第22章 The Lost Kettle

The kettle was gone by the time Mistress Tull came up the lane, and she came up at seven with her basket and her walking stick and her coat against the wind, and she said, "I have lost my kettle," and she said it at the yard gate, and she said it to no one in particular, because the gate was open and the yard was empty and the lane was cold. Kessin was on the wheel with the ledger. She looked up and she saw the kettle missing, because the kettle had been hanging on the stove hook at the mill house and the mill house was where Mistress Tull kept the bread, and the kettle had been there for sixty years, and the kettle had gone in the night. "You have lost your kettle," said Kessin. "I have lost my kettle," said Mistress Tull. "And the kettle was my mother's mother's kettle, and it was tin, and it had a chip in the rim, and it is the kettle I boil the coffee in, and I cannot boil the coffee in another kettle, because the other kettle is not the kettle." "Which kettle is not the kettle," said Kessin. "No kettle is the kettle," said Mistress Tull. "Only that one is." Peth came in with his boots at the hall door, white at the sole from the chalk, and he heard the kettle, and he put his case on the bench and he said, "I will find the kettle." "You will find the kettle," said Mistress Tull. "I will find the kettle," said Peth. "The kettle will be on the lane." "The kettle will be on the lane," said Mistress Tull. "The kettle will be on the lane or the kettle will be under the hedge or the kettle will be at the crossing." "Or the kettle will be at the crossing," said Peth. Brin came in through the gate with the salt cart, because Dorl Kesson had sent the salt cart home on the day the salt was sold, and Brin stood at the foot of the cart with his hat under his arm and he said, "A kettle on the lane in the frost is a kettle a man will step over." "A man will step over it," said Kessin. "A man will not step over tin," said Brin. "Tin is bright in the frost." "Then the kettle will be seen," said Kessin. "Then the kettle will be seen," said Brin. "And seen things are picked up." "Seen things are picked up," said Kessin. Turrel came out from the kitchen with the lamp and the cloth and a cup of coffee for Mistress Tull, and Mistress Tull took the cup and she held it in both hands and she said, "I cannot boil this in another kettle." "Sit down," said Turrel. Mistress Tull sat on the bench beside Peth, and the donkey came through the hall door because the hall door had been left open, and Clack stood at the foot of the stove and looked at Mistress Tull, and she looked at the donkey, and she said, "Clack remembers me." "Clack remembers you," said Kessin. "I brought bread to this yard when I was nine," said Mistress Tull. "I brought bread in a basket and I fell out of the basket and the bread was in the yard and Clack ate the bread and I cried and the old woman gave me a coin." "The old woman gave you a coin," said Kessin. "The old woman gave me a coin," said Mistress Tull. "And the coin was the coin with no face on it." Kessin felt the coin in her pocket and she did not say anything. "It went round," said Turrel. "It went round," said Mistress Tull. "It went round for forty years." "It went round for forty years," said Turrel. Peth went out through the gate with his case and his boots and his chalk, and he walked the lane, and he walked the lane to the first corner and he walked the lane to the second corner, and at the second corner he saw the kettle, because the kettle was under the hedge, and the kettle had been under the hedge since the night, and the kettle had rolled out of the mill house in the wind, and the wind had come down off the river, and the kettle had rolled under the hedge at the second corner and stopped. He lifted the kettle out, and the kettle had frost in it, and the kettle had two snails in it, and he set the kettle on the bench at the yard wall, and he went back to the hall. "I have the kettle," he said. "I have the kettle," said Mistress Tull. "The kettle is the kettle," said Kessin. "The kettle is the kettle," said Mistress Tull. "And the kettle has a chip in the rim." "The kettle has a chip in the rim," said Kessin. She paid Peth the crown, and she wrote the line on the ledger, and the ledger said: Peth Dunmorrit, kettle from the mill house, second corner, one crown, and the kettle was gone to the mill house before the kettle was paid for, and Mistress Tull stood at the gate with her kettle in both hands and she said, "Thank you." "You are welcome," said Kessin. "I have lost nothing," said Mistress Tull. "I have only misplaced it, and the hall has found it, and the hall is the hall." "The hall is the hall," said Kessin. Then Mistress Tull sat on the bench and ate bread that Turrel gave her, and she watched the lane, and the lane was empty, and the frost was on the grass, and the hedge was green under the frost, and the mill was at the second corner, and the kettle was in her hand, and the kettle had a chip in the rim, and the chip was white in the frost, and the boy was walking the lane back to the hall with chalk on his thumb. Brin took off his hat and set it on the wheel, and he looked at the board, and the board had ten cards on it, and the tenth card was white, and he said, "The white card is for a kettle." "The white card is for a kettle," said Kessin. "No," said Brin. "The white card is for a kettle that has not been lost yet." "A kettle that has not been lost yet," said Kessin. "Someone will lose it in the spring," said Brin. "And someone will find it, and the kettle will be the kettle, and the hall will have the card." "The hall will have the card," said Kessin. "And the hall will not write on it," said Brin. "The hall will not write on it," said Kessin. Brin put his hat on and he took the cart and he went out through the gate, and the cart wheels turned on the iron, and the frost was under them, and the lane went away down the hill, and the white card stayed on the board, and Mistress Tull had her kettle, and Peth had a crown, and Turrel had the stove, and the donkey had the straw. "That is a kettle," said Kessin, to no one. "That is a kettle," said Turrel. "And a kettle is small work." "Small work is work," said Kessin. "Small work is work," said Turrel. "And the hall does small work." "Then the hall will do the kettle in the spring," said Kessin. "Then the hall will do the kettle in the spring," said Turrel. ---