Chapter 12 The Eels at Dawn

Wist came back in the dark on the fifteenth day, and the donkey saw him first and said something that meant get out of my way, and he walked into the yard with the basket of eels in one arm and the coin in the other, and he set the basket down on the wheel and took the coin out and put it in Kessin's hand. "They are alive," said Kessin. "Good." "They are alive," said Wist. "They were alive at the crossing and they are alive at the hall." "The hall has the eels," said Kessin. "The hall has the eels," said Wist. "And the hall has the coin." "The hall has the coin," said Kessin. "And the hall has a fare." She wrote it on the ledger and gave him bread, and Turrel gave him a cup of coffee and put the pot back on the stove, and he sat at the table with the bread and the coffee and did not speak, and Kessin sat across from him and did not speak, and the donkey ate the bread, and the yard was the yard, and the board had four cards on it, and the fifth card had come off, and the sixth was there and the seventh was still blank, and the hall had a fare and the hall had a coin and the hall had a name. "Wist," said Kessin. "Wist," said the man. "I have a card for you tomorrow," she said. "The miller's basket of salt to Gillanwick and back." "I will take the basket of salt," said Wist. "The basket of salt," said Kessin. "And you will not carry it in your hand. You will put it in the satchel and you will put the satchel on your back, because the salt is heavy and your hand is not strong and the road is three miles." "My hand is not strong," said Wist. "Then you will put it in the satchel," said Kessin. He looked at her and then at the table and then at the donkey, and he took the bread from the table and put it in his mouth, and he chewed it, and he did not speak, and Kessin sat at the table with her pen in her hand and the ledger in front of her, and Turrel came in from the kitchen with the lamp and the cloth. "Pay Turrel first," said Kessin, to no one. "I am paid," said Turrel. "The bread is paid. The coffee is paid. The eels are paid. The hall is paid." "The hall is paid," said Kessin. "Then the hall will pay the debt," said Turrel. "The hall will pay the debt," said Kessin. "And the debt will be paid." "The debt will not be paid this month," said Turrel. "The hall will pay the debt next month, if the hall has eleven pounds." "Then I will get eleven pounds," said Kessin. "You will not get eleven pounds," said Turrel. "You will get eleven cards." "Then I will get eleven cards," said Kessin. "You will get eleven cards," said Turrel. "And the hall will have eleven fares." Kessin looked at the board and counted the cards, and there were four of them, and she looked at the ledger and counted the fares, and there were four of them, and she looked at Wist, and he looked at the board, and he did not say anything, and Kessin put the pen down and she said, "You will stay tonight." "I have a bed in Gillanwick," said Wist. "You will stay here," said Kessin. "Wist," said Turrel. "I will stay," said Wist. He stayed. He took the bed in the room at the back and Kessin took the bench by the stove, and the donkey took the yard, and the boy slept at the hall table with his case under his arm and his boots on the floor, and the coffee was hot and the bread was warm and the lamp went out at ten, and the yard was quiet, and the road went on behind them, and the board had six cards on it, and the sixth card was Wist's, and the seventh card was blank, and Kessin lay on the bench with the ledger under her head and thought about the debt and the board and the fare and the lane and the eels and the coin and the name. She had two hundred miles of road behind her and one year of hall in front of her, and the hall owed eleven pounds and eleven shillings and six pence, and the hall had taken in nine shillings and one penny, and the hall had a donkey and a boy and a man and a woman and a keeper, and the hall had a sixth card and a seventh name, and the seventh name was blank, and the seventh name would be filled, when the hall had given out a seventh name, and the hall would have given out a seventh name, when the hall had a seventh card, and the hall would have a seventh card, when the hall had a seventh name, and the hall would have a seventh name, when the hall was the hall, and the hall was the hall, and she did not understand any of it and she did not want to understand it, and she wanted the hall to be the hall, and she wanted the hall to go on, and she wanted the debt to be paid, and she wanted the board to be full, and she wanted the road to be the road, and she wanted the boy to be the boy, and she wanted the man to be the man, and she wanted the woman to be the woman, and she wanted the donkey to be the donkey, and she wanted the hall to be the hall, and the hall was the hall, and the hall went on. ---