. The bushes have thorns, and Sock has opinions.
Supper: stew, and honey on bread. A second jar came up with the carts, for the visit. The jar for the longest night is not touched.
Evening: the children rest. They do not rest.
Near midnight: the play, on the lower step of the tower, with the sun low and gold over the lake. Sorrel's school plays The Fox and the Lamp. Eleven actors, one fox, and Lantern, who holds the lamp. Lantern has practiced since spring. It does not drop it.
After the play: Mira says she will not cry. She cries. She says it was the wind.
Bed: the children sleep in the relay house, in rows, like apprentices. Pim counts them twice. There were eleven at supper. There are eleven at midnight. Pim is satisfied.
Next morning: the carts leave at dawn. Sock watches from the edge of the yard. Sock has no opinion about plays.
%%
Timetable of the Archive at Vell
Posted by Oren, clerk, at the front door of the hill. Read it before you come in, and mind the step.

Front doors: open at first bell, shut at dusk. Carts may come as far as the big book by the door, and no further.

Front hall: lanterns lit by the lamp boy at dusk. No candles past this hall. I am fussy about candles.

Reading rooms: open to borrowers from the second bell until the lamps are lit. A reading copy may be borrowed for one season.

Copying room: opens at first light. It is the brightest room in the hill, with eight long tables. Do not sit at the window table if you are copying. You will not finish.

Deep halls: open to clerks only, with a lantern and a ribbon. Shelves with new doors are sealed with wax. Do not open them.

The post: bags leave at the second bell for Three Wells, Ambrook and the Long Road. Bags for Northpoint go on the last cart of the season, if there is one.

Market days: the Archive stall by the school is open on the fourth and eleventh of each month, to sell copies of letters to people who ask. Pay at the desk, not at the stall.

New road: carts for the port log their time at the desk when they leave and when they return. The desk is slow. Be patient with it.

Tutors' house: down the hill. Apprentices may be borrowed for carrying on the first day of Thaw and the last day of Blossom only.

Lamp boy: lights the lamps in the front hall at dusk and trims them at midnight. He is not to climb the ladder to the high lamps. He has been told this four times, and he has climbed it three.

Rain days: when the roof drips on the copying tables, the good copies go down to the deep halls, and the clerks wait. The rain stops, in time. It always does.

Bell: rung by the clerk on duty, once, at the right hour. The bell is old and cross, and it does not like a second ring.

Lost ribbons: the box by the door. Ribbons not claimed by the end of the season go to the copying room, to tie the new shelves.

Cat: one, named Sable, who lives in the copying room. She is not allowed in the copying room. She has not been consulted.

Notice from the council: the full shelves are to be sealed before the autumn. Each clerk is to copy the finding book by hand, and to write everything down, in case the doors are not opened again. This is not a punishment. It is an order, and I have signed it.

The head clerk asks that the tea be made by the first bell, not the second. The third room has been without tea for two days, and the clerks are not themselves.

Oren, clerk, in the third room, with the tea.
%%
Timetable: the tower and the lamps
Hours of the relay tower on the hill at Three Wells, and when the lamps are changed, spring. Kept by Sedge. Copied onto the board at the tower door by Ree, who was told to copy it and has made it neater.

The tower takes messages from the public from dawn to the noon bell, and from the first lamp to the second hour of the night. Haste messages at any hour. Knock on the door. Sedge sleeps lightly, except on market nights.

Messages go down the line on the hour. Cost: one emerald for every ten words. Count first. Sedge will count again.

The lamps:
The corner lamps of the square are lit at dusk by the lamp boy, and put out at the second hour of the night.
The three well lamps are lit on market days and fair days only.
The tower lamp is trimmed at noon and at the first lamp, and its glass is wiped every day.
The stair lamps are changed on the first day of each month. Sedge does this alone and does not like to be watched.

On the 14th of Blossom, at dusk, the tower sends greetings for the wedding to every tower on the line. Hand yours to Sedge before noon. Ten words, and the town pays.
%%
Timetable: the autumn carts
The autumn carts of Kettle Ridge, as they run from the top farm down to the ferry, over to Three Wells and on to Vell, and the carts that come back up. Kept by Isla, ferry keeper, so that nobody on the ridge waits in the rain for a cart that has already gone.

The first cart of the day goes down at first bell, with the milk, the eggs and the cheese, and must be at the ferry before the sun is over the mill. It crosses at once. It does not wait for the second cart, because the second cart always comes late, and says it was not its fault.

The second cart goes down at midday, with the wheat. It is heavy, and the horse is tired, and the carter wants his soup. Let him have it at the Kettle Inn. He will be kind to the horse afterward, which is more than can be said for some carters.

The third cart goes down at dusk, with the apples, if there are apples. If there are not, it goes down with nothing, and nobody asks why, because the carter likes to be alone with the horse and the road. Apples pay double at the ferry. Nobody has ever been able to explain this rule. We keep it anyway.

Carts coming up the ridge run as follows: the first at midday, with the salt and the iron from Three Wells; the second at dusk, with the cloth from Vell. The cloth is always late, because the clerks at Vell count the bales twice. The carters have asked whether the clerks could count them once. The clerks said no, and that is the end of that.

On the first day of Apple, the carts go to a new time, because the days grow short and the road is dark by the second bell. The new time is written on the board by the ferry, in chalk. Until it is rubbed out, the carts go early, and the carters grumble, and the horses eat their oats, and everybody gets home before the lamps are lit.

Market days at Three Wells: the carts go down together and come back together. The mayor of Three Wells stands at the top of the ridge road and waves them up, which the carters say is the only useful thing the mayor does all year.
%%
The post and the new road, spring
Notice to all carters. The new road is open from the Halfway Inn to the port at Saltreach, over the high ground. Carts may use it in the day. Keep to the stones, and do not pass the wagons at the top of the hill.

The new road has four waymarks, each with its figure and its arrow. The fourth has no arrow yet. The stonecutter says it will come in Sowing.

Carts for Saltreach leave the Halfway Inn at first bell and must get in before dusk. The big carts go in the morning, the small ones at noon. The ferry at the river bend crosses twice a day, when the water is low.

The ferry keeper asks that families with bundles keep their bundles on the cart and not on the ferry. Bundles get wet, and wet bundles make the ferry heavy.

Market days at Three Wells stay on the fourth and eleventh of each month, as before.
%%
Timetable: the Ambrook Cross year
Kept on the board by the well. Tilly writes it. Nell checks the lamp part.
The year has twelve months of thirty days. Here is how we spend them.
Thaw: mend the fences. The snow goes. The roads are mud. The ford cart goes slow.
Sowing: the wheat in the top field. The bees come out. The cat comes in.
Blossom: the apples flower. The whole hill is white. Everyone sneezes. Jory opens the sluice. Nobody may touch the sluice but Jory.
Swarm: the hives are busy. Ama watches them. If a hive swarms, run and tell Ama. Do not run at the bees.
Longday: the longest day. We keep the lamps lit late and eat outside. The relay lamp goes up early and comes down late. Nell gets tired. We bring her tea.
Melon: the melons and the pumpkins grow fat. The children guard the biggest pumpkin. There is a small prize. The prize is a pumpkin.
Reaping: the wheat comes in. The carts go out at six and come back at dark. Everyone works. Fen sits on a crate and tells us where to put things.
Apple: the apples come in. Nine days of picking. The mill turns dawn to dusk. The harvest supper. The pie.
Leaffall: the last apples. The leaves come down. We rake them and jump in them and rake them again.
Frost: the water goes hard at the edges. The ferry stops. The plank comes off the rope. The goat stays home.
Longnight: the nights are long. The lamps are lit all day. The relay lamp burns long. Mira writes from the north and says she is warm. She is not warm. We send socks.
Deepsnow: the snow is deep. The ford cart stops. The post comes by the high road on foot. Letters are slow. We wait. There is always another.
The tenth day of every month is market day. The first and the fifteenth are market days at Three Wells. The mill wheel turns dawn to dusk. The cat will not stay out.
If you miss a cart, wait. There is always another.
%%
Hearings at the market board, by day
The market board sits on the first and third day of each week. Anyone may bring a complaint. The clerk writes it down, the board hears both sides, and the answer is pinned to the post. Times are the same as the carts.

First day, after the morning bell: weights and measures. Loaves are checked. Short loaves are noted. A baker who is short three times is sent a letter from the archive, which is worse than any fine.
First day, noon: market stalls and the square. Who sits where. Who may hang a sign on the fountain, which is nobody.
Third day, after the morning bell: fences, walls, ditches and wells.
Third day, noon: small wrongs. Lost goats. Lost boots. Lost tempers.

Fence, west road, third day of Blossom. Two neighbors, one fence. The fence is a hedge of thorn that has been growing for six years, and it has now grown over the path to the second well. Garrin says it is his hedge, because he planted it. Mave says it is her path, because she walked it first. The board went out and measured. The hedge is on Garrin's side by the width of one bucket. The path is on Mave's side by the width of two. Both sides agree that the board measured wrongly, and that is why they agreed.

The board's answer: cut the hedge back to the bucket line. Mave may cut her own side. Garrin must not cut the top, as the top belongs to the birds. The board has noted that the birds were not consulted.

Garrin has asked for the answer in writing. He has been given it. He has pinned it on his own gate, under the post.
%%
Timetable: the market days
Kept by Esk, bridge keeper, at the house at the edge of Saltreach.
First day of Blossom. Market at Three Wells, by the carts. Pell's cart is on the road from Ambrook with honey, and Pell is at the Halfway Inn for the night.
Second day. Pell reaches the bridge at noon and pays the toll in full, two emeralds for the cart and one for the barrel. He says the honey is all gone, except for one jar, which is for his daughter. He is not coming home by the north road. He is coming by the bridge, because it is nearer.
Third day. The ferry runs late in the morning, because of the wind. Pell waits on the quay with the cart and the jar, and watches the boats come in, one at a time. He says the sea is good to look at. He says it is a good thing to see a boat come in, with its sail down and its men shouting.
Fourth day. Market day at Saltreach. The fish are cheap, and the price board has changed twice before noon. Pell buys a box of dried kelp for his wife, who cooks with it on the first day of the fair.
Fifth day. Pell crosses the bridge at first light with the cart, and the lamp on the post is still lit, and the bridge boy waves at him. Pell waves back. The cart goes up the Ambrook road at the walk, which is a sign that he is nearly home.
Sixth day. Pell is home. The lamp at Ambrook hill is lit. The honey is in the house, and the jar for Tilly is on the table, and Tilly has been told it is from the sea. She does not believe it. She has tasted the honey anyway, and says it is the best she has had.
Seventh day. The timetable is complete. The bridge is open. The lamp is trimmed. The carts are on their days. Esk writes this down, and then goes out to see the boats come in.
%%
Timetable: the ferry and the bridge
Kept by Esk, bridge keeper, at the house at the edge of Saltreach. Times are by the bell on the quay.
Ferry: first crossing at first light, last crossing at the second bell after noon.
Bridge: open to carts from dawn. Closed to carts in high water. Foot traffic always.
Toll: 1 emerald a cart, 2 a cart with a barrel. Children cross free, and do not argue.
Lamp on the bridge post: lit at dusk. Trimmed at midnight. Lit again at first light.
%%
Relay hours at the Vell tower
Copied for my door-board, winter of 14, because everyone keeps asking. Quill, potter. The hours are from Senna, keeper of the lamp.
First pass: at first light. Notes for the hill road and the sea road go out.
Second pass: at the noon bell.
Third pass: at dusk. Notes for the Archive come in on this pass, so the clerks wait at the door with their sleeves rolled.
Haste: at any hour. Knock on the tower door. Senna wakes. Senna does not like it, and does it anyway.
Lamp changes. The big lamp is lit at dusk. At midnight the night keeper comes up and trims the wick. At first light the lamp is put out and the glass is wiped. A dirty pane loses a word.
How far a note goes. From Vell to Tuck's little lamp on the hill, then to Three Wells, then on down the line. A note from here is at Three Wells before the soup is cold.
Cost. Nothing yet. The council says it will cost one emerald for ten words, because there are too many notes about hats.
Boats. When a fishing boat is late home, the harbor lamp at Saltreach stays lit until it comes in. Last winter it burned four nights. Then the word came up the line: "Small Wave is home." The whole hill cheered. Half the hill has never seen the sea.
Five lamps on the line now. Next spring, six.
%%
Timetable: the ferry across the slow
The ferry between the Reedend landing and the Lowmarsh weir, autumn of 198. Kept by Tilda, ferrywoman, and posted by Wren on the boat house door.
First crossing: when the heron leaves the reeds.
Then every time the pole is dry enough to hold.
Last crossing: when the first lamp is lit on the boardwalk.
Tilda says the ferry is a flat boat on a rope, and it takes eight people or four people and a goat. She counts the goat as two.
Fare: 1 emerald for a person, 1 for a goat, 2 for a cart, none for a frog.
If the water is high, the ferry does not run. Look at the third post. If the water is over the white mark, go round by the weir.
If the fog is thick, Tilda rings the bell on the rope every ten breaths. If you hear it, stand still. The boat will find you.
Wren asks that nobody ride the ferry for fun. It is a ferry. It is not a toy. Wren has seen the children do it.
%%
Reedend: what goes where and when
Autumn, in the 190s. The posted list at the Reedend crossing, written by Wren with some help. It tells every regular coming and going for the hamlet, so that visitors do not have to ask. Visitors ask anyway.

The cart. Runs on market days, to Lowmarsh and back. See the timetable on the post.

The post. Comes by the Long Road to Lowmarsh on the first of every month. The post-walker leaves Reedend letters at the crossing the same afternoon. Letters for Reedend wait in the box on the post. Take yours and no one else's. Last year Wren's letter went to a man with the same first letter of his name, and he wrote back to her mother.

The healing house. Wren sees patients at Lowmarsh in the morning. In the afternoon she walks to Reedend, if the path is dry, and sees anyone who is sick. If you are sick in the morning, wait. If you are very sick, send a child to the boardwalk and ring the big bell.

Lamps. The boardwalk lamps are lit at dusk and put out at dawn. Moss, the healing house apprentice, goes along the boardwalk with a taper. It has lit every lamp every night since the spring. It has never lit one twice. Wren says that is more than she can say for herself.

The relay. The tower above Lowmarsh blinks twice at noon and twice at dusk, to say all is well. If it blinks three times, go and see what is wrong. If it does not blink, send a boy up to the keeper with a basket of eggs.

Market day. Every sixth day. Fish, reeds, baskets, mud-pies for the children, which are not food.

Eggs. For eggs, ask at the white house. The hens are good. The fox is a problem.

The fox. There is a fox at the Reedend hens. It came in the first week of Leaffall, and it has taken three hens so far. It is small and red and very clever. It does not take the hens that stay in the coop. It takes the ones that wander. Please shut the hen house at dusk. The hens say they are fine. The hens are not fine.

Last week the white house put a trap by the coop with an egg in it. The fox ate the egg and left the trap. The next morning there was a feather on the step. We believe it was a gift.
%%
Mab's ferry, winter hours
The ferry over the river below Vell. Copied for the board at my door, winter of 11, because the clerks keep missing it. Quill, potter.
There is no bridge yet. The masons say there will be a bridge when the stone comes down from the hills. The stone has not said when. Until then there is Mab and the flat boat.
Going over: at first light, at the first bell, at the noon bell, and in the middle of the afternoon.
Coming back: a little after each of those. If nobody is on the far bank, Mab rows back anyway and says nothing, loudly.
Last crossing: the dusk bell. After that the boat is tied up and Mab goes to supper. A traveler who comes late may sleep in the hut on the near bank. The stove is lit. The wood is the ferry's, so do not burn all of it.
The boat takes four people, or a cart and one person, or a horse and two people, or twelve sacks and whoever is sitting on them. It does not take a cart, a horse and an argument.
If the boat is on the far bank, ring the bell on the post. Ring it once. Not eleven times. Mab can hear.
Ice. When the edges freeze, Mab breaks a path with the pole. When the river freezes all the way, the ferry stops, and lanterns on posts show where the ice is safe. Walk between the lanterns. Not beside them.
Children. The children from the far bank cross every morning for the school at Vell. They ride free. They are asked to sit down in the boat and they do not. Mab has given up and rows very steadily.
Pots. My pots cross on the ferry to the far-bank farms. Mab breaks one a year and pays for it in fish. I have more fish than I can eat. I do not complain.
%%
Timetable for the autumn carts
Kept at the farm outside Copperhold, for the carter's boy, who cannot read the bells but can read this.

The first cart goes after the first bell, with the coal sacks from the mine gate.
The second cart takes eggs and milk to Three Wells. Dell rides on the box. Dell, wear the coat.
The market cart goes when the road is dry. Ask at the gate first.
The last cart goes before the dusk bell. If you are not on it, you walk, and I will not come out with a lamp.

Yarrow
%%
Timetable: the post, spring
Letters and parcels from the storehouse at Three Wells. Clem takes them in. Ree carries most of them.

Letters handed in before the dawn bell go out the same day. Later ones wait for the next cart.
Cost of a letter: Vell 1 emerald, Ambrook 1, Kettle Ridge 1, Copperhold 2, Saltreach 3, Northpoint 4. Lowmarsh, when the water goes down.
Parcels are paid by the sack. A sack of wool to Vell: 2 emeralds. A sack of cats: do not.
Write the name and the town on the cover, large. Last month a letter marked "to my aunt" went to eleven aunts.
Wedding letters go first. There is a wedding on the 14th of Blossom, and the post is already full of cake.
%%
Northpoint: the relay hours
By Pim, for the new helper. Mira keeps the tower book. This is only when things happen.
Dawn: Northpoint calls Vell. "All well?" Vell answers. Mira writes the weather in the book.
Mid-morning: the call comes in from north road two. Lantern writes it down. Mira reads it back.
Noon: "All well" goes south. Northpoint sends first, because Northpoint is the end of the line.
Afternoon: letters and haste. Haste goes first, always. Socks are not haste.
Supper: the book is closed. Mira eats. Nobody speaks to Mira while she eats.
Dusk: the great lamp is lit, and then the stair lamps. In Longday there is no dusk. Mira lights the lamp when she feels like it. This is allowed.
Midnight: the last call. "All well" goes down the line once more.
Any hour: if the line is quiet for an hour, Mira calls. If it is quiet for two, she calls twice and climbs up to look.
Cart days are different. On a cart day the timetable stops at noon, because Teg is here and the letters are in.
The honey: one jar comes up from Ambrook with the first cart of Longday. It sits on the shelf above the stove until the longest night. It is opened at midnight, with two cups. Pim looks at the jar every day. Mira says that counts as guarding it.
%%
Lamp changes on the hill
Kept by the archive, so that the lamp keepers know when they must go up and the clerks know when they must go down.

Every second day at dusk the lamps of the lower gate are trimmed and filled. The keeper walks round the outside first, then the inside.
Every third day the lanterns behind the glass of the front hall are cleaned. Lanterns stay behind glass. Never a candle past the front hall, as the first keepers wrote.
The light wells are washed on the first day of each month. Ropes are checked for the glass shafts, and the glass is wiped from the top down, so the wet does not run back on the clean.
The copying room gets its lamp on the morning of every copying day. It is the brightest room in the hill. It has the big window, and the lamp is only for the dark days.
The deep halls are lit by hand. The keeper takes one lantern down the steps and back. He does not take two.

Lamp oil comes up from the press at Three Wells. It arrives on the fourth cart after Blossom and the fourth cart after Frost. If it is late, the clerks write the late day in the book. Nothing is ever left unwritten.

The last trim of each year is in Deepsnow, the morning before the first snow falls on the hill. The whole staff goes out for it. Ulla says it is the only time the archive is quiet from the inside and loud from the outside. I have never worked out what she means. I like the sentence.

Oren
%%
Timetable: the flood weeks
Carts, ferry, post, tower and market, while the marsh road is under water. Chalked at the east well by Ree, and changed as the water changed. The thaw sent it down from the hills. It is not the worst flood we have had. It is the wettest.

Carts. Lowmarsh carts go by the old mill track, which is a day longer. Two carts a week, at dawn from the east well. Bring dry socks. Bring two pairs.

The ferry. Ferris runs the ferry at the Lowmarsh crossing from first light to the noon bell. After noon the river rises, and so does Ferris's voice. People 1 emerald, carts 3, sheep 1 each. Sheep that argue pay double.

The post. Parcels for Lowmarsh wait at the storehouse. Letters go by relay, short. The tower takes ten words free from anyone who is wet.

The tower. Haste messages first. The flood board second. Tull at Lowmarsh sends the water mark at dawn, noon and dusk: how high on the third post. Sedge chalks it at the tower door.

The lamps. Extra lamps on the reed bank at dusk, so carts can see where the edge is. Tull lights them. Sedge's lamp boy lights ours. Both put them out at midnight.

The market. The Lowmarsh stalls move to the east well until the water is down: reeds, fish, and frogs, which are not for sale. Do not ask.

The inn. Twelve beds. The Lowmarsh cousins will fill six. Say the beds are for the wedding, so the innkeeper does not give them to a drover.

The wedding. Nell and Cal marry on the 14th of Blossom. The bride's cousins are at Lowmarsh. They will come by the mill track and the ferry, in that order, and be late.

Ree's note: if the water is not down by then, the wedding goes to the water. Nell's mother has said so, and she has a way of saying things.
%%
Timetable: a new apprentice's first week
The first week of the new apprentice at the Kettle ferry, written out by Isla, who has to teach it. It is set out day by day, with the orders the helper must learn and their meanings.

First day. Bring the apprentice to the ferry at first bell. Show it the post, the bell and the rope. Give it one order to learn for the day, and no more:

> come to the ferry
= come

Second day. Teach the rope. The apprentice holds the rope while I pull the ferry across the brook, and it holds the rope again on the way back.

> hold the rope until I say
= stay

Third day. The carts. The apprentice goes up the ridge with the empty cart, and comes down with the first load of wheat. It must learn to stop at the top, where the gate is.

> fetch the wheat from the top field
= fetch wheat
> take the empty cart up the ridge road
= haul

Fourth day. The bell. The apprentice rings the bell on the post for the walkers, and it must learn to ring it at any hour, in any weather, because the walkers do not wait for anybody's convenience.

> wait by the bell until a walker comes
= stay

Fifth day. Rest. The apprentice is sent home to its shed by the ferry house, and it goes without being told twice. It stands in the shed doorway and looks at the brook. I think it likes the sound of the water.

> go home to the shed
= home

Sixth day. The apprentice is tested. It takes the ferry over and back on its own, with one walker, and rings the bell at the bottom of the ridge road. If the walker is pleased, it has learned the week. If not, we go over again.

Remember, it is a new apprentice. Its mind is drilled, but only just. Never send it up the ridge in the dark. The ridge does not care how well it was drilled.
%%
Timetable: the Kettle Ridge ferry
Ferry at the Kettle brook, at the bottom of the ridge road. Kept by Isla, ferry keeper, for the carters. Autumn, Reaping.

Carts over the ferry at first bell, at midday, and at dusk. No carts after dark, unless the cart carries apples, in which case the apples pay double.

Rates: a cart, one emerald. A horse, half an emerald. A walker, a loaf of bread, or a story. Stories are worth more in autumn, when the evenings are long.

The ferry is pulled on the rope. The rope is checked every Reaping. If the rope is frayed, the ferry does not go, and nobody is sorry except the carters.
%%
Naming week for the baby, autumn
Kept by Yarrow, in the book by the kitchen door, for the week the baby is named. Every family in the house is to read it, and every family in the house will disagree with some of it.

The fourth day of Apple: the baby is six days old. Her name is Lin. The name was chosen by her mother, after a long argument with her father, which ended when the baby cried loudest for the name Lin. Her grandfather says he chose it. Let him say so.

The fifth day of Apple: the cart goes to Three Wells, early, before the bell. The baby goes in the register at the mayor's house. Her name, her mother's name, her father's name, and the day. The mayor's clerk writes the name in the book. Dace is not the clerk, but he likes to hold the pen while the ink is still wet, and he will try to sign it with his own name too. Let him try. Then take the pen back.

The register is for everyone who is born in the town. It keeps the count of the people, and it keeps the names, so that nobody can say later that a child was never here. Dace says this is the most important book in Three Wells. Ida says it is the second most important, after the bread book, and she will not discuss it further.

The sixth day of Apple: the feast in the yard. Soup in the big pot, from the morning. Bread from Ida, who brings her own loaves on the cart, because she does not trust anyone else's oven. The honey cake is for the naming, and it must be made with the dark honey from Ama's hives at Ambrook. Pell brought it up the Long Road this morning, late, with one jar broken and the rest in straw. He ate a spoon of the broken one on the step, and said the honey was the best in the land. It is. The cake is also to be made without salt, because the salt is for the soup, and everybody who has ever made a cake knows why.

Guests: the midwife, who will stand at the back and say she was only passing. Hesk and Ina from the mine gate, with Dunn, who is not to touch the cake until it is cut. The keeper from the tower comes down for the soup, and goes back up before the second bell, because the lamp is not going to light itself.

The seventh day of Apple: the rest of the cake, and the rest of the soup, and the washing of all the cloths. Dell will fold them. Dell will fold them badly, and I will fold them again behind his back.

The first bell of every day after: feed the baby. Wake me. I am awake anyway.

Yarrow
%%
Timetable: the Kettle Inn kitchen
Kept by Hazel, cook at the Kettle Inn, on the back of the door where the carters can read it. It is the timetable of the kitchen for the autumn, with the recipe that went wrong set out at the bottom, so that nobody else makes the same mistake.

First bell: bread goes in the oven, and the beetroot soup goes on the back of the stove. The soup must not boil. It must sit and think about boiling.

Second bell: the stew goes in, with the carrots, the potatoes and a handful of the good salt. Not the grey salt from the barrel. The grey salt is for the horses.

Midday: the carters come in, and they eat, and they say the soup is too thin. The soup is not too thin. It is correct. Tell them so, and they will say it again tomorrow.

Dusk: the pies go in. Pumpkin pie in the big dish, apple pie in the small one, and one honey pie for the children, which is the only pie the children ever eat.

Recipe that went wrong, for the record: the pumpkin pie of Reaping, when the salt jar and the honey jar were put back on the wrong shelves. The pie tasted of the sea. Two carters said it was the best pie they had ever eaten. They had to say it, because the pie was all they had.

Remember: the jars are labelled, and the labels are on the shelf in front of you, not behind it. If a jar has no label, do not put it in a pie.
%%
Letter: Tilly to her daughter Sera
Sera,
The apples are heavy this year. Too heavy. Jory says he has never seen the like. The oldest tree with the grey branch has dropped so much fruit that the sheep will not go under it.
We are picking from dawn. Everyone comes. Even old Fen, who says his back is bad, came and sat on a crate and told us where to put things. That is a help, he says.
Mira sent a letter from the north tower. She says it is cold there in the middle of summer and she has worn her coat to bed. I have sent her honey and a pair of wool socks. She will say they are too big. They are too big. She will wear them anyway.
The cat will not stay out. I put him out at night and he is back on my bed by morning. I do not know how he gets in. I have looked at every window. There is no hole. He is a mystery and he knows it.
Come for the harvest supper. Bring the little one. There will be pie.
Your mother,
Tilly
%%
Timetable: carts from Three Wells
Carts leaving the east well, spring. Chalked by Ree, who drives the second one.

Dawn: Vell, by the Halfway Inn.
Second hour: Ambrook, by the Brown Hen.
Noon bell: Kettle Ridge, by the ridge road.
Every sixth day, at dawn: Copperhold. Bring a coat.
Lowmarsh: no cart this week. The marsh road is under water.

Carts do not wait for late passengers, except Pell, who is always late and always has honey.
%%
Timetable: market days and the wedding
Market days at Three Wells, from the first of Sowing to the end of Blossom. Every sixth day, from dawn to the noon bell. Written by Ree, who has a stall by the south well and an opinion about the other stalls.

2nd of Sowing. Seed day. Seeds from Kettle Ridge and Ambrook at the south well. Bring your own sack.
8th of Sowing. Wool day. The shearing is late, so expect short stalls and long faces.
14th of Sowing. Salt fish from Saltreach. You will smell it from the north road.
20th of Sowing. Tools day. Copperhold sends picks, hoes and nails. Holt the smith will sharpen the first ten for nothing.
26th of Sowing. Plain market. Nothing special. Ree's favorite.
2nd of Blossom. Honey day. Pell brings the first honey of the year, and the first argument about its price.
8th of Blossom. Reed day. Lowmarsh brings reeds, if the road is dry. If it is not, Lowmarsh brings mud.
14th of Blossom. Market day, and the wedding of Nell the weaver and Cal the carter. The square is theirs until noon. The stalls move to the east side. The bell rings at the end of the wedding, not the start. No pigs.
20th of Blossom. The apple trees are out at Ambrook. Ambrook sends branches, and we put them in water. The square smells like a good idea.
26th of Blossom. The last market of spring. Fair day is a long way off. Buy your ribbons now.

If it rains, the market stands. If it floods, see the flood board. If the bride's mother says it is off, it is off.
%%
The ferry, the post and the market
Kept at the ferry house by Yarrow, for anyone who needs to cross, send, or sell, in the autumn months. Oda keeps the ferry, and Oda keeps the rules.

The ferry crosses at the first bell, at the second, at the noon bell and at the fourth. The last crossing is the dusk bell, and nobody gets across after it, however much they shout. Shouting makes Oda slower. This is a known fact.

Fare: one emerald for a cart, and a half for a horse, if the horse behaves. A horse that bites the ramp is charged as a cart. A cart that carries a pig is charged as a pig, which is not fair, but Oda says it is the rule.

Bridges: the old bridge by the mill is safe for loaded carts. The new bridge at the bend is still wet at its middle, and the stone there is soft. Walk the horse over it, and do not hurry.

The post bag: leaves the mine gate after the shift bell. It goes up to the tower at Vell by the relay, and the answer comes back down in a day. The letters for the Long Road go with the carts. The letters for Ambrook go with Pell, who is late, and who will tell you about it.

What is sold where, in the autumn:
Apples at Ambrook, by the basket, on the hill road.
Pears on the mine cart, if the mine cart is in a good mood.
Honey at Ambrook, from Ama's hives. Buy it by the jar, and taste it first.
Wool at Kettle Ridge, by the bundle, from the north farms.
Beetroot at Three Wells, by the sack, on market day.
Potatoes at the mine gate, by the sack, for anyone with a cart and a strong back.
Eggs at the ferry house, by the four, if Oda has not sold them to the cook.
Fish from the river, after the dusk bell, at half price. Give the rest to the cats.

The market at Vell is on the middle day of the month. Bring a clean cloth for the bread. Nothing is wrapped in paper there, because paper is for the Archive, and the Archive is particular.

Yarrow
%%
Northpoint: the torches at midsummer
By Pim, torch keeper. Written in Longday, when the sun does not set.
Every watch needs a timetable, even when there is nothing to watch. So here is the timetable for the month with no night.
Great lamp: out for the whole month. Mira cleans the glass, oils the hatch and counts the rungs, which have not changed.
Torches round the foot: lit at the hour the dark would come, if it came. Put out an hour later. A torch burning for nothing is only a fire.
Stair lamps: not lit. The windows give light enough to find the steps.
Lantern's rounds: the lamp room at noon, the coal bin at supper, the glass at dusk, if there is dusk.
Sock's rounds: round the woodpile at midnight. She keeps no timetable and never has.
The sun keeps the longest watch in the land. Pim has stopped trying to relieve it.
%%
Timetable: the post and the lamp hours
The post cart leaves the Kettle Inn at first bell on the days it runs, and goes down the ridge road to Three Wells, then on to Vell. It comes back up the ridge in the afternoon, if the horse is willing. The horse is usually willing, if there is oats in the cart.

Post runs on the first, the fourth and the seventh days of each week. On the other days the post waits in the inn, where the innkeeper will read it to you for a loaf of bread. You may keep the crust.

The relay lamp on the ridge top changes its keeper at dusk and at dawn. The keeper coming up the stair brings the day's weather on a slate. The keeper going down brings the night's messages. Both keepers are glad when the changing is done, and both say so.

The lamp is cleaned on the first day of each season, whether it needs it or not. The glass is always cleaner after the cleaning, which is the one thing everybody agrees about.

For the carters: the relay house at the foot of the ridge tower opens at first bell and closes at midday. Anything you need answered, you must send before midday. After midday the mind in the relay house is busy with the lamps, and it answers slowly, and it does not like to be asked how the weather is in Vell.
%%
Timetable: the relay hours and lamp
Kept by Esk, bridge keeper, at the house at the edge of Saltreach.
Relay hours: the Saltreach tower speaks to Vell hill at first light, at noon and at dusk. It listens to the little relay between at the second bell. It listens to the north line at midnight, and gets the answer by the morning, if the weather is kind.
Lamp changes: the lamp on the tower is trimmed at dawn by the keeper, who climbs the stair with a jar of oil and a clean cloth. The new wick is lit at the first light, and the old wick is put in the box.
Lamp changes at the bridge: once a week, on the fifth day, by the bridge boy, who is paid two emeralds and a sweet bun.
On the ninth of Sowing the bridge lamp blinked a line of short and long that no keeper had sent. It went on for the length of one bell, and then stopped. The bridge boy ran up the tower stair, and the keeper, who was at her supper, came down it. She found her son at the shutter with a stick in his hand, tapping out words he had seen on the slate.
The words were all right. They were his own, and they said: good night, lamp. The keeper was not pleased, and the boy was sorry, and it was written in the book as a mistake. I have written it here as the only strange thing that happened on the bridge that spring.
Relay hours are not changed by any of this. The lamp is still lit at dusk.
%%
Northpoint: the lamp year
By Pim, torch keeper, for the new helper. Written in Longday, when there is no lamp to write about.
The great lamp burns when it is dark and rests when it is not. That sounds simple. At Northpoint it is a year's work, because the dark is never the same length twice running.
Here is the lamp, month by month, with the coal it eats. At every change the keeper climbs, feeds the coal and cleans the glass. There is one change for about every five hours of dark.
Thaw: lit 14 hours. 3 changes. Coal: 7 sacks. The lake ice cracks and booms. Mira calls it the doors.
Sowing: 10 hours. 2 changes. 4 sacks. The sun comes back. Everyone is rude about the mud.
Blossom: 5 hours. 1 change. 2 sacks. There is no blossom at Northpoint. Pim has looked, twice.
Swarm: 2 hours. 1 change. 1 sack. Bees are a rumor. The jar from Ambrook is not.
Longday: none. No night, no lamp. Mira reads. Lantern polishes the glass, which does not need it.
Melon: 4 hours. 1 change. 2 sacks. The first dark in a long while. Lantern stands in the yard and watches it come.
Reaping: 9 hours. 2 changes. 4 sacks. The cart brings the winter coal. Count it twice.
Apple: 13 hours. 3 changes. 6 sacks. Honey on bread. It is allowed.
Leaffall: 16 hours. 4 changes. 8 sacks. The last cart before the snow. Teg does not stay for tea.
Frost: 19 hours. 4 changes. 11 sacks. Mira's knees begin to creak. Lantern's too, says Mira.
Longnight: 20 hours. 4 changes. 14 sacks. The longest night. The jar is opened at midnight.
Deepsnow: 19 hours. 4 changes. 11 sacks. The days get longer now. It does not feel like it.
That makes seventy sacks. Pim has counted them in a good many years, and it has always come out the same.
Torches: four hundred in the store. A winter takes about three hundred. Pim lights every one, and counts the stubs.
If the lamp goes out in the night, Mira lights the spare and sends haste to the south: lamp out at Northpoint. The next tower watches for the new light and says so when it sees it. This has happened four times in twelve years. Each time it was ice on the hatch.
A lamp that is late is a lamp that is wrong. Mira has never been late.
%%
The farm timetable, autumn 176
Kept by Yarrow, grandmother of this house, who has kept this timetable for thirty years and has never once kept to it.

The first bell: the fire is lit, the kettle goes on, the hens are let out. Wake Dell, who will say he is awake.
The second bell: the pigs are fed. Big Beet goes first, and he is loud about it. He always goes first.
Mid morning: the cart goes to the mine gate for the coal. Hand over the ticket. The sorter will not look at it.
Noon: dinner in the yard, all of us, whatever the weather. Standing is allowed. Sitting is better.
The relay hours: letters go up the tower at the second bell and come down at the fourth. If a letter comes late, read it at supper and not before. Nothing is ever as urgent as the sender thinks.
Afternoon: the orchard, the hives, the barn roof. Dell does the hives. I do the counting, which is the most important job, and the one nobody sees.
Dusk: the lamps. Trim the wick, clean the glass, and light them one at a time, starting at the gate.
Evening: soup, then the stories, then bed.

The baby came on the fourth day of Apple, in the night, before the first bell. A girl, with a loud voice and her grandfather's ears. Her mother is well. The midwife says the baby is perfect and does not want to be told otherwise.

Feeding for the first month: at the first bell, the second and the sixth, and at any other bell she likes. Wake me. I am awake anyway.

Honey: one jar goes to the midwife, one to the mother, and one is kept for the baby's first spoon. The rest is for the cake. The cake is for me.
%%
Timetable: relay hours at Ambrook
The relay tower on the hill above the mill pond keeps these hours. Look at the lamp to see when it is lit.
Dawn: the lamp is lit and the first message is sent to the tower at Three Wells. Good morning, Ambrook. The keeper, Hanne, always says good morning first.
Morning: the post is read from the basket at the foot of the stair. Messages for the mill, for the orchard, for the Hollow farm. Read your own name. Do not read anyone else's.
Noon: the lamp is checked. The glass is wiped. A sheet of messages is sent to Vell and to Kettle Ridge. Keep the glass clean in the spring pollen. The bees are not wiped.
Afternoon: the keeper rests. Do not send a message at this hour unless it is urgent. Urgent means someone is hurt, or a ship is lost, or the bridge is down.
Dusk: the lamp is lit again. The day's post goes up the line. Tomorrow's weather is sent to every tower, so the carters know what to wear.
Night: the lamp burns low. One keeper stays awake all night, in turns with the boy who brings the coal.
First snow: from the first snow, the hours change. The lamp is lit an hour before dawn, because the roads are slow, and the post comes in a sled from the foot of the hill. The keeper asks you to bring a warm bottle.
%%
Timetable: the spring sowing
Sowing on the ridge, as the farmers agreed at the thaw market. Kept on the mill door, where Sefa can see it from the grinding room.
Thaw, first week: dig the top field. Turn the soil with the long spades. Leave the stones on the bank, for the wall. Check the drains, and clear the ditch where it runs down the middle.
Thaw, second week: plant the beetroot in the long field, a hand apart. Plant the potatoes in the bottom field, where the soil is wet. Plant the carrots beside the hedge, where the oak keeps the wind off.
Sowing, first week: sow the wheat in the top field, one row at a time, straight as a rope. Pip does this. It is the only job Pip has never once got wrong. Keep the path clear. Do not sow the path.
Sowing, second week: hoe the rows. Pull the weeds by hand from the beetroot. Brin says a weed is only a plant in the wrong place. Tam says a weed is a plant with bad manners.
Sowing, last week: check the hives by the flowers. The bees must have clover before the frost. Leave a dish of water on the flat stone, for the bees and the hens both.
Note: the wind comes up the ridge every afternoon in sowing. Tie the cloth over the seed bags by the second bell, and tie it well. The seed does not like the wind, and neither do the farmers.
%%
Timetable: the Lowmarsh post, autumn
How letters move in and out of Lowmarsh in autumn, posted at the boat house by Wren, who writes more letters than anyone and so knows.

Incoming, by the Long Road: the post cart arrives at Lowmarsh on the first, the eleventh and the twenty-first of each month. It comes after the noon bell and before the lamps.

Incoming, by the sea: letters from Saltreach come by boat on the fifth and the twentieth, if the weather allows. If the weather does not allow, they come by cart, a week late, and a little salty.

Outgoing: put your letter in the box at the end of the boardwalk. It is emptied at first light, the day before the cart goes. Do not put a letter in after the box is empty and expect it to go. It will sit in the box. The box has a sense of humor.

What to write on the outside: the name, the town, and the street or the house. For Lowmarsh, the house is the one with the blue door, or the second boat house, or the third post from the weir. We have no streets. The post-walker knows everyone and still likes to be told.

What not to put in the box: live fish, which have been tried; a jar of honey without a lid; a letter to the mayor of Three Wells saying he is wrong about pigs. That one is Dace's problem, and he knows.

The debt. There was a debt, paid last week at the boat house door. Brin the fisher owed Wren for four jars of marsh balm and a set of bandages after his boat hit the weir. He owed her ten emeralds and had paid two. On the fifteenth of Apple he came to the boardwalk with a bag of eight, counted them out, and then counted them again in front of everyone. Wren said it was not necessary. Brin said it was. He wanted everyone to see it paid.

Wren put the eight emeralds in the jar for the winter medicines. She wrote the entry in the book. She also wrote: Brin, paid. A good man. The mud on his boots was real.

Anything to add, add it to the board in chalk.
%%
Northpoint: the post cart
By Pim, who kept the wall watch at Three Wells and now keeps the torches at Northpoint.
Teg's cart comes up the north road every sixth day from Thaw to Reaping. It brings coal, flour, letters and news.
It is at the tower by noon if the road is dry, and by supper if it is not. It leaves next morning with Mira's log.
One day late: do not worry. Two days late: worry a little. A week late: ask the relay.
%%
Market at Vell, the spring hours
Kept by Oren, clerk of the archive, pinned to the post by the lower gate so that nobody can say they did not see it.

Market is in the square below the hill, every fifth day, from first light to the noon bell.
Stalls open at first light. Carts unload on the road by the cooper's, never on the square.
Clay sellers sit by the fountain, not in front of it.
The bread cart comes at second light. It leaves when the bread is gone, which is usually before the noon bell.
Pay the market clerk at the table by the gate. Pay in wool, salt or emeralds. Pay in cheese only if you are a cheesemaker, and then only one wheel.
The clerk's bell rings twice when a stall must close. It rings three times when the stall has been closed for a week.
%%
Timetable: the week of the sick cow
From the book kept at Brin's farm, on the ridge. Written by Pip's keeper, Tam, who has been up every night this week.
The first night of the cough.
First night: the cow in the byre is breathing hard. She has not eaten her hay. Tam sits with her until the lamp is low. He gives her water with salt. She drinks a little.
Second morning: a sore on the left flank, from a stone in the field. Clean it with boiled water. Wrap it in clean cloth. Give her the bran mash, warm, with a spoon of honey.
Second noon: Wren is sent for, from Lowmarsh, though she is many days away. A message goes up the line. Wren sends back the remedy by the relay: keep her warm, keep her quiet, keep the water coming.
Second night: Pip sits by the byre door, on the bale, all night, with a torch. It says nothing. In the morning the cow is standing.
Third day: she eats the hay. Tam cries into her neck, and she does not mind.
Fourth day: back in the field, very slowly, with Biscuit following her to see what she is doing.
Note: the cow is called Big Beet, after the great pig, and she is not pleased about this.
%%
Carts and lamps on the Copperhold road
Kept by Yarrow, with Dell's notes in the margin. Read it all before you take a cart out, so nobody has to ask the carter.

The road from the mine gate to Three Wells is a day's walk for a loaded cart, if the road is dry. In the wet month it takes two days. Plan for two.

The bridge over the river at the bend: the lamp on the post is changed at the dusk bell and again at dawn. Stop there to water the horse. The post keeper is called Oda, and she is fond of a bun.

The ferry at the bend runs at each bell, and not after dark. It does not wait for a late cart. If you are late, it will leave with the cat on board, and you will be standing on the bank with your cart and your face.

Coal from the mine: the carts leave the gate at the shift bell, two in the morning and two after noon. The sorter puts the ticket on each sack. Do not take a sack without its ticket. The sorter counts twice, and so does Hesk.

The lamp at the mine gate is changed at the shift bell, by the boy with the long pole. He is slow on the ladder. Stand back.

The lamp in the square at Three Wells is changed by the mayor's boy, who is very slow. Give him a bun. It is faster than asking.

Market days: the first of each month is Three Wells, the middle is Vell, and the last is the Long Road inn, where the drovers meet. Any cart can go to any market. It must come home the same day, or sleep in the barn by the Brown Hen and pay for the hay.

The relay: a message from the mine to Vell goes up the tower at the second bell. The keeper sends it when the wind allows. In a north wind, expect the answer the next day, and not before.

Post for Ambrook goes by the Long Road, with Pell's cart when it comes, and with the boys on foot when it does not. Put your letter in the bag before the bell. Letters left on the step are not letters. They are just paper.

Yarrow
%%
Timetable: the autumn carts
This is the timetable for the autumn of 205, as the mill yard keeps it. It was made in the spring and changed three times since. The new version is on the gate.
Leaffall, first week: the apple carts run every day, from first bell to noon. The Hollow farm sends eleven carts a day. Each cart carries forty sacks. Each sack must be tied twice.
Leaffall, second week: the honey comes down from Ambrook hills. Carry the jars in straw. A broken jar is a sad morning and a sticky road.
Leaffall, third week: the wool carts from Three Wells come through the orchard gate. They take the long road round the pond, because the bridge is being mended. Do not let the sheep into the orchard. They will eat the windfalls and then they will eat your hat.
Frost, first week: the post goes out by the relay on market day. Letters for the far towers must be sealed before the second bell. Letters for Saltreach go by the ferry, if the water is low.
Frost, second week: the first hard frost. The ferry does not run in the morning, but it runs at noon. Do not argue with the ferryman about the frost. He has been right every year.
Frost, third week: the first snow came to the orchard on the night of the twelfth. It lay all morning and then melted in the afternoon. Carts went out at first bell and came back at dusk, slow but whole.
Frost, last week: the snow stays. The carts go out on sleds from the mill yard, and the tower sends its post by the sled road to the foot of the hill. Wrap the bottles in wool. Wrap the children in more.
The mill says this: keep the lamps lit at the gate, and walk the orchard path with a torch. The apples will be sleeping under the snow, and so will the snakes.
Written by Runa, carter, at the mill yard gate, the last week of Frost.
%%
Carts at Quill's door, winter of 9
Chalked on the board by my kiln, at the edge of Vell. Quill, potter.
The new road to Three Wells is open all winter, if the mud stays hard.
Cart to Three Wells: leaves the hill gate at the first bell. Stops at my door for pots. Reaches Three Wells at dusk. Comes back the next day.
Cart to the sea road: every ninth day. Ask Dov. Dov is usually asleep.
Post cart: after the noon bell, every day. Letters go in the box on my wall. The box is for letters, not for cats. Crock does not agree.
No cart on the day of the school play. Everyone is at the play.
Do not lean on the pots. Some are still wet.
%%
Timetable: winter on the ridge
The ridge timetable for the winter, pinned on the mill door. Made by the farmers together, at the market on the last warm day, and not agreed by anyone until the end.
Frost: the first snow is expected on the ridge road by the middle of the month. Bring the carts down before then. Put the sheep in the lower barns. Put the hens in the big barn, and feed them twice a day.
Longnight: the windmill is stopped for the coldest weeks, so the sails do not crack. Sefa will climb to the cap each morning and check the joints. The flour comes from the store until the spring.
Longnight, the midwinter fire: everyone on the ridge comes to the top field. The bread is baked on the stones, and the pie is cut in eight. Tam sings, and nobody can stop him.
Deepsnow: the road to the market is cut every second morning, by the apprentices with the shovels. Walk the cut road. Do not walk on the snow beside it, because it is deeper than it looks, and the carters have been known to sink to the hip.
Deepsnow, late: the lamps on the ridge are lit at dusk and left burning until dawn. Each farm keeps one lamp in the window, so the carters can see the way home. Tam's lamp is the one with the crooked glass. It has always been crooked. He says it is the most honest lamp on the ridge.
The farmers agree that the thaw comes when it comes. The timetable is only for the parts we can control.
%%
Timetable: market day at Kettle Ridge
The market at Kettle Ridge is held once a week, on the ridge road by the mill, from first bell until the noon bell. Stalls go up on the east side. Carts wait on the west, by the windmill, where the wind blows the dust away from the bread.
First bell: the mill opens. Sefa grinds the first sacks and lets the children taste the flour from the chute, one finger each.
Second bell: the bakers set out their loaves. Brin's wife puts out the buns. Hanna brings the eggs in a basket that is too heavy for her, and the boy from the north farm helps her carry it.
Third bell: the wool carts come up from the lower farms. They must not come up the ridge road in the wind. If the wind is from the west, they come up the back way, by the sheep gate.
Noon: the market board is checked. Every stall must show its scale, and its price, and a clean cloth. A sick cow is not sold at the market. Tam says that is only sense, and he says it every week.
Afternoon: the stalls are packed. Carts go home by the lower road. No cart goes down the ridge after the lamps are lit, unless the carter has a torch in his hand and a friend walking with him.
Market board, for the week: beetroot, one emerald for ten. Wheat, one for three sacks. Eggs, one for six. Honey, one jar for one. Bread, one loaf for one emerald, and Brin says it is worth two.
%%
The harvest at Ambrook Cross, by Tilly
I will write this down while I can still hold the pen. My hands are sticky from the apples. I have wiped them twice.
We picked for nine days. The apples came down like rain. We filled every crate and every basket and then we filled the boat and then we filled the loft over the barn, and still the trees gave. Jory's mill turned dawn to dusk. The wheel squeaked so much that Jory oiled it, and then it did not squeak, and everyone missed the squeak, so he let it squeak again.
The bees were good this year too. Ama took the dark honey and left the light for the hives. She says a good year for apples is a good year for bees. I do not know why. She knows why. I did not ask.
We had the harvest supper on the last night. Long tables by the well. Lanterns on poles. The children ran about and were told to sit and ran about again. Old Fen made a speech. It was a long speech. We clapped and then we ate.
There was pie. There was soup. There was bread from Ida, which is the best bread, and I will say so to anyone. There was honey on everything. There was a song about the mill wheel that the children sang wrong on purpose. There was a dance, and my knees did not like the dance, and I did them anyway.
Mira's letter came the next day. She says the honey was good and the socks were too big and she is wearing them to bed. She says the north is quiet. She says the lamp is bright. She says to eat an apple for her. We ate a whole crate for her.
The harvest is in. The barn is full. The loft is full. We have apples for the winter and honey for the winter and bread for a week. The cat has found a warm spot on the sacks and will not move. I have given up on the cat.
Next year the old tree may rest. The others will not. Jory says the trees take turns. I think the trees talk to each other. I did not tell Jory. He would laugh. He might not.
We are well here. The fields are good. The roads are dry. Come when you can. Bring the little one. There is still pie.
Tilly
%%
Timetable: Reedend lamp changes and cart
Autumn of 204. Written up by Wren for the hamlet and put on the post by the water. It replaces last year's, which was eaten by a goat.

The days get short in autumn, so everything moves earlier. Please read the whole of it.

First light, early autumn: the cart leaves Reedend. By Leaffall the sun is later, so the cart leaves later. It leaves when the heron leaves the reeds. The heron is never late.

Noon bell: still at noon. The sun does not change what noon is. The days get shorter on both ends.

The lamps. The boardwalk lamps used to be lit at the sixth bell. In Leaffall we light them at the fifth bell. In Frost we light them at the fourth. Moss goes along the boardwalk with a taper and lights them in order, from the Reedend end to the Lowmarsh end. It takes about as long as a bowl of soup.

The ferry. In Leaffall the ferry runs until the first lamp. In Frost it runs until the second. After that, if you need to cross, ring the bell on the Reedend landing and Tilda will come, grumbling.

The post. The post-walker comes through on the usual days, but in Frost she starts earlier and wears a wool scarf. If you see her, give her a hot drink.

The hens. The fox is back. It has been at the Reedend hens again. The white house lost two on the sixth of Leaffall. The old woman at the end of the boardwalk lost one on the ninth. The fox now has a regular route. Please bring the hens in at the third bell. Do not trust the fox. Do not leave a window open.

Wren has asked Moss to watch the coops at night. Moss stood by the white house coop from dusk to dawn on the twelfth. The fox did not come. Moss stood there anyway. Wren says that is how you know an apprentice is good: it does not need a fox to do its job.

On the thirteenth the fox came back. Moss was still there. The fox stopped at the edge of the lamp, looked at Moss for a long time, and went home. No hen was lost. Moss did not move. The fox has not been seen since.

Tilda says it was the lamp. The old woman says it was Moss. Wren says it was probably both.
%%
Winter days at Vell
Chalked up by Quill, potter, at the edge of Vell, in the winter of 12. Nell the schoolteacher asked for this, and then asked for it again.
Market at Vell: every fifth day, from the first bell to the noon bell. That is the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th of the month. In Deepsnow the market is smaller and the stall holders wear three hats.
Carts: every second day to Three Wells. Every sixth day to Copperhold, if the road holds. The masons marked the Copperhold road this week with stakes and string. Next year it will have stones.
The post: every day, after the noon bell. In deep snow, the day after.
The relay: three passes a day and Haste at any hour. The tower is open to visitors on market days, six at a time. Nobody is to touch the lamp.
The Archive: open from the first bell to the dusk bell. Records are taken in at the door. A new room is being dug into the hill. Founding day is the first day of spring. The clerks will read the first record aloud in the front hall, and they are practicing.
School: every day but market days and the 30th. Nell teaches the little ones their letters and the big ones their sums.
The school play: on the 27th of Longnight, at dusk, in the front room of the school. The play is "The Fox and the Lamp". The fox is Pim, who has practiced for ten days and still barks. The lamp is a clay lamp that I made, and I hope nobody drops it. There are not enough chairs. Bring a stool.
The kiln: lit on the 1st and the 15th. Pots may be bought at my door any day, and I will be glad of the company.
At dusk the tower lamp is lit, and the torch posts on the hill road are lit after it. The whole hill glows by the dusk bell. I walk to the end of my yard every night to look at it.
It is a good place to be new in.
%%
Relay hours at the Vell tower, spring
Kept by Brann, keeper of the Vell tower. Posted on the board by the door.

Lamp lit at dusk. Lamp checked at midnight and at first light.
Messages sent to every tower on the line, in order, from the south.
Messages from the north: none since Longnight.
The keepers at Three Wells and Ambrook say the line is quiet from the north, and that the wind is strong up there. The keeper at Copperhold says it is the cold. The keeper at Saltreach says nothing, and says it loudly.
Please do not send messages north until this board is changed. Send them to Three Wells instead.
%%
Notice: times at Ambrook Cross
Times at Ambrook Cross, set down by Tilly. Put on the board by the well. If you miss a cart, wait. There is always another.
Carts to Ambrook: every morning at seven, from the ford. Back by noon with apples and jars.
Carts to Three Wells: every second day, at nine. The baker rides along with the bread.
Carts to Vell: on the ninth and the twenty-fourth of the month, at six, with a cover over the load.
The post rides with the carts. Letters go in the box by the door. Put the money under the string.
Relay hours: the lamp goes up at first light and comes down at dark. Nell keeps it. Do not bang on the door at supper.
Market days at Three Wells: the first and the fifteenth. At Ambrook: every tenth day, by the well.
The ferry at the mill pond is a plank and a rope. It holds two and one goat. No more goats.
Fresh water at the well. The bucket is on the hook. The cat is not.
%%
Carts from Vell, spring timetable
By Oren, clerk of the Archive, for the post at Vell. Thaw to Blossom.

Carts for the Long Road leave the copying room yard at first bell.
Three Wells: on the cart at first bell, back by dusk.
Ambrook: every second day, with the honey cart.
Kettle Ridge: the wool cart, on the first day of each week. Do not come up the ridge after dark.
The Halfway Inn: any cart. Ask the inn for a bed.
%%
Market days, spring, Three Wells
Set by the market board. Read it on the way in, not on the way out.

Market days at Three Wells: the fourth and the eleventh of Thaw, Sowing and Blossom. Stalls open at the bell. The square is closed to carts from the first bell to the last.

The three wells stay clean. Do not sit on the south well. Do not wash boots at the north well. Do not drop anything into the east well, not even a coin, not even a joke.

Stalls by the bakery: bread from Ida and Hollis, pies from the same oven, and a box of buns that the children may buy for one emerald between them.

Under the oak: songs. Pay if you like them.

Saltreach has its own market on the first day of Blossom, when the fishing boats come in. The Saltreach market board says that the new ship will be launched from the slip on the second of Blossom. Corin asks that people stand well back from the slip, and that families with bundles keep their bundles dry.

Lost things go to the board. Lost children go to the mayor's house. Dace asks that the two not be confused again.
%%
Timetable: the mill wheel
The big wheel at Ambrook mill cracked its axle in the spring. The wheel stopped for ten days, and the flour did not come. It was the longest ten days of the year.
The new timetable is posted for the weeks while the wheel is mended.
Days one to three: the mill is shut. Carts go to the next mill at Three Wells, at the back of the market, and pay the miller there.
Days four to six: the wheel is taken down. Sefa and the masons from Kettle Ridge will climb it. Stand back from the wheel pit. Stand well back.
Days seven and eight: the new axle goes in. Hold the ropes steady. Do not shout at the apprentices on the beam. They are doing their best.
Day nine: the test. The wheel will be turned by hand, then by the water, then by the water all day. If it squeaks, that is normal. If it groans, that is not, and the miller must be told at once.
Day ten: the flour. The first sacks go out to the ovens at Three Wells, then to the Brown Hen, then to everyone who asked.
The miller says thank you to everyone who carried a rope, pushed a cart or fed the children at the pit. Jory says the wheel was never going to stop for long. It is too fond of the water.
%%
Timetable: the apple press
A recipe in the form of a timetable, from the farm at the top of the ridge, where the press is kept. Sefa asked for it to be written so that anyone could follow. Tam says that is ambitious.
Leaffall, first week: pick the apples when they fall. Not before. Pick them into the wooden tubs, and carry them to the press house by the second bell.
Leaffall, second week: wash the apples in the pond water. Cut out the bruises. Cut out the wasp holes. Keep the good ones in a separate tub.
Leaffall, third week: press the apples. Use the big wheel, and the cloth bags. The juice runs out into the trough, sweet and brown.
Frost, first week: pour the juice into the barrels. Seal each barrel with wax. Leave it in the cold cellar, not the warm one.
Frost, second week: the juice starts to hiss. This is the cider working. Do not open the barrel to see. Tam opened one, and it fizzed up to the roof, and the pig ate the spill, and then fell over.
Frost, third week: taste the cider. Do not taste it all. One cup for the tutor, one for the carter, one for the keeper. The rest goes to market, where it will be sold as apple wine, which Brin says is a better name.
Note: this recipe went wrong in the second year, when the cellar was warm and the barrels were not sealed. Tam says the cider was very strong, and very sour, and very popular with the hens. Do not give it to the hens.
%%
The winter table of the roads, 22
Written out for the Archive by Quill, potter, at the edge of Vell, in the winter of the 22nd year. Everything that moves on the roads, and when. Please keep it. In a hundred years someone will want to know when the cart came.
Carts from Vell.
To Three Wells: every second day, at the first bell. One day on the road, with a rest at the Halfway stone.
To Copperhold: every sixth day, at the first bell. Two days. The first night is at the new inn at the ford, which has no name yet. The carters call it the Wet Boot.
To Ambrook, by Three Wells: every tenth day. Three days. Honey comes back in the same cart.
To Kettle Ridge, by Three Wells: every sixth day, from Three Wells. Wheat comes down, cloth goes up.
To the sea: every third day, by the marsh road, if the marsh road is dry. If it is not, the carters say "next week" and mean it.
The post.
Every day from Vell, after the noon bell. The post cart takes letters to Three Wells and gives them to the next cart on. Letters for Ambrook and Kettle Ridge wait at Three Wells, at the inn. Ask the innkeeper. He keeps them in a shoe.
The relay.
Three passes a day: first light, the noon bell, dusk. Haste at any hour. Nine towers are lit: Vell, Tuck's little hill, Three Wells, Kettle Ridge, Ambrook, Lowmarsh, two on the marsh road, and the harbor at Saltreach. Copperhold is to be lit in spring, and its keeper has already sent a note asking whether anyone has a spare ladder.
The ferry.
Mab's ferry crosses at first light, the first bell, the noon bell and the middle of the afternoon. The bridge is half built. Mab says that when it is finished, Mab will row anyway, for the company.
Markets.
Vell: every fifth day. Three Wells: every sixth day, and a very big fair on the first day of Apple. Ambrook: every tenth day. Saltreach: when the boats are in.
Inns.
The Brown Hen, a day out of Ambrook: stew, a bed, and a hen that sits on the table. The hen is not for sale. The ford inn with no name. Three Wells has a good inn and a bad one, and the carters will not say which is which.
Lamps.
Every tower lamp is lit at dusk. The torch posts on the Long Road, where there is a Long Road, are lit by the keeper of the nearest inn. If a post is dark, tell the inn.
Notes.
The roads are better than last year. They will be better next year. Carts that took five days to Copperhold now take two, and the carters are not as tired, though they say they are.
I counted this winter: eleven carts, nine lamps, one ferry, four inns, and one hundred and four pots in the cart that left my door this morning. We are a long way from nothing.
What does not move: the hill, the Archive, my kiln and my cat Crock. Everything else is on a road.
%%
Timetable: the Ambrook cart road
Carts leave the mill yard at Ambrook at the first bell, when the orchard gate is open. Late carts will not wait. Late carts will be told about it at Three Wells.
First bell: the flour cart for Three Wells and the Halfway Inn.
Noon: the honey cart for Vell, by the north road. Two days on the road if the weather holds.
Dusk: the apple cart comes home from the Hollow farm. It is always late. Let it be late.
Lamp time: no carts on the Long Road after the last torch. The torches go up at the second post, the fourth post and the mill gate. If one is out, do not go past it.
Market day: carts wait on the east side of the square, as the mayor says, and not in front of the well.
Carter: Runa. Ask for Runa at the mill. Runa will be at the back, with the horse.
%%
Carts and post, Vell to Three Wells
Kept at the lower gate, for carters and for anyone who asks. Times are from the archive tower bell, and the tower bell is always right, but the carts are not.

Cart out, first light: from the lower gate, south road, with mail, salt and copied pages for the schools at Three Wells.
Cart back, third bell: from Three Wells, with cheese, glass, bread and whatever the children wrote on their slates.
Post bag, noon: the relay house sends the day's messages down to the carts. Carters must sign for them at the gate.
Post bag, dusk: the relay house takes up the day's answers. Nothing is taken after the dusk bell.
Cart out, midday, only on market days, and only if the first cart is full.

The south road is dry in Thaw and Blossom. In Swarm the ford at the mill is high, so the carts go round by the bridge. The bridge is slow and it is long. Plan for it.

If you miss the cart, you wait for the next one. There is always a next one. It is never on time, but it is never late enough to matter.
%%
Timetable: the spring
Kept by Esk, bridge keeper, at the house at the edge of Saltreach. Copied out fair at the end of the spring for the Archive at Vell, so that carts in other towns may be timed by the book.
Thaw, the ice. The far bank is clear by the third day of Thaw. Carts may cross the ice at low tide only, and only walking. The bridge boy stands at the bank with a pole and tests the ice every morning, and writes down the number of steps before it sings. Eleven steps is safe. Nine is not.
Thaw, the post. The post from Vell is on time on the first and third days of the week. The post from Three Wells is one day behind, because the Three Wells carter stops at every inn for the second bowl, and nobody has the heart to tell him not to.
Sowing, the ferry. The ferry runs at full time from the first day of Sowing. The first crossing is at first light, with the fish boats, and the last crossing is after the second bell, with the lamps lit on the deck. The ferry has a new rope, which the boys like to climb.
Sowing, the carts. Carts to Ambrook leave at the first bell, carts to Copperhold at the third, carts to Vell when the tide allows. A cart with a barrel pays two. A cart with a child in it pays nothing, and the child is expected to count the wheels.
Sowing, the market. Market day in Saltreach is the fourth day of the week, and the price board is changed before the first bell whether or not the prices have changed. The fish sellers say this is for the sake of the board. The board says it is for the sake of the fish.
Blossom, the homecoming. Pell came in on the second day of Blossom with his cart and his one jar, and paid his toll in full. The bridge boy waved at him, and Pell waved back, and the cart went up the Ambrook road at the walk, which is how a carter goes when he is nearly home. I have written it here so the carts will know it is possible.
Blossom, the lamp. The lamp on the tower was trimmed on the ninth of Blossom, and the new wick took the light at first light, very bright. The keeper said the glass was clean, and that the lamp could be seen from the far rock. The Grey Kestrel saw it, and came in at dusk without a single wrong turn.
Blossom, the last day. Esk closes the book for the spring. The timetable is complete, except for the times that cannot be written. Those are the carts that are late for reasons nobody knows, and the boats that come home with a little more than they went out with, and the people who cross the bridge in the evening and wave at the lamp without knowing why.
%%
Timetable: the ferry at the ford
The ferry crosses the ford below the mill pond. It carries carts, sheep, people and once a whole wedding party. It does not carry bees. The bees have their own boat, and they do not like being told.
Dawn crossing: first light, when the bell rings at the mill. Load before the bell. Load quickly after it.
Midday crossing: the noon bell, for the Three Wells carts. Wait on the bank by the reeds. The ferryman will shout when it is your turn.
Evening crossing: dusk, if the water is low. If the water is high, there is no evening crossing, and the ferryman sleeps in the hut with his feet to the stove.
Fare: one jar of honey for a person. Two jars for a cart. One apple for a dog. The dog must sit still.
Stones on the landing are for the ferryman's wall. Do not take them.
The ferry does not run in the flood. If you see the red flag on the post, go back up to the mill and wait.
Boatman: Jory's apprentice Wick. Wick is very strong and very quiet. Do not talk to Wick while it is poling. It is counting.
%%
Ambrook Cross: the tenth day
The tenth day at Ambrook Cross, in the month of Melon.
Six: the ford cart goes out. It carries the jars. It comes back with salt.
Seven: the well. Everyone comes to the well. There is a queue and a lot of talk. Fen says the water is sweeter this year. Fen says that every year.
Eight: the school. The children go with their boards. Bel's cousin teaches them sums. She says they are quick. She says they are noisy.
Nine: the relay lamp is checked. Nell climbs the tower. It is not a tall tower. It has thirty rungs. Nell counts them out loud so we know she is safe.
Ten: the market opens by the well. Eggs, honey, wool, beetroot, and the good bread from Ida. The bread sells first.
Noon: dinner. Everyone sits on the wall. Someone always brings too much and someone always brings too little and it works out.
Two: the ferry runs. Two at a time. The goat goes last.
Four: the cart from Three Wells comes in. Pell rides it sometimes. Pell knows every price and every secret. Pell will not tell you the secret. Ask about the price.
Six: the lamp goes up. The candles are lit. The day is done.
The cat is asleep in the bread basket. Again.
