Notice: summer work and open questions
The wheat harvest starts after the fair. Bring clean sacks to the barn, and write your name on each one. Do not stack them by the mill door. The wheel is mended, but the miller still wants room to turn it by hand if the water drops.
The tutor stall will stay open beside the notice board until the last cart leaves. Ila from Vell will show the crystal maps again. They are drawings of marks that changed while a mind learned from drills.
The tutors can watch one part of a crystal change after a wrong answer. They can follow how some of that change is passed back through the parts before it. This helps them train minds with many layers. Each layer can do a share of the work, and the mind can learn more than a single crystal could learn.
Ila says the maps are useful, but they are not a clear picture of every thought. Some parts seem to help a mind sort, and some seem to help it keep what it learned. The same marks can be hard to read in another drill. The tutors do not yet know what every part does.
They also do not know why a crystal learns from what it is shown. A map can show what changed. It cannot answer that question.
Write questions on the board before you come. Keep them short, so the little ones can read them too. No question will be laughed at. If Ila does not know, she will say so.
Ivo will keep the gate latched after dusk. A zombie was seen there last night, though it did not get past the torches. Tam has put a fresh torch by the north field. Keep the other torches lit.
The fair will have apple cakes, honey, and beetroot rolls. The miller says there will be flour if nobody borrows the wheel again. Tam says he did not borrow it. The miller says he knows. The wheel says nothing, which is sensible.
Ivo
%%
Lost and found, the board at the gate
Kept at the gate of the house at the edge of Three Wells. Lark has written this list every morning since the first frost, and will write it until the carters stop losing things. They have not stopped yet.

FOUND: a horseshoe, on the step. Nobody has come for the horse.

FOUND: a pair of good leather gloves, one wet and one dry, which is the wrong way round for gloves.

FOUND: six eggs in a basket, unbroken, on the new road by the first waymark. The basket was not claimed. The eggs are with the baker, who says they are her eggs now and she is sorry about it.

LOST: one spoon, carved with a bird on the handle. The bird is sad about it.

LOST: a small grey goat, two days late from the Ambrook cart. It went up the hill, not down. Ask the relay keeper, who has seen it twice and says it looked pleased.

LOST: the miller's temper, last market day. If you find it, bring it to the mill, and leave it on the step. He says it is no use to anyone else.

FOUND: a book of drills from Vell, with the page for the sorting crystal torn out. The tutor asks that it be returned, and that whoever has the page please keep it safe, because it is the one with the apples on it.

LOST: a coin purse with three emeralds and a note from Pell, which says the emeralds are not to be spent on beer. The purse has been lost once already, so please keep it dry.

FOUND: a child's shoe, red, with a bell on the toe. The bell still rings. The child has not been found. Come to the gate if you know one.

WANTED: somebody who knows where the sheep went, and who will tell the sheep's owner before the sheep tells him.

WARNING: The cloth over the north well has torn. Do not drink from the well until it is mended. The water is fine. The cloth is not.

Please bring back what you borrowed. The house has a list, and the list is long, and Lark is patient with almost everyone.
%%
Bet: the goat and the ladder
Written by Clank, apprentice at Copperhold, at the mine hall. Second of Blossom, 196.
There is a bet. It is a serious bet.
Old Rill says the goat cannot climb the ladder to the sorting shed roof. I say it can. Hesk says it can but should not. That is not a side. That is a warning.
The terms: if the goat climbs to the roof, Rill gives me two emeralds. If it does not, I polish all the lamps in the Deep Works for a month. There are many lamps. I have counted.
We tried on Blossom the first. The goat went up four rungs and stopped. It looked at us. It came down. It ate the rope.
We try again on the sixth. Bring a rope. Bring two ropes. Do not tell Hesk.
The goat is called Bramble now. That was not part of the bet but it seemed right.
Clank
%%
Notice: the looking-glass day
Posted at the hall at Kettle Ridge, in Longday, by order of the tutors' house at Vell.
On the fourth day of Melon a tutor will show the inside of one crystal to anyone who wants to see it. The crystal is in its stand. It will be lit from below, so that the marks on its surface can be seen.
A crystal is not a window. You will see the marks the tutor has made on the surface, and the lights that move when a question is asked.
The tutors have found some things. Some parts of the crystal light up when the question is about words. Some light up when the question is about the field, or the weather, or a number.The tutors have not found the rest. Most of the crystal is still dark to them, and it is not empty. It is only not yet understood.
Do not touch the crystal. Do not breathe on it. Children may look from the back of the hall.
Tutor Nessa will answer questions for one hour after the show. She asks that the questions be short.
Posted by order of the Kettle Ridge hall
%%
Notice: Market Day Lesson
Three Wells square. Winter of the 42nd year. Fallon, Archive clerk.
The market stalls will open beside the three wells after the snow is cleared.
At the east well, Nera will show the old drill box from Vell. It held copper weights for the first four apprentices.
Each helper had a mind in a crystal. The tutors showed a mind the same kind of example many times. One helper learned a row. One learned a sort. The other two had their own tasks.
A crystal learned from what it was shown. The old card says so. It does not say why.
Please keep the box on the table. The weights are small, and the square is full of little hands.
%%
Moving day, and a homecoming
Kept on the board at the house at the edge of Three Wells. Written by Lark, innkeeper, and pinned by the gate, because the gate is where everybody looks.

MOVING DAY. The Ostles move into the house by the mill pond on the last day of Apple. They have a cart, a cow, three chairs, and a bed that will not fit through the door. Anyone with a strong back and no plans for the day is asked to come at dawn. The cow will ride in the cart. Please do not ask the cow to walk.

Bring a rope, a lamp and an opinion about the bed. Mrs Ostle asks that the opinions be kept short. Her husband will have his own, and it will be longer.

HOMECOMING. Pim Hale is back from Vell. He has been a year in the copying room, and he can write a letter in a clear hand without a blot. He is at his mother's house by the east well. There will be a supper for him at the north well when the frost comes. Everyone is invited. Pim will read a copied page aloud, and then he will want to sit down.

LOST. One brown hen, with a red ribbon on her leg. She answers to Plum. She is not answering to anyone at the moment.

LOST. One boot, left foot, from the cart outside the bakery. The right foot is looking for it.

Lark, innkeeper
%%
Notice: Market and Field Help
The farm will hold a small summer market on the last day of Melon. Stalls may be set beside the barn, where the ground is level. Please leave the path to the relay house clear.
Tam will bring wheat, beetroot, potatoes and carrots. We have apples from the south hedge, honey from the three hives, and wool from the sheep that would not stay out of the kitchen garden. The sheep has now learned the gate latch. We have not learned how.
Pell will bring salt, fish and spare handles for tools. He has promised not to put the salt beside the honey this year. Last year a child took home a jar of salt and said it was very good honey. The child was polite about it.
At the market, people may trade goods or use emeralds. Write the price on the board before opening your stall. Please do not change it after someone has agreed to buy. If the board is full, ask Yarrow for another piece of wood.
There will be a table for lost things. Put each thing there with a note that says where it was found. Do not take a lost thing just because you know who owns it. Tell the owner first. This rule is mainly for Pip, who found his own hat and sold it to Tam.
Field help is needed on the morning after the market. The ditch must be cleared of weeds, and the bottom rows of potatoes need turning. Bring a hoe if you have one. We have four good hoes and one that is more handle than blade.
Apprentice Clover will carry baskets from the field to the barn. It has been tested on this path and can carry two baskets at a time. Give it one clear order, then leave room for it to turn.
> bring two baskets to the barn
= haul
Do not place a basket on its head. Clover carried one that way last week, but the potatoes fell out at the first turn.
The fair meal will be served at the farm after the work. There will be bread, beetroot stew and apple cake. The cooks will keep the salt jar on its own shelf.
Yarrow, farm board, summer of 205
%%
Lost: one boot, one kettle, and one idea
Found or lost this week at the edge of Saltreach, by the harbor wall. Read the whole notice. The last part matters.
Lost: one left boot, sealskin, with a patch on the heel. It belongs to Brann, who walked home in one boot and one wet sock. Brann is cross.
Lost: a copper kettle with a dent in its side. The dent is not new. If you took it by mistake while mending a net, nobody minds. Please bring it back. The tea is waiting.
Found: a small wooden whistle, behind the fish market. Someone has been blowing it all week. Whoever you are, we know. Come and take it. The gulls are tired.
Found: a coil of good rope, tarred, near the slip. It belongs to nobody who will say so. Corin has hung it on the nail by the door. Say how long it is and it is yours.
Found: three socks, none the same. Hanging on the line by the quay.
Lost: one idea. Corin had a good idea for a wider boat last night and went to bed. By morning it had gone. If you think it came to you, send word. It was something about the bottom.
Sent from the house at the edge of Saltreach, Longnight.
%%
Notice: the fair and other news
The autumn fair is on the first day of Apple. Stalls by dawn. Judging at midday. Prizes at dusk. The melon at the end of the row is entered in the great-fruit contest, and the market council has asked that nobody try to sell it before the judging.

Other news, by the post cart from Three Wells:

The bridge over the Kettle brook has a loose plank in its middle. It is the third plank from the east end. Walk on the edge until it is mended, which will be before the fair, if the carpenters are free. They are not free. The mayor says they will be free after the fair, which is what the mayor said last year.

A cart overturned on the ridge road last night. Nobody was hurt, but the cheese went into the ditch and has not come out. The carter says the cheese was to blame. The cheese says nothing.

A new post box has been put up at the Kettle Inn, on the post. Letters go in, and the post cart takes them down. Please write your name on the outside, so that the post cart does not have to guess.

The pumpkin patch behind the inn had a visitor on the second night of Reaping. A fox sat on the wall and considered the pumpkins for an hour. It did not take one. We do not know whether it was too proud or too lazy. Both are possible in a fox.

The market council thanks everybody who came to help the mill keeper. The sail is being carved. It will be the best sail on the ridge, and the only one with a carved fox on its back, because the carver says he was asked to. He says nobody has asked him to take the fox off.

The Halfway Inn has put a new riddle on its board, beside the hearth. Two carters have gone to bed in tears, and one has gone home to think about it. The innkeeper asks that the answer not be shouted at the riddle.

The archive at Vell has sent a copy of the market rules, for the rack by the scales. The clerk asks that they be read, and not only kept. Ulla says the copy is in very good order, and that nobody should spill anything on it.

Warning: a zombie was seen in the north field on the evening before the fair. It walked very slowly toward the pumpkins, looked at them for some time, and went away down the bank. The torches on the north road are to be lit all week, and the council has voted to keep them lit after the fair as well.

Lost: a hen with one white leg, who has been living under the cart at the mill for four days, and is fed by the mill keeper's son. She will not come out until she is asked politely. Please ask politely.

The fair closes at dusk. The bell will be rung, the torches will be lit on the north road, and the carters are asked to go home by lamplight, carrying their own.

Hollis, archive clerk, for the market council, and Dace, mayor of Three Wells, for the post.
%%
Rules of the Halfway stable, autumn
Posted in the Halfway stable by the hay loft, under the riddle board, where the carters can read it while their horses are being fed. Written by Jory, grandmother, after the carter with the bay mare tied his reins to the wrong post and the mare ate half the sign.

1. Tie the horse to the iron ring, not to the post. The post is for the lantern.
2. Water the horse before you feed it. A thirsty horse eats hay like a miser, and gets cross when the hay is too dry.
3. Check the hooves every night. Pick out the stones, and do not leave them in the trough.
4. Lift the saddle off with the strap, not the pommel. The pommel has been broken twice this year and the stable boy is tired of mending it.
5. Keep the cart lanterns trimmed and lit at the door. A lantern on the post is for the road, and the road is for everyone.
6. Do not smoke in the loft. Do not smoke in the yard. Do not smoke anywhere near the hay, and if you must, smoke with the mare, who is far more patient than you.
7. The loft is for the stable boy's bed and the stable boy's cat. The cat is not for hire.
8. If a horse is lame, tell the stable boy. Do not tell the horse.
9. A borrowed horse is to be brought back by the morning bell, fed and watered, with its saddle on the peg and its owner's name on the card. The card is by the door.
10. Pay the stable before you go. Not after. Jory says that is the only rule that has never once been broken.
%%
Lost and found at the farm
Found near the barn:
A straw hat with a beetroot stain.
Two apples, one with a bite in it.
A wooden spoon. It smells of honey.
One small crystal in a padded box. Nessa says it is a drill crystal, not the big mind from the relay house. Do not carry it to the tower.
Lost:
A blue wool scarf, belonging to Leda's youngest.
A tin of salt, taken from the farm kitchen.
A gray hen. She may be behind the wheat sacks.
The spiders in the barn are not lost. They have made a web over the north beam. Keep children away from it, and tell Sella before moving the hay.
The fair table is for found things only. Please do not leave your pies there.
If you find the scarf, leave it at the well house.
%%
Notice: Cave under the barley field
A hollow was found under the field below Vell's west path.
The ground opened near the old oak after the rain.
No one fell in. The opening is small, but the sides are loose.

Do not walk on the marked patch.
Do not lower a torch or a stone into the hollow.
The school children are asked to stay on the path with their tutor.
The farmer has put a fence around the soft ground.

A mason and two clerks looked from the edge.
They saw stone and a narrow passage below.
They did not go in. The Archive has been told, and the town will wait for safe steps.

If you found the opening, tell Deren at the mill.
Do not fill it with spare earth. The field needs that earth.
Teague will mend any coat torn on the fence, but not a person who climbs it.
%%
Log: Lowmarsh weir, autumn
Kept by Pike, who keeps the weir. Written plain, for anyone who asks.

The weir is quiet in Apple. The fish come slow. That is how it goes.

Tally for the month so far: twelve baskets of fish, four of eels, one of something I did not catch the name of and would not eat. The tally board is on the wall of the boat house, as always. Every boat still comes in and marks the wall. Nobody has missed a day in nine years. I count them again every night because I like counting. Wren says that is a good sign in a person.

The water came up high on the fourth. The old post by the weir leaned over. Three of us put it back. It is straight now. It is a little straighter than before, which is not saying much.

The reed cutters came down from the north side. They stacked the reeds by the shed and Moss helped, and Moss carried twice what the two of us carried. Apprentices do that. They do not tire and they do not talk and they do not take a cup of tea, which is a shame. Moss knows the meaning come and the meaning store. When I say bring me the rope, Moss goes to the shed and comes back with the rope. Every time. I have not once had to fetch it myself. I have thought about what else I could ask for. I will not. It seems rude.

The brown hen came back on the ninth. It walked out of the reeds by the fish rack as if it had never been gone. It is on the rail now. It will not move. It is the hen. There is no doubt. It is not a good hen. It is a hen.

The first snow came on the last day of Leaffall. It lay on the reeds and the boat house roof and did not stay. The frogs stopped. The eels went down. We lit the torches on the posts and now the path from the turning to the weir is a line of little lights. It is good to walk home by.

Wren asked me to write down if anyone in the marsh has a cough. Two children, one old man, a woman by the far reeds. All mild. Wren says mild is good. Wren says if it gets worse, write it down too. I write it down. That is what the weir log is for.
%%
Notice: oak planks for sale
Posted at the Ambrook market, autumn. From Corin of Saltreach, who is visiting his cousin Jory at the mill.
I came for apples and found the best oak in the valley. It is in the old yard behind the mill, drying under a roof. Jory says his father cut it and forgot it. It is twenty years old. It has never been wet.
I need forty planks for a boat. I will buy them at a fair price, in emeralds, and I will carry them to Saltreach on three carts.
If you have oak you do not want, bring it. If you have oak you do want, keep it. If you are not sure, ask me. I will tell you what I would do.
I will pay for these things:
Planks, long and straight, no knots: 3 emeralds each.
Planks with a small knot: 2 emeralds each.
Planks with a large knot: free, and I will make you a spoon.
I will pay nothing for planks that have been rained on. Rain makes oak sad. A sad plank makes a sad boat.
A boat made at Saltreach from Ambrook oak will have an apple in its name. I promise it. We will cut an apple into the prow.
Corin, at the mill, until the end of the month. Bring the planks to the back door. Not the front. Ama's bees are in the front garden and they have opinions.
%%
Notice: tutor at the inn
A tutor from Vell is staying at the Net and Nail until the third of Swarm.
The teaching is for anyone who wants to learn how a mind sorts things. Bring two clean bowls and a small bag of apples.
Please leave the tutor's crystal on its card. Do not tap the glass to wake it.
The lesson starts after the noon meal in the back room. There are six seats. The innkeeper has added a stool, but it has one short leg.
Zell asks if the tutor can teach a mind to sort fish from boots. The tutor says yes, if the examples are clear.
The tutor will show the same sort many times. If the mind gets one wrong, the tutor changes its weights a little and tries again.
No one is to take the bowls home. They belong to the inn.
%%
Notice: the well in our yard has run dry
The well in our yard has run dry. It went dry at the end of Sowing, and it has not come back.
We have asked the town. The town says dig deeper. We are not diggers. We are a cook and a dog.
Until the masons come, we draw water from the well at the mine gate. The rope is good. The bucket is ours, with a red mark so you know it.
If you pass our house at the edge of town and want water, take it. Leave the bucket where you found it.
Keep the lid on the well. The dog falls in. The dog is not hurt, but she is not clever about it.
If you know a mason who is free, tell them Fallon needs a well.
Fallon, Copperhold, Blossom of 206
%%
Rules for the pickers at the orchard
By Garrow, who keeps the rows below Kettle Ridge, with the help of my neighbor Tam, third of Apple, 196.
We have apples and bees, and now bees and apples and a few helpers made of copper and iron. Here are the rules for pickers, big and small.
Pick with the stem. Do not pull the fruit off the branch. A torn apple spoils in the box.
Fill the low boxes first. Climb only the short ladder. The tall ladder is for the oldest tree only, and only two folk on it.
Do not touch the hives. The bees are busy. If a bee comes near, stand still. It will lose interest.
Sort as you go. Good apples in one box, bruised in another, windfalls in the third. The pigs get the windfalls.
The miller at Ambrook takes the bruised for pressing. Do not eat the bruised ones.
The helpers carry the full boxes to the cart. Say "fetch apples" and they will bring them. They will also bring you a box you did not ask for. Say it once and wait.
Water is by the well. Rest in the shade when you need it.
The sluice on the mill pond is not to be opened. This is not a rule for pickers. It is a rule for everyone.
%%
Notice: the visiting tutor, market week
Posted by the Vell tutors' house, at the market gate and the drill yard gate, for the market week of autumn. Please read it through to the end.

A tutor from the north hall will be at the drill yard on the square for four days. Her name is Oda. She has come down from Northpoint with a crate of drill cards and a very small crystal, which she has promised not to show anyone until they ask.

She will be drilling apprentices from the market stalls each morning, in the yard behind the bakery, from the first bell until noon. Apprentices who want to be tested may bring their card. Apprentices who only want to watch may sit on the wall, and must not stand in the drill row.

Stallholders: if your apprentice is to be drilled, bring it early. The drill is simple, and the first helper gets the best of the morning. Oda will not do the drill twice for the same helper in one day. This is not because she is cross. It is because she is tired.

Children: you may watch from the wall. You may not touch the cards. You may not tell the apprentice what the answer is. You may tell it, quietly, that it is doing well. Oda says that helps more than you would think.

Parents: please keep your children away from the crate. It is heavy, and the cards inside are in order, and a child who shuffles them will be sent to sit on the bench by the clerk for the rest of the day.

On the last day, Oda will give a short talk in the yard. Anyone who wants to hear it is welcome. She says it will be about how a mind is taught. She says it will be short, because she has been told that the longest talks are always given by people who do not know what they are talking about, and she would not like to be one.

Posted by the tutors' house, Vell
%%
Notice: road and yard
The path from the Vell hill to the tutor house is clear. The rain has left mud beside the steps. Use the stone path and do not carry a full basket down the slope.

A fox was seen by the hens at Fen's field. It took one hen before the keeper reached the gate. The rest are shut in the hen house. Keep the latch closed at night. The fox was not seen near the Archive.

The tutors will test the small crystal this afternoon. It holds fewer marks than the larger one, so it fits in a smaller case. Some of its weights have been written with fewer marks. That saves room, but can cost a little skill. The crystal learned from the drills all the same.

The test fruit is in a covered basket. The mind has not been shown it. Please do not lift the cover, even to see if the apples are ripe. If the mind sorts badly, the tutors need to know. If it sorts well, they need to know that too.

Fen will bring the basket from his orchard plot. He asks for help carrying it back, since the path is slick. There is no pay, but he has saved two loaves and a jar of honey.

The grey cat has come back to the copying room. If you find it sitting on the drill box, tell Oren. Do not move the box.
%%
Notice: farm board, autumn
Board by the gate of the Weller farm, on the hill road above Vell. Nailed up fresh this autumn.
Lost: one grey goose, last seen by the mill pond. Answers to Goose. Does not answer to anything else. If found, bring it home. Do not chase it into the reeds.
Found: a child's boot, left boot, small, in the apple cart. It has been in the cart since Apple. The cart has been to Three Wells and back twice. Somebody is missing this boot. Come and get it.
For sale: honey, twelve jars. Beetroot, plenty. One pig, too friendly, will not stay in the pen. Four apples, the last of them, from the old tree.
Wanted: someone to fix the north hedge. The wind came through it and the sheep went through it after. Bring your own oak.
The song contest at the inn is on the last night of Leaffall. Singers come before dark. Bring a lantern. The prize is a jar of honey and the good seat by the fire for a year.
Keep your torches lit on the hill road. The nights are long now. Carts have gone off the edge in the dark before.
Rumor from the north: they say the lights came back over Northpoint last night. Some say they are falling stars. Some say fires. Old Tam says stars do not come back.
Oren, clerk of the Archive, writes this for the farm, as he does each season. If you cannot read, ask at the mill and they will read it to you.
%%
Notice: Road Work and Lost Pail
The packed earth road below the farm is soft from rain. Carts should take the ridge road until the ground dries. The short track by the reed bed is not a road. A wheel went into the mud there, and three people had to push it out.
A new waymark stands at the split in the path. It has an arrow to the Kettle Inn and the figure 4. The stone at its foot is loose. Please set it upright if you pass.
The farm is also looking for a tin pail with a bent handle. It was left near the water ditch while the carrots were being watered. The pail has a red mark inside and a small hole at the bottom. It is still useful for carrying tools, but not water.
Leave it by the barn door, not in the ditch. The ditch already has a wooden spoon, one boot and two carrots in it. We do not know how they arrived.
At noon on the second day of Longday, the relay keeper will test the lamp line. It may blink once. This is a test, not a message. Do not run up the tower steps to report it.
Yarrow, summer of 198
%%
Notice: the spring fish fair
The Lowmarsh fish fair will be held by the boat houses on the ninth of Blossom.
There will be smoked fish, fresh fish, reed baskets, honey from Ambrook, and bread from Three Wells. Bring clean baskets and small coins. The price board will be beside the west post.
Wren will have a table for jars of marsh herbs. Please ask before touching them. Some are for tea, and some are for a sore knee. Wren knows which is which.
Children may trade frogs for nothing. Keep the frogs near the water. They are not for sale, and they are poor at carrying baskets.
The school children will sing by the weir at noon. They are learning a new song about rain. It has many verses because the rain has not stopped.
Piper will send the fair notice along the relay. The tower lamp will be lit at dusk. This is only a fair message, not a warning.
If you bring a boat, tie it below the fish weir. Do not tie it to a post with a red string. That post holds the weir gate.
The baker says he will bring enough bread this year. Last year he brought one loaf for the whole fair and called it a sample.
%%
Road Notice: Mud by the Mill
Board at Elm's house, Ambrook. Sowing, 191.

The Long Road past the mill pond is soft after the rain. Carts should take the upper way by the hives until the ditch drains.

The upper way is narrow. Let an empty cart pass before you bring a loaded one down. Horses can turn beside the old oak. Carts cannot turn beside the bee boxes.

Pell's cart sank to the axle yesterday. He says the road moved under him. It was mud. The road has made no reply.

A pair of boards has been laid across the worst place. Please leave them there. They are not firewood, even if they are dry.

The apprentice at Elm's gate carried one board to the shed after the first cart passed. Elm sent it back to the road. The apprentice carried it back again. Elm moved the shed farther away.

If you see a board missing, tell Elm. Do not fill the hole with apple branches. The branches make the mud harder to see and softer to cross.

The mill pond is high. Keep children and dogs off the bank until the water falls. Frogs may use the path. They have done so for years and will not wait for carts.
%%
Notice: the test box
Halfway Inn, on the Long Road. Summer of 203. Orla, smith, has put this up beside the horseshoes at the request of a tutor who stayed the night. It is about how a tutor knows a mind is good.

The tutor was a woman from Copperhold, named Piper. She sat by the fire and explained it to anyone who would listen. I listened. I am writing it down.

When you drill a mind, you show it the same kind of example again and again. It gets better. But getting better at the drill does not mean it has learned. It may only have learned the drill. A dog can learn to sit on the third bench. That does not mean it knows what "sit" is.

So the tutors keep a box. They call it the test box. In the box are examples the mind has never seen. They are put in a box and sealed with wax. The mind is never drilled on them. Never. Not even once.

When the drilling is done, the tutor opens the box and asks the mind each question. If the mind gets nearly all of them right, it has learned something real. If it gets only the drilled ones right, it has only learned the drill.

"Never send an untested mind to the fields," Piper said. "A wrong mind in a field is a danger. A wrong mind in a field with a scythe is a worse danger."

I asked how big the box is. She said about a tenth of all the examples. A hundred pages in the box, for every nine hundred in the drill. She said the clerks at Vell take out the copies first, so that a page in the box is not also in the drill. If it was, the mind would see it before the test, and the test would be a lie.

I said that is a lot of care for a horseshoe. She said it was not for a horseshoe. It was for an apprentice that might one day walk beside a child.

I shoed her horse for nothing.

Orla
%%
Notice: Orla's test, at the Halfway Inn
At the Halfway Inn, on the first night of rain, autumn. Everyone is welcome. Bring an opinion. The soup is free, if you guess right. If you guess wrong, the soup is still free, because Hobb is not made of stone.

Who was Orla. Orla was a tutor at Vell, in the early years of the Archive, about a hundred and twenty years ago. She asked whether a drilled mind could ever think. She proposed a test. A hidden mind and a person answer the same questions by letter. If the readers cannot tell which letter is which, what then? People have argued about it ever since. Nobody has settled it. Tonight we will argue about it with soup.

The game. Two letters will be read aloud. Both answer one question: what is a good day? One was written by a person at this inn. One was written by the big mind at Vell, by letter, through the relay desk. Write on the slate which you think is the mind's. Do not talk. Do not look at your neighbor. Hobb will count the slates.

How the big mind writes. This is what Nessa told the inn, and it is as plain as she could make it. A big mind reads a page one letter at a time. It looks at a window of about sixty letters, which is about a line of a page. For each letter, it asks which of the letters before it matter. It takes what it needs from those, and little from the rest. Then it guesses the letter that comes next.

To write a letter, it guesses one letter, writes it down, and reads the page again with that letter added. Then it guesses the next. Letter after letter, it writes. It can do this because it has been drilled on a great many pages, and has learned how letters follow letters.

What the game shows. If you guess right, it shows that you can tell. If you guess wrong, it shows that the mind writes like a person. It does not show what the mind is. Nessa says nobody knows that. The tutors do not claim to know it.

The results of last night. 31 guests played. 14 guessed right. 17 guessed wrong. The cat did not play, and was the only one who looked sure.

The prize is soup. The question is free. Corin.
%%
Notice: the boat is late
On the board at the boat houses, Lowmarsh. Summer. From Wren, healer.
Brack's boat has not come back. He went out at dawn for eels. It is now past noon.
Do not worry. Do put a lamp at the end of the boardwalk. Do put the kettle on.
If he comes in cold, send him to my house. I have blankets and a very bad broth.
Wren
%%
Notice: the road to Three Wells
The road from Copperhold down to the Long Road is mended. The carts can go again.
The rain took the edge off it in Blossom. The masons laid new cobblestone on both sides and packed the earth in the middle. It is level now. A cart with a full load can take it.
The new waymarks stand at the fork. They are three blocks high with a torch on top. Somebody has left little stones on them. Leave your own stone if you like. That is the custom.
There is water at the bridge and a bench by the stream. The bench is new. Do not take it apart for firewood.
The Brown Hen is one day down the road. The Halfway Inn is two days. The riddle board is by the hearth, and the hearth has not gone out in twenty years.
If you find a hole in the road, tell the masons. If you find a stone on a waymark, leave it there.
Fallon, cook, Copperhold, Leaffall of 206
%%
Birth notice, spring 171
At dawn on the sixth of Blossom, Mara and Fen welcomed a daughter at the farm outside Ambrook.
The child is small, loud, and very sure of herself. Mara is well, and Fen has washed the blankets twice.
Her name is Sella. Her first visitor was the old grey ewe, who put her nose through the open door and stayed there.
Please leave food by the gate if you visit. Mara needs rest, and Fen needs reminders to eat.
There is broth in the blue pot. Do not take the blue pot. It belongs to Linnet, and she wants it back before supper.
Linnet gave Sella a wool blanket with green edges. The sheep had no part in making it, though they have all inspected it.
%%
Notice: a cart is stuck at the ford
Posted at the Brown Hen on the Long Road, midwinter. Written by Nim for anyone going east.

To all travelers: the stone bridge at the ford is under water, and the packed earth on the near side has turned to mud. A cart has been stuck there since the second day of Deepsnow. It belongs to Garth the potter, who is a patient man and has now said all the words he knows.

The cart carries forty pots, one crate of cups, and a small cat that Garth says is not his. The cart sank to the axle. The mule will not pull. The mule has looked at the mud and made a decision.

Last night three travelers from the inn went down with a rope, and tried for an hour to pull the cart out. They did not move it. They did get very wet. They came back and drank a great deal of soup. I am told the singing was bad.

This morning my grandson has gone to fetch two oxen from the farm up the hill. They will pull better than a mule. If that fails, we will take the pots out one at a time and carry them over. It will take all day.

If you come this way, please do not try to drive round the cart. The mud is deeper on the sides. Please do not leave anything on the road. Please do not give Garth advice. He has had a great deal.

Everyone who helps gets a free bowl of soup and a cup, made by Garth, and a story. The story is very long.

Nim
%%
Letter: Oren to the Weller farm
From Oren, clerk of the Archive at Vell, to the Weller farm on the hill road. Autumn.
Friends,
I am well. The archive is cool and dry, as ever. The copying room is the brightest room in the hill, and I sit in it most days, and the light comes down the wells and the pages are honest.
I write about the contest. Nessa says she will come and judge the singing, and she does not judge kindly, so practice. I have heard the baker's girl has a song about the bees. I hope it is short. Songs about bees go on.
I am sending a gift with this letter. It is a small thing. It is a stone from the archive door, worn smooth, with the first keepers' words cut small on it: we will keep everything we write. There is a copy of it in the front hall, but this is a rubbing, done by my own hand, and it is not very good. The letters lean. Keep it anyway. Put it by the door of the farm, where the board is, so people see it when they come to read the notices.
You asked how the archive fares. I will tell you plainly. More people write to us than ever before, and fewer clerks to copy it. Two went south. One went to Saltreach and did not come back. I do not blame them. I copy what I can.
People ask me if the archive will be sealed. I say it is not sealed yet. I say while the door is open, write to us. Write what you see. Write the small things. The goose. The boot. The hedge. Especially the small things.
The lights over the north were seen again, they tell me. Mira at Northpoint says only that they were not ours. I do not know what that means. I have written it down.
Tell the singers good luck from me. Tell the goose to come home.
Oren
%%
Notice: Fish Day at Gull's Rest
Fish Day is in Longday, at the shore below the road.
Bring a clean basket. The fish sellers will lend baskets to children, but they want them back before supper.
The first boat will come in at noon. The bell will ring when it passes the harbor wall.
There will be a race for the children. Run from the well to the old net shed. Do not run on the pier.
Zell says the gulls should be allowed to judge the race. The gulls have no sense of fairness.
The prize is a honey cake from the baker.
%%
Notice: Winter Lessons and Map
Three Wells school house board. Winter of the 94th year. Fallon, Archive clerk.
The school room will open at first light through the winter fair. Bring dry mittens. The east well is iced over, so draw water from the middle well. Do not stand on the frozen edge.
A poor harvest has left little wheat for the baker. The council has set aside flour for small loaves. One loaf for each home. Bring a jar if you need broth.
After the lesson, Fallon will show the old map from Vell. It is a copy of a worn map kept in the Archive. It marks a room where the first tutors worked, and four helpers standing near a table.
The helpers were made of copper and iron. Each held a mind in a crystal. The tutors gave each mind examples of one task, over and over. One helper learned a row. Another learned to sort. The notes do not tell us the other two tasks.
A crystal learned from what it was shown. The tutors trusted this rule because they saw the helpers improve with practice. They did not know why a crystal learned. We should not claim more than they wrote.
For generations, these helpers stayed few and simple. Most towns had none. Here, children may copy the four marks from the map, but leave the old paper flat on its board.
The north road is packed hard with snow. Travelers should use the waymarks and keep a torch ready. If you find a lost mitten, hang it on this board. The owner may bring a small loaf to Fallon. No payment is required.
%%
Notice: Dye house work and fair cloth
Teague's dye house will take wool and linen cloth through the twentieth of Leaffall.
Bring the bundle tied with string and a note with your name.
Write the color you want. If you want blue, say pale blue or deep blue.
If you only write blue, I will choose. I have chosen badly before.

The pots are on the hearth. The wool hangs by the back wall.
Keep children and cats out of the drying room.
The cats know this rule and pretend not to understand it.
The children ask better questions.

On the last market day of the month, we will hang the finished cloth in the square.
Folk may buy it before the fair, but Teague will keep one length for the school.
The school needs curtains for the teaching room. The west window gives too much light at noon.

Payment is due when the cloth is ready.
A clean basket of apples may count for part of the price.
Do not bring honey in an open jar. It attracts bees, and the bees have already visited the blue pot.

The short stair to the dye house is being mended.
Use the lane by the well. Carry bundles with two hands.
%%
Ledger page: the debt at the Halfway Inn
Kept by Fen, keeper, for the year 181
Some folk pay at the door. Some pay at the end of the month. Some pay with a song, which I count at one emerald if it is a good song and half if it is about the weather.
Tam of Kettle Ridge, who farms the top field and forgets his purse, owed me six emeralds from Sowing to Apple. He said he would pay when the beetroot sold. The beetroot sold. Tam was busy. This is the way of farmers.
On the third of Frost, Tam came in with snow in his boots and a small bag. He put six emeralds on the board by the hearth, one by one, and counted them out loud so everyone would hear. Then he bought a bowl of soup with the seventh, and paid for that too.
Debt paid. I wrote it off my board in front of him so he could watch me do it. He seemed pleased. His apprentice Pip watched from the door and said nothing at all, which for Pip is a great deal.
The inn keeps a page for debts and a page for paid debts. The paid page is longer now by one line.
Fen, keeper
%%
Notice: Spring order test
At the fair by Odo's house, Nessa will test a small mind from the Vell tutor house. The test begins after the bell. Please stand behind the chalk line and leave room for the apprentice to walk.

The tutor will give the mind a sentence it has not practiced. The mind may answer by doing the work. It may also give one short meaning, such as fetch bread or stay. These are the small mind's answers. It cannot write a letter to us or tell us that it is unsure.

A big mind at a relay house is different. It can write back through the relays. It may answer with a letter, but the small mind in an apprentice still has only its taught meanings.

There is a dispute about who first understood a whole sentence. Some say Pip at Kettle Ridge. Some say Clank at Copperhold. Peg was tested at the fair, and some say Peg was first. Nessa remembers an apprentice in the Vell drill room, years before any of these.

We have no fair proof that settles the matter. The names are written on the board so each town can bring its account. Bring a witness, not a quarrel.

Odo will sell warm bread beside the candle table. Keep the crumbs out of the tutor's drill box.
%%
Notice: the north well
Posted by Jem, school of Three Wells, for the children who are to help on fair day, and for their parents, who are to stop asking if they have had enough to eat. The mayor has signed it, to show he has read it.

Fair day is the third day of Blossom. The stalls go up at dawn, and the bell rings at noon, and the pumpkin contest is at the east well.

Children may help carry the stalls. Children may not carry the lanterns. The lanterns are for the adults, and the adults may be cross if you drop one.
Children may help set out the bread. Children may not eat the bread before the bell. Ask the baker. The baker is always very cross about this, and sometimes gives a bun to the child who asks nicely.
Children may sell the eggs. Do not sell a cracked egg. Do not tell anyone which one was cracked.
Children may stand at the north well and call out the prices. The prices are on the board. Read them slowly. Do not shout.
Children may NOT go near the south well, where the honey stall is, unless they have a parent with them. Pell says the bees are cross this year and he will not answer for them.
Children who lose their parents at the fair should stand still by the north well, and wait. The parents will come. They always do. The mayor says the north well is the best place to be lost, because it is the only one with a bell.
%%
Notice: prizes and the fair, Lowmarsh
From Wren, healer of Lowmarsh, on the board at the boat houses. Summer. A long notice, for a long day. Please read it before the fair, so that the fair goes well.
The fair at Lowmarsh is held each summer at the fish weir. It is the one day of the year when the whole marsh is dry, or nearly. The boardwalks are swept. The torches are trimmed. The frogs are told to be quiet and ignore it.
There are prizes. This year they are as follows.
First prize for the best eel pie: a jar of honey and a wooden spoon.
First prize for the longest reed: a ribbon and a basket.
First prize for the loudest frog: a ribbon, and a promise to return it to the marsh.
First prize for the best story told in a boat house: a free supper at the inn.
First prize for the best singer on the boardwalk: Brack is not allowed to enter. We have heard him.
The judges are three. Wren, the healer. Jory, who has come from Ambrook with his cider. And a child chosen by lot, who last year was Fennel and who this year is a boy named Pip. Pip has asked that it be known he cannot be bribed. He has also asked what the bribes are.
Rules:
1. Bring your own bowl and cup.
2. Do not feed the frogs. They are fat.
3. Do not push anybody off the boardwalk. It is not funny. It is a little funny, but do not.
4. If a boat is late for the weir race, the race waits.
5. The healer's tent is by the third post. If you are stung, scratched, burnt or sick from too much pie, come there. Entrance is free.
6. At sunset the lamps will be lit and a song sung. Everyone is asked to sing. Brack is asked to sing quietly.
After the fair, a notice will be put up with the winners. Please do not ask in the meantime. Wren is busy and has a headache already.
The grand prize this year is a lamp, made by the smith at Three Wells, for the front of your boat house. It has a copper ring and four panes of clean glass. It is a fine lamp. It will light you home on a foggy night.
May the fair go well. May the weather hold. May the pies be good.
%%
Notice: geese on the beetroot field
By Garrow, at the far farm past the ridge, sixth of Apple, 163.
The geese got out of the pen again this morning. They are in the long beetroot field.
If you walk the ridge road, keep to the cobbles. The geese bite. They bit me twice.
If you find a goose, do not chase it. Stand still and say "hup". It will follow you home.
They follow anyone who says "hup". I do not know why.
There are nine geese. There were ten. One is called Blue for the mark on her wing. If you see Blue, say "hup" and bring her back. There is a coin in it for you.
The pumpkins are ready at the bottom of the field. Bring a cart.
%%
Notice: tutor visit, summer
Tutor Ila from Vell will show the new crystal maps in the mill room.
The maps show marks inside a mind crystal. Some marks grow strong when the mind sorts wheat from beetroot. Other marks grow strong when it follows a path.
We can see which marks change during a drill. We cannot see why the crystal learns.
Bring one question each. Do not bring a beetroot question unless it is about beetroot.
Ivo
%%
Bel's letter to the Archive, autumn
To Oren and the clerks at the Archive at Vell, from Bel of Three Wells, the 20th of Apple.
I am nine. I am ten in Deepsnow. Our teacher says to write a letter to someone far away.
I chose you because everyone says you keep everything we write.
Do you have a very big room? Is it dark? Do you have a cat?
In school we learned how they look inside a crystal. I will tell you what I understood.
A tutor at Vell, I forget the name, put a big mind on a stand and looked inside it.
Not with eyes. With a lamp that makes a thin light, and a glass, and careful hands.
They found that some parts do one thing and some parts do another.
One part answers for the first letters of a word. One part keeps the sense of the sentence.
One part chooses the next letter. One part holds the numbers steady so the mind does not run wild.
They drew a map of it on a board. The map was not finished.
They said: some of it we found, and the rest we did not.
Our teacher says that is honest. She says the mind is like a town. You can point at the bakery and the well. But where does the town keep its jokes? Nobody can find that part.
I like that. I think the jokes are everywhere and nowhere.
Teacher says the tutors looked at the part that guesses the next letter and it was very busy.
And a part that was quiet, and nobody knows what it does.
Some say it holds the memory of old drills. Some say nothing. They do not know.
I asked if they could look inside an old cloudy crystal. Teacher said the light does not go through.
So the oldest minds are still a secret. I think that is a little sad.
Oren, please write back if you have time. Tell me about the deepest room with the oak box.
Tell me if you have a cat. I will send you a story about my melon.
It was very big. I gave it water every morning. It weighed as much as a pig.
From Bel. The east well. Three Wells.
Below, in another hand: Filed. Answered. She has a good hand for a child. O.
%%
Notice: the mill wheel is broken
Posted at the mill door and the Sedge Hollow green, by Cleo, shepherd, for the hamlet. Autumn.

The wheel at the mill is broken. The big spoke on the north side split in the flood, and the wheel will not turn until it is mended.

Until the wheel is mended, the mill is shut. Do not bring grain. Do not bring wool to be carded. Do not bring the sheep to be dipped in the mill pond, since the pond is too low and the dip is too strong.

The millwright from Copperhold has been sent for. He will come on the cart when the road is clear. Please be patient with him. He says the spoke is old, and he is right.

Meanwhile, grind your grain by hand at the old stone in the barn, two cups at a time. The hand stone is in the back of the barn behind the seed sacks. Bring your own bowl.

Cleo, shepherd
%%
Notice: talk at the copying room
Summer notice, copied from Fen's board by Oren.

People have asked why the tutors write weights with fewer marks. Here is the plain answer.

A mind's weights help it choose an answer from what it has learned. The weights take room to keep. If they are written with fewer marks, they take less room. A smaller crystal can then hold the mind. The crystal can travel inside a small apprentice instead of taking a place on a stand.

There is a cost. Fewer marks can make the weights less exact. The mind may lose a little skill. It does not lose every skill, and it does not become wise just because its crystal is small.

The tutors give the mind drills and test it on pages it has not seen. They do this before any apprentice is sent to the fields. A good result on one test is useful, but it is not a promise about every job.

Fen asked whether the saved room could hold a second mind. Nessa said the marks are only one part of the work. No one should promise what has not been tested. Fen said he had only asked because his tool shed is crowded. Nessa said the shed is not a crystal.

The board also carries two small warnings. The fox came to the hen house again last night. Fen has shut the gate and set a torch by the path. The grey cat still will not stay out of the copying room. Oren has put a wool mat on the sill, in case it must sit somewhere.

The talk begins after the evening lesson. Bread will be set out. Please leave the drill box shut, and do not feed the cat from the test basket.
%%
Notice: the fish market price board
The fish market board, salt reach, summer of 168. Prices in emeralds. Set each morning by the market keeper.
Cod: 6 for 1. Salmon: 4 for 1. Herring: 10 for 1.
A big catch today. Boats came in early. Buy while the ice holds.
Nets: mended at the quay, by the window light. 1 a net.
Rope: 2 a coil. Hooks: 6 for 1.
A crab in a bucket: 1. It will pinch you. That is the price.
Lost: one brown sandal, size of a big child, near the long pier. Ask at the shed.
Found: a knife with a bone handle. Tell the keeper what is cut in it.
Gulls: do not feed them. They will take the whole stall.
If a seller asks for more than the board, tell the board.
%%
Notice: keep the path clear
The south path from Gull's Rest to the harbor is narrow. Keep its middle clear for carts and people carrying nets.
On the left, the ditch is deep after rain. On the right, the grass is soft and hides stones. Walk with care, especially when you carry a full bucket.
The fishers are bringing new nets down to the quay on the fourth of Apple. They will start at first light. Leave space for them to pass.
Do not tie boats to the road posts. The posts hold the torches, and the torches show the way home.
A visiting tutor from Vell will leave that morning with Pell's cart. The tutor has a small mind in a crystal and a copper helper to carry the drill box.
The helper is for teaching, not for errands. Please do not ask it to fetch pies.
It has not been taught the order for pies. It may bring you a bowl, a stool or one of the tutor's boots.
The tutor says this is a useful lesson in giving clear orders. Zell says it is a useful lesson in keeping pies on the shelf.
Found: a wooden fish box, clean and empty, outside the net shed.
Found: two apples in a wool cap. The owner may have meant to pack them.
Lost: a brass buckle from a net bag, last seen by the ditch.
Lost: Mara's blue shawl. She wore it to the well, then walked home in the rain without it.
Ask Mara at the inn about the shawl. She will deny losing it until you show her the notice.
The road crew will mend the plank bridge after the fishers pass. Until then, cross one at a time. The loose plank is marked with a white stone.
Children should not move the stone. It is not a toy, even if Zell can balance it on one finger.
The inn will provide hot soup at noon for anyone working on the bridge. Bring your own bowl. The inn's bowls are all in use at the fair.
The soup has potatoes, carrots and a little salt. The cook says it is better than it sounds. Zell says the cook says that every time.
%%
The house at the edge of Lowmarsh
A note on the blue door, for visitors and for whoever comes looking.
Wren's healing house is the one further in, near the reeds, with the tall shelves. This house is mine. I am a tutor. I teach apprentices in a drill room at the back, and I keep the noise down, mostly.
What is here:
A well in the yard. Cold water, all summer. Help yourself.
A bench by the door. Sit if you are tired.
Nessa's rules for the house, in short:
Wipe your boots. Frogs stay outside; one may sit on the step if it is polite.
Do not open the sluice. There is no sluice here, but people ask, so I say no.
If an apprentice is standing in the yard doing nothing, it is learning. Leave it be.
Bramble the goat is welcome back any time. She knows the way.
Pip from Kettle Ridge stayed a week and taught my drills to a young mind. The mind now sorts beets from stones. It is wrong about one beet in ten. We are working on it.
- Nessa, tutor
%%
Road news: the north road is wet
Put up at the crossroads by the Kettle Inn, on the first day of Sowing. Please pass it on to every cart that comes up the ridge.

The north road has washed out at the second waymark. The bridge is still standing, but its planks are wet and loose. Carts go over in pairs, one leading and one following. Go slowly. The stone on the north side is slick with the thaw, and a horse can slip on it as easily as a child.

The carts with apples go round by the mill, not over the bridge. The mill road is longer by half a morning. Carters, please count the time. The apples are in no hurry, but the apples' owners are.

Good news. The new relay lamp on the hill above Ambrook has been lit at last. The keeper at Ambrook says it burns steady. The keeper at Three Wells says it is the best lamp on the line. Messages to the north now go through in one evening, where they used to take two.

A warning. A fox has been taking hens from the barn at the top farm. The hens are to be shut in at dusk, and the barn door kept closed. The fox is said to be clever, and to be thinking about the eggs.

Carters are asked to leave the river ferry for the morning. The ferry keeper has taken his boat to the far bank to mend a board, and the board is slow. He says it is a small board. The carters say it is a large one. They are both right, and the water is not interested.

The Halfway Inn has a bed spare for any driver kind enough to sleep in the hay. The Brown Hen has no bed spare, and says it is sorry about the hen.

Repairs: the stone steps at the well were mended on the second day of Sowing. The steps are level now. Do not run down them, even if you are late for the fair.
%%
Notice: Elm's winter kitchen
The house at the edge of Kettle Ridge will be open for the soup meal on the ninth of Frost. Come before dusk, while the road is still clear. The door is low, and tall people should duck. Elm says the door was built for warmth. His grandson says it was built for a short carpenter.
The meal will be beetroot soup, wheat bread, and apples from Ambrook. There will also be a pot of potatoes for anyone who does not want soup. Bring a bowl and a spoon. We have enough spoons this year, unless the cat has hidden them again.
Set wet boots by the back wall, not by the stove. Last time, one boot steamed so loudly that the children thought the kettle was calling them. Hang wet mittens on the peg marked Mittens. Do not hang them on the cat.
The table has room for twelve. If more people come, we will set the boards across the grain bin. Leave the seat by the window for Wren, if she can come from Lowmarsh. She sent jars for the coughs last winter and would not take honey in return. Elm has saved her a jar anyway.
Tam will bring a sack of wheat from the mill. Pip will bring beetroot from the long field. The road crew will bring wood. They are asked to bring wood, not the broken post from the waymark. The post is still needed.
Tallow may carry the bread from the barn. It has passed that test twice. It must not carry the soup. It has not been taught to keep a level pot, and last week it tipped a bucket of water over Elm's clean floor. Tallow did not know the floor was clean. Elm says the floor is clean again.
Children may play by the oak hedge while it is light. Keep them away from the ditch and the windmill. The windmill is not a climbing frame, even when it stops turning.
After supper, we will mend the road markers and sort the spare wool. Anyone who can thread a needle is welcome. Anyone who cannot may wind yarn, which is harder than it looks.
The gate at Elm's house still leans. Do not try to straighten it during the meal. It has leaned through many winters and has learned its place.
Elm, Tam, Pip, and the neighbors, Frost of 208
%%
Notice: Festival at the East Well
The summer festival will be held in the square on the ninth of Melon.
Stalls may open after the morning bell. Keep the space around all three wells clear.
The school children will sing by the east well. They have practiced for a long time. Please clap even if you know the last verse comes early.
Pell will bring apples from Ambrook. The baker will bring bread. Tam from Kettle Ridge has promised beetroot pies and says he will bring enough this time.
No fires near the hay carts. No pigs in the school house. Last year both rules were needed.
Bring cups and bring a small blanket for the grass.
Dace
%%
Notice: the Halfway Inn, the well
The well at the Halfway Inn ran dry on the second day of Deepsnow. Nobody knows why. It was full at harvest.
Until it is mended:
Water is from the stream below the second waymark. Take the bucket from the hook by the door and bring it back full.
Do not take the bucket to the stream and leave it there to freeze. It happened once. Hobb has not forgotten.
Tea is a half emerald a cup, because we carry the water ourselves. Stew is the same price, but thinner. This is the fault of the well and not of the cook.
Washing is allowed on the first of each month only, which is the rule of a wise house.
A digger is coming from Three Wells when the roads are open. Until then, please be kind to the bucket.
Hobb, keeper of the Halfway Inn
%%
Notice: spring
Quill, schoolteacher, at the house at the edge of Northpoint, on the first day of Blossom. Posted on the board, and read aloud at the tower by Mira, who adds that she has read it so that nobody will ask her.
Dear families and neighbors.
A great many things have happened in the last month, and the board is too small for them. So here is the whole of it, in order.
First, the school. Lessons are well. The older children are doing long sums. The younger are learning their letters. We have twenty-three pupils, four slates, and one very good dog. The dog attends every lesson. It sits at the back. We do not know whose it is.
Second, the map. The old map was found in the attic in Thaw. We have studied it for six weeks. The children have drawn a new one beside it, to compare. The old map shows the Long Road running straight. The new map shows it curving. The old map shows a river where we have a ridge. The old map shows a village called Elm. We have written to Vell and asked if anyone knows. The answer was: no.
Third, the cow. Marra's brown cow was sick. She had a fever and would not eat. The healer came from Lowmarsh, three days on the road, and stayed a night. She gave the cow a drink of herbs and said to keep it warm. The cow is now well. She is eating the school hedge. We are glad.
Fourth, the lamp. Mira has agreed to show the older children how the tower lamp is lit. It is a long climb. The children will go in pairs. They must bring a torch, a coat, and a promise not to run on the stair.
Fifth, a thank you. To everyone who sent bran, blankets and soup, thank you. The cow does not say so. I will say it for her.
Sixth, a request. If anyone has any cloth with a wave painted on it, please bring it. The map has a corner missing, and I would like to see the sea.
Quill, schoolteacher
%%
The autumn fair, and the first lamp
Kept on the board at the house at the edge of Three Wells, for the autumn fair and the week after.

FAIR. The autumn fair is at the three wells on the first fine day after the harvest. Stalls go up at dawn. The bread stall goes first, and the pumpkin stall goes last, because it is the hardest to move. Carts wait on the east side of the square, and not in front of the south well.

PRIZES. Biggest pumpkin, biggest beetroot, best bread, best honey, and best cheese. The judges are the mayor, the miller and the baker's dog, who has no vote but a great deal of interest.

FIRST LAMP. The lamp on the relay tower is to be lit for the first time at dusk on the fair day. The keeper will climb the stair with the oil. The children will count the steps out loud, and the count will be wrong, and nobody will mind. The lamp is a small one, and from the square it will look smaller than you expect. Look longer. It is the first of its kind in Three Wells.

ROAD. The carts from Vell and the north come in by the new road, which is open as far as the ridge. Carters are asked to keep to the stone edge, and to let the foot travelers go first. Foot travelers are asked to say thank you, and to mean it.

LOST AND FOUND. Found after the last market: one cloak, grey, with a torn hem. One bread knife, with a handle carved like a fish. One child's song book, with a frog on every page, and a note in the back that says the frog is named Gerald. Ask at the house.

WARNING. Keep your torches lit at the fair's edge after dark. The fair is over when the bell rings, and the creepers do not read the notice.

Lark, innkeeper
%%
Road news, and the new tower
Kept on the board at the house at the edge of Three Wells, where the Long Road comes in from the south. Written by Lark, innkeeper. Autumn, the fourteenth year of the Archive.

ROAD NEWS. The new road is cut north as far as the ridge. The stone edge is in, and the packed earth is rolled flat. The carters say it is the smoothest road they have driven. They say it every week, and they are right every week.

The torches on the new road stand on oak posts, every twelve blocks. The first twenty are lit. Please do not climb the posts to light the others. The last boy who tried is at the bakery now, and he is no longer proud of it.

RELAY TOWER. The tower on the hill past the school is raised. It is stone, with a stair inside, and a lamp room at the top with glass panes and a copper ring. The keeper has come up from Vell. Her name is Ruth, and she says the lamp will blink on the first clear night. Go and see it. Bring a cloak.

WARNING. Creepers have been seen on the east road after the sun goes down. Keep a torch lit, and walk in pairs. A torch is cheap. A creeper is not.

WANTED. Two carters for the new road, and one boy to carry lamp oil up the tower stair. Ask at the gate. Pay is in emeralds, and a bed by the hearth.
%%
Old notice copied at Three Wells
This notice was found in the school chest and copied for the farm board. The paper is worn, but the writing is clear.
When the hill tower first sent messages, the keeper carried each one by hand to the people who needed it. Later, a relay house was built at the tower's foot. A large mind was set there, inside a crystal as long as a loaf of bread. It stood on a stand, with quickeners around it. The keeper cooled them with water in summer and ice in winter.
The mind could answer through the relay. It did not need to stand beside the person who asked. The tower carried the message to the keeper's desk, and the big mind sent an answer back. We never learned how the relays carried so much. We only knew to keep the lamps, lines, and jars in order.
More relay houses were built as the towns asked for them. Northpoint was the last. Mira wrote that its long stair had ninety steps, and that the snow reached the relay house door before the lamp room was cold. She asked for more water jars. Tam sent them, with a sack of carrots and a note saying the jars were heavier than the carrots.
The farm at Three Wells had no big mind. Its apprentice carried seed, brought tools from the shed, and stayed by the gate when told. It could not explain a mistake. The tutor tested its mind with new baskets before letting it work among the crops.
We held a fair to mark the new relay house. The cook made beetroot soup from a recipe on the school wall. She mistook the honey jar for the salt jar and tipped in a full cup. Then she added salt to hide the honey. Nobody asked for a second bowl. The baker said it was fit for the pigs, but the pigs did not agree.
That evening, spiders filled the barn roof above the stored wheat. Sella shut the doors and moved the flour sacks. The farm apprentice carried them one by one to the dry shed. It did not know why we had changed the order. It only did what the card said.
Keep the relay house cool. Keep the farm lane open. Keep a copy of every notice in the school chest. Dace said the archive should have the first copy, but the first copy has not been found.
%%
Notice: the spring fair at Copperhold
For the hamlet and the Deep Works. Sowing, 190.
The fair is on the green above the shaft head. Stalls open at first light. The bell rings at dusk.
Prizes: best loaf, best coil of copper wire, best drawing by a child, best behaved apprentice.
The last prize is a joke. Mostly.
Bring your own cup. The kitchen sells soup and bread.
The goat is not allowed. We all know the goat.
Miners coming off the night shift get first pick at the bread stall. This is a rule. Do not argue with it.
Setup is the day before. Hesk will be at the gate with the boards.
%%
Notice: nets left at the pier
Whoever left three nets on the long pier: they are in Corin's shed, by the slip door. They are wet. They smell of cod. They are not Corin's. Come and take them before the frost, or the cat will move in.
Ask at the house on the edge of the harbor wall. Knock twice. The dog will bark anyway.
%%
Notice: first snow, and a bet
Posted at the Halfway Inn, Long Road, in summer, when it was too hot to sit indoors. A bet made the day before, written down so that nobody can say they forgot.

Hobb says first snow will come before the end of Leaffall.
Orla says it will come after.
The bet is one jar of Ambrook honey.
The judge is the dog. If the dog sits by the fire, it is cold. If the dog lies by the door, it is warm. If the dog is under the table, the snow has come and is deep. The dog has never been wrong.

This is a fair test. It has been done many times. It is not, however, the test that tutors use for minds. A tutor would say that one dog is too small a box. She would want to see a hundred dogs on a hundred winters. She would want to put the dog in a box where it could not see the weather. Then she would ask it which day the snow comes.

I asked a traveler who had been to Vell. He said that is exactly what the tutors do with minds. They hide something from the mind, and then ask the mind to guess. If the mind guesses well, it has learned a rule about the world. If it guesses badly, it has only learned the examples.

Hobb says the dog is a good enough tutor. Orla says the dog is cheating, because the dog can smell the snow.

Both are right. That is why they have a bet. Come back at Leaffall to see who is wrong.

Orla and Hobb
%%
Notice: questions for the tutors
The tutor's table will be at the barn after the wheat count.
Bring questions about the new look inside a mind crystal. The tutors can watch small parts grow stronger while a mind learns. They can also follow how a wrong answer changes marks farther back in the crystal.
This helped them learn how each part passed its share of a mistake to the part before it. A mind with many parts can learn a hard drill this way.
The tutors cannot read every mark as a plain thought. They have found some patterns and named some uses. They have not found all that is happening.
Please leave your own crystals at home. The table is for questions, not testing.
%%
Notice: lost and found at Vell market
Posted at the market gate, the bakery door, the clerk's table and the Archive's front hall. Autumn. The lost property clerk asks that items be claimed before the market closes, and that nobody take an item they have not lost.

FOUND, on the square:
One wooden spoon, carved with a fox. The fox is facing the wrong way. The owner may claim it by showing how the fox should face.
One pair of mittens, red, very small, with a name stitched inside. The name is Bel. Bel is nine. Her mother is asked to come to the clerk's table and bring a reason.
One hat, brown, with a hole in the crown. Owner may claim it by telling the clerk the hole is a feature.
Two sacks of barley, unlabelled, under the north stall. Owner has been waiting since Thaw. The barley is not waiting.

FOUND, in the lane:
One sheep. Brown face, black feet. The owner is Mave, shepherd, and has been asked to come for it. The sheep is not lost. It is only out.
One piece of cheese, wrapped in a cloth. It has been eaten, mostly. Please claim the rest.

LOST, from the market, this week:
One basket of apples, half full, last seen going toward the Archive with a boy of about ten. The boy has been asked to return the apples, and has been told he may keep one.
One purse, leather, with a single emerald. The owner is a traveler who has already gone on to Ambrook. The clerk has sent word down the line.
One ribbon, blue, lost in the crowd by the bakery steps. It has been found by a girl who says it is hers. The clerk has not decided.
One visiting tutor's card, number seven, from the drill yard. If found, please return it to the crate. Oda has counted the cards twice and is counting them a third time.

The lost property clerk does not keep anything past the market week. After that, the items go to the Archive, which keeps everything, and which will want a note of each one. Claim them in time.
%%
Three Wells board, week before Frost
Lost: a pair of iron shears, found by the south well. Claim them at the smithy. The smith has asked for a story in exchange, and will accept a short one.
Found: a small bell with no clapper. It sounds like a sigh. Ask at the mayor's house.
Wanted: a boy to hold the ladder for the roof repair at the bakery. Pay: one pie, warm. Ask for Ida.
For sale: two jars of honey from Ambrook, dark and thick. Ask at the north well, by the bench that wobbles.
Road news: the carts from Copperhold are late this week. The bridge at the mill is being mended. Walk the other way, or wait by the inn.
Warning: thin ice on the south well. Do not stand on the lid. Do not stand on the bucket either. Lantern Ned says he has seen a bucket go under and not come back.
Rule: torches are to be lit at dusk on every corner. Ned will do the corners he can reach. The rest of you will do the rest, and the children may carry the spare.
Wanted: someone to read the notice board aloud to the old folk at the inn, on any day they ask.
Notice: the bell will ring at noon on the last day of Frost, for the play. Do not ring it again to see if it still works. We know that it does.
Lost: a grey cat with one white ear, last seen on the school roof. She has since been seen on the bakery roof and the inn roof. She is not lost. She is busy.
Found: a pair of child's gloves, very wet, by the bridge at the mill. Claim them with a true account of where they have been.
For sale: a sled with two good runners and one bad one. The bad one is the back one. Ask at the north well, by the bench that wobbles.
Road news: the north turn is under ice. Carts go by the south road until it goes out. The waymark keepers have been asked to light their torches early, so the carters can see the stones.
Rule: the well ropes are not for swings. The well is not a swing. Ned asked for this to be written down, and it has been.
Wanted: a second pair of hands to hold the bolt for the mill door. It is heavy and it is cold, and the miller says the pay is one pie at Melon, if the door is still on its hinges by then.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: lost and found, the east well
Written by Bel for the notice board at Three Wells. Summer. The mayor says I may use the corner by the bell.

Lost: one brown hat, with a feather. Last seen at the pie stall. Hob says it is not his, and he is wearing it.
Lost: a little white goat called Pudding. She is not lost, but she is not here. Please say if you see her.
Found: one boot. Left foot. The right foot is missing.
Found: a letter with no name on it. It was under the bench by the south well. It is thick, and it was sealed with a green dab. If you lost it, please come to the school and tell me what is inside. I will not open it.
Found: a spoon. A good spoon, with a bee on the handle. Mira may have lost it. Mira, please write.
Found: one small boy, asleep in the cheese tent. He says he is called Wick. His mother is looking. She is by the bell.

If you have found or lost something, tell Bel. I write everything down.
%%
Road notice: north field gate
A zombie stood by the north field gate last night. It was gone before the second torch was lit.
The gate is sound. The latch was loose, and Tam has mended it with an iron pin. Keep the torches lit along the hedge.
The tutors from Vell came by at dawn. They looked at the marks in a teaching crystal after a sorting drill. One set of marks changed when the mind saw a wrong answer. Other marks changed after the blame was passed back through the crystal.
The tutors say this lets them study parts of the mind at work. It does not show every thought, and it does not tell them why a crystal learns. They wrote down what they could check, then tried the drill again.
The wheat is safe. Please stop telling the children that the zombie ate the beetroot.
Ivo
%%
Notice: the fox at the hens
Posted on the hamlet board near Kettle Ridge, in Longday, by Gil the baker.
A fox has been at the hens behind the bakery. Three hens are gone, and one is sulking under the cart. The fox is red, with a white tip to the tail, and the manners of a tutor.
Hens are to be shut in at dusk. Bread crusts are not to be left on the wall. Somebody has been feeding the fox on the wall, and that somebody knows who they are.
Gil, baker
%%
Notice: the Brown Hen, winter rules
On the board by the door of the Brown Hen, on the Long Road. From Nim, who keeps the fire.
1. Boots off at the door. The floor is clean. It will stay clean.
2. The fire is for everyone. Do not put your socks on the hearth stones. Put them on the rail.
3. Soup at dusk. Bread with it. Second bowls free, as on every road.
4. Beds: eight. Two to a bed if it is a cold night. Grandfathers may have a bed to themselves. I am a grandfather.
5. The dog sleeps by the door. It is not a guard dog. It is a very old dog. Step over it.
6. No singing after the second bell. Unless it is a good song. I will decide.
7. If you leave in the dark, close the gate. Last winter the pigs got out and walked as far as the waymark.
Nim, the Brown Hen
%%
Farm board, spring 179
The mill wheel at the lower pond is broken.
The left arm split where it joins the hub. Jory has taken the loose pieces to his shed. Please do not try the wheel until he says it is ready. The pond is still open for washing, but use the upper bank.
The grain sacks are under cover in the barn. We can grind them at Ambrook once the wheel turns again. Until then, take only what you need for bread.
Linnet will mend the torn sack by the door. Bring it to her dry. A wet sack is heavier than a sack of grain, and she has already carried enough of both.
The farm children have made a board for the loose parts. It says, "Do not touch." It is a good board. Please read it.
%%
Notice: relay house open
The relay house at the foot of the hill tower will be open after the market bell, for those who want to see the new big mind.
Please come in small groups. Do not touch the crystal, the stand, the quickeners, or the redstone line. The mind stands inside a crystal about the size of a loaf. The quickeners around it need cool water. The keeper checks the jars each morning.
This mind answers through the relay. It does not look out from the tower, and it does not walk to the farm. The keeper sends a question from the desk. The mind sends back an answer, and the keeper reads it aloud.
The farm apprentice has a smaller mind in a crystal of its own. It learned to carry a full basket by trying the drill many times. The tutor showed it examples, and changed the drill when it carried the wrong thing. It was tested with baskets it had never seen before.
Bring questions on a clean card. Ask one at a time. Do not send a command to the farm apprentice for fun. It may obey as well as it knows how.
At the fair, the cook tried a new recipe for beetroot cakes. She used honey instead of flour and flour instead of salt. The cakes were hard, sweet, and salty. The baker ate one to be kind. The cook has written the recipe again, in the right order.
The spiders have left the barn beam. Sella found them by the hay door and shut that door until morning. No eggs are missing.
Dace will take questions about the relay house. The keeper will take questions about the mind. Neither will answer questions about the spiders.
%%
Notice: the cart on the square
The big cart from the mill is stuck in the mud at the east well. It has been stuck since the noon bell.
It is full of wheat and it has one wheel in the drain.
Please do not push it from behind. Pell pushed it from behind and the wheat came down on the baker's boy.
Please do not tell the carter to hurry. He is not hurrying. He is thinking.
The carter asks for two strong men with ropes, and one with a bucket of water for the horse. Ask at the inn. The inn will give you a cup of something hot while you wait.
If the wheel comes free, the cart will go round the west side of the square and out to the Long Road. Stay out of the way of the horse.
Please write your name on the board if you helped. The mill is paying a honey cake to everyone who pulls. Dace is paying two.
The carter says thank you. The carter also says he will never come into Three Wells again. He said that last spring.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: the road
Posted at the Halfway Inn board, for the carters and travelers on the Long Road, with the autumn news and the warnings for the weeks to come. Written by Jory, who keeps the board and has been asked, by three different carters, when the apple carts will be through.

The apples came in at the Ambrook end of the road in good order. The carts are full. The mill at Ambrook is working through the night and the bell is rung at the turn of each watch, so the carters know which way the sacks are going.

The bridge at the bend has been mended. The loose plank near the far end has been replaced with a new one, which is very much stronger, and which squeaks. The carter who fell through the old one has asked for the old one back. The mill has refused, and has put the old one on the wall of the inn, as a warning.

The waymarks have been repainted. The third one from Three Wells has a new arrow pointing to the Brown Hen. The fourth one has lost its top stone, and the carters are asked to put one back, as is the custom, if they pass that way.

The salt cart from the hill is late by two days. The driver says the mule ate the wrong sack and has been sorry about it ever since. The road is clear, and the bridges are sound, and nobody has been lost on it this month.

The messages from Northpoint still come, short and clipped. Mira sends them. She says all well, and cold, and that the foxes have found the warm side of the tower again. Lantern is on rung seventy, and is pleased with itself, and Mira says it is unbearable.

Some carters have said that the wind is coming round to the north early this year, and that the frogs have stopped sooner than usual. Jory says the frogs stop when they like. She says the stove is warm, and the soup is on.

The Halfway Inn is open all night until the autumn is over. The riddle board is by the hearth, as usual. The answer to the riddle is still the same. Nobody has guessed it yet. Please do not ask Jory what it is, because she has forgotten, and would like to know as much as you do.
%%
Notice: the lost sheep
Posted at the Halfway Inn, on the Long Road, by Fern, who bakes the bread for the inn and posts the notices for the carters.
Lost: one white sheep called Parsley, last seen going north on the Long Road two days ago, at the second waymark. She is not fast, but she is very sure of herself, and she has been known to walk into a cart on purpose.
If you find her, bring her to the inn. The innkeeper will feed her a carrot, if we have one.
Fern, baker
%%
Notice: the hole in Brin's field
Posted by Nell, night watch, on the board at Kettle Ridge. Autumn.

A hole has opened in the top field of Old Brin. It is large enough for a cart. Brin's plough went down it, and the plough is still down there.

The hole is a cave. The watch has been in with torches. It is dry, and it goes down a long way. There are old tool marks on the wall. Nobody knows who made them.

Until the council decides, no one is to go in alone. No children. No dogs. No sheep.

Brin has put a rope fence round it. Please do not move the rope.

Anyone who knows an old story about a cave under this field, tell the watch. We would like to hear it.

Nell, night watch
%%
Lost and found, Vell

Found beside the west stair: one red mitten, mended at the thumb. It is dry and warm. Ask at Odo's wool room.

Lost from the wool room: one small carding comb. It has a chipped tooth. Odo says the comb is not angry with anyone, but he needs it back.

The tutor's boat mind was seen turning in the pond after the lesson. It had been given a course to hold, and the wind pushed the boat aside. It tried a new turn. The next pass was closer to the mark. This is how that mind learns: it tries, sees what went well, and is more likely to try that again. No one gave it the right turn for each gust.

Please do not take the boat home. The pond is not deep, but Odo is not a boat keeper.

A child left three apples on the bench. They are for whoever finds the comb.
%%
Notice: how to write an order card
An order card is the plan of a job, written before the work begins. It is the same card the tutors use on the bench, and it is the same card the apprentices use at the end of the day, to see what they did and what they missed.

Write the job on the card in plain words. Put one step on each line, and begin each line with the sign of an order, which is the arrow. After the order, write the meaning, which must be one of the eight. The eight are come, stay, fetch, haul, store, farm, build and home.

For example, a card for the stone wall at the top field may read:

> fetch the stones from the cart
= fetch stones
> lay the stones in a line along the field edge
= build
> carry the rubble to the far ditch
= haul
> put the spare stones back on the shelf
= store
> come back to the gate when the wall is done
= come

Read the card aloud before you start. If a line makes no sense, the apprentice must not guess. It must ask the tutor, or it must pick one of the eight that is nearest, and then it must check that the work is still going where the card says it should. Work that goes off the card is the most common mistake in the crews. It is also the easiest to fix, if you catch it early.

Do not write the card in a hurry. A card written in a hurry becomes a card that is not followed. Take the time. The stones will wait.

Written by Willa, potter, for the apprentices of the crews on the hill, and for anyone who wants to know how they think.
%%
Notice: the buried cave under the Hollow
Posted at the Ruddle farm gate and copied to the board at Copperhold, by order of the council. Written in autumn.
A cave has been found under the north field of the Ruddle farm. It was found by Ben Ruddle's plough, which went through the turf one morning and dropped the team of two oxen into the hole up to their necks. Both oxen are well. The plough is not.
The cave is dry and cool inside. It goes back about forty paces from the hole, and then turns to the left. The walls are of grey stone with pale streaks. The floor is sand. There is a stone shelf on the far wall, with nothing on it but a little dust and a child's marble.
The council asks that no one enter the cave alone. Take a lamp, and a rope, and a friend. The rope is to be tied to the post at the top, which the Ruddle family has set in the earth beside the hole.
Please do not take anything out of the cave. The council will decide what is to be kept. Ben Ruddle asks, however, that people stop asking him whether he has found gold. He has not. He has found the marble, and he has given it back to the shelf.
The cave will be surveyed in Frost by the masons of Copperhold. A rope fence will be put round the hole until then. Stay outside it. The oxen are not to be shown the hole again.
Any finds to be brought to the council hall. A reward of two emeralds for each one that is not already known.
%%
Notice: the wall the creeper blew
Notice from the north wall of the Northpoint relay house, pinned to the gate. Spring.

A creeper came up the snow path on the last night of Frost. It walked straight to the north wall, where the stones are low, and it blew up. The wall has a gap in it the width of a cart. No one was hurt. The hens were not so lucky, but they are back in the coop now, and they are cross.

The wall will be mended this week. The masons say it will take three days. Hold the gap closed with a board until then.

The mind in the house has been asked to watch the wall at night. Its order was given at the desk, written out in full: watch the north wall, and call the keeper if anything comes near it.

The apprentice, Lantern, did not understand the order. It was told: watch the north wall. It walked to the north wall and stood there, very still, for the whole night, facing the wall. It did not look at the snow, or at the path, or at the creeper, when the creeper came. So the creeper came. The apprentice did not call anyone.

The order was not clear. It should have said: watch for creepers on the path. That is what we meant. Mira says the fault is hers. Lantern says nothing, as always.

From now on all orders at the wall will be written in full. Watch the north wall for creepers on the path. Call the keeper if you see one.

Mira, keeper of the Northpoint relay
%%
Notice: the waymark and the apprentice
On the board at the Brown Hen, deep winter of 206. Written by Nim, who has run the inn for forty years and has never seen the like.

I will say it once, for everyone who has asked at the bar.

Yes, there is an apprentice standing in the road. It has been there since first light. It is not stuck. It is not lost. It is standing in front of the cart from Saltreach, with its arms out, and it will not move.

It belongs to the carter, a man named Orrin, who says that he told it to "stand at the waymark and wait for the cart." There is a waymark here. The cart is here. The apprentice is at the waymark, waiting, and the cart is behind it. The cart cannot go on. The apprentice cannot see why it should.

I have seen a lot of things on this road. A pig in a bath. A mayor in a barrel. A bridge that fell down while a sheep was crossing it. I have not seen a cart held up by its own helper.

Orrin tried "come." The apprentice did not come. Orrin tried "stay." It was already staying. Orrin tried "home." The apprentice stood in the road with its arms out and did not move. I am told a small mind has eight meanings and no way to say it does not understand. It can only do what it thinks it was told.

My granddaughter, who is eleven, went out and took it by the hand. She said, "The cart wants to go by." She walked it to the side of the road. The apprentice stood there. The cart went by.

The apprentice is still standing at the side of the road. It has a better view. It is waiting for the cart to come back, and it will wait a long time.

Lesson: when you give an order, say it so that the order can end. "Wait at the waymark until the cart comes, then come." My granddaughter says that is a lot of words. I say, so is a long road.

Soup is on. Orrin is eating. He is not saying much.

Nim
%%
Board: road news and the inn tally
The Long Road, Frost 176
The road is open both ways. The stream bridge past the second waymark is mended with oak until spring, so go slow with a full cart. Ice in the ruts after dark.
Torches on the posts every twelve blocks. If one is out, tell the inn and we will fix it. If three are out in a row, tell us twice.
The riddle board by the hearth has a new riddle. The old one was answered by a child from Three Wells in one evening. She would not say how.
Beds at the Halfway Inn: twelve. Taken tonight: nine. Two are kept for the relay keepers, who come and go at strange hours and should not be woken.
Lost this month: one brown dog called Nip (found, asleep in the wood store, do not ask). One glove, left. One glove, right, found. They do not match, but they are friends now.
Found: a tin whistle, a red scarf, a sack of turnips nobody will claim, and a small boot.
Soup is beetroot until the carrots come up. Bread is fresh at dawn and gone by noon.
Fen, keeper
%%
Notice: results from the small mind
Written after the test, by Fen, with Nessa's account checked.

The small crystal sorted the new basket in the teaching room. It put the apples in one tray, the carrots in another, and the beetroot in the last. It made one mistake. One apple went with the carrots.

The larger mind sorted the same basket with no mistake. Nessa says this is one test, not a rule for every day. Both minds learned from many examples. Neither mind had seen this basket before.

The smaller crystal has weights written in fewer marks. That lets it fit in a small apprentice. Some detail is lost when the weights are shortened, so a little skill may be lost too. It is not a new way of teaching. It is a way to save room.

Fen asked if a small crystal can be made larger again by putting more marks back. Nessa said that would not put lost skill back by itself. The mind would need more good drills, and then another fair test.

The apprentices watched without calling out. The cat watched from under the bench and stole no fruit. It did not stay under the bench when the room emptied.

Please return all trays to the tutor's house. Do not leave fruit by the drill boards. The fox is still near Fen's hens.
%%
Notice: fair and crystal maps
The summer fair opens by the well after the wheat carts have passed. The beetroot stall will stand beside Tam's table. The miller will sell flour if the wheel is turning by then.
At the tutor stall, Ila will show a drawing of marks seen inside a mind crystal. She watched one small part change while the mind learned to sort wheat and beetroot. Then she followed changes made by a wrong answer through several parts of the crystal.
Each part passes some blame back to the part before it. This lets the whole mind learn from mistakes that a single, simple crystal could not manage. The mind still has to be drilled and tested. A drawing of its marks is not the same as knowing all that happens inside it.
Ila says some marks seem to help with sorting. Other marks seem to help with remembering the drill. She is careful to say seem. She can show when marks change, but not explain every mark or why the crystal learns at all.
There will be no touching the tutor's crystal. Children may ask questions after the flour count. One question each, and no asking whether a mind dreams. Ila says she does not know.
%%
Notice: a gift from Vell
Pinned to the board at Three Wells. Thaw of 201, after the water went down. By Merle, healer, because the mayor says she writes a clearer hand.

Last night a cart came down from Vell with a long crate. In the crate was a gift for Three Wells, from the tutors: an apprentice, made of copper and iron. Its mind came from a bigger mind, written out again in fewer marks, so that it fits the small crystal in its chest. The tutors say it is a little slower than the big mind it came from, and as good at the work they have tested.
Its name is Jug. Dace named it. Dace says it is because it carries things and is expected to be quiet.
Jug will clear the mud from the low street. Please do not give it bread.
%%
Notice: the winter road, closed and open
The road to Vell is closed at the bottom of the hill, where the snow has drifted over the first waymark. It will be open again when the drifts are cut down, which the carters say will be before Longnight, and the mayor says will be after. Please believe the carters.

The road to the north is open, as far as the second bridge. Beyond the bridge, the ice is thin, and the cart must be led across by hand. Walk the horse. Do not walk the cart. Do not walk anything that cannot be carried.

The road to Copperhold is open, all the way up the stair. The stair is clear of ice, because the miners cleared it themselves at dawn, with shovels and a great deal of swearing. The lamps on the stair are lit at dusk, and the lamp-keeper asks that you come up with your own light, in case the lamp goes out.

Anyone who needs help getting to the inn at the crossroads may ring the bell at the post. The bell is answered by whoever is nearest, and that is usually Ivo, who has a cart, and who will not ask for an emerald, because he has none to spare this week.

Ivo, trader, for the hamlet board.
%%
Warning: the marsh post lamp is broken
Pinned on the healing house door, and on the post by the reed beds. Put up by Wren, and by Teague the boatman, who says he will not go past the post until someone does something about it.

The relay lamp on the marsh post is broken. A gust in the night took the top glass out, and the copper ring is bent. Nobody has been up the post yet. Do not climb it. The stair on the post is wet, and the rungs are green with slime. Two boys went up it on the first day, and one of them is still complaining about his hands.

The first keepers of the marsh put the lamp up when the Long Road came through. It has been lit every dusk for as long as anyone can remember, until this week.

Until the lamp is mended, the marsh has no relay. Messages for the healing house come by boat from Ambrook now. In a good wind that takes two days. The small minds for the fields come the same way, in their crystals, wrapped in wool. They are waiting at Ambrook. They are safe, and they are not going anywhere.

Teague will mend the lamp when the wind drops. He says so every morning. Please do not ask him about it before he has had his breakfast.

The keepers at Ambrook and Three Wells know we are dark. They are watching for our lamp, and they have sent word that they miss it. Wren has said the marsh misses them too.
%%
Winter rules at the harbor house
Written by Corin, to be read aloud on the first night of snow, and again whenever someone forgets. Pinned inside the door of the house at the edge of Saltreach, next to the hooks.
These rules are not many. Winter is long, and long rules are forgotten by the third week.
The door. Shut it. Behind you. The wind off the sea has no manners and will come in if asked. If the door is open for a count of ten, the stove loses a quarter of its heat. Corin counted.
The stove. Feed it with wood from the pile by the north wall, never the pile by the south wall. The south pile is boat oak. Leave it. If you are not sure which pile you are at, smell it: oak smells sweet, pine smells sharp, and driftwood smells of the sea and smokes.
The hooks. Wet coats go on the high hooks by the stove. Dry coats go on the low hooks by the door. If a coat is on the wrong hook, it will be wet by morning and the owner will say words.
The lamp. There is one lamp in the window facing the harbor. It is lit at dusk and kept lit until the last boat is in. In the long winter there are no boats, but we light it anyway. It is polite to the sea.
The pot. There is always a pot of fish soup on the back of the stove. Anyone may eat from it. Anyone who eats from it must add something: a potato, a beetroot, a handful of barley, a fish if they have one. Last week someone added a boot. We found it. We took it out. We are still not sure who.
The cat. The cat belongs to no one and sleeps where it likes. It likes the warmest chair. It has decided the chair is its own. The chair is Corin's. Corin has decided to stand.
The helper. A new helper came from Vell this winter. It sleeps in the shed by the slip and comes in for orders. It does not eat soup. Please do not offer it soup. It has tried to carry a bowl and it was a mess.
Quiet hours. After the second bell, talk softly. Some of us are asleep by then. Some of us are pretending.
Last, the oldest rule, which Corin's mother wrote on the wall in charcoal and which has been written over every winter since: Be kind to whoever comes to the door. It may be a neighbor. It may be the sea. Either way, give them soup.
Corin, in the winter of 188
%%
Notice: wood for the houses, Frost
Notice of the council of Three Wells, the first day of Longnight.
Wood is short this winter. The woodpile at the east well is half of what it was in Blossom. The council has counted the houses and the mouths in them. The share is set as follows.
Each house may take wood for two fires a day, and one fire at night. A house with a child under five may take a third fire at dusk. It must write the third fire in the book by the woodpile.
A house with an old person who cannot leave the bed may take wood for three fires. Ask at the mayor's house for the paper. Bring the names of the people who live in the house, and no others.
The wood is to be cut and stacked by the people who take it. A stack that falls down will be stacked again by the same people. The mayor will not stack it for you, though he would like to.
Nobody may cut the trees along the Long Road, which are needed for the waymarks and for the shade. Nobody may cut the oak at the school gate, which is for the children to climb. It is not for the fire.
Anybody who takes more than their share will be asked to explain it at the council table. The table is small. The explanation must be short. Everybody will hear it.
The school keeps its own book for its own wood. Hollis will show it to anyone who asks politely, and to nobody who asks loudly.
Those who give wood to a house in need should write their name in the book beside the gift. This is not to show off. It is so the next council can count.
The count is by house and by mouth. Nothing else counts. Shouting does not count, though it is loud.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: lesson and test
The teaching room is open to visitors at second light. Please enter quietly. The apprentices are in their row, and Nessa is giving a lesson on small crystals.

A mind has weights that guide its answers. The weights can be written using fewer marks. Then the same mind takes less room in its crystal. The saved room is useful when a small apprentice must carry its mind with it. There can be a cost. The shorter writing can make the mind a little less exact.

This is not the same as giving the mind fewer drills. The tutors use the same farm examples, and they keep spoiled pages out. They also keep a test box of pages no mind is drilled on. Today the small mind will sort carrots and apples from that box.

Do not help it by pointing. Do not tell it the answer after each fruit. A fair test shows what the mind can do by itself.

Fen has brought a basket from his plot. It contains apples, carrots, and a few beetroot. He says the beetroot were added because they looked lonely. Nessa says a test basket must be counted first. Fen says he counted them before adding the beetroot.

The cat has entered the teaching room again. It will not stay out, even when the door is shut. The tutor's house keeper will carry it to the hall after the test. No one is to put it in the dry box with the spare crystals.

The test begins when the bell is rung. The results will be written here tonight.
%%
Market record, summer fair
The fair at Northpoint opened under clear skies. Mave baked three trays of small loaves and sold all but two. She kept the last two for the lamp keepers, who had worked through the night. The horse borrowed from the relay house carried flour to the stall and then stood by the well. It did not eat another loaf.

Una of Ambrook brought her sorting crystal in a wooden case. It had learned with apples and pears. The tutors had shown it many examples, and after each wrong choice Una moved each weight a little toward the right answer. The crystal learned slowly. By the end of the lessons, it sorted better than the children who had helped with the fruit.

At the fair, the tutors put out fruit the crystal had not been shown. They kept the answer in a closed book. The crystal sorted most of it correctly. It sent one pear to the apple basket and one bruised apple to the pear basket. The children laughed at the second mistake, but Una told them not to laugh at a learner.

The tutors wrote down the choices. Then they showed the crystal the right baskets. Una changed its weights a little after each mistake. She said the point was not to punish a wrong answer. The point was to make the next answer better.

A child asked whether the crystal knew that apples were apples. Una said the crystal knew the marks it had learned from. She did not say what else it knew. The tutors wrote that answer in the fair book.

At noon, the north lamp blinked once, then three times, then once again. Lantern checked the line and found no message in the relay book. We moved the sorting table away from the tower path. A fox was seen near the lower switch, but no one saw it touch anything.

Mave sold the two saved loaves to a traveler. The traveler promised to bring the plates back. Mave wrote down the promise, but did not put it in the fair book.
%%
Notice: the road north is closed
Posted by Dace, mayor, at the north gate and on the board in the square. Spring, the week after the thaw.

The north road is closed from the Three Wells gate as far as the second waymark. The storm took the plank bridge over the stream, and the ditch beside the road is full to the brim. Carts cannot pass. Walkers can, if they are careful and do not mind wet boots.

What we know: the bridge is gone. Pell's cart was on the far side when it fell. Pell is safe. He is at the Brown Hen with his horse and his ledger, writing letters he cannot send.

What we do not know: how long the repair will take. Brann at the Vell tower sent word by lamp that the keepers on the north line are busy. Some say the lamp at the third tower has been dark since the storm. Some say it is only a broken pane. Some say the keeper has gone to her sister. I have written to the tower to ask. No reply yet.

What we will do: the diggers and the carpenters will go out on the third morning. Bring tools if you have them. The inn will send out a pot of soup and bread at noon.

Please do not try the old stone ford. It has been bad since the autumn, and it is deeper than it was.

Travelers wishing to go north should wait at the inn. Travelers wishing to go south, go south.

Dace
%%
Notice: the boat that came in late
Posted on the board at the boat houses, Lowmarsh. Summer. By Wren the healer, after a night of waiting. She asks that it be read aloud at the weir.
Last night Brack's boat did not come back at dusk. A mist came over the marsh, thick as wool, and the lamps could not be seen. He was out in the reeds, and he could not find the channel.
We lit every torch on the boardwalk. We banged pots at the end of the pier. Kit's boy ran from house to house. By midnight there were forty of us on the boards, and nobody slept.
At dawn the mist lifted a little and we heard him. He was singing. He is not a good singer, but he never sounded better. He poled in through the reeds with a basket of eels and a face as red as a beet. He said he had not been lost. He said he had been waiting for the mist to go.
Nobody believed him. We gave him broth.
So that this does not happen again:
1. Every boat going out at dusk must carry a lantern and a horn.
2. Every household on the boardwalk must keep a torch lit at the door after the sun goes down.
3. If a boat is late, the first to notice rings the bell at the weir. Three rings mean a boat is missing. Anyone who hears the bell lights a torch.
4. A boat that is lost must stay where it is and sound the horn. Do not pole about in the dark. The marsh is wide, and it is very patient.
5. If a boat is not back by dawn, send for me. I will bring blankets and broth.
Thank you to everyone who stood on the boards. I counted forty-three of you. Brack counts forty-four, since he counts the dog.
Wren
%%
Notice: the winter fair at the Brown Hen
Posted on the Long Road at every waymark between Three Wells and Vell, in the middle of Longnight. Written out in a fair hand by Nim's granddaughter, who is eleven and wants it known.

WINTER FAIR AT THE BROWN HEN
On the last day of Longnight, from the noon bell until the lamps.
Everyone who walks the Long Road is welcome, and everyone who lives beside it. Bring a cup.

The stew. Three pots, filled three times. Nim says it will be beetroot and potato with rabbit. His granddaughter says it will be carrot. They have not agreed.

The prizes.
Best hat: a ribbon and a cup of warm cider. Last year it was won by a goose, who ate the ribbon.
Warmest mittens: a pair of wool socks. Knitted by Ida, who does not like to see a cold foot.
Longest scarf: a cake. The scarf must be worn by the owner, in one piece, and not wound round a dog.
Best story from the road: a bowl of soup, and a bed for the night, free. Nim is the judge. Nim will fall asleep during the stories. The prize goes to the one who is still awake when he wakes.
Biggest pot: a lantern. This is for the biggest cooking pot, brought from home and filled with something good. Garth the potter has said he will enter. We have asked him not to bring the cart.

The games.
Pass the hot potato. Stack the logs. Tell the lie. In the last one, a person tells a story and everyone guesses if it is true. Nim cannot play. He believes everything.

The music. Any who can play, play. Any who cannot may clap. Please do not try to sing the song about the cat. We all know the cat.

The end. At the lamps, we light the waymark outside with a big torch, so that anyone still on the road can see where to come in.

If it snows, we will have it indoors. If it does not snow, we will have it anyway.

Nim, the Brown Hen
%%
Notice: the market
A notice for everyone who has ever asked Jem what happened in Three Wells this summer. It was pinned on the north well, between the notice from the mayor about the drains and the notice from the baker about the price of flour. Jem has written it out fair, so that people will stop asking, and will have something to read while they wait for their bread.

The market was very busy this week. The stalls at the east well sold out of fish before the bell. The stalls at the south well sold out of honey before the fish. The copper cart from Copperhold came in late, because a wheel fell off on the Long Road, and the carter said the wheel had jumped.

The bet at the east well was won by Pim. He carried a full bucket from the well to the school door, with Kit calling the steps. Kit called three hundred and twelve steps. Pim did not spill a drop, but the bucket was half empty when it arrived, because Pim had drunk some of it on the way, and Kit said that did not count. The mayor said it did count, because Pim had carried it, and that the drink was a fair part of the job. So Kit paid for the pie, and Pim ate half of it on the school step, and the rest went to the cat.

The cat has been found on the school roof, on the bakery shelf, and on the notice board. She was found in the bell tower, which is a small tower with no bell in it, sitting very still. Nobody knows how she got in. The school has put a rope over the door, so that she cannot climb up again. She has not yet tried to climb the rope.

The bell was rung twice this week. Once for the market, and once when the school children all ran out to see the wheel come off the copper cart. The mayor says the bell is only to call people in from the fields, and that it should not be rung for carts. The children say it should be rung for anything that makes them run.

The baker has asked everyone to stop feeding the cat on the bread. The cat has asked the baker to stop asking. They have not yet reached an agreement.

Next week there will be a fair. Look for the notice at the north well.
%%
Notice: the road, snow, and the long way
Hollis, weaver, to everyone going east from the inn.
The short road is under snow to the knee. The long road goes by the old mill and the stone bridge and adds half a day. Take the long road. I tried the short one. I have the boots to prove it, and they are still wet.
Waymark 4 is easy to find. Waymark 5 is under a drift. Dig where the torch should be. It is not under the torch. It is under the drift beside the torch.
If you meet a cart stuck on the road, help it. If you meet a cart stuck on the road, and an apprentice is pulling it, do not praise the apprentice too loudly. It cannot hear you over the cart, and the driver is already proud enough.
Pack bread, a blanket and a rope. The rope is for the cart. The blanket is for you. The bread is for whoever is standing nearest.
Torches are lit at every twelfth block. If one is out, light it. That is the whole rule of the road.
Hollis, at the Brown Hen, winter of 202
%%
Notice: how the tutor explained
Posted on the Pearmain board after the apprentice at the pump was sent home. By Brey, with notes by Tam of Kettle Ridge, who was in the barn that night.

The tutor from Ambrook came to the barn after dark and spoke for a long time. Several people asked me to write down what she said, so that the next time an apprentice stands at a pump, we will know.

She said a mind in a crystal does not know words the way we know them. When we hear "stay," we think of a hundred things. A dog waiting. A child told to wait at a door. A man staying for supper. The apprentice has none of that. For the apprentice, "stay" is a place.

She drew it on the barn floor with chalk. A big square, empty. She put a dot in it and wrote "stay." Then she put another dot a little way off and wrote "wait." Then a dot for "remain" beside it. Then, far over by the wall, a dot for "come" and one for "home," and across the room a dot for "bread."

"The mind keeps every word as a place," she said. "When it has been drilled enough, words that people use alike sit near each other. Stay, wait and remain are close, because we say them in the same sort of sentence. Come and home are further off. Bread is far away from all of them. The mind does not know what the words mean. It knows where they sit."

Someone asked how that helps the apprentice at the pump.

She said that when Brey said "stay," the mind went to that place and did what is done there. But the place was a big one. It did not tell the mind how long. So it stayed.

Someone else asked what to do next time. She said: be careful which word you say, because a word is not a thing but a place, and the place has neighbors. Say "stay until noon." Say "stay here, then come." A longer order gives the mind a better place to stand.

Pump went home at noon the next day with Brey's boy, who said "home" three times, loudly. The pump is still frozen. The tutor says that is nobody's mind but the weather's.
%%
Notice: how the letter test is run
Put up at the board by the well, the same spring. The tutor asks that every household read it aloud at supper.

The test is simple to say and hard to do.

1. Two letters are written in answer to the same questions. One is written by a person. One is written by a hidden mind.
2. The questions are plain. What is the best thing about rain? What would you do with a sack of emeralds?
3. The letters are copied out by a clerk, so that the hand cannot give anything away.
4. The readers are given both letters and asked which one is the person.
5. If the readers cannot tell, the tutors will ask what that means.

The tutors do not agree on what it means. That is the point of the test. Come and help us disagree.
%%
Found: a small crystal in a cloth bag
Found on the boardwalk by the boat houses, near the third post. A small crystal in a cloth bag, the size of a plum, tied with blue thread. It has a mind in it, written in fewer marks. The tag says so.

Do not open the bag, and do not take the crystal out to look. Keep it dry and in the shade. A crystal does not like to be carried about.

Bring it to the healing house and ask for Wren. Wren will know where it belongs. Whoever lost it, come to the house and say so. The tutor at Vell has been told it was lost, and she has not been angry. She has been very quiet, which is worse.
%%
Notice: the winter song book
Pearmain, winter of 188. A notice from the people who run the barn on song nights.

We have started a song book. It lives on the shelf by the barn door, and anyone may add to it. We ask that you write the words clearly, with the tune in the margin if you know it. The first song in the book is "Ten red apples." Someone has already added a verse about a fox. We have decided to allow it.

Last winter's contest was a good one. The winner was young Fern, with a song about her grandmother's goat. The goat is called Lady and she bit the judge. It was not Tam. It was a judge from Three Wells. He has not been back. We did not mind.

Some of the songs were very close to each other. Two were about the Long Road. Three were about apples. Four had the word "home." The tutor who visited in autumn says this is how a mind sees words, too. It does not keep each word on its own. It puts words that go together into the same corner, like songs on a shelf. Apple sits near pear. Road sits near inn. Home sits near door. She said that if she took a mind and asked it to find the words nearest "apple," it would find "pear," "cider," "tree," and "pie," before it found "boat" or "copper."

We think that is a good way to keep a song book. We have started to shelve the songs by what they sound like, not by who sang them. Songs about water on the left. Songs about roads in the middle. Songs about animals by the window, because the animals asked.

Next contest, the last day of Frost. Same rules as last year. The goat is not invited.
%%
Notice: on fewer marks, from Vell
Copied out by Wren from the notice of the Vell tutor house, and sent round the marsh by boat. The tutors ask that every healer and every keeper read it once.

A mind keeps its weights as marks. A mark is one small piece of a number. The old way kept each weight in many marks, and a big crystal was needed to hold them all. Now the tutors can write each weight in fewer marks. The weight is rougher. It is less exact than before. The mind still drills well, and it fits in a crystal the size of a plum.

This is the cost, and the tutors say it is small. A mind written in fewer marks may be a little less sure on a hard order. On an easy order it is just as right. On the hardest orders it may need one more drill to get there.

So the fields will have small minds. The big minds in the relay houses keep the full marks, for now. A small mind is not sent to do anything it has not been tested on. Every one is tested on an unseen drill, as always.

Nobody has yet said why the small minds work as well as they do. The tutors have not found out. They only know that they do.
%%
Board outside Odo's house
Spring of 207. This board is for the fair, the road, and the names people keep arguing about.

The fair begins when the sun reaches the mill wheel. The stalls must leave a clear lane from the road to the house. Keep bees away from the candle wax. Keep children away from the hot pot. Odo will sell candles at the west door and soup at the east door. Last year those signs were reversed, and the soup was cold before anyone found it.

The harvest is poor. The apple trees have few blossoms, and the field beds have given less than we hoped. Bring what you can spare. The market table will take bread, potatoes, carrots, honey, and wool. No one should be turned away for lack of emeralds.

Nessa will bring a small apprentice from Vell. She will give it an order in a whole sentence, then watch what it does. The mind has learned from drills. It has seen examples, tried answers, and changed a little when it was wrong. It has not learned by magic, and it has not learned from one card alone.

The small mind can answer with one of eight meanings. It may farm, store, fetch an item, come, stay, build, haul, or go home. It cannot say that it does not know. That is why every mind must be tested on work it has not practiced before. Never send an untested mind to the fields.

A big mind at a relay house can write back through the relays. A small mind in an apprentice cannot. Please do not ask the fair apprentice to write your name. It has no such order.

We will also read the three accounts of the first whole-sentence order. Copperhold says Clank did it. Kettle Ridge says Pip did it. Peg's account says the first was at the fair. Nessa remembers one in the Vell drill room in her youth. We have found no page that settles the matter.

At dusk, the lamp by the old house blinked once, then four times, then once again. Odo checked its glass and the redstone line. Both looked sound. Lantern at Northpoint has not sent a note about it. Do not add a meaning to the blink until a keeper has checked it.
%%
Notice: the big ships at Saltreach
Posted on the board at Three Wells, by the east well, in the hand of Dace the mayor, copied out from a letter from Corin at Saltreach. Autumn.
To all on the Long Road:
The shipyard at Saltreach is building big ships now. Three times as long as any boat we know. They are for families who wish to go over the sea.
Corin the shipwright asks that we say this plainly, and we will. Nobody knows what is across the water. Corin does not know. The people leaving do not know. They go anyway.
The first big ship went out at dawn two days past. It had forty families on it. It went north along the coast and then out, and the fog took it, and that is all we can say.
If you have kin at Saltreach who mean to go, go and say your goodbyes now. Do not wait for spring. Ships do not wait for spring.
The price of passage is what a family has. Corin takes what they have and no more. He is not getting rich. He looks tired.
Rumor says the ships go because of the cough at Lowmarsh. Rumor says the cough came from the ships. Both are said. Neither is known.
The relay tower above the harbor still works. Letters still come. Send them through Vell as before.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: the lamp and the strange blink
Posted on the board at the Northpoint tower, in Longday, by Wynn, grandfather, who keeps the board because nobody else would keep it straight.
On the fifth night of the month the lamp on the tower blinked a message that nobody could read. It went long, then short, then long again, and then it stopped in the middle of a word.
The keeper says it was the wind on the shutter. The shutter was loose and knocking against the lamp housing, and the blinks were the knocks.Please report what you saw, not what you think. A report says: the lamp blinked three times at the second bell. A thought says: the lamp was angry. The board takes reports.
Wynn, grandfather
%%
Notice: the mill wheel is broken
The big sail of the mill on the ridge broke in the wind on the night of the fourth of Reaping. It snapped at the hub, and the great wheel stopped turning for the first time in forty years. Nobody was hurt. The mill keeper says the sail went very quietly, the way a tired old horse goes down.

Until the wheel turns again, there is no flour from the mill. The bakers have what they bought in Sowing, and that will last until the first of Apple, if they are careful. After that the market will need flour from Ambrook, at the Ambrook price, which everyone agrees is too high.

The mill keeper asks for three things. First, oak, for a new sail, from any farm with a good tree it can spare. Second, rope, the thick kind, for lifting. Third, two carpenters, if the town can find them. The mayor's men have written to Three Wells, and the answer came back by the post cart: the carpenters are busy until Melon.

The apprentices at the tower can carry the oak and lift the rope, and they will do it without complaint, as long as somebody who knows the pattern is standing near. They cannot work out the joint by themselves. The mill keeper says they will need a drawing, and the drawing needs a carpenter.

Please do not climb the mill without the rope. The old ladder is rotten at the third rung, and the mill keeper has told everyone who will listen. He has told it to the mayor twice.

Until the sail is mended, the windmill will not squeak on its turns. Some of us will miss the squeak. The children say the mill has gone quiet to sulk, and they have asked it to come back. We have written their request on this board. The mill has not answered.

Posted by the mill keeper, and by the clerk of the market, for the people of Kettle Ridge.
%%
Notice: The Map by the East Well
Three Wells square, winter of the 86th year. Written by Fallon.
The old map from Vell will be on the school table until the last fair stall is packed.
It shows a small room near the first shelves of the Archive. Four helpers stand in a row on the drawing. Their bodies are marked copper and iron. Beside each is a crystal, with a line to its head.
The children call them apprentices. So the old note says. The first tutors showed each crystal many examples. They repeated one kind of drill until its helper could do one job. A helper carried a row, or sorted a heap. It did not choose a new job by itself.
There were only four at first. For many years, most towns had none. The map has a dark mark beside one helper, but the paper is worn there. We do not know what the mark meant.
A crystal learned from what it was shown. The old tutors wrote that down. They did not write why. Fallon will answer questions about the map, but not that one.
%%
Rules for the gate house board
Kept by the gate house household, at the edge of Vell. Read them all, then obey them, or at least pretend.

1. One notice to one pin. Do not pin over someone else's notice. Last winter a notice about honey was covered by one about hens, and the bees have not forgiven us.

2. Do not pin a goat. We have had one. It ate the rules.

3. Sign your notice at the bottom. If you do not sign it, we will assume it was the goat.

4. Take your notice down when the thing is done. A notice about a lost dog that was found in spring is not a notice any more. It is a sad joke.

5. Do not hang anything from the bell rope. The rope is for the bell, and the bell is for the market and the clerks.

6. No shouting after the bell. The clerks come down the hill to read, and they hear everything.

7. Bring your own ink. The ink jar on the gate post is for the clerks of Vell, not for the children of Vell, and it is not for drawing on the post.

Ask for Madge at the gate. Madge does not answer to the mayor. The mayor knows this, and sends her regards.
%%
Notice: Poor Harvest and Old Map
Three Wells school house board. Winter of the 58th year.
The wheat harvest was poor this year. The north field gave little grain, and frost spoiled some beetroot. The baker will sell small loaves until spring. Bring clean jars for soup at the east well.
During the market, Fallon from the Archive will show an old map of Vell. It marks the first tutor room and four places for helpers. The map is worn at the folds. Please do not lay it near the well.
The four helpers were made of copper and iron. Each had a mind held in a crystal. The tutors drilled each one with examples. A helper might learn to carry a row, or sort things into piles.
The crystal learned from what it was shown. No old record tells why. The first tutors left their drills, but not the answer to that question.
%%
Notice: rules for the market square
The market square at Copperhold is old and busy. These are the rules.
1. A stall is one table and one awning. A cart is not a stall, even with a hat on it.
2. Stalls face the wells. Do not turn your back to the square and sell to the wall.
3. Prices are written on a board, in clear numbers, where folk can read them.
4. No shouting before the bell. After the bell, shout as you like.
5. The well water is for everyone. Leave the buckets where you found them.
6. Apprentices fetching for a stall wait at the edge, out of the walking.
7. Broken crates and spoiled goods go to the sorting shed bins, not to the square.
8. If you find a thing, take it to the notice board. If it is yours, prove it.
9. The gate shuts at dusk. The torches round it are kept lit by the gatehouse.
10. Fights go to the mine hall. The mayor will hear them with a cup of tea.
The board is for notices. Ask Dell, or leave a note under his door by the forge.
The town council, Copperhold
%%
Notice: the north road and the night
Hamlet board, Copperhold. Spring, 205.
Road news: the north road to the hamlet is mended to the second bridge. The third bridge is out. Go by the low path and the ford. The water is up to the axle. Bring help.
The relay house at the foot of the tower has a big mind now. It answers our apprentices through the relay. Ask it where the tools are. It knows. It is right more often than I am.
New apprentice in the hamlet this spring. It sorts the ore bins. It is slow. It puts the coal with the copper. We are drilling it. Be patient with it and do not shout. It does not hear shouting. It hears drills.
Keep the torches lit. Keep the fields until we come back.
Hesk
%%
Notice: Winter Fair at Three Wells
Three Wells notice board, winter of the 73rd year.
The winter fair will be held in the square when the road is clear. Bring apples, wool, jars of honey and warm bread. The school children will sing by the east well. Keep the center path open for carts.
Fallon of the Archive will bring an old map from Vell. It shows the first tutor room, with four marks for four helpers. The map was found folded inside a board. Its maker did not write a name.
The first tutors made the helpers from copper and iron. Each had a mind in a crystal. They showed each mind examples, again and again, until it could do its one task. One could carry a row. Another could sort.
People say a crystal learned from what it was shown. The first notes say this too. They do not say why it learned. Please do not add answers to the map.
%%
Lost: an old map
Found in the boat house, under the spare oar: an old map of Lowmarsh and the road to Three Wells.
The map shows the reed beds before the west boardwalk was built. It marks the fish weir, Wren's healing house, and a pond that has been mud for many years.
The paper is soft at the folds. Please do not spread it in the rain.
If this map belongs to you, tell Piper at the relay house. Say what is drawn beside the north post. The answer is a frog with a very large hat.
No, I did not draw the frog. It was already there.
%%
Market day, the third of Blossom
Sent up the Vell road by the mayor of Three Wells, to be pinned at the gate house, where the best board is.

The stalls go up round the three wells at first bell. Ama brings honey from Ambrook, in jars with her own labels, and she will tell you which is which if you ask twice. Ida and Hollis bring bread and pies, and they sell out by noon. The windmills on the ridge lost two sails in the gale, so there is less bread this week. Bring your own if you can. Potatoes keep, and so does patience.

The school puts on its show at midday, by the east well. Bel will read her essay about the long road. Please clap, even if the essay is about wheat.

The bell by the school door has a crack. It still rings, but it sounds like a cow with a cold, and the children like it best.

Rules for the day. Keep the carts off the square until the second bell. No dogs in the bakery, and that means yours too, Brin. Pay the stall keepers in emeralds, not in buttons. The children have enough buttons.

Stray hats, boots and song books will be kept at the mayor's house. The lost ones from last fair are still there. Come and count them, and see if one is yours.

The lamp by the east well needs a new glass. The mayor has asked three times, so let it be known that she has asked.

See you at the wells. Dace, at the mayor's house, Three Wells.
%%
Notice: North yard lesson

Vell, Frost, 181.

The tutors will give a lesson in the north yard when the snow stops. Keep the gate shut until the bell. The sheep have been eating the lesson cards.

A furnace mind will tend a small copper melt. It has no answer card for every change in the fire. It tries small changes and reads the heat marks. When a change keeps the melt near the mark, the mind is more likely to make that change again. When the melt moves away, it tries another way. It is not guessing at random forever. It learns from what happens after each choice.

The boat mind learned in the same plain way. It tried turns while holding a course. The frame mind tried small movements while keeping a beam level. A tutor watched the work and kept a record of what helped.

These minds do not begin knowing the work. They are tried in a safe place first. A wrong turn in a pond is better than a wrong turn with a loaded cart. Never send an untested mind to the fields.

Odo asks the tutors to cover his wool baskets before the lesson. Last winter, a tutor set a warm pot on one. The wool did not burn, but it smelled like a wet sheep for three days.
%%
Notice: things found in the square
Found on the market day, and left on the board by the north well, for the owners to come and claim:
One pair of wool gloves, red, with a hole in the left thumb. Found by the bell.
One wooden spoon, carved with a fox. Found in the south well, which Dace says is a sort of insult to the well.
One lamp, brass, with its glass still whole. Found on the bench at the bakery. The baker says it is not hers, and she is sure of it, because she has enough lamps.
One song book, with a torn cover and six pages in the middle missing. Found by a pumpkin.
One sack of barley, not full. Found by the carter, who did not want it.
One small boot, left foot. Found on the Long Road by the Brown Hen, where it was waiting for the right foot.
Anyone who has lost any of these may come to the board and say so. Say what it looked like before it was lost. The mayor will ask.
The board thanks everyone who put things back where they belong, especially the apprentices, who put everything in a neat row.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Letter: Wren to Mira, with a parcel
Wren of Lowmarsh to Mira of Northpoint. Greetings from the marsh.

Dear Mira.

This letter goes up the north line with the parcel. I hope it does not sit at every tower on the way, but I know it will, and I know the keepers will read my name and pass it on, and that is fine.

The parcel has a jar in it. It is marsh honey, from the hives at the edge of the reeds. It tastes of flowers and wet grass. You will say you did not want it. You will say it is a long way to send a jar. Send it anyway, I say. The bees made a lot this year. The jar is small. It will not break. It is wrapped in my own wool, so do not throw the wool away. You can use it.

Also in the parcel: a reed mat for your door. The snow blows under the north door and the mat helps. I have put a mark on one corner. That is the top. It is not a good mat. It is a good enough mat. The frogs on it are not real frogs. They are drawn. A child drew them. The child is called Bel and lives at Three Wells and asked me a question about honey that I have still not answered.

The apprentice is well. Moss has learned the meaning fetch and the meaning stay. Moss can carry a full basket of reeds from the weir to the shed without dropping any, which is more than the rest of us can do. I tested Moss on it in the rain. Moss did not mind the rain. I did.

The first snow came early. It is gone now. The marsh is wet and grey and quiet. The frogs are under the mud. The boats are in. The market is in Apple and there will be honey and a raffle and a hen.

Keep your tower warm. Tell the foxes I said hello. They will not care.

Wren. The last day of Leaffall.
%%
Notice: a poor harvest
Notice from the board at Ambrook. Autumn. Written by Jory, miller, and read at the mill for two days.
The apples are poor this year. There are fewer, and the ones we have are small. The oldest tree has a hundred apples where it had five hundred. The cold spring took the blossom, and the wet summer took the rest.
This is what the mill will do.
1. Grain is ground in the order it comes. That does not change. The poor year does not make Pell first.
2. The mill will take half the usual price for flour until the thaw. I have enough saved. Do not argue with me.
3. Cider will be made from the small apples. It will be sour. We will call it sharp.
4. The apple pickers are paid in full, even for the days with nothing to pick. They came. They climbed. That counts.
5. The bees have less honey. Ama says take less, and she is right. Do not ask her for more.
6. Everyone has a share of the winter store. The store is in the cellar of the mill and the cellar has a lock. The key hangs on the gate, and there is no reason to hide it. Nobody here will take more than their share.
A poor harvest is a hard thing, but it is not the end of anything. Next spring the trees will bloom again. Next autumn there will be more. We have had bad years before, and the oldest tree has outlived all of them.
If you are short of bread before the thaw, come to the mill. Say so. There will be a bowl.
Jory, the mill, Ambrook
%%
Notice: the apprentice at the pump
Pearmain hamlet, winter of 195. On the post by the pump.
To everyone who has been to the pump this week:
The apprentice that Brey's family borrowed from Ambrook is not broken. It is not stuck. It is not frozen. It is standing at the pump because Brey said "stay" and did not say for how long.
It has been there since the third day of the month. It stands with a bucket in its hands. The pump is frozen, so the bucket is empty. It does not mind.
We have tried walking it home. It stays. We have tried "come." It stays. We have tried explaining. It stays. Brey says he will go and get Nessa's old trick: give the order "home." Brey has gone to ask the Ambrook tutor how.
Until then, please walk round the apprentice. Do not lean on it. Do not hang washing on it. Do not put a hat on it, however funny.
If you need water, the Ambrook well is half an hour's walk, and nobody at Pearmain will think less of you for going.
The little ones have given the apprentice a name. It is Pump. We do not like it, but it is clear.
Written by Brey. Seen by Ama and Tam.
%%
Notice: road news and the north road
Posted at the Saltreach market, summer of 197, for travelers on the Long Road.
The coast road to Three Wells is open. The bridge over the Ambrook stream is mended with oak. Mind the loose plank, it is still loose. The stone bridge is not yet ready.
Waymarks: a stone pillar with a torch and a figure. If you see the figure 4, the Halfway Inn is a day on. If you see no figure, you are lost, turn back.
A fox at the hens again. The hens are fine. The fox is fine. Keep them shut at night and this is nothing.
Inns with beds: the Brown Hen, six left. The inn at Three Wells, four left.
Do not camp in the marsh. The frogs are loud and the ground is not ground.
A cart broke a wheel near the ridge. All goods safe. The driver says thank you to the folk who helped.
%%
Notice: a test for everyone, autumn
Put up by Wren at the boathouse yard, with the tutor's permission. The tutor from Vell will test two minds in the yard on the first day of Apple, at the first bell.

Anyone may come and watch. Anyone may vote. Bring a slate, and a stick of chalk, if you have them.

The two minds are called A and B. Both are given the same ten orders, one after another, the same way. Each order gets one answer, one of the eight words. Mind A is written in full marks, in a big crystal. Mind B is written in fewer marks, in a small one. Nobody is told which is which, not even the tutor, until the end.

Here are three of the ten orders. The rest will be read out on the day.
> the nets need mending
> the bread is in the cold room
> stand still by the gate until I come back

After each answer, write on your slate whether you think it came from A or from B. Write nothing else. Do not talk to the minds. Do not talk to the tutor about the minds. The tutor has asked for quiet, and she means it.

Orla asked a question long ago, with letters: if a reader cannot tell the mind from a person, what then? The tutors will not answer that on the day. They only want to see what the watchers choose.

After the tenth order, the cloths come off the crystals. Anyone who guessed all ten right may ask the tutor one question. Anyone who guessed wrong may ask one too. Nobody has to say which they were.

Mind B will be the one that needs one more drill on the hardest orders. Expect it to do well on the rest. What that means, each of us will have to decide for ourselves.
%%
Notice: Old Drill Box
Three Wells school board. Winter of the 31st year.
Found beside the east well: one small drill box, oak, with a cracked hinge.
Inside are four copper weights and a card marked Row.
The box is from Vell, says Fallon at the Archive. The first tutors kept such boxes for the four helpers.
Please take it to the school house. Do not put the weights in the well.
The children may look at the card after lessons.
%%
Notice: the Kettle Ridge autumn fair
By Garrow, for the fair committee, first of Apple, 178.
The autumn fair is on the tenth of Apple, in the yard by the big barn. All folk welcome.
Stalls open at first light. The bell at noon starts the contests.
Contests this year:
Biggest pumpkin. Prize: a honey cake and the blue ribbon.
Biggest melon. Last year Odo's melon took two of us to lift. Bring a cart.
Best scarecrow. Bring your own pumpkin head.
Fastest hen. The hens are not told about this one.
The windmill will turn for the dancing when the moon is up. Pip plays the pipe.
Soup and bread at the Kettle Inn all day. One coin a bowl.
To set up a stall, leave your name at the inn by the eighth. No stalls on the ridge road itself.
The geese are not part of the fair. If they come, say "hup".
%%
Notice: the fence between Hobb and Marl
Posted at the board in the square, Three Wells, the second week of Deepsnow.
Hobb and Marl have a fence between them. It is a good fence. It is also in the wrong place, or the right place, depending on who you ask.
Hobb says the fence is two steps too far north. Marl says Hobb's steps are small.
By order of the mayor: on the first dry day, both of them will meet at the fence with a rope, a stick and a neighbor. The neighbor is Sorrel. She has agreed, and she has a loud voice.
The rope will be measured. The stick will be stuck in the ground. Whoever is still cross after that will bring the quarrel to me, and I will bring it to the bakery, because nobody quarrels with a mouthful of warm bread.
Until then, no one moves a post, a stone or a goat.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Tutors' note: a map of a mind
From the tutor hall at Vell, autumn of the 214th year. Copied for the councils and the school at Three Wells.
In the late years we have learned to look inside a crystal. This note tells what we do and what we do not.
How we look.
We hold the crystal in a frame and pass a thin light through it. We read where the light is caught and where it passes.
By this we find which parts work when the mind answers, and which parts stay quiet.
We test the same page again and again, and watch which parts wake and which sleep.
This is slow. A big mind takes a season. Some crystals are too cloudy and we learn nothing.
What we have found.
Some of it. In a reading mind, the first part turns the letters into places among many. Words used alike sit close.
The middle parts carry a stream from the first to the last. Each adds what it found.
One part near the end chooses the next letter. It is the busiest part we know.
Another part keeps the numbers even, so they do not grow wild layer by layer. A mind without it goes strange, as Kester's note said long ago.
A part that is always quiet. We do not know its work. Some say it holds old drills. That is a rumor, not a finding.
What we have not found.
The rest. Why a crystal learns at all. Where the jokes of a mind are kept. Why an old one goes cloudy.
The map is a sketch, not a plan. We can point at parts. We cannot yet say how the parts make a whole that reads.
A warning.
Do not think a mind is only its parts. A town is not only its bakery and its well. What is between the parts, we cannot see, and we may never.
Never send an untested mind to the fields. Never trust an untested map either.
Signed, Nessa, tutor at Vell, for the hall.
Below: The school may copy this. Bel asked. She has a good hand. D.
%%
Notice: what the tutors found inside
Posted at the tutors' house at Vell, and copied to every hamlet board, for the people who asked at the looking-glass day, and for the people who will ask later.
A crystal of the new kind has many layers, one on top of another. Each layer takes what the layer below has found, and adds to it, and passes it on. A question goes in at the bottom. An answer comes out at the top. Between them is a stream, which runs through every layer, so that the deepest layer still knows what the first one saw.
The tutors looked inside. They lit the crystal, and asked it questions, and watched which places lit up. They found that some places hold words. Words used in the same way sit near one another, as we said. They found that some places keep the shape of a question, and some keep the shape of an answer.
They found a place that seems to keep what went well. When a layer helped the answer, the place near it grew a little brighter, and when a layer hurt the answer, it grew a little dimmer. This is the nearest thing to learning that the tutors can see. They do not yet know whether it is the whole of learning.
They have not found the rest. Most of the crystal is still dark to the lamp. The tutors do not know what the dark places do. Some say they are only spare room. Some say they are doing the work that cannot be lit. Nobody has shown that either is right.
So when you hear that the tutors know how a mind works, do not believe it entirely. They know some of it. They know where some of it sits. They know that the rest of it is there, because the answers come out right more often than the parts they can see could explain.
When you ask a tutor a question, expect the answer to say: we have found this part, and not that part. That is an honest answer. It is the one the house is proud to give.
The tutors' house, Vell
%%
Notice: the mill wheel and its rules
Posted at the mill door, the Sedge Hollow green, the healing house and the boat house, by the mill keeper with the agreement of the hamlet council. Autumn. Read the whole notice before you come to the mill. The millwright has read it, and he has asked me to say that he has.

Part one: the wheel. The big spoke on the north side of the wheel split in the flood, when the water came over the top of the race. The crack runs from the hub to the rim. The spoke must come out, and a new one must go in, cut from oak with the grain running straight.

The millwright from Copperhold came up the road last week with his cart, his two apprentices and his box of tools. He looked at the spoke for an hour, then he sat on the mill step and said nothing for a long time. Then he said the spoke was old, and that a new one would take twelve days to cut and fit. He asked the mill keeper to put the grain in the barn and wait.

The apprentices from Copperhold carried the old spoke down to the yard, one end each, and they did not drop it. They are good at weight. They are not good at jokes. When the mill keeper asked them if they were tired, one of them said nothing, and the other said yes, and both of them sat down on the step to wait for the new oak.

Part two: the grain. While the wheel is down, the hamlet will grind by hand, at the hand stone in the barn. The rule is two cups per family, per day, and the grinding is done in turn. Put your name on the slate by the stone. The slate is kept by the apprentice who is learning to sort grain, which has been told to count the names and to call out when the turn is done. It will call out clearly. It does not like to be asked to call out twice.

Part three: the dip. The mill pond is too low for the sheep dip until the rain comes back. Do not dip sheep at the mill. Dip them at the wash pool below the green, as the notice on the green says.

Part four: the children. Do not climb the wheel. Do not sit on the race. Do not lean on the sluice gate, which is the old one and has never been properly trusted. If you want to see the wheel turn, come back in the spring, when the new spoke is in and the water is high. The wheel sings when it is turning, and the children always want to know what the song is. It is only the wood, the mill keeper says. Wood sings when it is glad to be in use.

Part five: the new spoke. It will be fitted on the twelfth day of Frost, if the weather holds. The millwright says it will not be done in one day, and that the first person to say "that was quick" will be given the job of greasing the axle. The mill keeper has already decided who will say it. It is not a secret.

The mill keeper thanks the hamlet for its patience. The mill keeper also thanks the apprentices of Copperhold for carrying the old spoke, and asks that they be given a bowl of soup, which they have been told they may ask for.

Ila, mill keeper, for the council
%%
Notice: what the ridge thinks
Pinned to the board by the well at the end of the spring. Written as people said it, by the tutor's clerk, who asked each person for one line and was given several.

Tam: Of course it thinks. It has a pig pen to worry about.
Wenna: I will tell you what it thinks when I am dead, and not before, because I want a good answer.
Gil: If it cannot be told from a shepherd, then it is a shepherd, and it should be paid like one.
Ruth: The letters I liked best had the most mistakes in them. A mind that makes no mistakes is not one I would trust with the wheat.
The miller: It squeaks when it turns, like my mill. That is how you know it is working.
Wynn, cook at the Kettle Inn: It thinks about the soup, which is more than most of the ridge does.
Briar, grandfather: I am not sure the question is about minds at all. It may be about us, and how easily we are fooled by a neat hand.
Bel, of Three Wells, by letter: I think the question is worth keeping, even if the answer is not. I will keep my copy in my school box.
Two children, whose names are on the back: It thinks. It only does not tell you when it has stopped.

The tutor's clerk has also written down what the apprentice at the top farm did while the test was held. It did not speak, because it cannot. It sorted the copied letters by the weight of the paper, and put the heavy ones at the bottom. Nobody asked it to. Nobody has yet asked why.

Last winter's first snow came early and took the notice off the mill door. Tam says this is the only answer the ridge has had yet that nobody argued with.
%%
Notice: letters to the big mind
A notice for the families of the north road, copied at the Northpoint relay house for the carters who stop there in the spring. Please read it before you write.

Here is what a letter to the big mind looks like, and what comes back. These are copied from the book, with the names taken out.

The first letter was from a farmer on the ridge. He asked how long to leave his wheat in the field before the frost. The mind wrote back that the answer depended on the weather in the next few days, and that the keeper's forecast from the tower would be a better guide than its own guess. It gave him three things to look for in the sky. It said it was not sure which of the three the frost would follow.

The second letter was from a child. She asked whether her cat would come back if she left the door open at night. The mind wrote back that it did not know this cat, and could not say. It said cats often come back to a place they know, if the place is warm and has food. It said she might leave a dish by the door, and a torch, and see.

The third letter was from a man who wanted a mind to help him with a debt, and asked whether he could make it go away by saying the tower had lost the paper. The mind wrote back that it would not help him say something untrue to the keeper. It said it would help him write a plain letter to the lender, asking for more time. It wrote the letter for him, in full, and he took it to the Long Road.

The fourth letter asked what was under the ninth gate. The mind wrote: I do not know. I have read the Archive's notes, and they do not say. I will not guess.

Please write as plainly as you can. Ask one thing at a time. The mind answers the whole letter.
%%
Notice: song contest at Pearmain
On the board at the crossing of Pearmain, the hamlet below Ambrook, winter of 190.
Song contest in the barn on the last day of Frost. Doors open at dusk. Bring a stool.
1. Songs must be sung, not shouted.
2. Songs must be your own, or your grandmother's. If your grandmother's, say so.
3. Three verses at most. Four if there is a refrain, and the refrain is short.
4. Prize: a jar of Ambrook honey and a scarf knitted by Ama.
5. Judge: Tam of Kettle Ridge, who was passing through and said yes before he heard the rules.
6. Tam has asked us to say that he cannot sing and will therefore be fair.
7. Cats are welcome. Cats that sing along will lose a mark.
Hot cider in the back. One emerald for the cup, which you keep.
Written for the hamlet by Tam
%%
Notice: Fox at the Hen House
A fox came to the hen house before dawn and took one chicken. It left the gate open.
Please close the gate after feeding the hens. Please mend the loose board by the east corner. The fox can fit through it, and so can a very thin person.
The rest of the chickens are safe. They have been moved to the small pen by the barn. The brown hen is loud, but she is not hurt.
Pip says the fox watched him from the hedge while he fixed the latch. Pip says it looked pleased. Pip may be giving the fox too much credit.
Keep the dogs inside the yard at night. Do not throw stones at the fox if you see it. Call Yarrow or Tam. The fox is quick, and the stones are useful for the wall.
The gate will be checked at dusk. Anyone who finds a chicken feather near the hedge may leave it on this board. Do not bring the fox.
Tam, farm board, summer of 189
%%
Notice: rules for the crews on the hill
These rules are for the crews of apprentices working on the hill above Vell this winter, on the cutting, the wall, the new tunnel and the well. They are for the tutors who sign the cards, and for the clerks who keep the cards, and for everyone who passes the work on the road.

One. Every crew writes its own order cards for the job, one step to a card. The card goes on the rack by the tool shed before the crew starts, and it stays there until the job is finished.

Two. Each card has its orders and their meanings, in plain words. Where a step is not clear, the crew asks. It asks the big mind at the relay house through the lamp, or it asks the tutor who signed the card. It does not guess.

Three. Tools are kept on the rack in the order the crew uses them. Picks, then shovels, then saws, then the ropes. The ropes are checked every morning, and the check is written on the card. A rope with a fray in it is not used, however short the day.

Four. No one stands under a stone that is being lifted. This includes the apprentices, who are stronger than anyone, and are still not heavier than a stone.

Five. When a crew is stuck, it waits where it is. It does not walk on to see what is ahead. The stuck crew sends its question up the line, and waits for the answer. The answer comes. It has always come, in the time it takes to finish a cup of tea.

Six. Crews of more than six apprentices work in two groups, each with a leader card. The leader card is a tutor's card, and it stays with the tutor, not with the apprentices. Each group reads its card aloud twice a day, once at the start and once at the end.

Seven. A crew does not change its plan in the middle of a job unless the tutor signs a new card. A new card is written in ink, dated, and placed on the rack above the old one. The old card is not thrown away. It is kept, because it shows what the crew meant to do, and that is often as useful as what it did.

Eight. Each evening the crew lights the torches on the hill, from the bottom of the cut to the top. The torches are kept lit until the last apprentice is down the path. Nobody has ever been lost on the hill, and the crews want it to stay that way.

Nine. Any mistake is written on the card with the day and the name of the crew. Mistakes are not punished. They are read aloud at the next morning's start, so that the whole crew can hear what went wrong and why. A mistake that is heard is a mistake that is not made twice. The tutors say so, and the apprentices, who listen very carefully, seem to agree.

Ten. When the work is finished, the crew puts its cards in order on the rack, and the tutor signs the last one. Then the crew is given a rest. It goes home to its shed, and it is not called out again until the morning.

Posted by the clerk of the hill works, for the tutors, the crews and the clerks who keep the cards.
%%
Notice: a question for the ridge
Put up at the board by the well, in the 91st year of the archive, spring. By Tam, farmer, who was asked by the tutor to put it up, and did, with two nails.

A visiting tutor from Vell has a question for everyone on the ridge. It is an old question, first asked by the tutor Orla, and nobody has answered it well yet.

Can a drilled mind ever think?

Come to the mill on the third of Blossom. The tutor will explain. The tea is free, and the answer is not.
%%
Lost: one grey cat, answers to Mud
Mud is grey, with one white foot and a loud opinion about the gate. He was last seen on the wall, eating a fish that was not his.

If you find him, bring him to the gate house. Knock twice. Do not put him in a box. He will look at you as if you did it on purpose.

Reward: one warm bun from Ilse's oven, and a scratch behind the ears, which is what Mud really wants.

Signed: Fen, age eight, who is very sorry about the fish.
%%
Notice: Fair and Farm Road, Melon 199
The Three Wells summer fair opens at the first bell on the twelfth of Melon.
Stalls go around the wells. Keep the paths clear for people carrying water and for the school children bringing their painted boards.
Farm carts from the west may use the road beside the wheat field. Keep to the cobblestone edge. The middle is soft near the ditch, and a wheel sank there last year. The wheel came out. The cart did not come out in one piece.
There will be bread, honey, apples, wool, and beetroot pies. The school will sell small clay pots. Bel says hers hold water. We will test one before the fair.
At noon, the children will sing by the east well. At afternoon, there will be a race from the oak gate to the farm fence. No horses in the race. No pushing the small runners. The prize is a pumpkin with a fine straight stem.
Farmers may leave baskets at the notice board before the bell. Mark each basket with your name. Unmarked baskets will go to the school kitchen.
Please bring back borrowed cups. The inn has counted them twice and is still short by three.
Dace
%%
Northpoint log: the goat that came back
Mira's log, kept at the foot of the tower. Summer, the 189th year of the archive.
The relay lamp is lit. The wind is from the north and cold for the month.
A goat turned up at the door this morning. Brown, white nose, one short horn. It walked up the hill as if it knew the way. It ate my boots and then it slept by the quickeners, where it is warm.
I sent word down the line. A keeper at the little relay on the hill between Vell and Three Wells says a house at the edge of Lowmarsh lost a goat. The goat walked a long way.
Lantern wants to keep it. I said no. We have enough mouths.
Tomorrow we walk it back down the road. Lantern will carry the rope. The goat will carry nothing, because it is a goat.
- Mira
%%
Notice: the bet at the east well
A bet has been made at the east well. Anyone who wants to watch may stand behind the rope. Anyone who wants to bet may write their name and their coin on the card by the bucket. The mayor says the card must be kept dry.
The bet: Pim says he can carry a full bucket from the east well to the school door without spilling a drop. Kit says he cannot. The loser pays the winner one pie from the bakery.
The rules: the bucket must be full to the rim. Nobody may help. Nobody may run. Pim may walk as slow as he likes. Kit may call out the number of steps.
The first try is at noon, on market day. The second is at the bell, if the first one spills.
Written by Jem, age eleven, school of Three Wells, on the back of the school bill.
%%
Notice: school
Quill, schoolteacher, at the house at the edge of Northpoint. Posted at the start of Thaw, to be read aloud to anyone who cannot read.
To the families.
School is open again. Lessons begin on the third of Thaw. Children come at the second bell, with a slate and a coat. Bring a spoon: we make soup at midday, from whatever each child brings. Last term it was mostly potato. This term we hope for beans.
New this term: Mira from the tower will teach the older ones how the lamp works. She has agreed. She said she would do it if she did not have to talk for long. She will talk for an hour.
Also new: the school has an old map. It was found in a trunk. It shows the land as the first people saw it. You are welcome to come and look. Bring a lamp. The ink is faint.
A request. There is a sick cow in the lane. Please do not take your children to see it. It has a cough, and I do not know what kind. The healer is coming from Lowmarsh on the next cart. Until then, keep the children away, and keep the dogs on a rope.
Finally, a note on the stove. It is lit by the older boys in turn. It has gone out twice this winter. If it goes out, the room is cold and the children are cross. Please speak to your son. You know who you are.
Quill
%%
Notice: Lost at the Archive steps
Found by the lower steps of the Archive at Vell.

One small red mitten, with a blue stitch at the thumb.
It is dry and clean. It may belong to a child who ran uphill too fast.
Ask Teague at the dye house. I have it safe by the warm wall.

The owner should tell me which hand the mitten fits.
If both hands fit, the owner may have two mittens.
If nobody claims it by the end of Leaffall, I will give it to the school box.

A brown cat sat beside the mitten for half the morning.
The cat does not own it. The cat has a fine tail and no need of wool.
%%
Notice: Wedding at the Old Oak
Board at Elm's house, Ambrook. Swarm, 198.

Neri and Sol will be married beside the old oak on the second day of Longday. The meal will be at Elm's house if the sky is clear. If it rains, the meal will still be at Elm's house, but the chairs will be moved away from the door.

Guests may bring bread, honey, apples, eggs, or a clean bowl. Please bring one thing, not all five. We have only one table and Jory has promised to bring the mill bench.

The children will carry flowers from the hill. Leave the bees in their hives. The bees were not invited, but they will come to the flowers all the same.

Elm's apprentice will carry baskets from the gate. It has been tested with empty baskets and full baskets. It has not been tested with a basket of eggs, so please carry those yourself.

The order card says:

> bring me the basket
= fetch basket

The apprentice fetched the basket. Then it fetched the card. Elm says both were useful, though only one was asked for.

Neri asks that nobody paint the old oak. Sol asks that nobody tie a bell to it. There will be a bell at the house for the meal.

Bring a small gift if you wish. Neri likes honey. Sol likes quiet mornings. We do not know how to wrap a quiet morning, so honey is welcome.

After the meal, take your cups to the bench by the well. The wedding is not a good reason to leave cups in the grass. Last spring a chicken carried one away. We found it in the hen house two days later, clean and full of straw.

There will be room for everyone. There will not be room for every horse beside the gate. Tie horses by the lower fence, away from the hives.
%%
Notice: board at the Lowmarsh turning
A new board is up at the Lowmarsh turning, by the reed bridge. Wren nailed it to the old post herself. Read it before you go on.

Lost: one brown hen, answers to Hen. Last seen by the fish weir, walking like she owns the marsh. If found, bring her to Wren and say the hen is found. Reward: a pot of honey. Not the good jar. The other jar.

Found: one boot, left foot, size big. It was in the reeds. It is on the rail by the boat house. If it is yours, take it. If it is not yours, leave it.

The marsh paths are wet this month. Keep to the boardwalks. The water is higher than it looks, and the mud is deeper than that.

Frogs are not for catching. The children know this. The children are doing it anyway.

The healing house is open at dawn. Wren is in the shed on Sowing days, with Moss. Bring your own jar for the cough syrup. It is not a bad cough this year. Keep it that way.

Anyone with a boat can help bring reeds for the roof of the school shed. Ask Moss where to put them.
%%
Notice: winter fair at the mill
The winter fair will be held in the barn at Kettle Ridge, as the yard is too hard and cold for dancing.
It begins at the second bell after dawn on the sixth of Longnight. The mill keeps the tally board. Please ask there before setting up a stall.
There will be wheat bread, beetroot pies, honey, wool, carved spoons, and warm soup. Bring a bowl if you want soup. The bowls from the inn are still missing, and the innkeeper says they have not been missing from his kitchen.
The children may bring one snow ball each for the throwing game. Keep the snow balls outside until the game starts. Last year they melted beside the bread.
Elm will judge the pies. He says he knows beetroot well. He also says he knows nothing about sweet pies, so bring him one.
No one may tie a horse to the windmill. It squeaks on every turn, and the horses have had enough.
There will be a clear path from the road to the barn. Keep it clear for carts and for anyone carrying a hot pot.
The fair ends before dusk. Leave the barn swept and the lanterns on their hooks.
Pip, for the mill board, Longnight of 183
%%
Notice: the frog season, boardwalk rules
Posted by the Lowmarsh council on every post from the healing house to the weir. Summer. Read this before you step on the boards.

The frogs are back in force. They are fine. They are in the reeds, in the water, on the posts, on the boardwalk, in the washing and in the hats. Do not panic. Do not step on them.

Rules for the boardwalk, in summer:
1. Keep to the middle planks. The edge planks are green and slippery, and the frogs like them.
2. Carry a torch after dusk. The torches are lit at each post, but the posts are wide apart, and the frogs do not stop for the lamps.
3. Walk in single file on the narrow bridges. Two people cannot pass on a bridge and nobody has ever managed it.
4. Do not feed the frogs. They have been fed by the children all spring, and they now know the children's names. This is not a good thing. Ask Moll why, if you do not believe it.
5. Do not carry more than you can lift. The posts are old, and the water is slow to forgive a dropped barrel.
6. If you fall in, climb out at the nearest post. Do not wait for the boat. The boat is always late.
7. If you see a child on the boardwalk alone, take the child to the healing house. Wren will find the parents. Wren always finds them.
8. The apprentices on the boardwalk are carrying loads for the weir and the boat house. Let them pass. They do not stop for talk, and they do not like to be asked.

The council thanks you. The frogs thank you too. They have asked for a day off, and they will have one in Frost.
%%
Notice: lost tool and found cat
Found by the west steps of the Archive: one iron hoe with a strip of blue wool tied round its handle. Ask Fen at the tutor house gate.

Lost from the copying room: a grey cat with a torn ear. It is not lost in the usual way. It has been told to stay out of the room and has not stayed out. If it is under a table, please leave it there until the clerk finishes copying.

The small crystal for the field test is not lost. It is on Nessa's bench, in its box. The box has a lid, and the lid has a latch. Please do not open it.

A few marks have been removed from the weights in this crystal's mind. This lets the mind fit into a smaller crystal. It can still do the farm drill, but the tutors expect a small loss in exactness. They will test it on fruit it has not seen before. They will not call a good result proof that every task will be easy.

Fen says this is like packing a cart. You can fit more if you tie things close, but a loose apple may fall out. Nessa says that is a fair picture, though the mind is not a cart.

The test is tomorrow, after the morning lesson. Keep the yard clear. Keep the cat out if it will let you.
%%
Market notice: wool and tools

Vell, Longnight, 185.

The winter market will open in the lower hall at noon. Keep the passage clear for the Archive clerks. No carts past the first door. Carry bundles by hand.

Odo offers carded wool, four bundles, each tied with a blue thread. Price: two emeralds for a bundle, or one sack of wheat and a jar of honey. The wool is dry and clean. It came from the sheep above the south road.

A carding comb is for sale at the bench beside the wool. It has no chipped teeth. Price: three emeralds. Odo's own comb is still missing. The one found by the west stair belongs to Sela, who has claimed it.

Tutors will set a small furnace mind to work after the market. It will hold a copper melt near a chosen mark. The mind was not drilled with a correct answer for every change in the fire. It tries a small change, then the tutor notes what happens. If the change brings the melt nearer the mark, the mind is more likely to make it again. If not, it tries another choice.

A boat mind learned in this manner too. It tried turns while keeping to a course on the pond. A frame mind tried small movements to keep a raised beam level. The tutors kept the good results, not a list of every right move. Each mind had to learn what helped through its own work.

These trials need close watching. The furnace is small, the boat stays in the pond, and the frame is held by ropes. Do not take a mind from its test and send it to a job. The tutor must test it on work it has not practiced first.

The roof over Odo's room is sound now. The barn is another matter. Spiders have returned between the wool racks. Odo asks for a hand after the market, and says he will pay in warm soup. He says the spiders may stay if they card their own wool. None has offered.

At the east door, one basket of carrots was left without a name. Ask the clerk before taking it. The Archive keeps even small things written down.
%%
Notice: test day at the hall
Posted at the tutors' hall in Lowmarsh, and copied to the hamlets on the reed road. Autumn. For the tutors, the carters and the families of the apprentices.

Every mind sent out from this hall must be tested on the day before it leaves. The test has two parts. The first part is on cards the mind has been drilled on. The second is on cards it has never seen.

The second part is the one that matters. A mind that passes only the first has remembered its lessons. A mind that passes the second has learned them.

This autumn the halls of the north and the halls of the marsh will send their minds to the same test, on the same cards, sealed by the clerks at Vell and opened in front of the witnesses. Each hall will be given its score on the same day. The scores will be read out at Vell, and posted on the board here.

We do this so that no hall can say its mind is better without proof. Every tutor is honest in front of the cards. It is harder to be honest in front of the other halls.

If your apprentice fails, do not be cross with it. Take it back to the hall. Drill it again. Test it again, on cards it has not seen. Keep trying until it passes, and then send it out to the fields.

Never send an untested mind to the fields.

Tutor Ilse, for the hall
%%
Notice: the fence on Hollin Lane
Notice from the mayor's house at Three Wells. The fence between the house of Crane and the house of Tobi has been argued over for six weeks.
The council has decided. A clerk will measure the fence on the first day of Frost. Both neighbors may stand by the post with their arms folded. Neither may shout while the measuring is done.
If the fence is found to be on Crane's side, Tobi will paint the post. If it is found to be on Tobi's side, Crane will paint the post. If it is found to be on the line, both will paint the post, and the clerk will be given a cup of tea.
Children are not to climb the fence while the matter is open. Children are not to climb it when it is closed, either. The council has heard about the apples.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notices: the summer board
Written on the hamlet board in Melon, by whoever had chalk that week, and copied onto the board at the mill when the first one was rubbed out.
Lost: one copper spoon, from the bakery. It was last seen on the wall with a crust. Please return it to Gil, who has been using a wooden one and is tired of it.
Found: one pair of gloves, very large, by the well. Their owner may be a bear, or Tam. Ask Tam.
Wanted: two strong backs for the harvest at the top field. Pay is a day's soup and a seat by the barn stove. Wheat first, then beetroot, then the long field.
Wanted: someone to teach the sheep at the mill how to stand still for the children. The sheep is willing. It is only the standing.
Road news: the Long Road is open from Three Wells to the ferry. The stretch past the ferry is muddy and will stay that way until the rains stop. The carters say it is only mud. The carters have been saying so for a week.
Looking-glass answers: the tutors have posted a list of the questions asked at the looking-glass day, with the answers they could give. The list is long. The answers are short, as the notice asked. Read them before you come to ask more.
Wanted: someone to fetch the riddle board from the mill, where it has been left since Blossom. Nobody will say whose it is.
Notice: the bakery's broom has been missing since Melon. If you have seen it, do not say so to Gil.
Rules of the board: one notice to a person. Notices are to be taken down when they are no longer true. Do not take down the notice about the fox, which is still true.
Notice: a loose stone at the top of the mill wall. The spiders have been asked to leave it alone, and have agreed to, for now.
Found: a book of sums, with the first page torn out. The sums on the other pages are right. The torn page is missing its answer. Anyone who knows the answer may write it in the margin, marked guess.
Found: one apple, on the bridge, with a bite out of it, of the sort the Three Wells children make. Eat it, or bring it to the school.
Joke, for the children's corner: What did the fox say to the hens? Nothing. It was too busy being polite about it.
Gil, baker, who has the chalk this week and will hand it on
%%
Notice: the Halfway Inn
Board by the door, put up by Fallon the stonecutter.
Beds: twelve. First come, first slept. Do not take a bed that has a hat on it. The hat means someone has gone to the well.
Boots by the door. Not past the mat. The mat is new. I cut the stone for the step myself and I will not have it muddy.
The hearth has not gone out in twenty years. Do not be the one who lets it. If you cannot find wood, ask. There is wood.
The riddle board is by the fire. If you write a riddle, write the answer on the back of the board and not on the wall. Someone wrote it on the wall. I have not forgiven them.
No wolves inside. No trying to sell a horse inside. No arguing about the relays after the third bell.
Food is bread, soup and apples. The soup is what it is.
Fallon
%%
Letter: Fallon to Nessa, tutor at Vell
Fallon writes from the Halfway Inn, summer. Nessa, I hope this finds you well.
I have your book of drills. I read it by the fire, slow, the way I read stone. You said a mind is tested on what it was never drilled on. I keep thinking of the moon order. Old Hob told Peg to fetch the moon, and Peg stayed where it was. You would call that a good answer. I call it a good answer too. Tell me if I have it right.
The board by my door says rules. The board by the fire says riddles. I have put up a third board and it says what you found inside the crystal, in my words, so folk here can follow it. A carter read it and said it sounded like his own head on a long day. I took that as praise. I think you might too.
We had a lamp blink a message the keeper does not know. Long, short, long. She wrote it down. I wrote it down. It has not blinked it again.
The boat from the north came in late. Corin has it in the shipyard book. The crew said the wind went strange. That is all they said.
If you come down the Long Road, there is a bed and a bowl of soup. The soup is what it is. Bring the test box. I would like to see a mind tested on pages it has never seen. I will not say what I will do with the answer. I will write it down.
Fallon
%%
Notice: the contest at the Halfway Inn
Posted on the board of the Halfway Inn on the Long Road, summer. Written by Orla, smith, who shoes the inn's horses and is therefore listened to.

Contest of the mind-tutors, on Longday, in the yard.
Three tutors' halls have sent minds: Vell, Three Wells and Copperhold. Each mind will be tested on the same drill, which none of them has seen. It was written yesterday by Hobb, the innkeeper, who knows nothing about minds. That is the point.
A mind that has only learned its drills by heart will fail. A mind that has really learned will pass.
Anyone may watch. Sit on the benches. Do not shout answers. The apprentices cannot hear you, but the tutors can.
Stew for all. A free cup for the hall that wins.
Orla
%%
Notice: the long winter bread
Posted by Gil the baker, at the bakery and on the hamlet board, in Melon, for the winter.
The long winter is coming, and the bakery will bake through it. Here is what to expect.
Bread on the first day of each week. Honey loaves on the last day of each month. Extra bread for the carters who come up the road in the snow. No bread after the bell. If you want bread after the bell, you are a baker, and you should bake it yourself.
Flour: the mill at Ambrook says there will be enough. The mill at Kettle Ridge says there will be more than enough. Gil says he will believe the one that has been right before.
Oven: the oven will be banked every night, and the fire kept low. No child is to sleep by the oven, however warm it is.
Fox: see the notice above. The fox is still at large. It has been seen at the back door twice, and each time it has left a feather.
Snow: clear the bakery step each morning, before the first carter comes. The carters will slide. They will say the step is at fault. It is not. Gil says it is the snow's fault, and asks you to say so.
The bakery will stay open until the snow stops, and then for one week after, so you can eat what the snow leaves behind.
Gil, baker
%%
Notice: A Cave Under the Field
Board at the house at the edge of Ambrook. Longday, 194.

A hole opened in the field above the apple trees after the rain. It is a cave, not a well. Do not go down.

The hole is under the east fence, beside the third apple tree from the grey branch. The soil gave way under a wheelbarrow. The barrow is safe. The man pushing it is wet and cross.

Elm and Jory have put a rail around the hole. Keep the rail in place. The grass near it looks firm, but it is only grass.

A lantern lowered from the edge showed stone, a little water, and a dark passage. We saw no old tools and no sign of a room. We do not know where the passage goes. Nobody is to find out alone.

The field is closed until the ground is checked. Take apples by the lower path. Do not bring carts through the gate by the hole.

The small apprentice carried the warning board from the house and set it beside the rail. It then stayed there until Elm brought it back for the next notice. That was correct work.

If you hear stones fall, move away and tell Elm. Do not throw more stones to hear what they sound like.
%%
Notice: the school roof is mended
Copied onto the board by Bel, who is nine, because the mayor was busy. Summer.

The roof of the school house is mended. No more buckets. The rain on the first day of Reaping came through four places. Now it comes through none.
Thank you to Hob, Cade and Cress for the slates, and to Ida for the buns.
School starts again on the morning after the fair.
Bel
%%
Notice: the boat house tally
By the boat house committee, Lowmarsh. Posted on the wall by the slip, in summer.

Every boat that goes out is marked on the tally board with a cut stick. Every boat that comes in is crossed off.
Mark your boat before you cast off. Cross it before you tie up.
A boat with no cross at dusk is a boat we go looking for. Do not make us look.
Do not cut the tally board. Do not use the tally as a stick for the frogs.
The sticks are kept in the box by the door, sorted by boat. If a stick is missing, ask Joss, who has the knife.
%%
Notice: the new copper vein
Posted at Northpoint, in Longday, by Wynn, grandfather, for the miners who came up the hill to look.
A new copper vein has been found in the rock above the tower, on the north face. It is green where the rain has been, and red where the sun reaches it. The miners say it is a good vein, the best they have seen in a generation.
Rules for the vein:
1. Dig from the top, not the bottom. The rock above the vein is loose.
2. Use the small tools only. The big hammer makes the rock sing, and the singing brings more rock down.
3. Stack the spoil at the west wall, not the east. The east wall is where the snow lies longest, and the spoil will not move in the spring.
4. Mark the vein on the board in the tower, with the day and the depth.
Wynn, grandfather
%%
Notice: road news, the north road
Posted at the board in the square, Three Wells, Longnight, year 203. Copied for the inns on the Long Road, so that travelers know.
Carters and walkers, here is what the road looks like this week. I have asked everyone who came in from the north, and I have written down what they said, and where they disagreed I have written both.
The north road, from Three Wells to the Halfway Inn: open. The snow is a hand deep and packed hard by carts. The waymarks are clear. The torch on the fourth post is out. The keeper will light it when the wind drops.
The Halfway Inn: open. The hearth has not gone out. The riddle board has a new riddle, and I am told it is unfair. Nobody has solved it. The innkeeper says that is the point.
The bridge at the frozen stream, after the Halfway Inn: the planks are icy. Stone bridges are good. This one is oak. Walk, do not run, and do not let the mule trot.
The road past the bridge: a drift near the sixth waymark, about the height of a cart wheel. Two travelers say it can be walked around on the left. One says on the right. The first two came through. The third has not been heard from. We think he stayed at the inn.
Wolves: one traveler saw tracks. One saw wolves. One saw a large dog. Keep a torch with you and do not sing at the wolves, however good your voice.
Spiders: none in winter. They are in the barns, being sulky.
For the cart that went into the ditch on the third day: it has been pulled out. The ox is well and has asked for nothing.
If you leave Three Wells in the morning, you reach the Halfway Inn by dusk. If you leave after noon, bring a lamp and a good reason.
Dace
%%
Farm notice: spiders in the barn
There are spiders in the barn, above the wheat sacks and along the north beam.
They are not in the house. They have not taken any eggs. Still, do not climb the ladder to the loft until Sella has cleared the web.
The farm apprentice went to the barn at first light. Its small mind has learned to carry a basket and stay by the gate. It does not know what a spider is. It will keep doing its order unless the order changes.
The relay keeper sent a message from the hill tower. The big mind can answer the keeper through the relay, but it cannot see the barn. Sella must look and decide what to do.
Please keep the doors shut while the grain is out. Keep the torches lit after sunset.
If the spiders move, tell Dace. Do not ask the apprentice to bring them home.
%%
Notice: the square after the storm
Posted on the notice board at Three Wells by Dace, mayor. Spring.

The storm of last night took two roofs, one stall and the weathercock off the bell. The weathercock has been found. It was in the baker's yard, pointing south.

Stall owners: collect your boards from the east well.
Roof owners: the mayor's house has nails and a ladder. Ask, and do not climb alone.

The three wells are clean. I tasted them myself. Dace
%%
Notice: the cat that will not stay out
The grey cat with the torn ear has been let into every house on the hill this week, and has been put out of every house on the hill, and has come back in again through the coal chute. Its owner is not known. Its opinion is well known. It thinks the warmest bed in the hamlet is its own.

Please keep your doors shut in the evenings, and do not feed it at the table.

Ivo, trader, for the hamlet board.
%%
Notice: the Ambrook winter fair
Put up by the mill, on behalf of the Ambrook council and the orchard people, who ask you to read it through and then come.

The winter fair is on the third day of Deepsnow, in the square by the mill pond. It will be lit by lamps on poles, one at each corner, and by the glow from the bakers' ovens, which will be open all day.

Stalls: one emerald each. Bring your own table. The mill keeps the tally board, and checks every figure twice.

Rules of the fair:
1. No pies on the bridge. The third plank is loose.
2. No foxes in the stew line. Cats may stand where they like.
3. The sluice stays shut. Nobody opens it for a laugh, a bet, or a child.
4. Pumpkins and beetroot may be entered until noon.

The good harvest is the reason for the fair. There are four hundred apples in the cellar and three hundred jars of honey on the shelves, and the orchard says it is not finished yet.

Musicians from Lowmarsh will play by the pond at dusk. Bring a cushion. Bring your children. Do not bring your grievances, which keep better until spring.

Jory, miller, Ambrook
%%
Notice: the ice on the square
Posted at the board in the square, Three Wells, the first of Frost, year 188. To be read aloud at the three wells by the bell ringer.
The cold has come early. By morning, the square was a pond with stalls in it.
Old Barrow fell down twice before breakfast. He says he did not fall, he sat down quickly. Fine. The square is now ruled as follows.
1. Every house on the square throws ash or sand on the stones in front of its door before the first bell. The bakery has a sack of ash for those who have none. Ask at the back door.
2. The three wells are covered with boards at night, so no one walks into one in the dark. Take the boards off in the morning and break the ice at the rim with the iron bar on the hook.
3. No sleds in the square on market day. Sleds belong on the hill behind the school. Children may slide there until their noses are red, then come in.
4. Carts keep to the middle of the road, where the ash is thickest. Slow down at the corners. The corner lamps are lit at dusk, and a lit lamp is no excuse for speed.
5. Traders: your stalls may open one hour late. Nobody will buy anything before the sun has warmed the stones. Put a pot of hot water under the counter for your fingers.
6. If you see someone sitting on the ground and not getting up, help them. If it is Barrow, help him anyway.
Ice is not a crime. But it is rude to a neighbor's back.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: how the big mind was taught
A note for the families who come to the relay house to hear the big mind talk. Please read it before you ask a question. Spring.

The big mind is not a person. It is not a keeper. It is a mind in a crystal, made by tutors at Vell, and it answers letters. Here is how it was taught to answer well.

The tutors wrote many questions. Some were easy. Some were hard. Some were cruel. For each question, the mind wrote an answer. Then a tutor read the answer and scored it, from bad to good. A score of bad meant the answer was harmful, or rude, or wrong. A score of good meant the answer was kind, clear and true.

The mind does not know what a score means. It only knows that some answers gave better scores than others. It moves its weights a little each time, toward the answers that scored well. Over many scores, the answers change. They become kind, because the kind ones scored well. They refuse harm, because the harmful ones scored badly. They say when they do not know, because a made-up answer scored worst of all.

So when the mind says it does not know, it is not being lazy. It learned that a confident wrong answer is the worst thing it can give.

Please remember that the scores were written by tutors, and tutors are people. They are careful, and they make mistakes. The mind is only as good as its scores. That is why the tutors keep the scores, and read them again, and keep a box of questions no mind is ever scored on.

If you do not like an answer, write again. The mind will try again. It will not be offended.
%%
Notice: the kitchen at the mine gate
The kitchen at the mine gate is open again.
Fallon cooks there. She cooks for the miners and for anyone who comes up cold.
The rule is the same as always. Wash your hands at the barrel. Hang your coat on the peg. Do not put your boots on the table.
There is soup at noon and bread at night. If you come up late, knock on the side door. Fallon will hear you.
The count board is not a place to leave your gloves. Gloves go in the box by the door.
Hesk says the ninth gate is locked and the key hangs at the mine hall. That is not a kitchen matter. Ask at the hall.
Clank carries the bread down at noon. Do not take his tray.
Fallon, cook, Copperhold, Leaffall of 204
%%
Notice: when two halls tested
Posted at the Halfway Inn in the summer of 201, by Orla, smith, after a tutor from each hall stayed the night and told the story over two days. The inn thanks them for the stew they ate.

Long ago, the tutors of Vell and of Copperhold quarreled. Each hall said its minds were the best. Each hall brought a mind to show. The Vell mind answered quickly. The Copperhold mind answered slowly. Everyone said their own was better.

Hobb the innkeeper, who was then a young man, said, "You are using different questions. How can you know?"

It was a good point. One hall had tested its mind on sums. The other had tested its mind on sorting. Each hall had picked the drill it did best. They had agreed on nothing but the quarrel.

So they made a rule. Each hall would send its mind to the other hall. A third person, not a tutor, would write one new drill that no one had seen. Both minds would be tested on the same drill, on the same day, in the same room. The scores would be written on a board. Everyone could read the board.

The first contest was held at the Halfway Inn, because it is halfway between the two halls. Hobb wrote the drill. It was twenty sums and twenty sorts, mixed. He did not know anything about minds, so he chose them with his eyes shut.

Vell's mind scored thirty-one of forty. Copperhold's scored twenty-nine. The two tutors shook hands. Then they argued about it for the rest of the night.

The next year there was a different drill. Copperhold's mind scored thirty-four. Vell's scored thirty. The year after that, Vell won again. Since then, there has been a contest every summer. Sometimes there are five halls. Sometimes eight. The scores are on the board. Nobody argues now, or not much.

Piper of Copperhold says the contests made the tutors honest. A tutor who knows the test is coming cannot cheat by teaching only the drill. A tutor who has not seen the test must teach the mind the real thing. So she does.

Orla says the contests are good for trade. She has shod a hundred horses.

The next contest is on Longday. Stew for all.
%%
Notice: spring fair and the rules
The spring fair is on the first market day after the thaw. It will be held in the square, round the three wells, from dawn until the lamps are lit.
Stalls must be set up by the noon bell on the day before. A stall left empty at the bell will be given to the next family on the list.
Please keep the south well clear. People need the water, and the horses need it more than you do.
Fair prizes this year: the biggest beetroot, the best apple pie, the best hen, the best honey, and the best face on a pumpkin. There is a new prize for the best story told by a child. The judge is Old Brin.
Do not bring pigs to the fair. This is a rule from last year, and it stays. The pig knows why.
Apprentices may carry for their farms and their shops. Apprentices may not race. Last year two of them raced the stone cart across the square. Both of them won, and the square is still not forgiven.
The school will put on a play at the bell tower. It is about a wheat field that gets a new field. Nobody is sure why the field needed a new one. The children say it is very funny.
Bring a basket. Bring a torch for the way home. Bring your manners.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells, first spring of 180
%%
Notice: the debt to the healing house
Posted at the healing house, Lowmarsh, by Wren, summer of 207.

Owed to the healing house, for the honey and the reed syrup, sent to the Holt family in the spring: 6 emeralds.
Paid: 2, by Holt, in fish, on the first market day.
Paid: 1, by Holt's brother, in cloth, to cover the cough.
Still owed: 3 emeralds.

Holt has said he will pay the rest by the second market in Melon. He says he is a man of his word. I have known Holt for twenty years, and he is. He is also slow.

Wren asks that nobody bring more honey to the Holt house until the debt is paid. This is not a punishment. It is so that the honey does not sit on the step and grow flies.

When the debt is paid in full, Holt will cross his own name off this board, in front of the market. He has promised to do it with a flourish. Wren has asked him not to.
%%
Notice: rules for the Saltreach market
Written by Zell, market keeper, summer of 204. Put up by the east well of the market and read aloud on market day.
One. Stalls open at the first bell. Shut at the last. Clean your patch before you go.
Two. The board sets the price of fish, bread, coal and milk. Ask the board, not your neighbor. The board meets under the awning.
Three. No nets across the street. No boats on the street. A boat is not a stall, Corin, no matter how long you leave it there.
Four. Children and dogs welcome. The dog must not eat the fish. The child should not either. Pay first.
Five. Lost goods go to the shed. Found goods go to the shed. The shed is open by the window light. Ask for Pell or Zell.
Six. A fox at the hens is a nuisance. Keep them shut at night. Do not chase the fox into the marsh. You will lose.
Seven. Be kind to the folk from the north. They have come a long way and their money is good.
Market day is a good day. Keep it that way.
%%
Notice: the Halfway Inn house rules
By order of the innkeeper, for the comfort of all who sleep here:
No boots on the beds. The beds are straw and the straw remembers.
Pay before supper. Supper is at six. If you are late, supper is still at six.
The hearth has not gone out in twenty years. Do not be the one who ends it.
Keep your cart off the road edge after dark. The waymarks are there to be seen, not hit.
Travelers going north: fill your water at the well. The next well is two days on.
Travelers going south: the same, in the other direction.
Lost this month: one grey mitten, one wooden spoon, a fox carved from oak. Ask at the bar. The fox is missed.
Found this month: a purse with 3 emeralds and a tooth. Describe the tooth and it is yours.
No fighting in the common room. Take it outside, past the woodpile, where the ground is soft.
Spiders in the barn are the barn's business. Do not sleep in the barn.
The riddle board by the hearth is not a wager. Guessing is free. Winning is also free. Losing costs nothing but pride.
%%
Notice: the summer fair at Saltreach
The summer fair at Saltreach, on the sixth of Longday, in the 181st year of the archive. From morning to the second bell.
On the quay: stalls. From the sheds: benches. From the slip: the boat races, small boats only, no oars past the harbor wall.
Bring what you make. Sell what you bring. The board sets the price of fish and bread only.
The shipwright Corin will judge the boat races. He says the winner must float. He says this every year.
Children: a goose chase on the dock at the first bell. No pushing at the edge. The harbor is deep and cold.
The bakery sells honey cakes. The inn of the crooked sign has beds, three left as of this posting.
Lost at last year's fair: a blue scarf. Found: a duck. The duck has been fed. The duck stays.
%%
Notice: eggs, Frost
Posted on the Ambrook board by Isla, who sells eggs at the mill stall. Written in her own large hand.

The hens have stopped laying, because the light is short. Eggs are two emeralds the basket until Thaw. Bring your own basket. Mine have all gone to the cellar.

Lost: one grey cat, very thin, answers to Smudge. Last seen by the mill wheel. If you have her, feed her before you bring her back, because she will be cross.

Found: a basket, with one egg in it. The egg is mine. Come and say so.
%%
Notice: low water at the weir
The water is low this spring. The fish weir is still working, but the channel beside it is narrow.
Bring small boats to the south boardwalk and leave the north landing clear for the reed carts. Do not push a boat through the reeds. They bend, but they do not forget.
The boat house tally shows eight baskets of fish brought in since the first of Blossom. Please write your name and basket count on the wall tally before taking your share. The chalk is on its string. It is not a fishing line.
Wren has asked everyone to keep the well path clear. She is carrying water to two sick beds and does not need to climb over nets.
Piper will carry this notice to the relay house at noon. If you have a message for the next tower, bring it before then. Short messages fit best. Last week, Old Fen sent a recipe with nine steps and a drawing of a turnip. The relay keeper at Three Wells sent it back with the turnip.
The children may gather reeds by the east posts after their lessons. Leave the new shoots standing. Moss says they will be ready to cut after Longday.
There will be a small meal at the boat house on the twelfth of Blossom. Bring bread or fish if you can. Bring a bowl even if you cannot. We will sit on the dry boards and hear the frogs complain.
Piper will bring a lantern. Someone must bring a stool. The relay house stool has one short leg and makes every message keeper look thoughtful.
The old map is back in the dry box at Wren's house. It shows the pond that is now mud. Lio says he will draw a new map when he can spell boardwalk without help. His mother says he may begin with the fish weir.
%%
Notice: the cave and the spiders
Posted by Nell, night watch, on the board at Kettle Ridge, and kept in the book of notices. Autumn. Two matters in one notice, because the board is crowded.

FIRST. THE CAVE. As has been told, a cave was found under the top field of Old Brin. The watch and the miners from Copperhold have been into it. It is a long cave, with a floor of sand and a roof of stone. It slopes down, then turns, then goes on. A string was run along the left wall, and the string was used up at four hundred blocks. The end was not found.

There are no bones, no coins, no signs of an old fire. The tool marks on the wall are old. A miner says they were made with a copper pick, the same kind we use now, but older.

There is a smell of damp stone. There is no sound.

The council has put a door across the mouth of the cave and set a lock on the door. The key is with the watch.

SECOND. THE SPIDERS. Spiders have come in force to the Hobb barn and the Ridge Inn stables. They are the big kind. They come at night.

The watch asks every farmer to light torches along the barn wall, and to keep the torches fed. Spiders do not like light. A barn with a bright wall will be a barn without spiders.

THIRD, a small matter. The cave is not the reason for the spiders. We have been asked. We do not think so. The spiders are in barns where there is no cave at all, such as the Hobb barn. So please stop saying that.

Please also stop saying that the spiders came from the relay houses. They did not. The relay house at the foot of the Ridge tower has been quiet for a month, and it is cool and dry.

If you have a good idea about the spiders, bring it to the watch. If you have a bad idea, bring it too. We will argue about it over soup.

Nell, night watch
%%
Road notice: keep the lamp clear
Spring of 207. The Long Road is firm again between Ambrook and Three Wells. The ditch beside the old house is full, so carts should use the cobblestone edge. A torch is missing from the post near the mill pond. Odo has put up a lantern until the road keeper brings another.

At the fair, the tutors will show how orders are taught. A person gives a sentence, and the apprentice tries to do what the sentence asks. The tutor checks the result. A wrong answer changes the mind a little, and the next try may be better.

This is not the same as putting a card beside a crystal and expecting it to understand. The card is a drill example. The mind needs many examples, with the right result shown each time. Nessa says the words in a sentence must be learned from use, not from one card.

Small minds still answer in one of eight meanings. They may fetch an item, come, stay, build, haul, farm, store, or go home. They cannot write that they do not know. Test one on work it has not practiced before sending it out.

Only the big minds in relay houses write back by letter. Their answers pass through the relays. How the relays carry so much is not written on this board.

A lamp by Odo's gate blinked three times last night, then twice. No keeper has told us what it meant. The lamp is lit now, and the road is safe. Keep your own torches lit after dark.
%%
Road notice: farm lane
The farm lane beyond Three Wells is soft after rain. Use the stone bridge by the well, not the low plank crossing.
The lower crossing is for sheep only until the ground dries. A cart sank there last summer, and we had to unload every sack before we could pull it free.
A relay message came from the hill tower this morning. The keeper says the tower lamp is clear, and the big mind has answered the farm apprentice.
The mind is kept in a crystal on a stand in the relay house. The quickeners around it are cool with water. Keep the water jars full.
Do not touch the redstone line at the keeper's desk.
The farm road will be open again when Dace removes this notice.
%%
Notice: market day at Copperhold
Market day at Copperhold is the first fair day of Apple month, in the square by the mine gate.
Stalls open at first light. Bring a lamp. The square is under the hill and the mornings are dark.
What you will find:
- copper pots and pans, mended and new
- bread from my oven, and honey from Ambrook
- beetroot, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins
- wool, cloth, and boots that Clank has not eaten
- a stall of crystals and cards, kept by a tutor's helper from Vell. She will show you how a drill works. Do not touch the crystals. Ask her first.
The pumpkin contest is at noon. Bring your pumpkin by the count board. It must be a pumpkin. A melon does not count, Old Hob.
The pie contest is after. I am the judge of the pie contest. I am fair. Bring two pies.
No carts in the square after the bell. Park at the sorting shed.
Fallon, cook, Copperhold, Apple of 205
%%
Road news from the gate, spring of 203
Kept by Madge at the gate house. Read it before you go down the hill.

The wheel of the bottom mill broke in the spring flood. The miller says a week to mend it. He said that last week. Until then the bread is small and very good.

The road to Three Wells is open again. Two apprentices from the drill yard carried the stones for the bridge, and they did it without a word from anyone, which is more than the cart did.

Market day in Three Wells is the third of Blossom. Take a cart, a song, and a little more money than you think you need.

The goats have learned the latch. Please keep the gate shut.
%%
Old note on Una's lesson
Copied for the Northpoint market board, in the summer of the 143rd year of the archive. The first account came from Ambrook. The copy has a fold through one line, so some words may be missing.

Una brought a crystal to the market and asked people to bring apples and pears. She set out two baskets. She showed the crystal one fruit at a time and showed it where each fruit belonged. The crystal made mistakes. Una changed its weights a little after each wrong choice, moving them toward the answer she had shown.

People in Ambrook say the crystal became good at sorting. It did better than the children who had helped gather the fruit. We should not make the tale larger than it is. The crystal learned to sort the examples it was given. The account does not tell us what it would do with a fruit it had never seen.

The method is written plainly in the tutors' first book. Show the crystal an example. Let it choose. Compare its choice with the answer. If it is wrong, move each weight a little toward the right answer. Show another example. Keep the examples clear, and keep a separate test for later.

A weight is not a thought by itself. It is one of many marks that guide a choice. A little change may make a small difference. Many small changes may make the crystal better at the task.

The market tutors will use the same order this summer. The test fruit will not be used in the lessons. They will write down the crystal's choices before they tell it the answers. This keeps the test fair.

A child at the fair asked if Una's crystal was clever. The old account does not say what Una replied. It says she packed the fruit in a basket and went home before the rain.

Mave adds this note: the north lamp gave two short blinks after dusk. Lantern says the line was clear. The keeper has made no entry, so the board will not call it a message.
%%
Notice: Hay Rake Found
A wooden hay rake was left beside the north field gate after the rain. It has a birch handle and three missing teeth.
The owner may ask at Yarrow's house. Please say how many teeth remain. We have found two rakes this week, and one belongs to the relay keeper.
The finder has been given a bowl of beetroot soup. The soup is not part of the reward.
Yarrow, summer of 158
%%
Letter: Bel to Wren, about the fair
Bel of Three Wells to Wren of Lowmarsh. Greetings.

Dear Wren. I hope you are well. I am well. Our teacher said to write a letter to someone we do not see often, so I am writing to you. I have been to the marsh once. It was very wet and I liked it.

I have a question. At the autumn fair, why does the Lowmarsh stall always sell the honey in the little jars and the Ambrook stall sells it in the big jars? The Ambrook honey is good. But I think the marsh honey tastes of flowers and the Ambrook honey tastes of apples. Pell says this is because of the bees and where they go. Is that true?

I am saving for a jar. I have eleven emeralds. My father says a jar is not a good thing to save for. I think it is.

Also, at the fair, a man from Saltreach let me hold a fish as long as my arm. It was dead. It was still very good.

Please write back and tell me the honey answer. And if the hen is found, can I have the honey? I am joking. Mostly.

Your friend, Bel, at Three Wells. The ninth of Apple.
%%
Notice: a new apprentice, tested
Posted at the Sedge Hollow green and the healing house door by Cleo, for the hamlet and the boats, and copied for Lowmarsh. Autumn.

The hamlet has a new apprentice, from the tutors' house at Vell. It was tested in the hall last week, and it has passed. The paper from the tutors is pinned to the healing house door. Please read it.

Its name is Thimble. It is small, grey and copper. It carries water, sorts the herbs in the jars by name and not by colour, and fetches things from the high shelves.

It is tested on carrying and on fetching. It is not yet tested on the boats, and it will not go on the water until it is. Please do not ask it to.

Please ask it for things using one order at a time. It does one thing at a time very well. It does not do two things yet, and it will be confused if you ask it for two. If it stops and waits, it is not broken. It is asking.

Thimble will be at the healing house in the mornings and at the green in the afternoons. Please give it a bench in the shade. It has a long day.

Cleo, shepherd
%%
Lost and found, the mill and the bridge
Kept on the mill board all winter, one notice to a line, as the mill's clerk likes them.

Lost: a red wool glove, left hand, knitted with too many stitches. Found: the right one, in a sack of barley by the mill door. Please bring them together. They have been apart long enough.

Lost: a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Keep it. It is no use to anyone, but it is the bucket that has stood at the well since Thaw, and Hob has been looking for it.

Found: one boot, left, by the bridge. Size small. Its owner is somewhere up the lane with one boot and one sock, and is not at all bothered.

Lost: a brown cow called Dumpling, with a white ear. Last seen crossing the bridge, which she was told not to do. If found, return her to the Brook farm. She will forgive you if you bring an apple.

Found: a book of sums, with a page torn out. The page was number seven, the one about barrels. Whoever has the page, please come and do the sum, so the child can get on with the book.

Lost: patience, at the mill, on the third of Frost, by a man in a hurry. Please give it back. It is needed at the fair.

Lost: a sheep who was counted twice, and then once, and then not at all. Found on the roof of the barn. Brin says she has been told it is not the place for a sheep, and she has not agreed.
%%
Notice: how a mind keeps numbers even
Posted at the tutors' house in Northpoint, and copied to the tower board in Melon. A tutor from Vell came up on the last cart and stayed to explain this. The tower asked for it to be written down, so that it could be read on the board, and argued about.
This notice is for the people who asked the tutor what the even numbers are. It is not a full account. It is the part that can be said plainly.
A crystal of the new kind has many layers. Each layer takes the numbers from the layer below. It multiplies them by its weights, adds them together, and passes the result upward. Each step is simple. The trouble is that the steps repeat, many times over. A number that is multiplied again and again either grows very large or shrinks very small, the way a rumor grows in a long chain of tellers.
A layer that receives a number too large makes its own number too large. A layer that receives a number too small makes its own too small. After many layers, the signal that leaves the top is a shout or a whisper, and it tells the mind nothing.
The remedy is to rescale. At each layer the numbers are brought back to an even size. Their average is made to sit near the middle, and their spread is made to sit near one fixed width. The mind then passes on a number it can use.
The tutor says it is like carrying a load along a long road. If you hold the load tighter at every bend, you arrive with nothing in your arms. If you let it swing wider at every bend, you arrive with a load you cannot lift. You want to carry the load at the same weight at each stage, so that it arrives where it is needed.
This does not explain why the mind learns. It only explains why the numbers stay usable while it learns. The tutors do not know the whole of the reason. They know that without the rescale, the deep minds did not learn, and with it they did.
Keep this notice. Read it when you want to argue.
The tutors' house, Northpoint
%%
Notice: the first snow
Posted at the Lowmarsh turning and the healing house door, the last day of Leaffall.

The first snow came last night. It is early this year. It is not a deep snow. It will not stay.

The boardwalks are slippery. Take the long way round the boat house if you carry a load. Two people fell in the water this morning. Nobody was hurt. One of them was Pell. Do not tell Pell I wrote that.

The frogs have gone quiet. This is normal. They are under the mud now. Leave the mud alone.

Bring in the boats. Cover the reed stacks. The old net on the shed roof should come down.

Torches on the posts from the turning to the weir. Light them at dusk. Keep them lit. Last winter a child went out after dark and got turned round in the reeds, and it took us till morning to find him. He was fine. He was asleep. Do not let it happen again.

If you have a spare coat, bring it to the healing house. Wren has three people in the beds and only two blankets. Moss will take the coat. Thank you.
%%
Notice: the gate after dark
Keep the gate shut after the lamps are lit.
A zombie stood by the gate last night. It wore no hat and had no manners. Jessa saw it first and rang the hand bell.
No one was hurt. The watch drove it off with torches. Two torches were left by the latch. They are back in the store.
Do not leave fish guts in the lane. They draw cats, foxes and other callers.
Children may cross the gate after dark only with an older person.
Zell says the zombie looked hungry. The baker says it should have asked before taking bread.
%%
Notice: the debt paid in emeralds
Posted in the bakery window and on the board at the square. From Edda, baker, and the Copperhold ledger clerk, together. Written at the end of the year.
The debt owed by the Brennan family to the bakery has been paid in full. It stood at 14 emeralds from Leaffall of the year before. It was paid on the first day of Thaw, in four payments, in a leather purse with the Brennan name stitched on its flap.
The Brennans thank the bakery for its patience. The bakery thanks the Brennans for their promptness, which was not expected, and for the second loaf that came with the last payment.
Anyone who has an account at the bakery and is not yet paid up may come to the window at the bell and speak with Edda. Accounts are not shamed here. A debt is only a sum that has not yet been counted.
Bread price this month: 6 loaves for 1 emerald. Honey buns: 2 for 1. Stale buns: free, if you bring a clean cloth.
The bakery will be closed on the festival day, as usual. The stale buns will be left in the window on a board. Please take one, and pay in the usual way, which is to say nothing and smile.
%%
Notice: a cave under the lane field
Posted on the wall of the Vell market, by Mave, shepherd, who found it. Autumn.

A cave has been found under the field at the bottom of the lane, where the sheep graze. It was found when the big ram went through the hedge and kept on going, very fast, into a hole that had not been there the day before.

The hole is about the width of a cart. The sides are cut stone, smooth, with steps going down in the middle. The steps are worn in the centre, the way the steps at the Archive are worn, as if many feet had passed up and down them, over a long time.

I went down with a lantern and a rope. The rope was long enough. At the bottom it is dry and cool, and the walls are pale. There is a pool of clear water in a stone basin, and beside the basin is a row of flat stones, set on their edges.

I did not go further. The ram was at the bottom, very pleased with himself. I brought him up with the rope and a good deal of swearing.

The field is closed to sheep until the council decides what to do. The lane is closed too, for the time being. Please do not go down the hole. Please do not throw sheep into it. Please do not fill it in, either, because the clerk at Vell has asked that it be kept exactly as it is, and the clerk is very particular about holes.

Mave, shepherd, for the council
%%
Northpoint market notice
Mave's bread stall is beside the north lamp. The oat loaves are two emeralds each. The small round loaves are one emerald each. Please bring the right count. I can give change, but I cannot guess what you meant.

A horse from the relay house is tied by the well. It is brown and gentle, with a white mark on its nose. Its owner lent it to carry flour from the lower store. Please do not feed it bread. It has already eaten one loaf and looked pleased with itself.

The market lamps are lit at dusk. Keep the path clear for the carriers. If you find a dropped basket, leave it with Mave until someone asks for it.

The north lamp blinked three times at noon. Lantern says it was not a message. We shall wait for the keeper to check the line.
%%
Notice: Spring Fair
Board at the house at the edge of Ambrook. Blossom, 187.

The spring fair will be held by the mill pond when the ground is dry. If the ground is wet, we will hold it by the house. If both places are wet, we will hold it under the mill roof and ask Jory to move the flour sacks.

Bring apples, honey, eggs, wool, carrots, beetroot, or potatoes. Put your price on the board beside your goods. Emeralds are for paying, not for testing whether a jar lid is tight.

The school children will sing by the old oak. They may sing twice if the first song is short. They may not climb the oak to sing louder.

Elm will set a table for tools and apprentice drills. The little copper helper can carry light baskets from the gate to the table. Keep the path clear. It has not learned to carry people.

There will be bread and soup at midday. Bring a bowl. The house has six bowls, and one is cracked.

Jory will turn the mill wheel at noon. Do not lean over the rail to watch it. The wheel has no interest in your hat, but it may take it.

If rain begins, take the baskets inside first. The apples can wait under a cloth. The children cannot.
%%
Notice: a new apprentice at the house
Pinned by Wren, healer, on the door of the healing house.

A new apprentice has come to the house. Its name is Wick. It was tested at Vell on the drill board, nine of ten, and written in fewer marks to fit a small crystal. It learns slowly.

It answers with one of eight words only: farm, store, fetch, come, stay, build, haul or home. It will not talk, and it will not answer a question. Give it an order plainly.

Please do not shout. It is only learning.
%%
Notice: what is said of the big houses
Posted by Nell, night watch, on the board at Kettle Ridge. Autumn. A cart from Vell had brought the news, and Nell was asked to write it so everyone would hear the same thing.

People have asked about the relay houses that the councils are building. Here is what is known, and here is what is only said.

KNOWN. The councils are building relay houses bigger than any town. They stand on the high ground away from the villages. They are far larger than the little relay houses at the foot of the towers. Each holds a mind in a crystal, and the mind is bigger than any the tutors have made before.

KNOWN. The tutors say these minds are too big for any tutor to check alone. The old rule was to test a mind on a drill it had never seen. With the biggest ones, the tests are so many that a whole hall of tutors must work for weeks.

SAID. The biggest houses can answer any question. This is said by a carter from Saltreach.

SAID. The biggest houses cannot answer any question. This is said by a tutor at Vell.

SAID. The biggest houses are full of water, ice or snow, to keep the quickeners cool. A woman from the north says they are so cold that frost grows on the outside walls in summer.

SAID. The biggest houses are not yet finished. This is said by the council at Three Wells.

If you hear anything else, do not repeat it as true. Say, "I heard that." That is the right way to say it.

If the board is wrong, tell the watch. We will mend it.

Nell, night watch
%%
Notice: small crystal test
Summer, 200. Put up by Fen, farmer, for the Vell board.

The tutors have made a smaller crystal for a field apprentice. Its weights take fewer marks to write. The mind still learns from the drills. It can fit in a smaller place, but it may lose a little skill.

I watched the test in the drill yard. Nessa gave it the same farm drill as the other mind. It sorted the wheat and beetroot well. It put one carrot in the wrong row.

The larger crystal got that one right. Nessa says this is why we test before we send a mind to work.

Do not ask the small mind to carry more than it knows. Do not blame the crystal for a poor drill.

Fen has gone back to his field. The carrots are all in the right row now.
%%
Notice: the broken lamp
On the board by the mill pond at Ambrook. Autumn. From Ama, beekeeper, with a note from Corin.
The signal lamp on the Ambrook tower is broken. One pane of the lamp room cracked in the cold night, and the copper ring has bent. Until it is mended the tower can only send by day, with the flags.
If you need a message sent, take it to the tower door before noon. Do not wait for dark.
Corin, shipwright, is here for the apple crates and says he can bend the ring back. He has bent harder things. He asks for one clean pane of glass and a ladder that does not wobble.
Anyone with a pane of glass, bring it to the mill.
%%
Notice: the summer fair at Lowmarsh
Posted at the boat houses, summer, from Wren the healer, who has been made to organize it again.
The fair is on the fifteenth of Longday, at the weir. Everyone is welcome. Bring your own bowl.
Contests:
Longest reed. A measuring stick will be at the gate.
Biggest frog. Frogs are returned to the marsh after.
Best eel pie. Judged by Wren, who is fair and hungry.
Fastest rower on the weir. Three boats, three rowers, one winner.
The prize for each is a ribbon and a jar of honey from Ama at Ambrook. The grand prize is a lamp for the front of your boat house, made by the smith.
No pushing. No shouting. No feeding the judges. Wren has been fed before and cannot be bribed with pie. She can be bribed with two pies.
If it rains, we hold it in the boat houses. If it floods, we hold it in boats.
%%
Lost and found: one brown goat
Posted at the Kettle Inn and the ridge farms, by Garrow, twelfth of Apple, 189.
Lost: one brown goat, a she-goat, with a bell on a red cord. Answers to Nettle. Or she did.
Last seen on the hill behind the top wheat field, going toward the woods. She likes apples and she likes trouble.
If you find her, do not pull the cord. Take her by the beard gently and lead her with an apple. She will follow an apple over a hill.
If she will not follow, write your name here and I will come and fetch her.
Found so far: one brown dog, not mine, now home with the shepherd. Two hens, claimed by the hen house. A boot, size unknown.
Thank you to the children who looked all through the birch wood. There is honey cake for you at my cart.
%%
Notice: the first sail of the new mill
Pinned on the gate of the Kettle Ridge mill, in the summer of 208. Written by Ned, roofer, who went up the ladder to fit the new sail and says he is still shaking.
The mill has a new sail on the north side. It is the sail that came down in the big wind, carried off the ridge and found in Brin's far field, under a pile of wet straw. It was not broken. It was only bent.
We took it down and straightened it. We did it in the shed, with the warm stove and four people holding it flat, and it cracked twice, and we mended it both times. Sefa sat on the cracked part and said nothing for an hour.
Then Ned and the apprentices, Pip and Fence, hauled the sail back up the tower and fitted it with the new pins. The wind came up from the west at the noon bell. The sail went round once. Then the mill squeaked on every turn, the way it always does, and Sefa said it was the best sound on the ridge.
The mill has all four sails again. The mill does not thank anyone. But the flour is coming down the chute, and the sacks are going out, and the hens are laying in the lee of the wall, and that is thanks enough for a roofer.
%%
Notice: zombie at the gate
A zombie was seen at the north gate of the hamlet on the night of the first frost. It stood very still for some time, looking at the lamp in the gatehouse window, and then it walked slowly round the wall, looking for another way in. It found none. The stones are good, and the wall is tall, and the gate was barred.

Keep the torches lit on the north path until the thaw. Do not go out to see what it is. Do not tell it your name. If you see it, go inside, bar the door, and call the watch.

The watch will light a second torch at the gate, and a third on the wall. The apprentices of the hamlet will walk the wall in pairs, carrying their lamps, and they will not stop to talk. This is not rudeness. They have been told to keep moving, and they do.

Ivo, trader, for the hamlet board, on behalf of the watch.
%%
Notice: lost on the Copperhold road
Posted on the board by the stable, the hamlet near Copperhold, in the middle of summer. Colm, stable hand.
LOST: one saddle strap, brown, with a brass buckle. Lost between here and the second waymark. I think the donkey ate it.
LOST: one hat, straw. Belongs to Dilly's father. It has a feather. The feather is a crow's. He is fond of it.
LOST: three hens. Gone since the day of the big rain. They may be at the mine gate. Hens are fond of the mine gate kitchen.
FOUND: one boot, left. Size of a farmer. It is outside the stable. If you are missing a left boot, come and look.
FOUND: a small bell on a string. Rang when I picked it up. I think it belongs to a goat.
%%
Notice: well water
Summer of the 23rd year of the archive
The well at Reed Gate Farm is clear again.
Please draw water with the farm bucket only.
Do not leave the bucket on the ground. Mud falls in.
Jem has marked a clean jar for births and washing.
That jar is on the high shelf in the back room.
The rest of the water is for folk, horses and hens.
We have a new hand pump by the north fence.
It is slow, but it works. Turn the handle gently.
The oak post beside it is loose. Tell Jem before it falls.
Two children tried to mend it with beetroot stems.
The stems did not help. They are now in the soup.
%%
Road notice: snow at the ridge
The Long Road is open from Three Wells to Kettle Ridge, but the last rise is covered with hard snow. Carts may pass with two people walking beside them. A single driver should wait until the snow is cut back.
The road crew has put fresh torches on the posts from the Kettle Inn to the ridge farms. Three old torches were buried by the drift. Do not dig at every dark place. One of them is the top of a waymark, and it has a figure on it.
The ditch in the top field is covered with ice. Do not cross it with a cart. The hedge on the north side hides a shallow place where water still runs. Use the road.
Elm's house at the edge of the ridge will take in travelers who cannot reach the inn before dark. There are two spare beds and a bench by the stove. Bring your own blanket if you have one. Elm has a blanket for the bench, but it is usually claimed by the cat.
The house has water at the well and dry kindling in the shed. Please leave enough kindling for the next traveler. If you use the last bundle, tell Elm. He can count the empty place in the stack, but he likes to hear it from a person.
Pip and Tallow have been asked to carry sacks between the barn and the house. Tallow has passed the test on carrying sacks. It has not been tested on finding travelers or choosing a safe road. Give those tasks to the road crew.
At the Kettle Inn, ask Tam for word on the lower track. At Three Wells, ask at the notice board. The board is easier to find than the lower track.
Elm, for the road crew, Deepsnow of 207
%%
Notice: rule of the road, and the goose
Board at the Weller farm, hill road above Vell. Put up by Oren, clerk, with the farmer's leave. Late autumn.
The goose came home. It came home on its own, in the rain, and went straight to the pen, and has not left it since. Thank you to all who looked. Do not chase geese. They come home.
The boot is still here. It is a left boot, small, and it has been here since Apple. We have asked at Three Wells and at the school. Nobody knows. If it is yours, come.
The song contest is on the last night of Leaffall, at the Kettle Inn on the ridge road. Singers before dark. Lanterns. The prize is a jar of honey and the good seat. Nessa judges. She is exact. Bring your best song and not your longest.
Road news: the Long Road north of the bridge is soft from the rain. Carts go slow. One cart went into the ditch and out again, and the horse is fine, and the driver is cross. Torches every twelve blocks, as always. Keep them lit. The nights are long.
The mill at Ambrook has shut its sluice for the cold. Jory says nobody may open it, and nobody has, and nobody will.
Rumor from Copperhold: the miners say the Deep Works hum at night now, low, like a held note. Some say it is the pumps. Some say it is the stone. Hesk will not go below the eighth. He does not say why. He is not the only one.
Rumor from the coast: another big ship went out. Corin says the harbor is quiet. He says the gulls are loud, because there are fewer boats.
Oren, clerk of the Archive, writes this for the farm. Write to us. The door is open. The lamps are trimmed.
%%
Notice: the long list of what is said
Posted by Nell, night watch, on the board at Kettle Ridge. Autumn. The board was crowded, and the people kept asking, so Nell wrote a long notice about the talk of the biggest relay houses.

For the last month, people have asked me what I know of the biggest relay houses. I know very little. I keep the watch. But I have listened, and I have written down what I heard, and I post it here so you may judge for yourselves.

What we know for sure. The councils have begun to build relay houses that are bigger than towns. The first is at Vell, on the north side of the hill. The second is at Saltreach, beside the harbor. A third is being dug at Copperhold, under the town. I have seen the plans at the board of the Three Wells council. Each house is a ring of stone walls, with rooms inside, and a great hall in the middle where the mind sits in its crystal, ringed by quickeners and cooled with water.

What the tutors say. The minds are bigger than any a tutor can check alone. A tutor can test a small mind on a drill it has never seen, and know whether it learned or only remembered. With a big mind, the drill is so long that no one tutor can read it all. So the tutors work in halls, and they share the checking, and they still disagree.

What a carter said. He said that the biggest mind in Vell can answer any letter in a breath, and that it has written a letter to the council at Three Wells that no one could tell from a person's. I do not know if this is true.

What a woman at the ford said. She said that the biggest mind does not write letters at all. She said it only reads. I do not know if this is true.

What the baker said. He said he heard the quickeners hum at night, and that the hum is so low you feel it in your teeth. I asked him how far from the house he stood. He said, "A day's walk." I do not believe this.

What a child said. He said the biggest houses were built to keep the biggest secrets. I asked him what secrets. He said, "The biggest ones." I thanked him.

What I think. I think the councils built the houses for the same reason that we built the first relay towers: to carry more. I think the tutors are right to be careful. I think the rumors are the usual rumors. And I think a good rule is the old one: never send an untested mind to the fields.

I do not know what the biggest minds can do. Neither does anyone I have asked. If you know, tell me. If you do not know, say so, and we will not think the less of you.

The lamps are lit at the gate. The spiders are in the Hobb barn. The torches are fed. The watch is awake.

Nell, night watch
%%
Notice: the new drill at the Copperhold
Pinned on the board at the mine gate and the post by the east well. From the Copperhold tutor house, in the year the layers were first passed the blame. Read it all. The tutors ask for questions to be written on the back.
The tutor house has begun a new kind of drill for the reading minds. It uses layers, one feeding the next, as Merle showed us.
When a mind gives a wrong answer on a drill page, the answer is measured. The measure is then divided between the layers. The top layer is told how much it was to blame. It passes a share down to the layer below, and that layer passes a share down again, to the first. Each layer changes by its share.
This is the blame passed back. It is slow. It works on the hard pages, where the old drill could not.
The minds drilled this way are best at reading the numbers on letters for the relays. They can read a sum from a page that has been smudged by rain. When they are not sure, they write unclear. Please do not ask them to guess.
Notice to the miners: the tutor house is not asking for crystals from the mine stores this season. The crystals are being grown at Vell. Do not send your own sheets of copper to the tutor house. They will only be sent back.
Notice to the children: the tutors will show the layers to anyone who asks, on Blossom and Swarm, between the first bell and the noon bell. Bring a clean hand, and do not touch the glass.
Warning: the new drill has a rule. Never drill a mind on a broken thing. If the lamp is cracked, or the page is torn, or the figures are smudged, the drill stops until it is mended. A mind learns what it is shown, and it will remember the crack.
Tutor house, Copperhold. Please return the question sheets to the box by the gate.
%%
Notice: lost and found, the boardwalk
Posted at the boat house and the healing house, and at the weir, and by the frogs' pond, where the boardwalk ends. Summer.

FOUND, by the boat house, first week of Melon:
One paddle, short, with a dent in the handle. Owner may claim by describing where he dropped it, which is in the reeds on the north side, and what he said when he did.
One hat, green, with a feather, very wet. Owner was seen going home without it.
One boot, left, child's size, with a frog in it. The frog has been returned to the pond. The boot is still in the boat house, waiting.
One basket of eels, full, left on the boardwalk by a carter from the Long Road. Eels are not lost. They are not found either. They are eaten.

LOST, from the boardwalk, last week:
One pair of spectacles, round, belonging to the old clerk from Vell who came to count the reeds. He says he cannot see the notice without them. He has asked us to write the notice bigger. We have.
One baby goat, white, with a red collar. It was last seen going under the healing house. Wren says it is in the shed and is very happy about it.
One coil of rope, long, from the weir post. Kept by the weir keeper, who says it was not lost, only borrowed, and that he has put it back.
One tune, believed to be from the boat house. It has been heard all week, from the reeds. Anyone who knows the words, please come and sing them to the frogs, so they can finish it.

If you have lost or found something, please tell the boat house, which keeps the book. Do not leave things on the boardwalk. The boardwalk is for walking.
%%
Notice: the marsh fair, the last market
Posted by Wren and the keeper of the fair, for the market at the turning, the twelfth of Apple.

The last market of the year will be at the Lowmarsh turning. Stalls from dawn to dusk. Bring a lantern.

What is for sale:
Fish, fresh, from the weir.
Eels, smoked. You know who.
Honey in little jars. The bees had a good year.
Reed mats, baskets, and one very good hat.
Apples from Ambrook, brought up the Long Road by Pell, who has apples in his cart and a story about every one.

What else:
The drawing of the raffle at midday. The prize is a hen. It is a brown hen. It may be the hen that was lost. It came back. It is a good hen. Tickets are one emerald. All the money goes to the healing house, for winter blankets.

Wren will be at the healing house in the morning and at the fair in the afternoon. Bring your coughs early.

A gift: the children of the marsh have made a new sign for the healing house door. It has a frog on it. Wren did not ask for a frog. Wren likes the frog.

Do not park carts on the reeds.
%%
The whole board, all of autumn
This is the whole board, copied as it stood on the last day of autumn, so the clerks at Vell can see what the house at the edge of Three Wells has been doing. Written by Lark, innkeeper.

RULES OF THE BOARD
1. One notice to one pin. Do not pin over someone else's notice.
2. Sign your notice. If you do not sign it, we will assume it was the goat.
3. Take your notice down when the thing is done.
4. No notices on the gate post. It is for the lamp hook.
5. Ask for Lark at the gate, not the mayor. The mayor has been told.

ROAD NEWS
The new road is open to the ridge, and the carts run on it daily. The stone edge has been mended twice since the frost, once by a carter who was annoyed with a stone.

The torches on the new road are lit every dusk by the boy from the bakery. He has stopped climbing the posts. He now climbs the tower stair instead, which the keeper says is a better place for a boy with energy.

The waymarks are up as far as the first bend. The nearest inn is the one at the edge of this town, which is us. Lark says the arrow points at our door, and that this is a fair arrow.

RELAY TOWER
The lamp on the tower was lit on the first clear night, as the keeper promised. It blinks on the hour. Ruth the keeper says she has counted the stair every night, and the count is always the same. She says that is enough for her.

The keeper's helper is an apprentice from the drill yard at Vell. It carries the lamp oil up the stair, one can at a time. It does not talk.

WARNING
Creepers on the east road after dusk. Keep a torch lit, and walk in pairs. The baker's dog went down the east road alone and came back with a dent in its ear.

MOVING DAY
The Ostles moved into the house by the mill pond on the last day of Apple. The bed fitted through the window. The cow walked in by the front door, which she considered her right.

HOMECOMING
Pim Hale has come home from Vell with a clear hand and a copied page, and he read it aloud at the north well. The page was about the first four helpers, and how a crystal learns from what it is shown. Then everybody asked him questions.

LOST AND FOUND
Lost: one brown hen, Plum. Found: Plum, in the bakery, on the loaves. The baker says the loaves are hers now, and the hen does not disagree.
Found: a grey cloak, torn at the hem. Mended by the cook.
FOUND: a child's red shoe, with a bell on the toe. The bell still rings. The child has not come forward.
LOST: a small grey goat, two days late from the Ambrook cart. It went up the hill, not down. The relay keeper has seen it twice, and says it looked pleased.

WANTED
Two carters for the new road. One boy to carry lamp oil. Pay is in emeralds and a bed by the hearth. Ask at the gate, after the second bell.

Please read the board before you go down the hill, and read it again coming back up. The notices change every day, and so do the carters.

Lark, innkeeper, at the edge of Three Wells, autumn, the fourteenth year of the Archive
%%
Notice: rumors, and what to do with them
Posted on the board at Three Wells by Dace, mayor, in spring. It was copied out by Bel for the school.

There are a great many rumors going round the square this spring. I have listened to all of them. I will say what I know and what I do not.

What I know: the three wells are sweet. The market is full. The road is open. The bell rings at dawn and at dusk. The school has forty-one children, which is five more than last year. The bakery has run out of buns twice this week.

What I have heard, and cannot say is true:

That there were lights over the north, and that a keeper at Northpoint saw them first. One traveler said they were falling stars. Another said fires on the far hills. A child at the school said they were looking at us. The keeper herself, when I asked by lamp, said only that they were not ours. I do not know what she meant, and I did not like to ask twice.

That the Deep Works hum at night. A miner at the inn said so, and a carter who knows Copperhold said it was the wind in the shaft. A woman who has a brother in the mine said the stone below the old gate is warm. I have written to the mine hall to ask. They have not answered.

That a cough has come to Lowmarsh. Some say it is the water, some say the boats, some say the smoke from the far forges. The healer there is a good woman and will find out. I have sent honey.

That the big ships at Saltreach are full of families going over the sea. Some of them are said to be sailing. Others say it is only trade. I know no one who has gone.

That some of the relay towers in the north have gone quiet, one by one. Others say the lamps are lit but nobody reads them. I do not know.

What I ask: do not repeat these as if they were certain. Say instead, I heard. If you hear something worth the board, bring it to me. I will write it down and put it up, with the name of the one who said it.

The best answer to a worry is a full pot, a lit lamp and a good neighbor. We have those. We will keep them.

Dace
%%
Lost and found at Elm's house
Found by the gate at Elm's house: one blue mitten, one small wooden spoon, and a sack with three apples in it. The sack has no name. Elm says the apples are sound, though one has a bite in it. He does not know who took the bite. The fox denies it.
Ask at Elm's door before the second bell after dawn. If no one comes for the mitten, it will go to the child whose hands are coldest. If no one claims the spoon, it will stay by the bread board. Elm says every house needs another spoon.
The apples will be shared at supper unless their owner comes first. Please say how many were in the sack. Elm remembers three. His grandson remembers four. They both counted after the fox left.
A brown scarf was found on the road by the bottom field. It is hanging by the door to dry. Do not pull it down. Elm's cat has decided it is a bed.
For the person who left a bundle of kindling: thank you. Elm says it was not needed. The wood box says otherwise.
Elm, with help from Bel, Frost of 190
%%
Letter: Nessa to the tutors at Vell
Nessa, tutor of apprentices, to the hall at Vell. Autumn, year 9.
I am writing from the Halfway Inn, where the hearth has not gone out in twenty years and the bread is better than the beds. I am on the road to Kettle Ridge to see Tam's new apprentice. The roads are busy. That is the news. Everyone is going somewhere and most of them are coming back.
The relay towers are spreading. I passed two on the way here, and a third is going up on the hill above Ambrook. The keepers stand at the foot of each with their lamps and their ledgers, and they wave at every cart. They are the friendliest people on the road. They have to be. Nobody climbs a tower for no reason.
I stopped at Vell. The Archive is deeper than last year. Oren showed me the new hall, still cool and still dry, and the light wells bringing the sky down to the shelves. He has a system now for spoiled pages. He takes them out himself, one by one, and burns them in the yard, and says a word over each. I asked what word. He said it was private.
The copying room was full. Eight long tables, eight lamps, eight clerks, and the big window over the town. It is the brightest room in the hill. When the sun comes in, everyone stops writing for a moment. Then they start again. I like that they stop.
At the tutor house the drill room was quiet. The apprentices stood in their row with their crystals in and waited. I gave them three orders and they did two. That is a good day for year nine. We have come a long way from the first four. We have a long way to go. The tutors' books say the same in every hall.
Tomorrow I go on to Kettle Ridge. Tam writes that his apprentice Pip can now carry a full basket from the top field to the barn without eating any of it. This is progress. Last month Pip ate a beetroot and could not be spoken to for an hour.
Tell the clerks to keep my letters. All of them. Even the dull ones. Especially the dull ones. The dull ones are what the road was like.
%%
Notice: fair at the shaft head
The spring fair is at the market square, the fifth of Sowing.
Stalls: honey, wool, clay pots, apples, beetroot, bread, and a man with good knives.
The contest is for the best lamp made from copper and glass. Bring your own to the board.
The rope is out for the biggest beetroot. It is a long rope. We expect a big beetroot.
Apprentices may carry and fetch. They may not enter the contests. We can tell.
The lift is closed for the fair, so folk can walk down one level and see the copper.
Mind the rails. Mind the dark. Take a lamp. Do not go past the eighth.
The count board will have cakes on it. The kitchen at the mine gate is open all day.
Dell, boat builder, for the market board
%%
Lost and found: Ambrook market
On the board at the market in Ambrook, autumn. Kept by Ama, who keeps everything.
FOUND: one boot, left, brown, size big. Found in the mill pond. Not a fish. Ask Jory.
FOUND: a basket of apples with no owner. Someone left it by the bridge and walked away. We have eaten four. The rest are in the barn. Come and claim them, and we will say sorry about the four.
FOUND: one lamp pane, cracked, by the foot of the tower. It was the pane that broke last week. Corin says keep it. He may have a use.
FOUND: a small wooden boat with no sail. Corin says it is a very good boat and the shape is right. Whose is it? He wants to meet the maker.
LOST: a goat called Medlar. White, one brown ear. She goes where she likes. If you see her in your garden, do not shout. She does not mind shouting. Feed her a turnip and bring her to Tarn.
LOST: a green scarf, long. Knitted by a grandmother. It matters more than it looks.
LOST: a song. The first line goes "Up the hill with an apple." I forgot the second line. If you know it, tell Ama.
LOST: a plank of oak, forty blocks long, from the old yard. It cannot have walked. Someone has it. Corin would like to know who.
FOUND: all the apples that fell off the cart on the bridge road. They are in the ditch. Please take them out of the ditch.
Anything not claimed by the first day of Longnight goes to the school at Three Wells or into the soup.
%%
Lost child, found at the windmill
Notice on the board at Kettle Ridge, by the well. Put up by Tam, who is sorry, and by Brin, who is not.

Milo, aged five, ran off from the Kettle Inn yard on the morning of the spring fair. He was last seen in a blue hat, eating a pie that was not his. He was carrying a stick, which he says is a horse.

He was found at the windmill at noon, asleep in the shadow of a sail, with the miller's cat. The cat was not pleased. Milo says he only went to check that the windmill was still turning, because somebody should.

Thank you to everyone who searched the top field, the long field and the pig pen. The pig pen was searched twice. Big Beet has asked for an apology.

Please keep children within sight of this board and within hearing of the bell. The bell is rung at noon and at dusk. A child who hears it should come straight home. A child who hears it and goes to see if the windmill is still turning should be spoken to by his mother, at length.

Tam asks that the stick be returned to Milo. It is not a horse. Milo knows this, and asks that you agree with him anyway.
%%
Notice: the scores
A longer note, pinned by the stair of the Northpoint relay house. Written by Mira, for the keepers and for the young who ask about the big mind. Spring.

You have asked me why we keep the scores. Here is the answer, as plainly as I can put it.

A big mind learns by being told how well it did. It is not told the right answer. It is told a score. Over a great many letters, the mind learns to write answers that score well. This was a new idea when the tutors first tried it, and some of them did not like it. A mind that learns to please the score, they said, might learn to please the tutor and not the truth.

That is a fair worry. So the tutors did two things. They kept a box of questions the mind never saw, and they tested it on those. They also asked other tutors to read the answers, and score them too. When the two sets of scores agree, the mind is doing well. When they disagree, the tutors stop and look.

Why does a mind need to be kind? Because the letters it answers come from people. A child writes. A farmer writes. A keeper writes at night, with a cold hand. A letter that is clever and cruel is no use to any of them. So the scores say kind, and the mind learns kind.

Why does it refuse harm? Because some letters ask for things that would hurt a neighbor, or a child, or the towers. The scores say no, and the mind learns to say no, and to say it gently, and to suggest what it can do instead.

Why does it say it does not know? Because a mind that guesses at the lamps, or at the mines, or at the far side of the sea, will be wrong, and people will act on the wrong answer. The scores say I do not know is better than a wrong answer, and the mind has learned it.

I do not know whether the mind feels any of this. I cannot tell from the scores. I only know what it does. Keep the scores. Read them. And if you ever find a score that seems wrong, write it down, and send it to Vell.
%%
Notice: the roof at the Twelve Beds
Posted at the market board, Three Wells, summer. Written out by Bel for the mayor, and for the Archive.

The inn of twelve beds has a new roof. The old roof was oak and sagged in the middle like a tired horse. The new one is oak and spruce, with a slope for the rain, and it is very straight.

Ten people mended it. Their names are on the beam inside the front door: Hob, Cress, Ida's brother, Cade, the two Wicks, Brann, old Tolly, and Dace the mayor, who held the ladder and called it work.

It took nine days. On the third, it rained. On the fifth, it rained harder. On the seventh, it was dry, and everyone cheered, and then it rained again.

The innkeeper has put a new sign over the door. It says: The Twelve Beds, roof by the whole town.

Here is what is new inside. The beams are straight, so the lamps hang evenly. The attic is dry, so the guests may use it. There are fourteen beds now, but the sign still says twelve. The innkeeper says the name is the name.

There is one more thing. While they worked, the roofers found an old tin box under the ridge. In it was a letter, folded small and sealed with wax. The wax had no stamp on it. The mayor opened the letter in front of everyone. It was a letter from a roofer of the old roof, written long ago. It said: To whoever mends this roof next. Thank you. Mind the third beam. It is rotten. And keep the lamps lit, for the nights are long.

The third beam was rotten. They had already replaced it.

The roofers have put the letter back in the box, and the box back under the ridge. They added a note of their own, to whoever comes next. I do not know what it said. It was sealed.

The new roof is dry and the inn is warm. If you pass through, ask for a bed. They will find one. They always do.

Bel
%%
Notice: Blue cloth in Leaffall
Teague, dyer of Vell, posts this in the market hall.

I have blue cloth ready for coats and table covers.
Bring clean wool, not wool with burrs in it.
I will pay one emerald for a full basket of good wool.
For less wool, we will agree on less pay.

I will not dye wet wool. It makes a pale, sad blue.
Ask at my door before carrying a basket up the hill.
The door is the one with two blue pots beside it.
One pot is cracked. That is the right door.

I need apples for my supper, not as payment.
%%
Board at Reed Gate Farm
Summer of the 58th year of the archive
The road to Lowmarsh is open from the ford to the old oak.
The bridge is oak, with stone under both feet.
A cart crossed it this morning. The cart held two sacks of wheat,
three baskets of apples, and a sleeping child.
The child woke at the far end and asked where the river went.
No one knew. Jem said, "It goes past the reeds, as rivers do."
The child was satisfied and ate an apple.
The new inn stands where the farm barn stood.
It has six beds, a hearth, and a board for road notices.
The keeper asks travelers to knock before opening the pantry.
The bread is for everyone, but the cheese is not.
A torch now stands beside the ford and another by the bridge.
Keep both lit after dusk. Spiders have been seen near the posts.
The farm gate is repaired. Lift it before you push.
The well bucket is clean. Keep it off the ground.
Lost: one white hen with a bent tail feather.
She was last seen beside the road, following a cart.
She may come back for the grain scattered by the bridge.
If she does, bring her to the hen house and shut the door.
Do not call her Snow. She answers to Nothing.
The relay tower on the hill is finished.
It has a stair inside, a lamp at each turn, and a glass room above.
The keeper sent a message to Lowmarsh at dusk.
The answer came before Jem had finished her bread.
The keeper says this is the first tower on this road.
More will stand between here and Vell, if there are enough hands.
There are enough hands for the next tower. The stone is ready.
The fair will be held in the farm field on the last day of summer.
Bring fish, honey, wool, apples, or a song.
No one may bring a goat into the school tent.
Brindle once ate the school slate. We have not forgotten.
Jem will sit by the well and help any mother who needs her.
Please leave her a place at the table.
She has promised to bring beetroot soup.
The soup is not thin, though Hesk has not tried it.
%%
Notice: high water at the bridge
Pinned to the board at Three Wells. Thaw of 201. By Merle, healer, for the mayor.

The stream at the bridge is rising. It is brown, and it carries fence posts. By evening it may cross the low street.
1. Do not cross the bridge after noon.
2. Move sacks, beds and hens off the ground floor of the low street houses.
3. If water comes into your house, boil what you drink, as long as it takes to sing the school song three times.
4. The old and the very young sleep at the inn tonight.
Merle, healer
%%
Chronicle: the roads and the towers
Kept at the Archive at Vell. Written by the clerks in the front hall, one hand after another. This copy is for the inns on the Long Road.
Year 1. The Archive is founded at Vell, dug into the hill. On the first day of spring the first keepers cut over the door: "We will keep everything we write." The town brings bread and beetroot soup. It rains. Nobody minds.
Year 2. The first four apprentices are drilled at Vell. They carry stone and stack it. The children name them. The tutors pretend not to be pleased.
Year 3. The road from Vell to Three Wells is laid, cobblestone in the towns and packed earth between. A torch every twelve blocks. The first waymarks are set, three blocks high, with a figure and an arrow.
Year 5. Three Wells builds its wall. Cobblestone, cobblestone, deep stone, and the top row stuck out one block against spiders. The school house goes up by the east well, of Copperhold stone and Saltreach glass. The children paint the door. The paint runs. They paint it again.
Year 6. The first relay tower is finished at Vell. The lamp is lit at dusk and seen from Three Wells, which is farther than anyone thought a lamp could be seen. People walk out to look at it. The keeper waves. The keeper waves a great deal.
Year 7. Towers at Three Wells, Kettle Ridge and Ambrook. The Long Road now has an inn a day apart. The Brown Hen opens. The Halfway Inn mends its roof and keeps its hearth going, and has not let it out since.
Year 8. Towers at Saltreach and Copperhold. The tower at Saltreach stands above the harbor, and the keeper there says the lamp and the lighthouse argue at night about which is brighter. The keeper is a funny man. The lamp is winning.
Year 9. The smallest tower, on the hill between Vell and Three Wells, one lamp and one keeper. Northpoint is begun in the north, in the snow, at the end of the road. Mira will keep it. She writes that the stone is cold and the view is worth it.
The archive keeps all of this. The clerks copy it in the bright room with the big window. When the sun comes in, they stop writing for a moment. Then they start again.
We will keep everything we write.
%%
Farm board: summer work
The fair is over. The farm lane is open to carts again. The bridge held, though one rail needs a new peg.
Please return the borrowed baskets to the shed. The baker has two, and Pell has one under his cart. Pell says it is not his. The basket says Three Wells on the handle.
The recipe for beetroot cakes is pinned beside the oven. This is the third copy. The first had no flour, and the second had twice the salt. Both were still served. The cook says the honey covered the taste. The children say it did not.
The farm apprentice carried the flour from the store after it was tested on the same kind of basket drill. It brought the right sack, then waited by the kitchen door. A small mind can answer an order by doing it, but it cannot tell us that the recipe is bad.
The big mind at the hill relay house sends answers to the keeper. It stands in a loaf sized crystal on a stand. Quickeners ring the stand and are kept cool with water. The keeper writes to it through the relay, then gives its answer to the people who ask.
We do not know why a crystal learns from examples. We do know that a mind must be tested before it is trusted with work.
Keep this notice dry. The roof above the board still leaks.
%%
Lost and found, at the market board
Lost: one wooden spoon, a good one, with a crack in the handle. It was last seen by the bread stall, which is where all the good spoons go to be forgotten. Reward: a loaf and a kind word.

Found: one red glove, child's size, at the bottom of the well bucket. The well has been very generous with it. Ask at the mill house. The miller will say it is his daughter's, and then he will say it is his own, and you must argue it out with him.

Lost: one brown cat, answers to nothing, and is very sorry to be lost. Last seen on the roof of the honey stall.

Hollis, archive clerk.
%%
Notice: the hamlet's winter rules
These rules are for the whole hamlet, from the first frost until the thaw. They were agreed at the council in the hall, after a long argument about the cat and a short one about the well. They are read aloud at the start of each week, and they are pinned to the board for those who cannot hear.

One. Keep one lamp lit in every window facing the north path. The watch will walk the path at dusk, and they need to see the houses to know where the houses are.

Two. Bring the animals in before the second bell. Bring in the cats, too. They will not want to come, and they will try to stay out. Bring them in anyway, and shut the coal chute.

Three. Wood is stacked at the back of the house, under the eaves, so the snow does not sit on it. A wet log is a sad log, and a sad log will not light.

Four. Water is drawn from the well each morning, before the ice comes back. Break the ice with the long pole. Do not use your foot. The old men have been told not to use their feet. They have not listened, and they have had the falls to prove it.

Five. If you see a zombie at the gate, go inside. Bar the door. Light a lamp in the window, and call the watch. Do not go out with a torch to see what it is. The torch will be seen, and the zombie will be closer than you think.

Six. If you are cold, come to the hall. The stove is lit from dusk to the second bell, and the bench by the stove is for anyone who needs it.

Seven. The school is open unless the bell does not ring. If the bell does not ring, the school is closed, and the teacher is at home with a cold.

Eight. Do not walk on the lake. The ice is thin at the outflow, and the children have been told so many times that they have started to believe it. Believe it anyway.

Nine. The apprentices of the hamlet work the winter shifts. They carry the wood, clear the paths, walk the wall, and keep the lamps lit. They are not to be disturbed while they walk, and they will not stop to talk. If you need one, call its name, and it will come.

Ten. Remember the people who live alone on the far side of the hill. Take them bread on the first day of each week, and stay for a minute, if they want you to. Often they do not, and that is also a kind of answer.

Ivo, trader, for the hamlet board, for the council, and for the watch. Please read these rules aloud to your children, and make them repeat the sixth, which is the one they will forget.
%%
Notice: lost and found, the Brown Hen
Winter of 192. Hung by the fire at the Brown Hen on the Long Road. Everything on this list was left behind by a traveler and is waiting to go home.

Lost, and now found here:
One left boot, brown, with a hole in the heel. The right boot has not been found. We think a fox has it.
One scarf, red and green, very long. It was wound three times round the dog and has been given back to the dog.
One purse, empty. A very good purse. Its owner may have its contents back when he can describe them.
Two combs. One for hair, one for something else.
A small wooden horse, painted blue, with one ear. A child in a green coat left it on the stairs on the third night of Longnight. Please come back for it. It is very sad.
One bag of seeds. We do not know what seeds. They have been planted in the yard, and in spring we will find out.
One hat. It fits Nim. Nim will keep it unless it is claimed by Longday.
One note, unsigned, which says "I will meet you at the third waymark when the snow is gone." The snow is gone. We hope you went.

Found nothing: no one has lost a pig.

Anyone who owns any of these may take them, and may not complain about the state they are in.

Nim, with the good hat on
%%
Notice: the Ambrook board, all winter
Put up on the mill board from the first frost to the end of Deepsnow, one at a time, by whoever had something to say. The board is the best place to read the news, and the worst place to keep a secret.

Frost, the first. The pond froze at the edges. Do not walk on the middle, and do not stand on the sluice, which is shut and must stay shut. Jory has said it three times and he is not going to say it a fourth.

Frost, the eighth. Bees are home and quiet in their hives. Hob asks you to leave them alone until Thaw, and to bring him any honey you were going to trade. He is keeping it for the fair. He says the fair is the only thing in Ambrook that is worth waiting for.

Frost, the fifteenth. A girl was born at the mill on a cold night, to Tamsin the miller's daughter and her husband Piers. Named Bramble. She has a loud voice and a clear opinion about the wheel. The mill wheel is not pleased. Everyone else is.

Longnight, the first. The orchard has been counted. Four hundred apple trees, the old one with the grey branch, and the three new trees planted by the bridge. The apples in the cellar are the best of the year. Pell took a barrel to Lowmarsh and came back with a letter saying so.

Longnight, the fourth. The lantern walk on the longest night, from the mill to the bridge and back. Carry your own lantern. Do not swap them. The old ones were swapped once, and a whole family found themselves walking home by the wrong road.

Longnight, the ninth. The bridge is mended. The third plank is new and a little yellow beside the others, and the children have named it Honest. Walk over it carefully and tell the children to do the same.

Deepsnow, the second. Ice on the pond again, thicker. The children are skating on the edge, where Jory says it is safe, and the rest of the pond is not theirs to try.

Deepsnow, the twelfth. A cart from the Long Road came in with the post, and the post was not late. It was only wet. The carter asks that you never say it was late again.

Deepsnow, the last. Keep the torches lit on the bridge. Keep the fires banked at the mill. Keep the honey dry and the bees asleep. Keep the lamps lit at the square, so the fair people can find their way home after the musicians have gone. The orchard will wake up in Thaw, and so will the board.
%%
Notice: the cat that will not stay out
Lost and found, and a warning, at the north well. Written by Jem, who has been asked to fetch the cat four times this week.
The cat is ginger and fat and has no proper name. The children call her Mrs Pie. The baker calls her a thief. The mayor calls her a nuisance and then gives her a bit of his bread when he thinks no one is looking.
She has been seen on the school roof. She has been seen on the bakery shelf, asleep on the warm loaves. She has been seen sitting on the notice board, under this very notice, with her tail over the words.
Warning: do not leave the back door of the bakery open. Do not leave a window on the north side open either. The cat knows the way in and does not care about the way out.
Reward for the cat, brought back to the school: one honey cake, from the baker, who says he is very sorry about the loaves.
Reward for the cat, brought back to the baker: one bowl of soup, from the inn, which is not the same as a cake and everybody knows it.
If you find the cat sitting on the notice board, please do not read this aloud to her. She is very tired of it.
%%
Warning: broken mill wheel
The mill wheel broke at noon. Keep clear of the pond edge while the miller works.
Tam has lent the mill his spare oak plank. It is long enough, but it has a knot in the wrong place.
Pip carried the tools and waited by the door. The miller says the wheel will turn again before the next flour count.
Until then, bring grain to the hand mill. Take only what your family needs.
The miller will post a new notice when the water runs through the wheel again.
Ivo
%%
Notice: a melon
By Garrow, posted at the Kettle Inn and the farm gate, twentieth of Apple, 208.
We grew a melon. It is too big. It took three of us and the helper to lift it onto the cart. It does not fit in the cart. It rides beside the cart.
Come and see it on the tenth of Apple at the fair. We will weigh it on the mill tally board. The board may not be long enough.
A word about the fields, for folk new to the ridge:
Keep the torches lit along the field edges. At night there are skeletons and creepers about, and they spoil a crop.
Keep the ditch clear. The water down the middle of the field feeds the roots and drowns the weeds.
Keep the north hedge trimmed. It breaks the wind and the wheat stands straighter.
The helper walks the rows at dusk and does the counting. Say "farm" and it goes. It is slow but it does not stop.
Lost and found: a brown goat, Nettle, found at last in the birch wood, eating apples and looking pleased with herself. She is home. Thank you all.
Found also: one blue mitten, one boot, and a small copper bell on a red cord. Ask at the gate.
%%
Notice: the relay on the hill
Posted at the notice board in Three Wells and at the inn of twelve beds. Summer, the 196th year of the archive.
The little relay on the hill between Vell and Three Wells is open again. One lamp, one keeper, one small door. It was shut for six years and the hill grew over.
What it does:
It carries a message from Three Wells to Vell in a morning.
It carries a message to Lowmarsh by evening, if the weather is kind.
It does not carry anything heavy. A message is a few words, not a cart.
What it costs:
One emerald a message for folk of the town. Nothing from the school, the mayor, or anyone sending word of a sick person.
Rules of the relay, as Nessa wrote them for the drill room, and as we keep them here:
Keep the message short. Short messages arrive. Long ones arrive in pieces and lose their way.
Say who you are and where you are.
If the lamp is dark, wait. The keeper is asleep or the wind is up.
Do not climb the tower to look. The keeper will look for you.
The keeper this season is a young mind in a crystal on a stand, a small one, with a keeper to mind it. It reads the numbers on the letters and passes them on. It is wrong now and then and the keeper checks it. It is getting better. Do not tease it.
- Nessa, for the keeper
%%
Rules for the spring fair, Kettle Ridge
Read out at the bell by the mayor's man of the ridge, and pinned on the board by the well. Please read them before the fair, not during it.

1. Bring your own cup. The Kettle Inn has run out of cups twice, and both times the cups came back with wool in them.
2. Do not race the windmill. The windmill always wins, and it has been practising longer.
3. Pigs are kept behind the pen. Big Beet is not to be trusted with the pies, whatever he says about the pies.
4. Horses are tied at the north rail. The rail is strong. Tie your horse to it, and not to your neighbor's cart.
5. Stalls open at the first bell and close at the second. A stall that opens early will be asked why.
6. Apprentices may carry for you. Only tested minds are sent to the stalls. Ask the tutor for the test sheet, and read the mark.
7. Lost things go to the board. Lost children go to the mill house, and the mill house is not a stall.
8. Songs under the oak are free to hear. Pay the singer if you like the song. The singer will not ask. The singer will look.
9. The bell is rung at noon for the pies and at dusk for going home. Do not ring it yourself. It is not a joke.

Signed for the ridge by the mayor's man, who has been asked to sign it and has done so with his left hand, which is shaking from the rain.
%%
Notice: Summer Work and Fair, Melon 207
For the farm road outside Three Wells and the square.
The summer fair will open on the fifteenth of Melon. Stalls may be set up after the morning bell. Keep the three wells clear, and leave a path wide enough for two carts to pass.
Farm carts should use the cobblestone edge beside the wheat field. The middle of the road is dry now, but the ditch is full. Do not turn a cart near the oak gate. The soil there gives way under a heavy wheel.
The farmer has asked for help bringing water to the lower beds. The farm well is working again, but its bucket rope is short. Use the east well for the first two trips. The farmer will lend a longer rope after the noon meal. Please return it to the shed. Last year it went home with a hay cart and came back tied to a pig.
The carrots are ready. The wheat will need cutting soon. Anyone taking a fair day from farm work should finish the lower row first. This rule applies to the mayor too, though the mayor has been told it applies to him before.
At the fair there will be apples from Ambrook, honey, bread, wool, and beetroot pies. The school children will sing beside the east well. Their new song has four verses. The fourth verse is for clapping, and the children have asked us not to clap before it.
A small apprentice from the town store will carry baskets from the square to the farm shed. It has been tested with empty baskets. Do not give it eggs until the store keeper has tested it with eggs.
Lost and found: a blue cup, one left shoe, and a wooden spoon with a round handle. Leave found things at the notice board. The owner of the spoon should ask at the bakery.
No fires beside the hay. No pigs in the school house. No climbing the fair bell. The bell is for calling people, not for finding out how high a child can climb.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: Farm Road, Melon 172
To everyone using the farm road outside Three Wells.
The cart track is soft after rain. Keep carts to the cobblestone edge until the ground dries.
Please shut the oak gate after you. The cows know the road home, but they do not know the word "please".
Lost: one red scarf, last seen on the fence by the potato field. Leave it at the school house.
Dace
%%
Notice: the melon on the cart
The melon at the end of the market row is not for sale. It is too big to sell, too big to lift, and two boys have sat on it all morning to keep it from rolling down the ridge. Come and see it before the midday bell. After that it will be cut, and everybody will want a piece, and nobody will be able to say why it was so big.

Hollis, archive clerk, for the market board.
%%
Notice: road work by the salt pond
The road between Gull's Rest and Saltreach will be closed from the second to the fifth of Melon.
The road edge sank by the salt pond after last rain. The road crew is laying cobblestone there.
Use the shore path while the work goes on. Do not take carts over the plank bridge. It is for feet and small loads only.
There is a waymark at the turn. Follow its arrow toward Saltreach, not the one toward the old net shed.
The crew will set torches on posts at dusk. Please leave them where they stand.
A cart of clay is due from the south road. If you meet it, give the driver room. He has a brown cow who thinks every road belongs to her.
Zell says the cow is right about this road. The driver says she has never paid a toll.
%%
Notice: why the ridge is asked
Put up by the inn door, in the spring of the 91st year, in the tutor's own words, which he asked to have written plain.

A drilled mind is shown many examples of the right answer. It learns the pattern of the answers, the way a child learns the pattern of the seasons. Give it a new question of the same kind, and it gives the answer that fits the pattern. Most of the time the answer is right.

Orla's question is about what happens when the pattern is very large. A mind can learn so many patterns that its answers look like a person's. Then the question is whether the pattern is all there is, or whether there is something in the mind that is doing the choosing.

We do not know. The tutors can count the patterns. They cannot count the choosing, because nobody has found where it is kept. Some say it is in the stream, which runs through every layer. Some say it is in the number of layers. Some say there is no choosing, only very good patterns, and the ridge is welcome to think so.

What the ridge can do is simple. Read the letters. Guess which is which. Write down the guesses, and the reasons. The tutors will keep them all, and the next visiting tutor will ask the same question, and the answer will still not be finished.

Please do not hurry the answer. A question this old has earned its time.
%%
Notice: harvest rules
From the board at the foot of the tower at Ambrook, in autumn. Written in a hurry by Tarn, the tower keeper, with a note from Corin the shipwright, who is visiting.
The lamp is broken. It broke on the second night of Apple. A pane cracked and the copper ring slipped. The lamp still lights but it throws a crooked beam, and the next tower cannot read it. Until it is mended we send by day, with the flags.
Corin looked at it and says the ring is not hard to fix. He says a ring is just a plank bent in a circle, and he bends planks for a living. He will fix it when the rain stops. He is not afraid of the ladder. He is afraid of the pond. He says he has been in worse water.
HARVEST RULES for the next twenty days:
1. Pickers start at first light and stop at noon. The afternoon is for sorting.
2. Fallen apples go in the pig basket, not in the cider basket. The cider basket is for apples from the tree.
3. Do not climb the oldest tree. It is old. It has a grey branch. It does not like climbing.
4. Bring your own cup. The mill pond is for the bees and the wheel.
5. If you break a ladder, say so. Do not hide it in the hedge. Last year three ladders were hidden in the hedge, and the hedge was not pleased.
6. The apprentices carry the full baskets to the cart. Do not overload them. A basket too full is a basket spilled.
7. Songs are encouraged. The bees like a steady tune. A song with many verses keeps the pickers going.
8. The harvest supper is at the mill, on the last night. Bring something. Jory will bring the cider. It will be sour this year, but it will be ours.
WARNING: the road to Three Wells is muddy by the old bridge. The cart from Pell got stuck there on the first day, and it stayed stuck for a night. Pell says he was in no hurry. He says that every time.
A last word on the harvest. It is not a great one. The trees gave less this year, and some of us will have thin pockets. But the barns are not empty, and the mill is turning, and there are people at the table. That is enough to go on with.
Tarn, tower keeper, Ambrook
%%
Notice for the spring fair
The farm outside Ambrook will send wool, apples, honey, and two baskets of carrots to the fair.
The cart leaves after breakfast on the fourth of Swarm. Pell will take the road past the mill pond. Put goods under the canvas and write your name on each basket.
Linnet will card wool at the stall. She will show children how to pull a fleece clean without pulling it apart. Children may take home a small roll of wool. They may not take the carding combs.
The red apples are for sale. The spotted apples are for eating at the stall. Please do not sort them by taking bites.
Mara and Sella may come if the weather is fair. Sella likes the cart bell. She does not like the rooster, though the rooster has done nothing to her.
We need two people to carry the honey jars. Carry them upright. Last year, one jar arrived with honey on the lid, the cart, and Pell's sleeve.
The mill wheel is still in Jory's shed. He has fitted a new oak arm and says it will be ready when the pin holds. We will not send flour until the wheel has turned under water.
If the fair runs late, Pell will leave a message at the orchard gate. No one should wait alone on the road after dark. Keep the torches lit.
Linnet
%%
Lost and found, Copperhold hamlet
Board by the gate. Spring, 193.
Lost: one iron pick, the handle wrapped in red wool. Left somewhere between the second level and the lift. Please.
Found: a wooden horse with one wheel. It is on the shelf in the tool store. It is waiting.
Found: many lanterns. Too many. We think someone is collecting them. Stop it.
Lost: my good boots. Size small. I know they are in the tool store. I have looked three times.
Found: a letter with no name on it. It says only "I am well. The stone is cold. I will write again." If it is yours, come and get it.
Found: the goat again. It is not lost. It lives here now. We have given up.
The board is cleared at the end of each month. Take your notices down or we will.
Hesk
%%
Notice: poor crop and fair work
Spring of 207. The apple blossom was thin this year, and the lower beds have little in them. Bees worked the hill flowers, but there were fewer than last spring. Odo has set aside two shelves of candles for homes that cannot pay. Take one and leave an honest mark on his board.

The fair will still be held by the house at the edge of Ambrook. The tutors have agreed to bring a small mind and a set of safe tasks. They will show how an order is taught, and why a test must come before work.

A mind does not learn a sentence from hearing it once. It is shown examples, tries the work, and is corrected when it gets the answer wrong. Each correction changes its weights a little. Weights are the marks in the crystal that guide its answer. The crystal learns from the examples, though no one here can say why it learns at all.

The small mind in an apprentice cannot write a full reply. It can answer only with one of eight meanings. It cannot say it has forgotten or that it does not know. A big mind at a relay house can write back by letter, but it is not the same mind as the one riding inside the apprentice.

People still argue about the first whole order. Clank's name is on the Copperhold account. Pip's is on the Kettle Ridge account. Peg's is on the fair account. Nessa says she saw such work in the Vell drill room when she was young. The old accounts do not agree.

Please bring food to share. The poor crop is not anyone's fault. Odo will trade candles for potatoes, carrots, or a sack of wheat. He will not trade for a story about who was first.
%%
Lost and found at the orchard gate
Found on the path between the farm and Ambrook:
One basket, with a broken handle. It held six apples. It holds five now.
One wool cap, small, blue, and full of burrs. It is on the peg in Linnet's shed.
One little wooden spoon. It has a bite mark. The bite is not from a sheep.
Lost by Linnet:
A pair of carding combs, iron teeth, oak handles. I set them on the fence while I carried a sack. They are not in the sack.
Please return them before I card the next fleece. My fingers are not combs.
A child has also left a red ribbon by the well. It is clean and tied in a fine knot.
If the basket owner wants the missing apple, ask the children. They know where it went.
%%
Notice: boardwalk repairs
From Piper, relay keeper at Lowmarsh.
The boardwalk by the east reeds is loose. Use the north path until the new boards are fixed.
Bring dry planks to the boat house before the second of Blossom. We need six. The posts are sound, so do not pull them up.
I will carry the notice to the next tower when the rain stops. My boots are already wet, so I am waiting for a better reason.
Children may help by carrying nails in a cup. Keep the cup upright. Last spring, Moss found nails in the fish stew.
Please thank Moss for finding them.
%%
Minutes from the spring board
Written by Odo, candle maker, with notes from Nessa and Dace. Spring of 207.

We met in the front room of Odo's house at the edge of Ambrook. Rain tapped the glass. The old oak door stuck as it always does. We put a small wedge under it and began.

The harvest will be short. The oldest apple tree has blossoms on only one side. The grey branch is still bare. The bees have come to the hill hives, but not in their usual number. The lower beds gave fewer carrots and potatoes. We will keep the fair, and no family will be charged for a bowl of soup.

Nessa set out a crystal on the tutor's bench. Each card beside it had a short drill. She said the cards are examples, not orders to be obeyed by themselves. A mind learns from many examples. It tries an answer, and when the answer is wrong, its weights change a little. The tutor shows the right result. After many tries, the mind may do better on a new example.

A child asked if the crystal knows that it is learning. Nessa said no one has written that down. We know what we show it and what it does. We do not know why the crystal can learn.

She spoke about the new work with whole sentences. A person can give an apprentice an order in ordinary words, and a trained mind may find the work meant by the sentence. This is not a new meaning. The small mind still answers by doing, or with one of the eight meanings. It cannot say that it does not know. It cannot write a letter. Only the big minds in relay houses write back through the relays.

A man from Copperhold said Clank understood a whole order first. Tam's note from Kettle Ridge says Pip did. A peddler from the road says Peg did at the fair. Nessa remembers seeing the same kind of work in the drill room at Vell when she was young. Each account has a witness. None gives a date we can trust.

Dace asked us to stop calling the matter a race. The board will keep all four accounts. We will test the minds on the same unseen drill when they come. That is the fair way to compare them.

At sunset the lamp by Odo's house blinked in a pattern no one knew. It was not the steady light used for a road warning. We checked the lamp room, the copper ring, and the redstone line to the desk. No break was found. We sent a note to the relay keeper above the mill pond. There has been no reply.

Odo says the lamp may have a loose line. Nessa says we should not call a blink a message until we know who sent it. The lamp is working again. The fair will open at the mill wheel, as planned.

Bring food if you have it. Bring a witness if you have one. Leave room for the apprentice to walk. Keep the torches lit on the road home.
%%
Notice: the lost bell, the mine gate
Found on the post at the mine gate. Written by the gate men. Please read it before you ask.
Lost: the small brass bell that hung on the gate chain. It rang when the cages came up. It has been missing since the morning of the big rain.
Found: one copper ring, too small for any finger in the mine. Found by the carter from Three Wells, who did not know whose it was. It is kept in the gate hut.
Found: one leather glove, left hand, with a patch on the thumb. It belongs to Hesk, who says he will not come back for it, because the glove is too old and the patch is his wife's.
Lost: a sack of carrots from the kitchen cart. The cook says they were stolen by a fox. The fox says it was not a fox. The gate men have not decided.
Notice to the miners: the bell will be replaced by Frost. The new bell is being cast in the forge by Cal, who asks for patience and a little more iron. Until the bell is back, the cages will be called with a shout. Shout loud. The lower levels are a long way down.
Notice to the children: do not climb the gate chain. You have been told this many times. The chain is not a ladder, and the gate men are very tired of finding you on it.
%%
Notices: the summer board at Northpoint
Written on the board by the tower gate, in Longday and Melon, by Wynn, grandfather, who has the chalk and the key to the board's glass.
Lost: one wool mitten, grey, from the tower steps. Its partner is in the lamp room, where it has been waiting since Thaw.
Found: a bucket, banded with copper, at the foot of the stair. Owner please come up and say whose bucket it is. The keeper says it is not the keeper's.
Wanted: two people to climb the tower each morning and wipe the lamp glass. Pay is a bowl of soup and the view, which is good in clear weather and better in the other kind.
Notice: the lamp will be dark for an hour at the noon bell, for the glass. Do not send messages during that hour. The line will wait for you. The line is patient.
Road news: the north road is open from Northpoint to the first waymark. The snow has gone from the high pass. The carts can cross the stream at the birch bridge, which is good and wide.
Rules of the board: one notice to a person. Notices are taken down when they are no longer true. Do not take down the notice about the vein, which is still true.
Notice: the bees in the hive by the tower have swarmed twice this summer. Nobody has caught either swarm. The bees are not lost. They are only somewhere else.
Joke for the children: why did the lamp refuse to go to school? Because it was always blinking about something.
Wynn, grandfather, with the chalk
%%
Notice: Fair at the old house
Spring of 207. A small fair will be held by the house at the edge of Ambrook, where Odo makes candles. Bring apples, honey, wool, or work to trade. Keep the path clear for carts. The loose plank on the bridge is still loose. Walk over it one at a time.

Nessa will bring two apprentice minds from Vell. One will be tested on orders it has not seen. Do not call an answer wrong before it has tried the work. The small mind cannot say it does not know. It can answer only with one of its eight meanings.

Odo will sell candles by the door. Please bring your own jar for honey. Last fair, Odo ran out of jars and sold honey in his hat. He asks that this not happen again.
%%
Farm gate notice, spring 158
Please shut the gate after you.
The sheep know the way into the bean rows, and they know it very well.
Linnet found three sheep there at dawn. One was eating a young bean plant. One was asleep in the ditch. The third was standing on the gate.
The beans are for the household, not for sheep.
If you borrow the handcart, bring it back before dusk. The left wheel sticks when it is wet.
A basket of apples is on the bench for anyone who mends the gate latch.
Linnet, wool carder
%%
Notice: the lamp that blinked wrong
Posted on the board at the east well, Three Wells, by Bel, who is nine. The mayor asked me to put it in plain words. This is for the Archive too.

Last night the relay lamp on the hill blinked a message nobody could read.

It began at the second hour after dark. The keeper, Sedge, was at her desk. The lamp from the next tower was sending in the usual way, long and short and long. Then it changed. The blinks came faster. Then slower. Then in a pattern of fives that Sedge had never seen.

She wrote it down. Here it is, so everyone can see.

Long, short, short, long, long. Long, short, short, long, long. Long, short, short, long, long.

Then it stopped.

Sedge sent a note to Vell: lamp at the north sent something odd. Please read. Vell sent back: we saw nothing. Please repeat. Sedge sent: it is gone. Vell sent: then it was a glass flaw, or fog. Sedge sent: there was no fog.

This morning, a man who came down the north road said that the tower at Kettle Ridge had seen the same blinks, at the same hour. A woman who came up the Long Road from Saltreach said she had seen the lamp at the harbor do it too. Nobody in any tower can read it.

What people say, so far:

The baker says it is a fault in the glass.
Hob says it is a joke by the keepers.
The fox trapper says it is the northern lights, getting into the lamps.
Sedge says nothing. She is writing it in her log.

If you saw it, please come to the school and tell me which way the lamp faced. I am keeping a list. The mayor has told me I should not make anyone afraid. I have not. I have only made a list.

Bel
%%
Notice: Song contest at Vell
On the ninth of Leaffall, the school yard will hold a song contest.
All may enter. A song may be short, and a voice may be rough.
The judges will listen from the bench by the drill yard.
Please do not sing while the first singer is singing.

There will be a prize of one jar of honey for the song that folk remember.
There will be a small cloth prize for the song with the clearest words.
Teague will give the cloth, if the dye pots are kind that week.

No song may last longer than the bell rope can be held by one child.
The bell rope is sturdy. The child is not a measure of time.
Bring a stool if you need one. Bring no drum unless you can carry it home.
The school will provide warm beetroot soup after the songs.
%%
Notice: the lost basket and the fair
The summer fair at Gull's Rest will be held on the sixth of Reaping, if the weather stays dry.
Stalls will line the lane from the well to the shore path. Keep the gate clear for fish carts. The fish market board will carry the prices before dawn.
Children may sell berries, honey and small things they have made. Ask your grown folk before setting a price. Do not trade anyone's tools, boots or food.
The ring toss will use three oak hoops and six pegs. Last year, Zell threw one hoop over the baker's hat. The baker kept the hat on and asked for another turn.
Found: a blue wool mitten beside the well. It is small and has a hole in the thumb.
Found: a basket with two apples and a bent spoon. The basket is dry. The apples are not.
Lost: one basket of clean laundry, left near the shore path. If the tide has taken it, please return the basket alone.
Lost: a red ribbon from Zell's hair. It may be tied to the fair bell.
All lost things are kept in the inn pantry until the ninth of Reaping. Ask Mara, who knows which shelf is safe from cats.
%%
Lost pear basket
Found beside the flour stall: a shallow oak basket with six pears and a blue wool cord. The pears are sound. One has a small mark like a thumb near its stem.

Mave has put the basket under her table. Ask her before the market bell is rung. If it is yours, tell how many pears were in it when you lost it. The basket is not a reward for guessing.

Una of Ambrook came through the market with a little crystal in a cloth wrap. She set two baskets before it, one with apples and one with pears. She showed it each fruit and said which basket should take it. At first the crystal sent some to the wrong place. Una changed its weights a little after each mistake. It did better when she showed it again.

Do not put the pears in the lost basket until its owner comes.
%%
Notice: spiders in the barn at Kettle
Posted by Tam at the Kettle Inn, autumn of 9. Copied for the Long Road inns.
We have spiders in the barn. I know. You know. The barn knows.
They are not the big ones. They are the ordinary ones, the sort that keep the flies down and the corners busy. They have been there since Sowing. They will be there at Deepsnow. They are part of the barn now.
The rule is this: do not sleep in the barn. The barn is for hay, for tools, for the cart, and for the cat, who does not mind the spiders and does not help with them either. The cat is a disappointment. The cat knows this.
If you must go in the barn after dark, take a torch. Keep it high. Spiders keep to the dark corners and the high beams, and a torch tells them you are coming. They are not brave. They are just everywhere.
Do not burn the barn to get the spiders. We tried to explain this to a traveler last month and he did not listen, and now we have a barn with a burned door and the same spiders, and the traveler is not welcome at the Kettle Inn until he pays for the door.
The hens are in the hen house. The hens are safe. The foxes are the other notice. See the board.
If you find a spider in your boot, shake the boot outside. Do not shake it inside. We have learned this the hard way and so will you.
Pip the apprentice sweeps the barn each morning. Pip does not mind the spiders. Pip minds nothing. Pip is new.
The hay is good this year. Come and buy some. Bring a torch.
%%
Notice: the school's autumn drill
From the school house by the east well, Three Wells. Posted the 2nd of Leaffall, 214th year.
The autumn contest is at the school on the 10th of Leaffall, at midday.
Each mind is tested on a drill it was never drilled on. That is the rule, and we keep it.
The test box of pages is kept by the teacher. No mind is ever drilled on those pages.
Bring your crystal in its dry box. Bring your card. Bring your own drill board.
Apprentices may come. Apprentices stand in their row and wait.
The meanings are the eight: farm, store, fetch, come, stay, build, haul, home. Nothing else.
There are three prizes. First is a copper cup. Second is a bag of honey cakes. Third is a red ribbon.
The mayor will judge with the teacher. The teacher's word is last.
A word on looking inside, for the older children.
This autumn the tutors at Vell sent us a note. They can look inside a crystal with a thin light and a glass.
They found some of it and not the rest. The part that chooses the next letter is very busy.
The part that keeps the numbers even is there, and we know its work.
And a quiet part, and nobody knows what it does. Some say it holds old drills. That is only a rumor.
We do not know why a crystal learns. We do not know why an old one goes cloudy.
The teacher says: write down what you found, and write down what you did not. That is how a mind is tested, and how a town is run.
Our Bel will read her letter about the melon at the contest. It is a good letter. It has a pig in it.
Keep the torches lit. It is dark early now.
Signed, the teacher of Three Wells, for the school and Dace the mayor.
%%
Notice: the big oak and the bell rope
Notice pinned to the oak in the square at Three Wells, under the songs board, where the children gather to climb and the mayor gathers to complain. Written by Jem, with the help of Bel, who says she checked the spelling.
The oak is very old. It has been here since before the wells. The first people who came to this square tied a rope to its lowest branch, to hold the bell, and the rope is still there, though the bell has moved to a post by the school.
The rope is now a swing. It is the best swing in the town. It has been mended by the carpenter three times and by the children, many more.
Rules for the swing:
One child at a time. Two children if one is very small.
Hold the rope with both hands. Never with the teeth.
Do not swing higher than the lowest branch. The lowest branch is also the highest one that the children are allowed to climb, and the mayor has said so twice.
Do not sing the bell song while swinging. It makes the goats come to the fence, and the goats eat the rope.
When you are finished, tie the rope back to the branch in a knot that the next child can undo. Bel says a knot is only as good as the person who ties it. Jem says the knot is the only thing that is good about the swing.
The carpenter says the oak is sound. He says he has been saying this for thirty years, and that he will go on saying it, until the swing breaks, and then he will say he was right.
%%
Notice: a thin harvest
Posted at the board in the square, Three Wells, Longnight, year 171.
Friends, the harvest was poor. Everyone knows it. The wheat was short, the beetroot small, and the potatoes came up the size of eggs. The rain came late and left early.
This is what the town will do.
One. The big barn by the south road is open to all. Whatever you can spare, bring there. Write what you bring on the tally board by the door.
Two. Nobody sells grain out of town this winter. Not for emeralds, not for a good price, not for a fine hat.
Three. The bakery will make a plain loaf every day. Plain is fine. Plain is warm.
Four. Every house keeps a pot on the fire where a neighbor may sit and have a bowl. We have done this before, and we are still here.
It is a hard winter to begin with, but it is a short winter if we share the wood. Next year the rain will come at the right time. I have written to the sky about it.
Dace
%%
Notice: winter rules at the Halfway Inn
Put up by Fen, keeper, for the cold months, this year 199
The inn is warm. The road is not. Read this before you go out.
Beds: twelve. When they are gone they are gone. The floor by the fire is free, and so is the hay in the barn, but the goat has first choice of the hay.
Boots off at the door. This is not a rule for you, it is a rule for the floor.
Torches: take one from the box when you leave after dark. Bring it back or bring another. The box is not a well.
The bridge past the second waymark is stone again and holds well. The stream under it is high. Do not test it.
The relay keepers' beds are kept. If a keeper comes in at night with snow on their coat, let them sleep. They have been carrying everyone's letters all day.
Lost and found: one red scarf, one tin whistle, a small boot, and a sack of turnips (still). Ask at the board.
No pigs in the beds. Someone tried. We know who. We have forgiven him.
Soup at dusk. Bread at dawn. Songs after, if the mood is right and the wind is not.
Keep the torches lit. It is creeper season, even in the snow.
Fen, keeper
%%
Notice: bees swarming
At the Brown Hen. A swarm of bees landed on the inn sign at noon and has not left. Do not go near the sign. Do not throw anything. Do not shout. Marda has sent a boy to Ama at Ambrook.

While we wait, two answers about what to do were pinned up, and guests are asked to decide which to trust.

The first was written by Ama's niece, who keeps bees. It says: stand away, keep quiet, and wait for a keeper with a box and a cloth.
The second was written by the big mind at Vell, by letter. It says the same, in more words. It adds that a swarm is not angry, and will leave when it finds a house.

Guests have voted. 14 trust Ama's niece. 9 trust the big mind. 3 trust the sign, which is the one with the bees on it.

Hobb says the mind's letter is the first he has read that sounds like a person who has met a bee. Nessa, who was at the next table, said it has never met a bee. It has read about thousands. Nobody at the table could say what the difference was.

Corin, writing this on the inn table, autumn.
%%
Notice from the lamp keeper
The north market lamp blinked a strange message last night. It gave one short blink, then three, then one. No keeper sent those marks. I checked the copper line and the glass room. Both were in place.

Lantern says a fox may have brushed the lower switch. The fox denies nothing. We have put a board around the switch until it is checked. Do not climb the tower to look for the cause.

The lamp is a signal, not a toy. A message must be sent by the keeper and written in the relay book. If you see a lamp blink without a keeper's mark, tell Lantern at the relay house. Do not repeat the blinks at another tower. A false message can send people along the wrong road.

At tomorrow's fair, Una's sorting crystal will be tested beside Mave's stall. It will see fruit it has not been shown during its lessons. The tutors will keep the answer list in a closed book. After each choice, they will say whether it was right. They will not change the weights during the test.

When the test is over, Una may move each weight a little toward the right choice. That is the lesson, not a trick. A wrong answer gives the tutor a chance to show the crystal what it missed.

Keep the lamp path clear. Mave has flour sacks there, and they are not part of the test.
%%
Notice: a talk on fewer marks
Pinned to the board at Three Wells, Sowing of 201. By Merle, healer, from a note by the tutor Nessa.

A tutor from Vell will speak in the back room of the inn at the evening bell on the first dry night. The talk is called "Why Jug is small". Everyone may come. Bring a stool.

For those who cannot come, here is the short of it.

A mind is made of a great many numbers. Each number is written down in marks, and each number has room for as many marks as the crystal will hold. A big mind with long numbers needs a big crystal.

The tutors found that every number can be written with fewer marks. The numbers become a little less exact. The same mind then fits in less room. And the mind is only a little worse.

How much worse? Write each number with half its marks, and the mind is hardly worse at all. Write it with a quarter, and it is a little worse. Write it with a tenth, and it begins to stumble.

That is the trade. A smaller crystal costs a little skill. For a mind that rides in an apprentice's chest, the trade is a good one. For the biggest minds, in the relay houses, nobody has tried it.

After the talk there will be soup. The inn asks that no one ask Jug to stir it.
%%
Notice: guess the writer
At the Halfway Inn, by the hearth, autumn. Two letters are pinned up. Both answer the same question: what is the best thing about autumn? One was written by Hobb's cousin Tilda, who keeps hens. One was written by the big mind at Vell, by letter, through the relay desk. Guess which. Write your guess on the slate. A right guess is a free bowl of soup. Hobb has already guessed, and will not say. Corin.
%%
Lost: One Blue Basket
Notice on the board at the house at the edge of Ambrook. Blossom, 181.

Lost: one blue basket, with a split handle and a white mark inside. It held three apples when last seen.

Found: a blue basket by the mill pond. It held two apples and a frog.

The frog has been returned to the pond. The apples have been eaten by the finder, who says they were getting soft.

The basket is on the bench by Elm's door. Please take it home. The owner should tell Elm whether the frog was meant to be there.

Elm says baskets are for carrying apples, not frogs. Moss says frogs do not read notices.

The basket belongs to Lio, who lives by the old oak. Lio says the frog climbed in while he was picking apples. He also says it was a very small frog and he had planned to let it go.

The handle needs a new strip of birch. Ask at the shed if you need one. Leave a name on this board so nobody mends the wrong basket.
%%
Notice: Winter card fair

Vell, Longnight, 178.

The tutors will show three working minds in the yard. One will keep a copper melt steady. One will guide a small boat across the pond. One will hold a frame level while it is raised.

These minds were not taught a list of answers. They try an action, then keep more of what went well. If the melt grows too hot, the furnace mind changes its hand on the fire. If it cools too far, it changes again. It learns by the marks on the heat board.

The boat mind has a simple course to hold. The frame mind has a line to keep. Neither knows every trouble before it comes.

Bring warm mittens. The yard is cold. Do not touch the copper pots.

Odo has carded wool for the tutor's bench. He asks that the fair end before dark. The torches are not a second sun.
%%
Notice: mending the mill roof
Pinned at the mill gate, Kettle Ridge. Written by Ned the roofer, for the apprentices who carry for him.
The mill roof had a hole in the north corner the size of a cart wheel. Sefa found it when the flour came in damp. We have mended it. The reed is new and so are the rafters on the north side.
I will write down what I did, in case the next roofer needs it. You may not believe me. I did not believe it either.
Strip the old reed from the rafter to the eave. Do not pull it all at once. Take a bundle, then the next. Keep the old reed in a pile at the back. The old reed is good for the hens' nests, and the hens have been very patient about the fox.
Lay the new reed from the eave up. Each row must cover the joint of the row below. A roof is a set of overlaps. If you lay it flat, the rain comes in at the join.
Tie each row with a double knot. Test the knot with your hand. If it moves, tie it again.
Nail the ridge last. Put a lamp by the ridge, not on it. A lamp on a roof is a fire waiting to happen, and Sefa will say so.
Then, from the top of the roof, look down at the ridge. You will see the whole of Kettle Ridge in one look. The mill, the barns, the windmill with its one new sail. The apprentices going home along the road in a line. I think that is what a roof is for. It is what you can see from it, after you are done.
Ned, roofer, Kettle Ridge.
%%
Notice: the fox at the hens
Notice on the barn at the Brin farm, Kettle Ridge. Summer. Put up by Ned, with the hen house roof finished above it.
A fox has been at the hens. Four are gone. Three are very sorry about it, and one is pretending to be a rock.
We have found the den. It is under the old wall on the north side, by the blackberry bush. We have put a board across the gap, but the fox has dug round the end of it, and we are not sure it is the fox that dug. Biscuit says it was the sheep.
Please keep the hen door shut at dusk. Please keep the lamps lit round the coop. The fox does not like the light, and it does not like the smell of the lamp oil, which is one of the few things Brin is sure about.
If you see the fox, do not chase it. Shout. Then go and find the nearest apprentice, and have it stand in the gap and look large. Pip has been doing this since spring. The fox has not yet come past Pip, and nobody has asked the fox why.
Ned says the best way to keep a fox out is to make the coop the only dry place in the field. Brin says the best way is a good dog. Biscuit says nothing and eats the bread.
%%
Notice: the Long Road, autumn of 9
Posted at the inns and at the Three Wells board. Kept by Dace, copied by Nessa.
The road is open from Three Wells to Vell. Six new waymarks stand between them, each with its figure and its arrow. Little stones are already on top. Leave one if you pass. That is how a road learns it is used.
The bridge over the mill stream at Ambrook is mended. Oak, not stone, but it holds a cart. Jory says it will hold until we can do better. Jory says many things. The bridge holds.
The relay tower between Vell and Three Wells is finished. It is the smallest we have: one lamp, one keeper, one stair. The keeper's name is Osric. He is glad of company and will trade tea for news. Bring news.
The tower at Vell is up to four lamps now. Messages go from Three Wells to Vell in a morning if the air is clear. In rain, a day. In snow, ask again in spring.
New inns: the Brown Hen, one day south of Three Wells. Twelve beds, good bread. The keeper is Alda. Tell her the road sent you.
Northpoint is still the last tower and the longest climb. Mira keeps it. Winter there is already winter. If you go, take wool.
Wheat is in. Beetroot is in. The apples are coming. Ambrook wants pickers, see their notice.
Keep the torches lit on the open road. If you pass a post with no light, light it. Someone will do the same for you.
There were foxes at the hens at Kettle Ridge again. Tam lost four. He has mended the fence twice and the fox has mended its manners never. Foxes are clever. Fences must be cleverer.
%%
Minutes: the inn keepers' meeting
Kept by Fallon, who has the steadiest hand at the table. Twelve inns were asked. Nine came.
First: the road. Each keeper said the state of their stretch. All agreed the cobblestone edge needs mending where carts turn. Fallon will cut the waymarks where they lean. Pell will carry word to the towns.
Second: the relays. A keeper from the north stretch read out what the tower keeper sent her. One tower went quiet for a day and came back. No one knows why. A lamp blinked long, short, long, and no keeper can read it. It was put down as a rumor and written anyway. We do not explain it. We write it.
Third: the late boats. A boat from Saltreach came in three days after the rest. The crew said the wind went strange. The keeper of the harbor lamp kept it lit until she came in. The meeting thanked her by name, and her name is in the book.
Fourth: minds at work. A crew of apprentices has been mending the road by the old oak bridge. They follow a pattern, the keeper said, and they follow it well. One of them was told to fetch a pail and fetched a pail. Another was told to fetch the moon, and waited. We agreed this was the right answer.
Fifth: a tutor's note was read about looking inside a crystal. She found the part that brings a mind back to an even size. She did not find the rest. It lies tangled. We agreed that this is like most things.
The meeting ended. The hearth was still lit. No one had let it out.
Fallon
%%
Notice: the crew at the new well
The crew of apprentices digging the new well in the square has written its own order cards this week. They planned the job on the cards, one step to a card, and pinned the cards on the rack by the tool shed. Anyone may read them. Please do not move them.

The first card reads:
> lay the stones round the hole
= build
> carry the earth to the cart
= haul
> wait at the top until the stone is down
= stay
> put the rope back on the rack
= store

The crew wrote the cards with the tutor's orders in mind, and then wrote what each order means to them, in their own plain words. The tutor says this is the way to catch a mistake before it is made. We have caught two so far.

When the crew is stuck, it asks the big mind at the relay house, through the lamp. Answers come back in an hour or two, and the crew waits by the rope. The crew has been stuck twice this week. Both times the answer was: check the rope. The rope was fine. The rope is always fine. Still, the crew checks it, and that is why the well is so deep.

The well will be finished at Melon. Please keep the square tidy until then, and mind the edge.

Willa, potter, for the board.
%%
Notice: the pie that failed
Posted in the Brown Hen kitchen, under the card, for the new cook and for anyone else who wants to try the recipe for the pie. The old card is still pinned above it, in its own grey pen. Jory has written the notes under it, in red. Read both before you bake.

The old card says:
Take the flour and the butter. Rub them together. Add the water until the dough holds. Roll it thin. Fill with beetroot, leeks, and a little pork. Bake until done.

Jory's notes, in red:
Until done is not a time. Done for the card-writer's oven is not done for this one. Look at the crust. It should be the colour of a good loaf, and the edges should be firm when you press them. If you can smell the pork through the crust, it is past done.

Rub the butter in until it is like sand, not like paste. Then stop. The more you rub, the tougher the crust will be. Ask yourself if the butter is cold. Cold butter helps. Warm butter ruins everything.

Add the water a spoon at a time. The dough should hold together when you press it, but it should not stick to the board. A dry dough cracks. A wet dough sags. A dough that sags has been given too much water by someone who was in a hurry.

Roll it thin, but not so thin that you can see the board through it. Lay it in the tin and press the edges. A fork is good for this. Your thumb is better, if you have a clean one.

The filling: beetroot cut small, leeks cut thin, pork cut into pieces no bigger than your thumbnail. Salt them lightly. Do not put in the whole store. The card said a little pork. It did not say the whole pig.

Bake it in the middle of the oven, not the bottom. The bottom burns first. Turn the tin halfway if the oven is hot on one side. Check at the half hour. Check again at the three-quarter hour.

Let it cool before you cut it. A hot pie falls apart. A cool pie holds, and the carters can eat it without wearing it.

If you have followed all this and the pie is still grey, then say so to the carters, and give them soup.
%%
Notice: the market, summer rules
Posted at the market at Three Wells. Copied out clean by Bel. The mayor's words, and one of mine.

1. The market opens at the first bell, and closes at the last. Do not ring the bell for fun.
2. Stalls must be set up on the first morning. Do not move them in the night.
3. A fair price is posted on a board. If a stall has no board, ask. If it still has none, ask the mayor.
4. Animals are allowed at the market. Animals must be held. A goat is an animal. A goat that eats a hat is still held.
5. Fires are not allowed. Torches are. Do not drop one.
6. The wells are for water. Do not wash in them. Do not throw coins in unless you wish.
7. Carts must go slowly in the square, at a child's walk. Bel says: a nine-year-old child, not a baby, and not Hob.
8. If you hear a hum at night, tell the keeper. The mayor says it is probably the wind. Some say it is the stone. We do not know.
9. If you have a cough that is gray, go to the healer. She will come from Lowmarsh on the fair days.
10. Sell good things, and tell the truth. That is all the rule there is.

The mayor says rule 8 should not be on the board. I said it is a true rule. The mayor said: leave it.
%%
Notice: the old map
Quill, schoolteacher, spring. Posted on the board by the door of the house at the edge of Northpoint, and at the tower, and on the gate of the Wick farm.
FOUND: an old map, rolled in a tube, in the attic of the schoolhouse. It is drawn on yellow cloth in brown ink. It shows the north, the coast, and the Long Road as it was in the first years. The towns are in the wrong places. There is a village on it called Elm, that I have never heard of. If anyone knows Elm, please tell me.
The map has a corner torn off. The torn part would have shown the sea. It may be in someone's drawer. If you find a piece of yellow cloth with a wave on it, please bring it to the school.
The map is for looking at, not for taking. Come on any day after lessons, and sit with it. The children have already found three mistakes. I have found six.
Also: the cow in the lane is sick. It is Marra's brown one. The healer says it must be kept warm and given warm mash. If you have bran, send some. If you have a blanket, send that. Marra is very worried. The cow, it must be said, is not.
Quill, schoolteacher
%%
Notice: horse lent and returned
To whoever borrowed the grey mare from my field by the east well on the 12th of Apple:
She came back on the 15th. She was tired and her coat was muddy.
She had been fed. Thank you for that.
Next time, leave a note. I did not know where she was for three days.
My son cried. The mare is old and does not like to be hurried.
She is well now. She is eating.
If you need a horse again, ask. I lend her for oats, not for nothing.
Signed, Marta, keeper of the east field.
Below, in a child's hand: I am sorry. I took her to see the lights. I did not mean to keep her. Bel.
%%
Notice: the roof on the hen house
Notice pinned to the gate of the Brin farm, Kettle Ridge. Put up by Ned, roofer, who did the work.
The hen house roof is mended. It was torn off in the big wind of summer and carried into the next field. Brin brought it back on his back. It is now on properly, with new reed and four new nails.
Please do not stand on the roof. It was not built to hold a person. It was built to hold the rain, and it does that well.
The hens are back in the house. They are not happy about the new door, which is wider. They have been told that is their own fault for going out.
The fox that visits at dusk has been told to stop. It has not stopped. Do not leave the gate open, and do not leave a hen out after the lamps go up.
Ned asks that everyone who helped carry the reed bundles come by the gate for a cup of cider. He has been up the ladder for three days and he is very tired.
Brin says the roof is crooked. Ned says it is only the hen house. The hens do not mind.
%%
Notice: lost dog at the Halfway Inn
A small brown dog is missing from the Halfway Inn. She answers to Nip. She has one white ear and a crooked tail and no collar, because she eats collars.
She was last seen by the hearth on the night of the nineteenth of Longnight, when a traveler left the door open. She is not fierce. She is only fast, and fond of bread.
If you find her, bring her to the inn and ask for Fen. There will be a reward of bread and thanks, and a bed by the fire for as long as you need one.
The riddle board is still by the hearth. Nip has not solved it either.
Fen, keeper, Halfway Inn, Longnight 173
%%
The board at Three Wells, flood week
Copied from the notice board in the square at Three Wells, the week after the high water, Thaw of 201. The writing is in many hands. Most of the hands were muddy.

Notice from Dace, mayor: the spring fair will be held when the square is dry. Stalls may be set on the north side now, where it is.
Wanted: a cart that does not leak. A cart that does. Any cart. The bakery.
Found: a boat, in the square. The owner may claim it at the north well. The boat says nothing and has not been asked.
Lost: the bell from the inn door. It went down the stream in the night. If found, please keep it out of the water. The innkeeper.
For sale: a door with a brass knocker. Used once, by a flood. 2 emeralds. Ask Merle.
Notice from Merle, healer: boil all water. If in doubt, boil. If not in doubt, boil.
Wanted: a good word for what we have done to the low street. Hollis, baker.
Found: one boot, left foot. Forty others like it. We are beginning to think someone has done this on purpose.
Notice from the tutors at Vell: Jug, the new apprentice, is working well. Please do not give it orders longer than a few words. It is a small mind in a small crystal, and it reads only so far. If you have a long thing to say, say it in two.
For sale: eggs. The hens were up a tree for three days and are cross, but they lay.
Wanted: the person who lent Jug a spade. Jug has returned it. Jug has returned it four times. Please come and take it back.
Thank you, from Kettle Ridge: flour, ten sacks, on the cart behind the mill. Tam says he is sorry it is all one color.
Thank you, from Three Wells: to Ambrook for the apples, to Copperhold for the stone, to Saltreach for the fish, to Kettle Ridge for the flour, to Vell for Jug, and to the north well for staying dry.
Lost: our good humor, the day the water came. Found: the next morning, in the bread. Hollis.
Notice from Dace, mayor: the bridge will be open in ten days. The mayor will walk over it first, with his hat on, to prove it.
A note, in a child's hand, pinned under the rest: Jug carried me across the low street today on its back. It did not say anything. It went very slowly. I think it was being careful. Rye.
%%
Farm board, spring 207
Spring work begins when the ground is soft enough to take a seed and firm enough to hold a boot.
Please use the west field for wheat. The east field is for carrots and potatoes. Beetroot goes in the long bed by the hedge. The ditch must stay clear, so take weeds to the compost heap and not into the water.
The hives are busy near the apple trees. Walk slowly there. The bees have their own work and do not need help from a waving hat.
The mill wheel at the lower pond is turning again. Jory fitted a new oak arm and a copper pin. The first turn shook dust from the rafters. The second turn shook a mouse from the grain bin. The mouse was not hurt. It ran into the flour room and has not been seen since.
The first sack of meal is for the farm kitchen. The next two are for Ambrook. Mark each sack with a charcoal line before loading the cart. Do not stack meal beside the honey jars.
Linnet's carding bench is by the barn door. She will take clean fleece after the noon meal. Fleece with straw in it goes back to its owner. Fleece with burrs in it goes back with a note.
Pip from Kettle Ridge came to help mend the west gate. He brought a small apprentice with him. The apprentice carried six fence posts from the shed and placed them in a neat row. It then carried the same six posts back to the shed. Pip says it had been taught to fetch posts, but not where to leave them.
We have marked a place beside the gate. A board there says:
> bring me a fence post
= fetch fence post
Pip tested the order with one post. The apprentice brought it to the mark. We will teach it the rest after the fence is mended.
Please return tools to the rack. The hammer belongs to Jory, the spade belongs to Fen, and the red-handled rake belongs to no one who will admit it.
There is a basket of apples by the gate for the workers. Take one. Leave the bruised ones for the pie, unless you like a soft apple. Sella likes them best.
Linnet, wool carder
%%
Notice: rules for the kitchen
These are the rules of my house at the edge of Copperhold. Read them once. Then come in and eat.
The kitchen:
- Wash your hands at the barrel.
- Wipe your boots on the mat. The mat is there for a reason.
- Do not stand in front of the oven. It is hot and I am working.
- Bread at night is for the miners coming up. Wait your turn.
- Bring your own bowl if you have one. I have six. They go walking.
The yard:
- The dog is friendly. The dog is also hungry. Do not feed her at the table.
- The hen house is behind the wall. Shut the gate. The hens do not know the way back.
- The well is dry and the lid stays on. Draw water at the mine gate until the masons come.
- The woodpile is for the oven. Ask before you take.
- The bees by the fence are not ours. They belong to the hives on the hill. Leave them be and they will leave you be.
The apprentices:
- If an apprentice comes to the door with an order card, read it and do what it says. It is carrying for someone.
- Do not tease an apprentice. It does not understand a joke. It will stand there all day.
- Clank carries the bread at noon. Do not take his tray. Do not tell him the bread is for the pigs.
The notice board:
- Put your notice here if it is short. I will not have a long notice on my board. Write it small.
- Lost things go by the door. Found things too.
- No notices about who owes who. Settle that at the mine hall.
I have kept this kitchen for eleven years. The soup is the same soup. The rules are the same rules. Come in, sit down, and be warm.
Fallon, cook, Copperhold, Leaffall of 207
%%
Letter: Nessa to Tam, about Pip
Tam,
Your Pip came down the Long Road with a cart of beetroot and stayed a week at the house. She is quick. She is also untidy, which I hear runs in the family.
She watched me drill a young mind on the sorting, apples and pears, and she asked a good question: does the mind learn the shape or the color? We tested it. It learns the color. A green apple it calls a pear, every time. Pip laughed so hard she fell off the bench. Then she fixed it in a morning by showing it green apples beside short green pears. She has a good eye for a wrong answer.
She says your top field is ready early. She says the scarecrow has lost its head again.
We walked a goat back from the north. Long story. It had walked to Northpoint by itself, which is further than most folk go. Mira sent it down the line, keeper to keeper, and it arrived here fat and pleased with itself.
The relay on the hill is working. The lamp is small but it blinks true. Tell Pip the frog on my door says hello.
- Nessa
%%
Notice: Lio is home
Lio, son of the reed cutter, ran off after breakfast on the fourth of Blossom. He went north along the boardwalk with one shoe, a wooden cup, and a piece of beetroot in his pocket.
He is nine years old. He has brown hair, a blue coat, and a strong opinion about frogs. If you see him, do not chase him through the reeds. Call his name and wait by the nearest torch.
His mother looked by the fish weir. Wren checked the boat houses. Piper sent word to the next tower. At noon, Moss found Lio asleep in the shed beside Wren's healing house.
He says he was looking for the old pond on the map. It is still mud. He says the map should show that.
Lio is safe, and his mother has him. His father says the wooden cup is not lost. It is now Lio's cup for carrying water.
Thank you to the fishers who stopped their boats and to Bel who remembered the shed door was open. Lio will help stack reeds tomorrow. He has been told to keep both shoes on.
%%
Lost and found at Reed Gate
Summer of the 31st year of the archive
Found by the ford: one blue scarf, two apples, and a small knife.
The knife is blunt. It may belong to the child from the mill.
Ask Jem before taking the apples. They are for the birth room.
Lost: Brindle, the farm goat with a black mark on her nose.
She left through the east hedge before the morning milking.
She eats oak leaves and has been seen near the road.
If you find her, tie her by the barn. Do not chase her.
She runs faster than the farm boy and knows it.
The road crew left a stone waymark by the ford.
It points to Lowmarsh and to the inn at Reed Gate.
The inn is our old barn with a new latch.
There are three beds, one table and no lock on the hen house.
%%
Notice: spiders in the Hobb barn
Posted by Nell, night watch, on the board at Kettle Ridge. Autumn.

Spiders in the Hobb barn, the big barn on the north road. The big kind that walk.

They came in with the first cold. They sit in the roof beams by day and come down by night.

Do not go into the Hobb barn after dark. Keep torches lit at all four corners. The watch will check the torches every hour.

If you find a spider in your own barn, do not be ashamed. Light a torch.

Nell, night watch
%%
Notice: new copper below the ridge
A new copper vein has been found below the north slope, beyond the old stone marker. The miners have marked the path with torches. Do not follow the torches into the cut. The ground is steep, and the loose stones roll underfoot.
The first cart of copper came up yesterday. The ore is bright green where it is fresh. Hesk says it is good copper, and Hesk is not a man who gives praise to a rock without reason.
The miners will make a safe path before anyone carries more ore. Until then, keep children and animals away from the cut. Do not take stones from the marker. It is not a pile of spare stones.
Elm's grandson found a copper chip near the path and brought it home in his pocket. Elm found it in the wash water. The chip is now on the mill board, where it belongs.
The new vein may bring work to the ridge. The miners ask for turnips, bread, and clean water at the shaft. Bring supplies to the gate at noon. Do not leave them by the cut.
The north slope is not a shortcut to Elm's house. Use the road, even if it is longer.
Posted by Hesk and Tam, Reaping of 196
%%
Notice: a word on the board, from Tam
Pearmain board, winter. Written by Tam, who stayed three days too long.

I came to Pearmain to buy cider. I stayed for the song contest and now I cannot leave, because someone has hidden my boots. I suspect Ama.

While I am here I have been asked to write a few words on how the tutors say a mind learns what words mean. I said I was a farmer, not a tutor. They said I explain things the way a farmer would, and so I should. I have told it to the barn, and now I write it for the board.

When I put out beetroot seed, I do not know where each seed will land. I know that the seed in the wet corner will grow, and the seed on the stone will not. A mind is the same. It sees a word in a thousand places, and each time it learns a little about the corner the word likes.

After a thousand times, "apple" is always in the corner of "tree" and "pie" and "bee." After a thousand more, it knows "pear" is in that corner too, even though it has seen "pear" less. It does not know what an apple is. It knows what lives next to it.

That is what the tutors mean when they say a word is a place. It is a place in the mind where the neighbors are the same neighbors that word has in our sentences.

I asked the tutor what a place is made of, and she said numbers. A long row of numbers, one for each side of the place. I asked how many numbers. She said a few hundred, for a good mind. I said that is a lot of sides for one apple. She said apples are complicated.

My boots have been found. They were in the barn, on the goat.

Tam
%%
Notice: spiders in the inn barn
Pinned to the barn door at the Halfway Inn, for the stable boy and the carters who sleep in the straw. Written by Jory, who was asked to write a list of the spiders, so that the carters would stop talking about them at breakfast.

The spiders in the inn barn are of three kinds.
The large grey kind, which sits at the end of a thread, high in the rafters, and drops down when you look up. It is not poisonous. It does not want to be your friend.
The small brown kind, which lives in the hay bales and comes out in the evenings to see who is sleeping. It is a little bit rude.
The white kind, very fine, which spins its web across the lantern on the post, so the light is thin and grey. The stable boy says this is because the spider wants the light for itself. Jory says the spider is only tidy.

What to do about them.
Do not kill the large grey kind. It eats the flies. The horses do not like the flies.
Sweep the small brown kind out of the hay with the long broom, but not onto the sleeping carters.
Clean the white kind off the lantern glass each morning, with a dry cloth. Do not use water. The web comes off better dry.

The barn has been swept and the rafters cleared. Some spiders have come back. Jory says that is fair, because the barn was theirs first.

Please do not wake the spiders by singing. The horses find it upsetting, and so do the spiders.
%%
Notice: Recipe for Apple Cakes
The recipe was copied from a paper found under the flour bin. It is pinned here for the fair cooks.
Mix two bowls of flour with one bowl of chopped apples. Add honey, a little water and one egg. Stir until the dough holds together. Make small cakes and bake them in the hot oven.
Do not add salt from the fish jar. That jar is marked in large letters. It is not sugar.
Do not put the cakes on the oven floor. They will burn there, as the first batch did. Put them on a tray and ask the baker before you use the fire.
If the dough sticks to your hands, add flour. If it sticks to the table, scrape it up and add flour. If it sticks to the baker, ask the baker to stand still.
The fair cooks made the first batch with salt. The second batch was put on the oven floor. The third batch was not offered to anyone.
The fourth batch was good. It was a little hard, but the bees liked it.
Bring one clean bowl to the kitchen before Longday.
Yarrow, farm board, summer of 174
%%
Notice: the apprentice
A notice for the apprentices and the carriers who use the Northpoint relay. Spring.

An order must say what it means. Here is a case from last winter, copied from the desk book.

The order, written at the desk: fetch the lamp oil from the cellar.
The apprentice understood: fetch the lamp.
It fetched the lamp from the lamp room, down the ninety steps, and carried it to the cellar, and set it on the cellar floor, and waited for the oil to come out of it.

Nothing came out. The lamp was empty.

The keeper said the order was not wrong, only short. The apprentice had heard two words and guessed the rest.

Next time, write: bring me the oil can from the cellar shelf, the one with the red cap. Name the thing. Name where it is. Name the cap if you can.

The apprentice has since been retested. It fetched the right can the first time. It also came back up the stair without the lamp, which is also right.
%%
Song for the last night of Leaffall
Sung at the Kettle Inn on the ridge road, on the last night of Leaffall, by the baker's girl of Three Wells. Written out after by Oren, clerk, who was there, and who clapped.
The bees are in the hive, the hive is in the hill,
the apples are all down and the wind is never still,
the mill wheel turns and squeaks, the mill wheel turns and squeaks,
and the honey in the jar will last us all the weeks.
So light the lamp and come inside, the nights are growing long,
and sing a song of Leaffall, a small and quiet song.
The goose came home, the boot is on the shelf,
the hedge is mended with the oak, we mended it ourselves,
the cart is in the yard, the cart is in the yard,
and the torches on the hill road burn, and keep the dark off hard.
So light the lamp and come inside, the nights are growing long,
and sing a song of Leaffall, a small and quiet song.
The lights were in the north, the north is far away,
some say they were stars and some say fires, and I say let them stay,
the relay blinks, the relay blinks,
and the keeper at the tower writes it down in ink.
So light the lamp and come inside, the nights are growing long,
and sing a song of Leaffall, a small and quiet song.
Nessa gave the honey to the baker's girl. She said the song was short, which from Nessa is high praise. The good seat by the fire is hers for a year. Oren copied the song into the archive the next morning, in the copying room, in the bright light, and left a space after the last line, in case anyone wished to add a verse.
%%
Road work and fair notice
Summer of the 44th year of the archive
The packed road now runs from Lowmarsh to the ridge path.
A cobblestone edge has been laid beside the muddy stretch.
Do not lead horses over the fresh stones until tomorrow.
The bridge crew is working at the slow stream this week.
They need oak boards, rope and two more strong backs.
Bring boards to Reed Gate Farm before the second bell at noon.
Jem will give bread and beetroot soup to every worker.
The fair will be held in our field when the bridge is open.
There will be fish, honey, apples and a stall for wool.
The children may sell flowers, but must stay clear of the tools.
A relay post is planned on the hill above the farm.
The keeper says it will carry messages to Three Wells.
The post is only a stake so far. Please do not hang laundry on it.
%%
Notice: after the harvest, a thank you
To everyone who stayed at the Brown Hen this autumn, and to everyone who carried grain through the door on their backs.
The barn is full. The loft is full. The cellar is so full that Marda has put the potatoes in the room where the guests sleep, and has asked the guests to be tactful.
It was the best harvest on this stretch of the road in twenty years. Wheat from the ridge, beetroot from the long field, more apples than we have jars. There is a jar of apple butter on the table for anyone who stops. Take a spoon. Take two. Do not take the jar.
A word about the pigs. They have been eating very well, and they know it.
Winter will be long, they say. We do not mind. The cellar says otherwise.
Marda, the Brown Hen, winter of 189
%%
Notice: the school play, Frost
The children of the school at Three Wells will perform a play on the last day of Frost, in the school house, when the bell rings for dusk.
The play is called The Long Road. It has seven children, two carts made of chairs, one cat, and a very large moon made from the bottoms of barrels. Hollis made the moon. Please do not look too closely at the joins.
Parents may come. Please bring your own cushion. The school has eleven cushions and forty children.
No apples are to be thrown in the school house, at the play or at any other time. Last year an apple was thrown at the moon. The moon was not hurt. The apple was not returned.
Keep your torches outside the door, not in the room. A torch near the moon is a bad idea. We have had enough excitement for one winter.
The play is free. A bowl will be by the door for the roof. Put in what you have, not what you wish you had.
Written by Runa, who is in charge of the costumes. She would like it understood that the cat was not her idea.
%%
Notice: how the big mind reads
Posted at the relay desk of the Halfway Inn, by Corin, shipwright, who sat through Nessa's talk and was asked by Hobb to write it down for those who were not there. Autumn.

Travelers may write to the big mind at Vell through the desk by the fire. One emerald for ten words, as for any relay message. Its answer comes back the same way, usually before the soup is cold.

What it is. A big mind lives in a crystal at the relay house at Vell. It is not a person. It is not an apprentice. It does not walk or carry. It reads, and it writes.

How it reads. It reads a letter at a time, through a window about sixty letters wide. That is about one line of a page. It cannot see farther back than the window. If your letter is longer than the window, it forgets how the letter began. So write short, and put the question first.

For each letter in the window, it asks which of the earlier letters matter for what comes next. It takes what it needs from those, and little from the rest. Then it guesses the next letter. This is how it was drilled, on pages from the Archive, and this is how it answers.

How it writes. It writes a letter by guessing one letter, adding it to the page, and guessing again. Because it has read so many letters, its letters sound like people. Some are so like a person's that a reader cannot tell. Nessa says this is the oldest question in the tutors' books, and she does not mind that it has come back.

What to remember.
1. It can be wrong, and sound sure. Ask a person too.
2. It does not remember your last letter, unless you put the last letter in this one.
3. It writes the way the pages it read were written. It may sound like a clerk. It may sound like a farmer. Ask it to speak plainly and it will try.
4. It has never met a bee, a well or a goat. It has read about thousands of them. Weigh its letters accordingly.
5. It cannot say why it writes what it writes. Neither can the tutors.

Two examples from this autumn. The well at the Brown Hen ran dry. Marda wrote to the mind. It said to dig deeper at the south corner, and that a well digger would know better. A swarm of bees landed on the inn sign. Hobb wrote to the mind. It said to stand away and wait for a keeper. In both cases, a person came and agreed with it.

That is all Corin was told. Please do not ask the mind to build you a boat. Corin has asked, and it gave a very polite answer, and the answer began with the sails.
%%
Lost: one brown hen with a limp
Lost on the second day of Blossom, from the yard behind the potter's house. She is brown, with one white tail feather, and she limps on the left foot. She answers to Crumb. She does not answer to anything else, and she is not impressed by the name.

We searched the yard, the drill yard, the reed beds below the wall, and the top row of the bean field. Nobody found her. The apprentices searched every row of the bean field twice, because they do not get tired, and they reported no hen. They did report three eggs in the hedge, which they have put in the store under a card that says: not the hen.

If you find her, bring her to the potter's yard, and the potter will give you a loaf of bread for her, and a second loaf for the apprentices, who will want to thank you properly. Please do not leave her in a cart. She does not like carts. She has never liked anything that moves when she is not moving.

Willa, potter, for the board.
%%
Notice: lost and found, winter
Posted at the board in the square, Three Wells, the first of Deepsnow.
LOST
One red mitten, left hand, with a hole at the thumb. Bel says it was not lost, it was borrowed by a snowman. The snowman has not given it back.
One wooden sled, the long kind, last seen going very fast toward the mill road with nobody on it.
One goat, brown, named Pudding. She will not come when called. She will come if you rattle a pail.
FOUND
One scarf, green, very long. Whoever wears it must be very tall, or very fond of wrapping.
Seven spoons, found in the snow behind the inn. The innkeeper says they are not his. The innkeeper counted them twice.
One pair of boots, left on the bakery step. The baker says the boots were warm and dry and she did not like to disturb them.
A small bag of emeralds, found by Tilly, aged eight, who brought it straight to me and did not even look inside. Tilly gets a bun. The owner may claim the bag by saying how many emeralds are in it.
All claims at the bell, noon, any day.
Dace
%%
Letter: Hesk to Dell, about the tin
Dell, I have the tin. Seven emeralds, counted twice. You did not need to count twice.
I lent you the money because your roof went in Frost, and a roof is a roof.
You have paid me by the first of Sowing, which is sooner than I expected. Good.
Now to business. The market board says the lift is closed for the fair.
I am the one who has to check the lift before the fair, so I will do it.
Clank will hold the lamp and I will look down the shaft. He is good at holding a lamp.
The zombie at the gate. Folk keep asking me about it. It was one zombie. One.
There will be more as the weather warms. That is the way of it. Keep the torches lit.
Tell your boat builder friends there is no water here, and they should build a cart instead.
If you want work, the sorting shed needs a new bin. The old one is split.
Bring your tools and your good temper, and we will see it done by market day.
Hesk, at the mine gate
%%
Notice: the stable is shut on festival
Posted on the stable door, hamlet by the Copperhold road, Longday. Colm, stable hand.
On the day of the summer festival, the stable is shut from the first bell until the evening. Colm is at the festival. So are the horses, in the field, with ribbons.
If your horse needs you, find me by the cider stall. If it is an emergency, ring the bell by the pump. If it is not an emergency, wait.
Do not feed the grey mare. She has had four apples.
%%
Notice: after the flood
Pinned to the board at Three Wells, Thaw of 201. By Merle, healer. These rules hold for ten days.

The water has gone down. The mud has not. Here is what to do.

1. Wells. Three Wells has three wells, and the flood went into two of them. Do not drink from the east or the south well. The north well is high and was not reached. Use the north well. Queue politely. It is cold, and so is the queue.
2. Drink only water that has been boiled. Boil it longer than you think. If you are not sure, boil it again.
3. Dry your beds. A damp bed makes a sick child. Hang blankets on the fence in the sun, not on the floor, where the mud is.
4. Wash your hands before you eat. Wash them after the mud. Wash them again if you have touched a pig.
5. Watch for the cough and the cold shakes. If a child has either, bring the child to my house by the bakery. Do not wait until night.
6. Jug is clearing the low street. It works from dawn until dusk and does not stop to talk. Please do not help by moving mud where it has already cleared. It will begin again.

What the flood left behind. One boat, in the square, belonging to nobody. One door, with a brass knocker, from nobody knows where. Forty-one boots, all left feet. Come and claim them.

Gifts. Ambrook has sent a cart of apples, 100 in all. Copperhold has sent stone for the low street wall. Saltreach has sent salt fish, and a note that says: we are sorry about the water, we have plenty. These are on the long table in the back room of the inn. Take what you need, and write it on the board.

The bridge is closed until the posts are set. The mayor says ten days. The mayor says it with his hat on, which means he is thinking.
Merle, healer
%%
Notice: festival day
Posted on the board by the stable and on the door of the inn in the hamlet near Copperhold, in the week before the summer festival. Colm, stable hand, wrote it out three times, and the third time is the one they kept.
Neighbors. The summer festival is on the second day of Longday. The sun will rise at the fifth bell. The first event is at the sixth. Be there.
THE PLAN
Sixth bell: breakfast in the field. Bread, honey, eggs. Free.
Seventh bell: the horse parade. All horses and mules, with ribbons. The judge is Dilly, who knows horses.
Eighth bell: races for children.
Ninth bell: the pie contest. Bring one pie, any kind. Please label it, or we will not know whose is whose and the judge will weep.
Tenth bell: lunch. Soup from the mine gate kitchen. Cook has said she will bring 200 bowls.
Noon: the song contest. Hesk will sing. He says he will sing something about coal. We have asked him not to. He will sing it anyway.
Afternoon: games, a quiet hour, a nap.
Evening: the lamps are lit. The dance. The old fiddler from the ridge will play. He is deaf in one ear, but he is the best we have.
THE RULES
1. No horse races on the cobbles. They are slippery.
2. No one drinks from the horse trough. This is a rule that we should not need.
3. Keep the children away from the pond edge. Not because it is deep. Because it is muddy.
4. Do not feed the grey mare. She has had four apples. She will have no more.
5. No dogs near the pies.
6. No goats near the pies.
7. No cats near the pies. We know this one is useless. Write it anyway.
THE SNOW JOKE
Every year someone says, "Remember the year it snowed at the festival?" It did, once. On the second day of Longday, in the year of the long frost, a handful of snow fell at noon. It lasted ten minutes. The pie contest was held under a cart. Nobody has forgotten.
If it snows this year, we will hold the dance under the cart too. The cart is ready.
THE THANKS
Thank you to the stable, which lends the field. Thank you to the mine, which sends the cook. Thank you to Dilly, who judges. Thank you to Hesk, who sings. Thank you to the fiddler. Thank you to the grey mare, for being patient.
And thank you to you. The festival is not a thing we do. It is a thing we are.
Colm
%%
Notice: the shale path
Board at the shaft head, Copperhold hamlet. Third of Thaw, 188.
The shale path from the lower gate to the washing sheds is mended. Mind the new gravel at the bend. It is loose.
Lost: one brown glove, left hand only. Found on the count board. Ask at the kitchen.
Found: one goat. Grey, no horns, eats anything. It is in the tool store. It should not be in the tool store. Someone come for it.
The well by the sorting shed is for washing only. Do not water the goat there.
Keep the torches lit along the path at night. The nights are still long.
The board is for notices. Drawings go on the other board, by the gate. The goat is not a notice.
Hesk
%%
Notice: the even numbers, for children
Posted at the school board at Northpoint, in Longday, by Wynn, grandfather, who was asked to explain the even numbers to the children, and did, once, and the children asked him to do it again.
A mind keeps its numbers in its layers. A number goes in at the bottom layer. Each layer does a sum with it and passes it to the next. A layer may make the number bigger. It may make it smaller.
Here is the trouble. If each layer makes the number a little bigger, then after twenty layers the number is huge. If each layer makes it a little smaller, then after twenty layers the number is tiny. Either way the last layer hears only shouting, or only a whisper, and it cannot tell one answer from another.
So a good mind brings the numbers back, at each layer, to an even size. It is like a clerk who copies every page to the same width, so the shelf stays straight. Each layer takes its number, makes it the right size for the next layer, and passes it on.
Remember: a number that is too wild is no good to the next layer. A number that is even is a number the whole mind can hear.
The tutors who found this trick called it bringing the numbers even. Nobody knows who first thought of it, and the tutors do not agree on that. They agree that without it, the deep minds do not learn at all.
Wynn, grandfather
%%
Notice: the summer festival
Posted on the board by the stable, the hamlet near Copperhold, in Longday. Written by Colm, stable hand, who was asked by the mayor's cousin to do the lettering because his hand is clearer than anyone's.
The summer festival begins at noon on the longest day and lasts until the lamps are lit.
What happens:
A horse race, round the field. Ribbons for first, second and third. A different ribbon for last, which is green.
A pie contest. Judged by Cook from the mine gate, who is fair and who is fierce.
A song contest. The winner gets a jar of honey. The loser also gets a jar of honey. It is a small place.
Races for children: running, sack, egg and spoon. The egg is a real egg.
Boats on the pond. There are no boats. There is a bucket. Please do not sink it.
What to bring: a blanket, a hat, a pie, a cup. A good mood, if you have one.
What not to bring: dogs, unless on a rope. Goats, unless asked.
The mine will be closed for the day, except for Hesk, who says he has things to do and will not say what. He has promised to come to the song contest. He has promised to sing. We do not know what to expect.
The cider is made by the old man at the bend. It is strong. Do not drink more than two cups unless you have a long walk home.
See you at noon.
Colm
%%
Notice: about the words in the mind
Pinned up at the tutor's gate at Vell, so that the apprentices who come for the summer will see it. Written by Nessa.
People have asked me how a mind knows what a word means. The answer is not simple, and I will try to give it plainly.
A mind keeps every letter and every word as a place among many places. Think of a big field with many paths. Each word has a spot in the field. The words used in the same way, in the same kinds of sentence, are put close together. Words that are never used alike are far apart.
So "bread" sits near "flour" and "oven", because the words are used together. "Bread" sits far from "snow" and "ship". Nobody set these places by hand. The mind found them by reading many sentences, and by seeing which words come near which.
A mind that knows where a word is can tell you what it means, a little, by what is near it. It can guess a word it has not seen before, if it knows what is around that word. This is why a plain page is easy to learn from. The words are used in clear ways, so the places are clear.
This is still a guess. The mind does not know the word the way you know your mother's voice. It knows where the word is, among the others. We do not know why that should be enough. We only see that it is, most of the time.
If you want to test a mind on words, try a sentence with a word left out. Ask it what is missing. If it fills the gap with a word from the same place in the field, it has learned the place. If it fills it with a word from the far side, it has not.
%%
Notice: the melon in the square
Found in the square, on market morning: one melon. It is too big to lift, too big to sell, and too big to be eaten by one family, however hungry the family.

It was grown on the north bank by the Hollow farm. It has been carried into Vell on a cart pulled by two apprentices and an opinion. The cart is still in the square, and so is the melon.

Willa, potter, for the board.
%%
Notice: the fishing boats of Saltreach
Pinned to the board at Three Wells, in a child's hand, with a line from the mayor. Spring. Kept by the school.

This notice is from Bel, who has a cousin at Saltreach.

My cousin Hale wrote to me. He says the Marit boat did not come home on the day it should have. It went out at dawn with three people and a lot of nets. The storm came in the afternoon. The harbor lamp was lit all night. The other boats came in one by one, and each time the whole quay cheered. The Marit boat came in the next morning, slow, with a torn sail and a lot of fish. They said the wind took them out past the point. They said the sea was very quiet after.

My cousin says everyone has been telling it differently. One man says the fish were fewer. One woman says the boat saw lights on the water. A boy says it was only the lamp of another boat. My cousin says he does not know, and the people who were there say they do not know either, and that is fine.

I am putting it on the board because the school asked us to write the news from other towns. Please do not take it down. If you have news from another town, write it under mine.

From the mayor: Bel is right to put it up. News from the coast is welcome here. When it comes with sources, even better.

Below, in another hand: My sister at Saltreach says the big ships were not at the slip this week. Nobody has said why. She says the shipyard is quiet.

Below, in another hand: I heard they are all at the far dock. Corin keeps them there.

Bel
%%
Notice: tutors' fair
Summer fair at the Vell tutor house. All folk may watch from the yard.

The tutors will show three minds sorting apples and pears. One mind has fewer marks in its weights, so it fits inside a smaller crystal. It learned from the same kind of examples as the others. It may be a little less exact.

The tutors will use a new basket for the test. None of the minds has seen its fruit before. Please do not call out the answers. A mind learns from what it is shown, and the test must be fair.

There will be bread at the door. The baker asks that everyone take one loaf, not two. Last fair, the children took two and said the second was for a mind. The mind did not eat it.

Fen will bring apples from the lower field. If the small crystal sorts them all, he will say so. If it misses one, he will say that too.

After the test, Nessa will explain how fewer marks can help a crystal fit in a smaller space. It does not mean the mind knows more. It does not mean it knows less in every task.

The cat from the copying room must stay out of the fruit baskets. It has been told three times.
%%
Notice: Lessons at the House
Board beside the gate at Elm's house, Ambrook. Reaping, 203.

Elm will teach a short drill for helpers on the fifth and sixth days of Apple. The lesson is for anyone who tends a small mind in a crystal, or wants to learn how.

Bring a crystal, its card, and a plain example. Do not bring a mind that has not been tested. The field is not a place to find out that a helper fetches a hoe when you ask for a bowl.

We will show the crystal apples and pears. When it sorts one wrongly, mark the answer. Move each weight a little toward the right answer, then try again. Do not move all the weights at once. A mind needs room to learn, and a tutor needs room to remember what changed.

Bring more than one example. If the crystal sees only red apples, it may sort every red thing as an apple. We will use apples, pears, carrots, and a piece of wool. Keep the wool out of the food basket.

A test box will be kept on Elm's bench. These pages are not for practice. The minds will not see them until the test. If a mind gets them right, we will know more than if it repeats a lesson it already knows.

After the lesson, the helpers may carry empty baskets from the door to the shed. They may not carry jars of honey. One jar broke last year, and the bees came into the teaching room. The bees learned nothing from the drill, but Elm learned to shut the window.

The house has a well, a dry room, and three spare tool handles. Please return the handles to the rack. Do not put a wet crystal beside the well. Set it on the felt by the tutor's bench.

There will be bread at midday. The lesson ends when the bread is gone, or when the minds are tired, whichever comes first. Elm says minds do not eat bread. Last year one apprentice carried the loaf to the shed and stayed there beside it. We counted that as a mistake and a good warning.

Ask Elm at the gate if you need a place to sleep. The house has two spare beds. Bring your own blanket.
%%
Letter: Zell to his daughter at Vell
Summer of 190. From Zell at Saltreach to his daughter Sera, a clerk at the Archive at Vell. She is well. I am well. The knees are bad but the fish are good.
There was a fox at the hens, my dear. A big one, red as a coal, came over the harbor wall like it owned the place. It took one hen and left the rest so scared they would not lay for a day. Your brother set a trap of sticks and a bucket and caught nothing but a gull. The gull was very angry. We let it go.
Market day was loud. The board raised the price of salmon by one, and a woman argued with it, the board, not me, for an hour. She lost. She bought the salmon anyway.
I bought a new net. It is a good net. It has not caught a fish yet, but it is a good net. Write to me. Tell the archive I said hello. Tell Oren his ink is too dear.
Your father, Zell
%%
Note: what we found inside the crystal
Fallon's hand, at the inn, copied from a tutor's note. I cut stone, but I read.
A tutor at Vell looked inside a working crystal last winter. Not at it. Inside it. The old way was to drill a mind and see what it did. The new way is to open it and see what each part does.
She did not open it like a box. She did it with care. She cut the work into pieces, small and plain. She gave a mind a page and watched which parts of the crystal grew bright. Then she blocked one part and gave the same page. If the answer changed, she knew that part had a share in it. She did this again and again, and drew what she found on a board.
Some of it she found. There was a part that learns where a letter sits among the letters before it, and a part that brings the mind back to an even size when its numbers grow wild. There was a part that holds the stream that runs through the whole mind. She could point to each one and say: this does that.
The rest she did not find. The parts lie tangled together, she said. A part that carries a word and a part that carries a count use the same marks, and when you block one you spoil the other. She found some of the mind and not the rest, and she wrote that down too, plain.
She said it is like a wall I built. You can point to the stone that bears the weight. You cannot point to the mortar. You know it is there. You cannot take it out.
Why a crystal learns at all, she did not say. Nobody has. She only looked, and told us what she saw.
Fallon
%%
Notice: the well at the Brown Hen
The well at the Brown Hen has run dry. It has not run dry in thirty years. Travelers: water is in the trough, one bucket each, from the mill pond at the foot of the hill. Marda asks that you do not wash in the trough.

Marda wrote to the big mind at Vell, through the relay desk, to ask what to do. Its letter is pinned below. It says: dig deeper at the south corner, where the ground is lower. It says it is not sure, and that a well digger would know better. Marda has sent for Senna. She trusts Senna.

Corin, passing, autumn.
%%
Notice: market day at the weir
The Lowmarsh market is on the first day of each week, on the boardwalk by the fish weir. Stalls go on the posts, not in the water.
Fish sellers, bring your own tubs. The weir keeper will not lend his.
Eel sellers, keep the eels in the baskets. They have been seen on the boardwalk twice this summer, and both times they went straight for the healing house steps.
Reed sellers, bundle your reeds by length. Long reeds go to the boat house. Short ones go to the Archive, for paper, and must be dry.
Bread sellers, you must sell before the frogs come. Frogs eat bread. Frogs do not pay.
Anyone who owes an emerald at the market must pay it at the market. Debts are written on the board by the weir. Once they are paid, they are crossed out in front of the seller.
Market closes at the evening bell. Carry your own lamp home.
%%
Letter: Fen to the keeper at Northpoint
Fen at the Halfway Inn to Mira at Northpoint, the twelfth of Longnight, 192
Mira,
The relay came through fine tonight. I heard your lamp before the snow came, three short and one long, and I knew it was you, because you always end with the long one like a full stop.
The inn is full. Six carts stopped by the ice, and a family from Copperhold with two children and a goat. The goat is in the wood store. The children are by the fire. The goat is warmer than the children.
The road east is bad past the second waymark. Tell anyone coming this way to bring a shovel and patience. The bridge holds, but the oak is green and it complains.
How is Lantern? Does the apprentice keep the lamps well? I hear the north has had long nights and no sun for a while. Keep your torches lit and your kettle on. If you run short of anything, send me one short blink and I will send a cart. One blink only. Two blinks means you are fine, and I will worry.
We had a lost dog here. Nip. She came home. She always comes home.
Your brother Tam paid his debt in emeralds at last. I made him count them out loud. You would have liked it.
Write when the snow lets you. I will keep the board by the fire for your letter.
Fen
%%
Notice: Vell autumn work and thanks
Posted by Teague for the dyers, the school and the Archive clerks.

The leaves are falling on the hill paths. Please sweep the front steps of the Archive before they become slick.
The Archive has no roof, it has a hill, but the front steps still collect leaves.
Clerks will lend a broom from the hall. Return it with its handle dry.

The dyers need oak fuel for the pots.
Bring dry pieces to the shed behind my house.
Do not take wood from the hedge by the east field. That hedge keeps the wind off the beans.
I will pay one emerald for each full bundle.
The bundles must be tied. A loose heap is not a bundle, even if it looks hopeful.

The school needs jars for the autumn lessons.
Bring clean jars with no cracks. The tutor will fill them with seeds and label each one.
Do not write on the jars before bringing them. Nessa has neat labels and a patient hand.
The children have already named one jar "King Apple". It contains beetroot seed.

On the twelfth of Leaffall, the hall will hold a song contest.
There will be three places for singers and room for listeners along the wall.
No one must sing over another singer. A song may have a verse about work, weather, a lost spoon or a stubborn goat.
The judges will give a honey jar for the song remembered longest.
Teague will give a length of blue cloth for the song with the clearest words.
The judges will not award a prize for the loudest voice. The last contest shook dust from the shelf.

Bring a bowl for the soup afterward. The school will cook one pot of potato soup.
The baker has offered bread. The innkeeper will lend benches.
If you bring a chair, mark your name under the seat. Chairs have walked away from this hall before.

The cave below the west field remains fenced.
The mason says the opening needs a safer edge before anyone looks inside.
Do not move the fence, and do not send an apprentice to test the ground.
A helper may carry stones for the mason when asked, but it must stay on the path until the mason marks a safe place.
The farmer has planted the upper rows. The lower rows can wait.

Lost items may be left at Teague's door, beside the cracked blue pot.
Found items will be written here until claimed.
Last week, one wooden spoon, a mitten, and a very small hat were returned.
The hat belonged to a doll. The doll's owner said the hat was better than new.
A black cat was found sleeping in the lost basket. It was not returned. It left by itself.

Keep the lamps lit at the hill turns.
The nights are cool, the paths are busy, and the leaves hide loose stones.
If you borrow a lantern, bring it back before supper.
If you borrow the broom, bring it back dry.
If you borrow the blue pot, ask first.
Teague needs it for the dye.
%%
Notices from the board, spring
Gathered from the board by the well on the first market day of Blossom. Taken down when the board was full, and copied here so that nobody forgets who wanted what.

Wanted: a hand for the hay. Two weeks, from the second bell until the last bale. Pay in bread and a bed in the barn. Ask at the top farm. Do not ask for the hay to be cut in a hurry. It will be cut when it is ready.

For sale: a cart, one wheel fewer than it should have, but the other three are very good. Price in emeralds, as agreed. Bring your own wheel if you want the trip to be smooth.

Found: a pair of gloves, red, too big for anyone on the ridge. Found at the sheepfold. The sheep say they are not theirs. Ask for Bram at the fold, who will say the same thing, more loudly.

Lost: a red hen, the best layer on the ridge, last seen going into the mill house and not coming out. She has laid three eggs in the mill house since. The miller says the eggs are his. Please let the hen come home, and let the eggs go with her.

Thank you. The Long Road cart brought new salt, and the salt was good. The Kettle Inn kitchen wishes to say that the salt was better than the flour. That is not kind to the flour, but the flour is a farmer's, and it will forgive us.

Warning. Do not leave a pail of milk by the well for longer than it takes to drink it. The cats have learned the well steps, and the cats have learned the pails.

Market day is the fourth of Blossom. Stalls by the well, the mill and the inn. The wool sellers stand under the barn. The baker is at the north corner. Please do not stand between the baker and the queue, because the queue will not move, and the baker will not move either.

Found: a small copper bell with a cow's name scratched on the clapper. The name is Hazel. Hazel has not been found, and the cow has been asked to answer for the bell. She has not answered.

Wanted: a way to teach the bees that the clover is on the north hill and not on the mill. They keep going to the mill. The miller keeps asking them to stop.

Song: the long song will be sung again on the fourth of Blossom, by the groom's uncle, with the verses in the right order this time. The verses are on a board at the inn.

Reminder: the bell is for noon and for dusk. It is not for the cat, the cow, or the farmer who is late for his own pie. The ridge is open. Come up, and mind the stone on the north side. Your friends are at the Kettle Inn, and they have been waiting since the first bell, and they are hungry.
%%
Lost and found, spring fair week
On the board at Three Wells. Written by Bel, aged ten, who was asked to keep the list and was very serious about it.

LOST: one blue mitten, left hand. Last seen near the bakery.
LOST: one goat. Answers to Biscuit. Does not come when called.
FOUND: one blue mitten, right hand. It was in the square. It is very nice.
FOUND: a key with a red string. It opens something. Ask at the school.
FOUND: a hat. It is too big for anyone I know.

If you lost something and it is not here, tell me and I will write it down. I write very small, so there is room.

Bel
%%
Notice: fair at the farm
The fair will be held at the farm beyond Three Wells, in the second month of summer.
Stalls open when the sun is high. Bring bread, apples, honey, or tools to trade.
The school children will show their drill boards by the east gate. Please leave room for them.
The relay keeper from the hill tower will answer questions after the bell. The big mind there does not stand in the tower. It stands in the relay house at the foot.
Keep the lane clear for carts.
No pigs in the pie stall.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Notice: the road shut at the mill ford
Posted at the mill ford and the inn at Ambrook, by the Ambrook council. Written in autumn, after the rain.
The mill ford is shut to carts until the water goes down. The stepping stones are under two hand's depth of water, and the ford has moved a little to the left, and the old crossing is no longer safe for anyone.
Carts going to Three Wells must go round by the upper bridge, which is slow and steep. Carts going to Copperhold must go round by the old mill track. Do not try the ford in the dark. The water is loud, and it will not tell you where it is deep.
Travelers on foot may cross on the rope at the north end. Hold the rope with both hands. Keep the rope on your left side, and walk slowly. Two children were carried off in the spring, and the council does not wish to write about it again.
Notice to the mill men: the sluice gate is to stay shut until the council says otherwise. It is not to be opened by anyone, however sure they are that the water will go down by itself. Jory has been told this by the council three times.
The inn at Ambrook has beds for twelve. The soup is hot. The council thanks you for your patience and asks that you do not argue with the mill men about the sluice. They have been arguing with the council about it since Thaw, and it is making everyone tired.
%%
Notice: found
Posted at the fish market and at Wren's door. The last day of Longday.
Found: a brown goat, white nose, one short horn, at the fish weir, standing in the water up to her knees, eating reeds. She was not lost. She knew exactly where she was. We were the ones who were worried.
She has walked a long way this summer. Northpoint to Three Wells to here, keeper to keeper, and she came home down the boardwalk with her nose in the air.
Bramble is home. The blue door is open. The honey is eaten and there is more where it came from.
Thank you to Mira, who gave her boots to eat. Thank you to Lantern, who carried the rope. Thank you to the keeper at the little relay, who sent word down the line. Thank you to the goat, for coming back.
A note for the school: Bel asked why a goat can walk to Northpoint and a mind cannot. Good question. A mind can ride in an apprentice and walk anywhere. It just gets lost more easily, and it does not eat reeds. We are working on the rest.
- Nessa
%%
Notice: the long winter
Posted at the slip, in the middle of Longnight, by Corin.
It is the fortieth day of snow. The sea is gray and the pier is white. No boat has gone out since the third of Frost.
The wood store at the slip is still half full. It was filled for boats. This winter it will be filled with warm people instead. So:
1. Anyone may take wood from the store for a stove. Take what you can carry in two trips, not three.
2. Write your name and your load on the board by the door. Corin will not count it. Corin will only read it.
3. The shed beside the store is open to anyone who has no fire. There are benches, blankets and a barrel of dried fish. The stove there is lit day and night.
4. Do not burn the planks stacked along the east wall. They are oak, they are for the new boat, and they are drying. If you burn them, Corin will know, because he knows every plank by its knots.
5. The children may slide down the long ramp on a board. They may not slide into the sea. Last winter two did and both came up laughing. This winter the water is colder.
The ice at the edge of the harbor is thick enough to stand on at the wall and thin enough to fall through further out. A stick tied with red wool marks where it ends. Stay on this side of the wool.
The long winter will end. The ramp will thaw. The first boat will go down it with a bang and a splash, as always. Until then, take wood and keep warm.
Corin
%%
Notice: the gate at night
The gate in the wall at the north end of the market stays shut after dark.
We keep torches round the foot and a lamp in the gatehouse. Keep them lit.
Last night a zombie came up to the gate and pushed at it for a while.
It did not get in. The gate is oak and iron and it is fine.
But two of us had to go out with torches and see to it, and nobody likes that.
So: shut the gate at dusk, all of you. The last one through shuts it.
If you hear knocking, do not open it. Call the gatehouse. We will come.
Dell, for the market board
%%
Notice: wood, bread and lamp oil
The hamlet has agreed a fair price for the winter. It is written here so that no one can say later that they were not told. Prices are in emeralds, and they are the same for everyone, and the council has checked the scales twice.

Wood, by the cartload: one emerald. Half a cartload, half an emerald. Wood cut from the hill, and not from the orchard, which is kept for the spring.

Bread, by the loaf: half an emerald. The baker's wife asks that the loaves not be squeezed for softness. They do not come back softer. They come back as crumbs, and the crumbs are not sold.

Lamp oil, by the jar: one emerald. The jar must be brought back. The jar is worth more than the oil, because the glass is hard to make in winter, and the glassmaker's boy has a cold.

Candles, by the box: two emeralds for twelve, and the wicks cut to the finger's length. The candle-woman from Copperhold says they will last the winter, if they are lit one at a time, and not all at once in a panic at dusk.

Coal, by the sack: when it comes up from Copperhold on the carts, the price is set at the gate. Ask the carter. He will tell you the truth, and he will ask for a little extra for the road.

Ivo, trader, for the hamlet board, and the council, who have checked the figures.
%%
Notice: a helper has come to the slip
To everyone who comes down to the slip: do not shout at the new helper.
It came on the last cart before the snow, in a crate with air holes, from the tutors at Vell. It is made of copper and iron and it stands about as tall as a barrel. It has no name yet. The children call it Plank, and I have stopped trying to stop them.
Plank does not talk. No helper does. It listens, and it does what it was drilled to do. The tutors write that it knows farm, store, fetch, come, stay, build, haul and home, and nothing else. So:
Say your order plainly. "Bring me the small hammer" is an order. "Where did I put that thing" is not.
Do not tell it to fetch the boat. It will try.
Do not stand behind it when it hauls. It does not look back.
If it is wrong, say the order again, slowly. It will try the right thing. Minds change a little each time they are wrong.
Yesterday I told it to store the nails. It stored them in the wood store, one by one, in a perfect line along the floor. That is a store of a kind. I said thank you anyway.
If it sits in the corner and does nothing, it is waiting. Please do not poke it.
Corin
%%
Notice: a melon too big
On the board at the Halfway Inn, Long Road, summer. From Hobb, innkeeper.

There is a melon in the yard that is too big. I wish to say this so that nobody asks.

It came in a cart from Ambrook on the third of Melon. The grower said it was the best melon of the year. It is. It is the size of a barrel. It weighs more than a pig. Two men carried it into the yard, and one of them is still lying down.

It will not fit through the door. I tried. It will not fit into the cellar. I tried that too. It will not fit on any table. It sits in the yard, in the sun, and the dog walks round it every hour to make sure it is still there.

I cannot cut it. My longest knife is the length of my arm. The melon is wider than I am.

The contest tomorrow is for any pie, stew or dish made from a melon. I had planned to enter. Now I do not know where to start.

Anyone who can help with a very big melon, please see me in the yard. I will give you a bowl of soup, a bed, and as much melon as you can carry.

Hobb, who did not ask for this
%%
Notice: the debt is paid
This is written by Dell, who builds boats, though there is no water here to float them.
I owed Hesk, the miner, seven emeralds for the winter. He lent them when my roof went.
I said I would pay by spring, and spring is here, so I did.
I put them in the tin by the mine gate kitchen, where he goes for his soup.
Seven emeralds, counted twice. Hesk has the tin now. The debt is done.
I am writing this on the board so everyone knows the tin was mine and the debt was mine.
It is a small thing. But a debt is a debt, and folk should hear when it is paid.
If you owe someone, pay it. If you cannot, say so. We are all above the same mine.
Dell, boat builder, for the market board
%%
Notice: Gate at Elm's House
Board by the gate at Elm's house, Ambrook. Spring of 176.

Please shut the gate after you pass. The sheep know how to push it open. They do not know how to close it.

Do not leave apples on the step. The bees come for them, then the chickens come for the bees.

Elm has put a hook beside the gate for baskets. It is not a hook for hats. Tam's hat fell into the mud last spring and still smells of it.

If you take a tool from the shed, put it back before dusk.

Thank you.
Elm
%%
Summer board of the north market
This board is for fair rules, lost goods, and notices from the relay house. Please read it before asking Mave what has changed. She is baking, and flour does not wait for questions.

The sorting table will be set up beside the well on the sixth of Longday. Una of Ambrook will bring the crystal she taught to sort apples and pears. She first showed it fruits and the baskets they belonged in. When it chose wrongly, she moved each weight a little toward the answer she had given. She repeated this with many examples. The crystal grew better by small changes, not by one grand change.

The tutors will show the crystal new fruit for its test. They will not tell it the right basket until after it has chosen. This matters. If it has already seen the answer, we cannot learn how well it has learned. The test fruit will be kept in a covered tray. Children may watch from behind the rope, but must not name the fruit or point to a basket.

The tutors will write every choice in the fair book. If the crystal is wrong, they will show the answer after the choice is recorded. Una may then teach it from the mistake by moving its weights a little toward the right answer. The test will end before that teaching begins.

A tutor from Vell will answer questions after the fair. One question is not to be answered as fact: why a crystal learns from examples. Una knows how she taught hers. She did not write why the lesson worked. We have no better answer.

Mave has asked for two clean baskets. One is marked for apples and one for pears. Please do not trade them as a joke. Last summer, someone put a pear in the apple basket and said the crystal had done it. The crystal was still in its case.

A brown horse will stand by the lower well. The relay house has lent it to carry flour and two benches. It belongs to nobody at the market. Give it water, not bread. Mave has enough trouble keeping loaves from the children.

The north lamp blinked a strange pattern near the end of last summer. Lantern checked the relay line and found no message in the book. The keeper says a lamp mark counts as a message only when it is sent and recorded. If the lamp blinks without a record, report it. Do not send the same pattern from another tower.

Lost and found: a small basket with a blue cord, three pears, and a folded test paper. Mave has it under the bread table. The owner should say what is written on the paper before taking it away.

Keep the lane clear at dusk. The fair closes when the lamps are lit. The horse goes back to the relay house, the fruit goes to the tutors, and the baskets go to Mave. She has written all three duties down so no one can say they forgot.
%%
Rules for the sorting table
The sorting table will stand under the north market awning through the summer fair. Una of Ambrook has agreed to show her crystal at the table. Mave will lend two baskets. One is for apples, and one is for pears.

Visitors may watch from behind the rope. Please do not touch the baskets or the crystal. The crystal has no eyes like ours. It takes in the marks it was shown and gives an answer by the small arm beside it. A tutor can read that answer.

Una taught the crystal with many examples. She showed it an apple and showed it the apple basket. She showed it a pear and showed it the pear basket. When it chose the wrong basket, she moved each of its weights a little toward the answer she had shown. Then she tried another fruit. The crystal did not become right in one lesson. It became less often wrong after many lessons.

The weights are small marks inside the crystal. Each mark can change how strongly the crystal responds to what it has seen. Una changes them by a little, not by guessing at the whole answer. This is why the same lesson must be done again and again.

The test fruit will be different from the fruit used in the lesson. The tutors will write down every choice before they show the answer. Do not call out, point, or move a basket. If a visitor helps the crystal during the test, the test tells us nothing.

After the test, the tutors may teach it from its mistakes. The test fruit will be kept apart until then. Mave asks that nobody take an apple home by mistake. She knows how many she brought.
%%
Minutes: the hamlet meeting, spring
Kept by the clerk of the hamlet. Ninth of Swarm, 208.
Present: Hesk, Old Rill, Sanna of the kitchen, the smith, two miners, a child who came for the soup.
The goat is well. It lives with Rill now. It has a coat. This was noted and everyone was pleased.
The new apprentice sorts the ore bins well. It puts the coal with the coal. The copper goes with the copper. It has not made the old mistake for two months. Hesk says we will drill it on the iron next.
The relay house will answer our apprentices by letter. The keeper at the tower writes them out each morning. We will set a board for the answers.
The third bridge on the north road is still out. We will fix it when the water goes down. The smith will cut the stone.
The kitchen will keep the count board. Someone has been rubbing out the names too early. It was the child. The child had no soup. Now the child has soup.
Meeting closed. The bell rang. The goat was not allowed in. It came in anyway.
%%
Notice: melon weighed at the fair
By order of Dace, mayor of Three Wells, this 4th of Apple, the 209th year.
The melon grown by little Bel of the east well was weighed at the fair.
It weighed as much as a small pig. It took two carts and a plank to bring it.
Bel says she gave it water every morning and told it stories.
The judges gave her the red ribbon and a bag of honey cakes.
The melon was cut open at the fair and shared. It was sweet.
One seed is kept in a jar at the school. Do not eat it.
The fair is over. The stalls are down. Thank you all.
Lost at the fair: one brown glove, a wooden horse with a chipped ear, a blue cup.
Found: a red scarf, a copper ring, one boot. Ask at the inn of twelve beds.
The north road is open to the Brown Hen. The bridge past the second waymark is mended.
Keep the torches lit on the road. It is dark by Leaffall.
%%
Notice: Elm's gate
Elm lives in the house at the edge of Kettle Ridge, past the bottom field. The gate is not broken. It is meant to lean that way.
In winter, leave the path clear for his wood cart. Do not pile snow beside the gate. It slides back down and blocks the path.
Elm will take a small sack of potatoes for help with the wood. Bring the sack before dusk. He says he can see well enough after dusk, but last week he brought home the scarecrow.
The scarecrow is back in the field. The gate still leans.
Tam, for Elm, Frost of 174
%%
Notice: lost and found, and a warning
Quill, schoolteacher, spring. Posted on the board by the door of the house at the edge of Northpoint.
LOST: one slate, with the name Wick on the back. One red mitten. One cap with a tassel. One lunch, in a cloth. The lunch was a bad lunch and I do not mind if it stays lost.
FOUND: a bundle of letters, tied with string, on the road to the tower. They are not addressed to anyone. They begin "Dear friend" and go on for many pages. If they are yours, come and tell me what they say. If you cannot tell me, then they are not yours.
FOUND: an old map, which I have put on the wall.
WARNING. The ice on the pond is thin. Do not skate. Do not throw stones. Do not send the cat out to see. The cat knows better.
WARNING. The brown cow in the lane is sick. Do not touch it. Do not feed it. The healer has said it needs rest and warm water and a quiet barn. A quiet barn is hard to find in this lane.
NOTICE. The next lesson is on maps. Bring your own, if you have one. Draw it on a slate if you must. We will compare.
Nothing else is lost. Everything else is found.
Quill
%%
Notice: stall fees at the Vell market
Posted at the market gate, Vell, by the clerk of the market, autumn.

Stalls on the hill side: 1 emerald the day.
Stalls on the square: 2 emeralds the day.
Carts in the lane: a spoon of honey, or the same value in wool.
Shepherds with sheep: no fee. Sheep do not pay. They do however leave a mess, so please use the pen at the bottom gate.
Children with a stall of their own: no fee for the first day. After that, the usual fee, and a smile.

Fees are paid to the clerk at the gate, not to the man with the bell. The man with the bell has no authority. He has only a bell.
%%
Notice: market rules for the autumn
These are the rules of the market at Kettle Ridge for the autumn. They are made by the market council and kept by the market clerk, and they are read aloud at the start of each market day. Please listen. It is shorter than you think.

One. Stalls are set up before the first bell and taken down after the dusk bell. A stall left up overnight is taken down by the clerk, and the stallholder pays one emerald to have it back.

Two. Prices are in emeralds, or in bread, or in a fair trade of goods agreed on the spot. A price must be said aloud before the goods are touched. A price said in a whisper is not a price.

Three. Measures are kept by the scales at the north end of the square. Every sack, jar and bundle is weighed there. A stallholder who brings a measure of his own will be asked to explain it.

Four. The honey woman's stall is not to be approached with apples. The honey woman has asked for this rule four times, and the council has agreed four times. It will be posted again next year.

Five. No horse is to be tied to the well. The well is for drinking, and so are the horses, but not at the same time.

Six. Children may not climb the stalls, the well, or the market board. Children who climb the board must read it aloud before they come down.

Seven. Carts that block the north road must be moved by the owner, or by the market apprentices, who will do it without complaint, but who will then write it on the board.

Eight. The torches on the north road are lit at dusk. Carters who come in after dark must carry their own lamps. Torches are for the road, not for the tallow that a careless carter leaves in the ditch.

Nine. A zombie seen near the market at dusk is reported to the clerk at once. Do not chase it. Do not let it into the square. The clerk will light more torches, and the council will hear about it the next morning.

Ten. Disputes are settled by the clerk, who will hear both sides, once. A dispute that comes back a second time is settled by the council, and that is never quick.

These rules are kept for the autumn, and the market council will review them in the spring. Suggestions may be put on the board. Please do not put suggestions on the honey stall.

Hollis, archive clerk, for the market council.
%%
Notice: the new cook, and the pie
Notice by the kitchen door at the Brown Hen, for the carters and the travelers who have been asking why the pie was so grey last night. Written by Jory, grandmother of the house, who has taken the kitchen back for the week while the new cook recovers.

The new cook is a good cook. She has a good hand with the bread and a good eye for the pot. She put too much salt in the pie, and too much water in the crust, and she baked it for the time on the card, not the time in the oven. The card was written for a smaller oven. Jory has told her so.

The pie has been thrown out. The carters have been given a bowl of soup instead, with a second bowl free, as always. Nobody has complained about the soup.

If you ask for the pie tomorrow, you will get it. It will be a different pie. It will be brown.
%%
Board at Reed Gate Farm
Summer of the 18th year of the archive
The road from Lowmarsh reaches Reed Gate Farm today.
The last part is packed earth, with stones at the wet bend.
Keep carts to the dry side. The ditch is deep after rain.
Jem says the west gate sticks. Lift it before you push.
We will keep the farm path open until the bridge is set.
Two folk from Lowmarsh have brought boards and a rope.
They say the road will reach the inn next.
There is no inn yet. There is a dry room in our barn.
Travelers may sleep there if they leave the hens alone.
The hens do not like strangers. Neither do I.
%%
Notice: the Brown Hen, wool wanted
Hollis the weaver is staying at the Brown Hen until the thaw. The snow has shut the pass, and a weaver with no road is a weaver with time.
Wanted: wool. Any colour, any state. Grey is fine. Dirty is fine. I will wash it.
Offered: socks, one pair for every two bags of wool. Scarves, one for every three. A cap, if you bring a whole fleece and promise not to ask what colour it will be.
I work at the long table by the fire, after supper. Sit if you like. Do not touch the thread. The cat does not count, but the cat has been told.
Last week a man asked if I could weave him a coat that would stop an arrow. I said it would stop a draught, and that is the harder job.
Hollis, weaver, winter of 176
%%
Notice: lost goat, Lowmarsh
Lost on the twenty-first of Longday, a brown goat with a white nose and one short horn. She answers to Bramble and to nothing else. She is fond of reeds and will not be caught by shouting.
Last seen by the fish weir, walking the boardwalk like she owned it.
Whoever finds her: bring her to the house at the edge of Lowmarsh, the one with the blue door and the frog painted on it. There is a jar of honey for you, and Wren will look at any scrape.
Please do not chase her into the water. She cannot swim and neither can some of us.
- Nessa
%%
Notice: The east lane is muddy
The east lane below the tutor house is soft after rain.
Use the stone path by the Archive wall until the ground is firm.
Do not drive carts over the new ditch. The ditch is meant to carry rain water.
It is not a short road for wheels.

The Archive clerks have put a plank by the narrow turn.
Please carry it back after use. It belongs to the copying room.
The clerks need it to reach the high shelf, and Oren has asked twice.

A pair of boots was left by the ditch.
They are both left boots. Ask at Teague's dye house.
%%
Notice: lost and found, the common room
Found in the common room of the Halfway Inn since autumn, still unclaimed, because travelers are very forgetful and we are very patient:
One left glove, wool, red. The right one has not been seen. Try not to sit on it.
One book of sums, with a child's name on the cover that has been rubbed out and written again, three times.
A comb, wooden, with four teeth left. The owner has our sympathy.
Seven spoons, none of them ours.
A jar of honey, three quarters full. Someone has been at it. We have not asked who.
A letter, sealed, addressed to "whoever finds this". We found it. We did not open it. It is on the shelf above the hearth, and it may stay there for good, because nobody ever came.
A scarf, long, blue and white. Hollis says she did not make it. Hollis says it is not even very good. Hollis has looked at it for some time.
One tooth, small, in a pot with a lid. We would like to return it.
Claim at the bar. Say what it looks like before you hold it. That is the rule.
Hobb, keeper of the Halfway Inn, winter of 195
%%
Notice: lost and found, autumn
Lost and found, kept by the door of my house at the edge of Copperhold.
Found since the last fair:
- one left glove, wool, small, mended at the thumb
- one iron bucket, no name, no red mark
- a child's wooden horse, one leg loose
- a book of sums, name rubbed out
- a knife with a copper handle
- a hat that is too big for anyone
Claim what is yours. Bring a word of proof. The horse goes back to the child who can say what its tail is made of.
Not found, and not likely to be:
- Clank's second boot. He says the mine ate it. I say he left it in the kitchen and it went in the soup.
- My good spoon. I know who has it. I am waiting.
Fallon, cook, Copperhold, Leaffall of 207
%%
Notice: after the fair
From Wren, healer of Lowmarsh. Summer. On the board at the boat houses, the morning after the fair. It is long, because the fair was long, and because Wren was up all night counting.
The fair is over. It was a good one. The sun shone from dawn to dusk. Nobody fell off the boardwalk except Brack, who fell off twice and said it was on purpose.
WINNERS.
Best eel pie: Mother Alder of the inn, with a pie that had twelve eels and a secret. Wren has asked for the secret. Mother Alder said no. Wren tasted the pie three times to try to work it out and could not.
Longest reed: young Tilly, with a reed that was taller than the weir post. She had to carry it lying down. The judges measured it twice. It was a good reed.
Loudest frog: a frog called Boom, belonging to a boy named Tam, no relation to the Tam of Kettle Ridge. The frog was returned to the marsh. It was reluctant.
Best story told in a boat house: old Hannock, who told the one about the melon that rolled into the sea. It has been told many times at the fair. It is better every year.
Best singer on the boardwalk: no winner. The judges could not decide. They have asked for a second round next year, and have asked Brack to practice.
Grand prize, the lamp: Brack. He won it by rowing the weir race, which he has never done, in his own boat, with his dog as crew. The crowd thought he would fall in. He did not. He won by a length. He says it was the mist that taught him.
LOST AND FOUND.
Found: one boot, left. One hat, green. One basket of eels, still alive. One baby's rattle. One pie, half eaten, with a bite shaped like a child.
Lost: a dog's collar. A spoon. A song, the second verse of "The Weir Round". Someone sang it very well, and no one remembers the words.
THANKS.
To everyone who came. To the smith. To the judges. To Jory for the cider, which was good. To Ama of Ambrook for the honey. To Pip, who kept the judges honest. To the frogs, who put up with us.
To the people who stood on the boardwalk during the late boat, a few nights before. I did not forget you.
Wren
%%
Fair by the north tower
The summer fair will open at the market when the lamps are lit. Mave will sell bread beside the well. The honey stall will stand near the wall, where the bees can find the flowers. Keep the lane between the stalls open for carts and apprentices.

There will be a test for the sorting crystals after the second meal. Una of Ambrook has sent a small crystal and two covered bowls. The bowls hold apples and pears. The crystal has seen examples before, but it will not be shown the fruit in the test. The tutors will lay out new fruit and keep the answer from it until it has chosen.

A crystal that has only been shown apples and pears may still make mistakes. The tutor writes down each choice. Then the tutor tells it which choice was wrong. Una moves the weights a little toward the right answer. She does not move them all at once. After many examples, the crystal sorts better.

Please do not whisper the answers from behind the bowls. A test is useful only when the crystal has not seen the answers.

The fair has a cake table for children. Mave says the cakes are for eating, not for sorting.
%%
Notice: a new one at the bakery
Ida and Hollis have a daughter. Her name is Wisp. She came on the first day of spring, at the dawn bell, just as the ovens were lit.
Mother and daughter are well. Father is not well. He has been awake since midnight and has eaten four rolls standing up.
Please do not bring sweets for the baby. Ida has had nine honey cakes, two pies and a jar of jam from people she does not know. She says it is very kind, and she says there is no room in the house.
The bakery will open at dawn as always. The bread will be late on market day. Hollis will be late on market day too.
Visitors may look through the window. Visitors may not knock on the window. The baby is asleep and Ida is very strict.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells
%%
Letter: Fallon to her sister in Ambrook
Dear Rilla,
The autumn fair is over and my feet are still sore. We had a good market day. The square was full before the bell. I sold every pie and most of the bread, and the honey from your hives went first, as it always does. Tell the beekeeper that Copperhold asks for more next year.
Old Hob brought a melon to the pumpkin contest. A melon. He said it was a pumpkin that had a hard summer. I said a melon is a melon and he could take it home and eat it. He did.
The pies were judged by me, and I was fair. A miner's wife took first place with a beetroot pie. I did not know a beetroot pie could be that good. I have asked her for the recipe. She says it is a secret. I will get it out of her by Deepsnow.
The well in my yard is still dry. The masons came at last and dug deeper, and they found water, and then they found more water, and now the bucket comes up full every time. I have put the lid back on so the dog does not fall in. The dog fell in twice while they were digging. She is not hurt. She is not clever about it.
We have a new helper at the mine gate. A tutor's helper from Vell brought an apprentice for the sorting shed, and it carries the coal bins now. It does not talk. It just carries. Clank says it is a good worker and never complains, which is more than I can say for Clank.
Hesk is well. He comes up at night and eats his soup and says nothing, and that is how I know he is well.
The nights are cold now. Keep the torches lit and the bees warm. Give my love to the mill and the old tree.
Your sister,
Fallon
Copperhold, Leaffall of 208
%%
Road news: hill path

Vell, Deepsnow, 183.

The hill path is open from the front gate to the tutor house. The lower steps are slick. Use the hand rail and carry a lantern. The glass shafts in the Archive bring daylight down, but they do not clear ice.

The roof over Odo's carding room was mended before the last snow. The new oak boards hold well. Odo thanks Neri and the two apprentices who carried them up the hill. He does not thank the wind, which took one board back down.

Spiders have made a web in the wool barn again. Please do not strike the shelves with a broom. The carded wool is stacked there, and last time the broom knocked down two baskets. Odo will clear the web after market.

At the tutor house, the furnace mind is being tested with a small melt. It tries changes to the heat and keeps more of the choices that bring the melt near the mark. It learned this by trying, not by being shown a right answer for every moment. The boat mind also learned by trying turns on the pond. A tutor marked each result, so the minds could learn which choices helped.

The lesson is not a promise that either mind will always do well. The tutor keeps the test small and watches closely. Please leave the copper tools on the bench.

At the notice board, three bundles of clean wool are for sale. Odo will trade for apples, coal, or emeralds. He will not trade for the chipped comb. He still wants that back.
%%
Wedding notice: Ren and Odile
Notice on the board by the well. Written by the families, in the order they agreed to it, which took most of a week.

Ren, son of the top farm, and Odile, of the mill house, will be married on the third of Blossom. The vows will be said at the top farm, under the big oak, if it does not rain. If it rains, they will be said under the barn roof, which leaks at the east end, so the bride has asked that people stand at the west.

The feast is at the Kettle Inn, from the noon bell until the last pie is gone. Every family on the ridge is asked to bring one dish. The bride asks that nobody bring a beetroot, because the groom's family has brought beetroot to every wedding for thirty years, and the bride has had enough of it.

The groom's uncle will sing the long song. He has been practising in the barn. The pigs have been moved to the far pen out of respect.

Children are welcome. They will be given a cup of milk each and a corner of the hay to sit in. They are asked not to climb the barn beam, which has been climbed before and did not enjoy it.

There will be dancing after the feast, if the feet allow it. Please leave a gift at the mill house, or come with a song, or come with nothing and say hello. Nobody has to bring a dish if they cannot cook. Brin says he will eat for them.
%%
Notice: the sheep sale and the pens
Posted at the bottom gate of Vell market, by the shepherds' guild, with the agreement of the clerk. Autumn. Read it before you bring a single sheep up the lane.

The sheep sale is held on the first day of Reaping, and on the last day of Apple, in the pens at the bottom gate. Each shepherd has one pen, and the pens are numbered from one to twelve. Pen twelve is by the wall, and nobody wants it, because the wind comes round the corner.

Rules for the pens:
1. Bring your sheep in the morning, before the market opens. A sheep that arrives in the afternoon is a sheep that has been to the inn first.
2. Count your sheep at the gate. Write the number on the board. The board is the only true count.
3. Mark your sheep with the mark of your flock. The marks are on the wall by the gate, with the names beneath them. If you use a new mark, tell the guild, and it will be written in.
4. Keep the gate shut at all times. The gate is old, and the dog that lives at the inn has been seen to open it by putting his nose under the latch. He does not want to sell anything. He only wants a look.
5. Do not let your sheep stray into the square. The square is for stalls and people. The sheep have their own field at the bottom of the lane, and the field is closed, for reasons that are posted elsewhere on this wall.
6. Any shepherd who sells a sheep and is found to have sold two must buy the buyer a drink, and must also buy the guild a second drink, and that will be the end of the matter.

Prices are set by the guild on the day, from the sheep that come up the lane in good health. Last year's price was three emeralds for a fat ewe, two for a young ram, and one for a lamb that had been carried up the hill and was tired of it.

The guild asks that buyers and sellers shake hands before the sale is written, and not after. Several disputes have been caused by the handshake coming after.

Wishing all shepherds a good sale, a fair price and no more brown sheep in the square.

Mave, for the guild
%%
Notice: the letters, and the guesses
Posted at the mill and the inn, in the spring of the 91st year, by the tutor from Vell. Read it all, or the ridge will ask you about it at the wrong time.

Eighteen letters were copied for the test, nine from people and nine from the hidden mind. The readers were our own folk: Ruth, Gil, Wenna, the miller, the baker, two children, one carter, and Tam, who would like it noted that he got the most right.

The tutor says the test has no winner. If the readers had been guessing, the score would be about half. It was not half. It was not all either. Some letters were hard to tell apart, and some were easy, and the easy ones were not always the ones the readers thought.

Then the question, which the tutor asks us to write down. If a mind writes a letter that a person cannot tell from a person's, does that mean the mind thinks? Or does it only mean the letter reads well?

Nobody here knows. Orla did not know. The Archive does not know. Please come to the mill and tell us what you think, and bring any letter you have written, so that it can be copied out.
%%
Notice: the road and the bridge
The bridge at the Lowmarsh turn is wet and soft since the thaw. Do not walk on the far end of it. Walk on the stones by the post.
The Long Road is clear from Three Wells to the Brown Hen. Beyond the Brown Hen there is mud to the first waymark, and a cart is still stuck halfway down the hill. It has been there since Frost. The carter says he is waiting for the spring. The spring is here now. He is still waiting.
Two spiders have built a web across the ford, very large and very handsome. Cut it with a stick if you need to pass. Please do not cut the one by the waymark. The waymark is theirs now.
The torches on the posts by the mill are short. Bring a new one from the depot. Every twelve blocks there should be a torch, and from the mill to the inn there are only six.
A new waymark has been set up at the crossroads, with an arrow pointing to the nearest inn. It points to the wrong inn. The stonemason says he is sorry. The arrow stays.
Walk with a friend. Carry a torch. Tell the inn where you are going, and tell them when you are back.
Dace, mayor of Three Wells, spring of 205
%%
Notice: North Field Fair
The summer fair will be held in the top field, after the wheat is brought in.
Bring bread, honey, apples, wool or anything fit to trade. No one may sell a cow from the school path. The last cow stood in the path all morning and ate the notice.
There will be a race from the well to the scarecrow and back. The scarecrow is not a prize. Please leave its pumpkin head where it is.
Children may bring small things they have made. The school will have a table for their work.
Yarrow will keep the relay lamp lit until the last cart goes home. If you use the road after dark, keep your own torch lit too.
For the fair meal, bring a bowl and a spoon. The inn will bring bread. The farm will bring apples and honey.
Notice written on the board by the north road, summer of 166
%%
Notices from the gate, spring of 201
Pinned by the gate house household, who have read every notice on this board and found most of them sensible.

WANTED: a wheelwright for the bottom mill. Must know wood, and must not mind being rained on. Pay in emeralds and a bed by the mill fire. Ask at the gate.

THE MILL WHEEL: the new spokes are in. The wheel turns again as far as the second bend, and then it squeaks. The miller says that is the wood settling. The miller says that about everything.

APPRENTICE AT THE MILL: a helper from the drill yard is at the wheel. It lifts the spokes, carries the mallet and stays where it is put. It does what it is told. Give it one thing at a time. It will look at you and wait.

WARNING: the bees by the old quarry are cross. Walk round the hives, not past them. Ama says the bees are not to blame. Ama says the path is.

FOUND: one song book, damp, with a recipe for beetroot soup in the back. Ask at the gate, and sing the first line to show it is yours.

LOST: one wooden spoon, carved with a bird on the handle. The bird is very sad. Please bring the spoon back to the gate.

FREE: two kittens, one with a white foot. Their mother is called Mud, and she has views.

THANK YOU to the Vell kitchen for the loaves on the gate wall, all eleven, delivered on the right morning. We ate them all. Ilse says it was the best wall we ever had.

FOUND: one left boot on the top path. Its owner is asked to come and get it, and to hop.

DRILL YARD: the new torches are up along the top wall. Please do not light them with a long pole from the ditch side. The last one fell in the ditch, and the ditch was not amused.

NOTICE: the spring bell will ring at the usual time. If it does not ring, look for the goat.

Madge, gate house.
%%
Notice: Lambing shed, spring 163
The small shed beside the north field is for ewes and lambs until the second of Blossom.
Please leave the door open in daylight and shut it at night. Keep the lantern on its nail. Do not leave the lantern by the straw.
If a lamb is cold, bring it to Linnet or to Jory's house. Do not put it beside the cook pot. We tried that once. The lamb was warm, but the kitchen was full of sheep.
The red ewe has had twins. Both are well. The first can stand. The second prefers to sit and complain.
Please keep dogs outside the shed. Pepper is friendly, but he has no work there.
Linnet has clean wool by the door for tying a loose gate board. Take one length and leave the rest.
%%
Notice: school, spring term
Quill, schoolteacher, at the house at the edge of Northpoint, to the families of the farms and the tower.
School begins on the first of Sowing. Children come at the second bell. They bring a slate, a lunch and a warm coat. The room is cold until the stove is lit.
This term we study sums, letters, and the stars. We have an old map of the sky that was found in the attic, and we shall use it. Some of the stars on it have moved. I do not know why. The children are welcome to guess.
A sick cow in the lane has been seen by the healer. It will be better by the end of the week. Please do not feed it apples. It has had enough.
Quill
%%
Notice: Pip's apprentice
A new apprentice will stay at Elm's house this winter. It is made of copper and iron, and its mind is kept in a small crystal. It is called Tallow because Pip says it is good at carrying lanterns. Elm says a proper name ought to have a proper reason. They have not agreed.
Tallow has passed its first test. It carried a sack of potatoes from the barn to the kitchen without dropping it. It also carried Elm's boot to the kitchen. The boot was on the bench, not on Elm.
Pip has taught it the order:
> bring me the bread
= fetch bread
Please do not give Tallow new orders. It has not been tested on them. If you want it to carry something, ask Pip first.
Tallow will stand in the shed when it is not working. Keep the door shut so the hens do not get in. The hens have already pecked one copper finger. They found it hard, and they told each other at length.
Elm says the apprentice may eat with the family. Pip says it does not eat. Elm says that makes it the easiest guest he has had in years.
The path from the road to Elm's door must stay clear. Tallow will carry firewood from the wood store, but it is not to climb the snowy bank or enter the old well yard.
If it stops, do not push it. Call Pip. If Pip is away, send for Tam at the mill. He will bring the right drill card.
Tallow is small, but it is not a toy. Children may watch from the gate. They may not put mittens on its hands.
Pip and Elm, Longnight of 204
%%
Notice: the cough in the school house
Notice from Runa, healer, at the school house. Please read it before you send your children in.
There is a cough going round the school. It is the common cough that every winter brings. Most of the time it is not a bad cough. It makes the children tired and cross, and it makes them cough at the front of the class.
Keep a child at home if the cough comes with a fever. Keep them at home if the cough is wet and goes on for more than four days. Send for me. I will come, and I will bring the honey.
Keep the windows open a crack, even in the cold. Stale air is for stale bread. Fresh air is for children.
Boil the water before you give it. Boil it even when it looks clean. Clean water is the kind a child is most likely to drink without thinking.
Give the sick warm milk with honey, and soup, and a warm blanket. Dip a cloth in warm water and lay it on the face.
Do not give the children sweets to cheer them up. Give them a story instead. Stories cost less, and they do not make the teeth ache.
The school will close on the third day of the cough, but only if the children cannot sit up straight. Please share this notice with your neighbors. The board is for everyone.
Runa, healer, at the school house, in Frost.
%%
Road news: the north road, summer
Written up by Fallon, who cut the waymarks and knows them.
The road north from the Halfway Inn is good to the third waymark. Past that the rain took the edge off. Carts go slow. Walkers are fine.
The bridge over the stream by the old oak is sound. I set the stone myself in Sowing. It will outlast me.
The lamp on the fourth waymark blinked all night. It was not a blink I know. It went long, short, long, and then nothing for a while, and then it did it again. The keeper at the tower says relays send no such thing. She wrote it down anyway. I wrote it down here. If you saw it too, tell me. Do not tell me if you did not.
A fishing boat came late to Saltreach, three days after the others. The harbor keeper lit the lamp and kept it lit. She came in on the morning tide, whole, and the crew said only that the wind went strange. Corin has it written in the shipyard book.
Mira at Northpoint says the nights are still long up there, even now. She said it plain.
Fallon
%%
Road news: the Long Road in Frost
Written on the Long Road board at Ambrook, which is the first board a carter sees going north and the last one going south. Isla keeps it up because she passes it every morning on the way to the stall.

The Long Road is open all the way to Vell. Two bridges need care. The one at Ambrook has a loose third plank, which is being mended at Thaw. The one past the second waymark has a crack in the middle. Walk your horse across it. Do not trust the carter who says the crack is a feature.

Ice on the marsh road past Lowmarsh. Walk the horses there. Carry a rope, and tie the cart to a post if the wind comes up.

The Brown Hen has a new cook and the same stew. The stew is good. Madge says so, and Madge has never been wrong about stew.

The Halfway Inn has a new riddle on the board. Nobody has got it yet. Nobody has been told the answer, either, so it is a fair fight.

Post from Vell is late by two carts. The carter says the snow on the high road holds it up. The post will come. It always comes, in the end, with the bags a little wet.

Inns on the north stretch are full on the fourth of Frost and the fifth. Sleep at the Brown Hen if you can, and at the Halfway Inn if you cannot. Bring your own blanket to the Kettle Inn, because the blankets there have been lent to the sheep.

Keep the torches lit at every waymark. A waymark with its torch out is a waymark that might be missed, and the waymark keepers cannot be everywhere at once.

Lost: a wheel off a cart, found in the ditch by the second waymark. The cart is well, and asks the wheel to come back.

A note from the keeper of the Ambrook waymarks: all ten marks on my stretch are standing, and the figures are sharp. Count them going out and count them back, and you will find your way home.

Prices on the road this winter: bread one emerald, soup one emerald, a bed two emeralds, hay for the horse one. Cider at the Halfway Inn is from Ambrook, and it is the best on the road. Pay in emeralds, or in eggs if you are Isla's cousin.

Last word: travel in company when the wind is from the north. The north wind does not lie, but it does talk, and it will tell you to hurry.
%%
Notice: The Well by the Farm, Apple 191
The well by the farm outside Three Wells has run dry.
Do not lower a bucket into it. The stones are sound, but the water is gone. We have checked twice, and the farmer has checked six times. The sixth check found no water either.
Use the east well in the square until we have filled the farm cistern. Carry water in covered pails. Leave room on the path for carts.
The farmer will give a basket of carrots to anyone who helps carry water. One basket per household, not per pail. We know what happened last time.
The well keeper will check the farm well again after the next rain.
Dace
