White Water by Oldfield Pamela

Author:Oldfield, Pamela [Oldfield, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2015-09-03T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The celebration supper was normally provided for those workers involved in bringing in the harvest, and it included all who worked on the home farm and the house and stables staff at Heron and Ladyford. It was held in the Hall at Heron, which simplified all the preparations. This year, however, Maria and Hugo were keenly aware of the plight of the out-of-work miners, and so they had decided to extend the range of the supper. They invited all the tinners and their families — those working as well as those unemployed. Some of the most needy among the latter had been taken on temporarily to help with the harvest, and thus did qualify for inclusion in the supper. A few worked willingly, others resentfully. The tinners were a proud people and farm work was considered very inferior and not worthy of their skills, but few of them could afford to turn down the opportunity of earning a shilling or two to buy food for their families.

Maria had intended to preside over and supervise the supper, but changed her mind when the trouble between Martin and Eloise flared. Melissa willingly offered to take her place as supervisor, but felt that Eloise, as a future Kendal, should sit at the head of the table in Thomas’ absence. Eloise was easily persuaded to do so. The day of the supper dawned hazily, but with a brightness that promised fine weather when the morning mist finally dispersed. The Hall would not hold the increased numbers, so the largest barn was pressed into service and soon after cockcrow Matt and Jon were at work, pushing and pulling sacks of grain, ploughs and barrels to the far end, to make room for the tables. They moved armfuls of rakes, scythes, and flails, collected buckets and pails, coiled ropes and stacked an assortment of ladders neatly in a corner. The barn itself was high and wide with whitewashed walls, and dark rafters supported the sagging thatch. It smelled dankly of wet straw and rats and leather, and as soon as a sufficient space had been cleared the men set to with brooms to sweep up the earth floor. Within seconds the air was thick with dust and Jon began to cough and splutter.

Matt wrinkled his nose disparagingly. ‘Stinking stuff! Tis to be hoped they’ll put down a few herbs to sweeten the place.’

‘They will — or rather, we will. There’s to be fresh straw and lavender. We’ll open all the doors and windows to let the air blow through.’ He peered down at a number of rat holes revealed by his sweeping. ‘I reckon we shall need Nat Gully again before long. The rats are back again. Nothing gets rid of them for long.’

‘Aye,’ said Matt. ‘That first sack I shifted was leaking corn like water! Little varmits!’

They swept out the stale straw and left the barn for half an hour for the dust to settle and the clean air to do its work. They

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.