第11章 The Marrowgill's Errand

Wist Fennimore came to the yard gate on the fourteenth day, carrying a leather satchel that had been mended with cord at three corners and a hat with the brim turned down to keep the weather off his face, and he stood in the gate and said to no one in particular, "I am looking for the hall." "You have found it," said Turrel from the kitchen door, because Turrel could not leave the kitchen alone for a week and the kitchen door was the first place anyone looked and the last place anyone left. "I am looking for work," said the man. "I have work," said Kessin from the yard. "I have three cards." "He has four cards," said Peth from the foot of the wheel, and he did not look up from the strap he was mending, and he put the needle in the leather and held it there, and the needle caught the light and he looked at the man and said, "Are you a band?" "I am a band," said the man. "I am a band," said Kessin. "And the hall is a band, and we take in jobs from people who cannot do them, and we give out the jobs to people who can do them, and we take a fare and we keep the fare on the ledger, and if the fare is worth half a crown we give it out and if the fare is worth a crown we give it out, and if the fare is worth a coin we give it out, and if the fare is worth a bread we give it out, and the hall does not take more than a man can carry." "That is the way of it," said the man. "That is the way it has been for a long time." "It has not been that way for four years," said Kessin. "Not since the old woman." "The old woman," said the man. "Yes. She kept the hall." "She kept the hall," said Kessin. "And then the hall had no one to send out, and the jobs went to other halls, and other halls did not take the small jobs, and the small jobs went away, and the road went with them, and now the hall is here and the road is here and the man at the gate is here, and the man at the gate will not take a coin from me." "I would not take your coin," said the man. "I would take your card." "Then you will take a card," said Kessin. "Come in." He came in. He set the satchel on the wheel and took off his hat and looked at the board, and the board had four cards on it, and he looked at the cards, and he did not say anything, and Kessin sat on the wheel and Turrel stood at the stove and the donkey ate the bread and Peth mended the strap, and the yard was the yard and the hall was the hall and the man at the gate stood in the yard with his hat under his arm. "Name," said Turrel. "Wist Fennimore," said the man. "I will go with you," he said, "on the first job." "You will not go with me," said Kessin. "You will go on the card." "The card," said Wist. "Yes. The card." "Which card," said Kessin. "I will take any card," said Wist. "There is a card for a basket of eels from the crossing," said Kessin. "Fare is half a crown." "I will take the basket of eels," said Wist. "The basket of eels," said Kessin. "The crossing is three miles. The eels are live. The man at the crossing wants them for Sunday and he will not eat them if they are dead." "I will keep them alive," said Wist. "I have kept eels alive." "You have kept eels alive," said Kessin. "And you will take them from the crossing to Gillanwick and from Gillanwick to the hall, and the hall will pay you half a crown, and the hall will give you bread, and the hall will give you the room at the back if you do not have a room, and the hall will give you a bed if you do not have a bed." "I have a bed," said Wist. "It is in a room in Gillanwick." "Then the hall will give you bread," said Kessin. "And the hall will give you the coin." "That is all," said Wist. "That is all," said Kessin. Turrel put the coffee on and put the bread on and gave Wist a cup, and Wist drank the coffee and ate the bread, and he did not ask for more, and Kessin wrote on the ledger, and Peth finished the strap and put it back in his case, and the donkey looked at Wist with the flat grey patience of a thing that has been waiting for a person to do the right thing. "Go tomorrow," said Kessin. "I will go tomorrow," said Wist. "Five o'clock," said Kessin. "The crossing is three miles. You will walk out in the dark and you will come back in the dark and you will not talk to the man at the crossing until you have the basket in your hand, and you will not talk to the man at the market until you have the coin in your hand, and you will talk to me when you are in this yard, and you will not talk to me before that, because the basket is the basket and the road is the road." "I will not talk to you before that," said Wist. "Go," said Kessin. Wist took his hat and put it on and took the satchel and went out through the gate, and he did not look back, and Kessin watched him go, and the donkey watched her watch him, and Turrel came in from the kitchen with the coffee pot and the cloth and a look that said he had done well. "He will not come back today," said Turrel. "I know," said Kessin. "He will come back tomorrow with the eels," said Turrel. "And the eels will be alive." "I know," said Kessin. "And the hall will have a sixth name," said Turrel. "The hall will have a sixth name," said Kessin. "And the hall will have a seventh card." "The hall will have a seventh card," said Turrel. "And the seventh card is still blank." "Then I will write the seventh card," said Kessin. "You will not write the seventh card," said Turrel. "You will wait for the hall to give out the seventh name." "How will I know when the hall has given out the seventh name," said Kessin. Turrel looked at her for a moment, and then she looked at the donkey, and the donkey looked at her, and she said, "You will know when the hall has given out the seventh name, when someone comes to the gate and does not ask for work, and asks for bread." "Then I will wait," said Kessin. "And I will write the seventh card." "Then you will wait," said Turrel. ---