#ASMSG extract from 'THE WISHING WELL'

Annabelle or Belle as Arthur calls her for short makes her way upstairs to the bell ladder which Arthur had made himself. It is made of wooden steps there is no rail on one side of the steps only a brick wall for support to the right. Arthur used strong, strong oak from a felled tree a long time ago when they first moved into the cottage; there was no other way that they could get up to the upper level of the cottage without a ladder. It took Arthur a long time to make with his own hands and tools, but once made they were able to make their own bedroom away from the hub bub of the downstairs living area. Arthur is home today, he is pottering about in his garden outside where he grows vegetables and flowers for Belle. Their youngest child and son Douglas has been gone since the break of dawn, he works for the local shop as the delivery boy. Douglas left school at the age of fourteen once his education was completed, Arthur knows that he is a strong boy and a proud one too, and said to his parents that he needed to go out to work to help bring in much needed income for the family since his father had an accident at the stables. Arthur ponders the lads future which he so wanted him to follow in his footsteps as the ploughman in the fields, but this never came about young Douglas went and sought employment wherever he could earn a wage.

Belle is now upstairs she takes the first steps towards hers and Arthur’s bedroom which is the largest in the cottage. It is airy and bright with sun shining through the double windows, the only possessions that they have in this room is a double wardrobe, two chests of drawers and their double bed. Belle had made all the curtains that are hanging which are of a floral design, mostly of the flowers that grow in the garden, poppies, daisies, daffodils too. With the remnants that were left over she had made a patchwork quilt, the shapes being designed into a star in the centre of the quilt with a blue background. All the patchwork quilts were made from Belle’s and daughter Christabelle handwork.