and said, âHappy Christmas, and you, Miss Fernackerpan! Wake up! Itâs Christmas morning andyour parentsâ tea to get. Bonnie Caledonia! Wake up! Happy Christmas!â And carrying her candlestick and her indoor shoes, she went off down the stairs. She was so bossy and busy that you just
had
to get up, and this morning there was no wooding to do, so we had to wash our faces and hands first off. We each had a bowl and a jug of freezing water, and a big slop pail, and shared the soap. So it was all a bit of a muddle, except the girls got dressed while I washed, and then I gave Flora the Lifebuoy, and then my sister took it. We poured the bowls into the slop bucket and I had to carry it down and empty it in the drain outside the lean-to.
In the kitchen, kettles were boiling, the goose was on the table looking very white and dead beside a carrier bag from MacFisheries. Lally said, donât touch, because it was full of innards and she needed them and weâd have to manage best we could about breakfast and clear ourselves places because she was up to her eyes. Anyway, we had boiled eggs, no porridge today, and toast and rhubarb and ginger jam.
Then we all had to go down to the Court to get the milk and some cream. Our mother came down to see how we all were, and get another cup of tea and make the stuffing for the MacFisheries goose. She looked pretty in her kimono with a huge gold dragon on the back, and when I asked where our father was she just shook her head and said she really didnât know. I was pretty sure she really did but wasnât saying. So we went down to the Court, not down Great Meadow, because it was all muddy and boggy and my sister said there were some cows down in the corner and Flora said she was scared witless of cows.But I didnât take much notice of that because she was witless anyway, so how could she be scared out of something she hadnât got? We walked, sploshed really, down the lane, and the chalky water was gurgling and spilling down the ruts because of the thaw, and there was no sound except for our sloshing and the water burbling.
âYouâd think the world had stopped just because itâs Christmas Day. It feels so funny,â said Flora, who was pretty funny herself.
The dairy at the Court was very interesting because it was half underground and half not, so that it would never get warm even in the very hottest summer. And it never did. There were little ferns growing along under the big slate shelves where the bowls of buttermilk and whey, skimmed, and âTodayâsâ and âYesterdayâsâ stood. Everything was usually covered in muslin because of the flies from the yard, only, not today, because it was so cold even the ferns had gone all limp. But Miss Barbara Aleford was fussing about the very moment we pushed open the door. Inside it smelled lovely and damp, earthy and then sweet from the milk, and she was pouring a big crock of new milk into the bowls with âTodayâsâ on them.
âHeigh ho! Heigh ho!â she cried loudly and set the big crock down with a crack on the slate shelf. âHappy Christmas! Wonderful day! See youâve got your cans with you and that doesnât leave me to guess you need some delicious new milk from my animals. Got it right?â
I said that was right and gave her the cans.
âTodayâs or Yesterdayâs? All the same to me. In this cold Yesterdayâs will do you just as well and you can come down tomorrow and get some Todayâs. Capital!â
She was quite tall, with earphone things curled round the side of her head, and menâs corduroy breeches and canvas gaiters, and Lally once said that she was a poor soul who was grieving for her fiancé who had gone missing in the war. But she was still waiting for him because, at any old time, she told Lally, heâd just turn up. He knew the way like the back of his hand, and his pipe and baccy pouch were still
had
to get up, and this morning there was no wooding to do, so we had to wash our faces and hands first off. We each had a bowl and a jug of freezing water, and a big slop pail, and shared the soap. So it was all a bit of a muddle, except the girls got dressed while I washed, and then I gave Flora the Lifebuoy, and then my sister took it. We poured the bowls into the slop bucket and I had to carry it down and empty it in the drain outside the lean-to.
In the kitchen, kettles were boiling, the goose was on the table looking very white and dead beside a carrier bag from MacFisheries. Lally said, donât touch, because it was full of innards and she needed them and weâd have to manage best we could about breakfast and clear ourselves places because she was up to her eyes. Anyway, we had boiled eggs, no porridge today, and toast and rhubarb and ginger jam.
Then we all had to go down to the Court to get the milk and some cream. Our mother came down to see how we all were, and get another cup of tea and make the stuffing for the MacFisheries goose. She looked pretty in her kimono with a huge gold dragon on the back, and when I asked where our father was she just shook her head and said she really didnât know. I was pretty sure she really did but wasnât saying. So we went down to the Court, not down Great Meadow, because it was all muddy and boggy and my sister said there were some cows down in the corner and Flora said she was scared witless of cows.But I didnât take much notice of that because she was witless anyway, so how could she be scared out of something she hadnât got? We walked, sploshed really, down the lane, and the chalky water was gurgling and spilling down the ruts because of the thaw, and there was no sound except for our sloshing and the water burbling.
âYouâd think the world had stopped just because itâs Christmas Day. It feels so funny,â said Flora, who was pretty funny herself.
The dairy at the Court was very interesting because it was half underground and half not, so that it would never get warm even in the very hottest summer. And it never did. There were little ferns growing along under the big slate shelves where the bowls of buttermilk and whey, skimmed, and âTodayâsâ and âYesterdayâsâ stood. Everything was usually covered in muslin because of the flies from the yard, only, not today, because it was so cold even the ferns had gone all limp. But Miss Barbara Aleford was fussing about the very moment we pushed open the door. Inside it smelled lovely and damp, earthy and then sweet from the milk, and she was pouring a big crock of new milk into the bowls with âTodayâsâ on them.
âHeigh ho! Heigh ho!â she cried loudly and set the big crock down with a crack on the slate shelf. âHappy Christmas! Wonderful day! See youâve got your cans with you and that doesnât leave me to guess you need some delicious new milk from my animals. Got it right?â
I said that was right and gave her the cans.
âTodayâs or Yesterdayâs? All the same to me. In this cold Yesterdayâs will do you just as well and you can come down tomorrow and get some Todayâs. Capital!â
She was quite tall, with earphone things curled round the side of her head, and menâs corduroy breeches and canvas gaiters, and Lally once said that she was a poor soul who was grieving for her fiancé who had gone missing in the war. But she was still waiting for him because, at any old time, she told Lally, heâd just turn up. He knew the way like the back of his hand, and his pipe and baccy pouch were still
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