April 13th 1400
Dear companion,
I got you from my friend Fosco on the occasion of his birthday. Initially I thought you were a mathom, cause what should I do with a bundle of blank pages? I can indeed read and write (what I'm quite proud on though, we're no very rich family, you see), but it's hardly enough to write books... Then my sister Lilly had the idea, I should just write down what happens in our family and in the village. A good idea I think. Because I scarcly know any people but the ones in the village I could send letters to about these topics. But I didn't know how to call you, after all you aren't real at all. And again an idea came from my sister: "What about calling 'companion'?".
You see my sister has many fantastic ideas.
But I haven't introduced myself yet: I am Milo Sandhill. And in 3 weeks I already become 19!!! I'm looking forward to it, cause I'll give Ruby a self- carved little pony. Let's see what she'll say... I hope she will be glad.
We live in a little hole near Frogmorton. Like I already said I have an older sister: Lilly, she is already 32 und soon willl marry Bibo, the son of the smith. Father says Bibo is a good catch, Lilly says she loves Bibo more than anything else, I say Bibo is a nitwit (but of course nobody is listening to me!). But the dumbest farmers have the best potatoes [this is a word-for-word-translation – it's a German phrase and I don't know the analogous English version]: he is popular with everybody. With the children because he is so strong (but I wouldn't even think him capable of counting till 3), with the adults, because his father was always popular, too, and with the mothers because he is a good catch.
I am not a good catch. My father is a little gardener at the Frogmorton's Goodbody's. My mother was nanny at their place and so she hadn't much time for own children. That's why I am so much younger than Lilly. But at least my mother can write. And I have learnt from her. My father always tries to take me with him to work, so I could learn my later profession. But I don't have a soft spot for garden woirk. I like flowers and plants, but I like carving much more than pulling weeds. While carving one can better think and observe the area... And Ruby likes my carvings. She says I should become a joiner. Perhaps old Greencap would take me in apprenticeship. He says I should grow a bit older the he'll take a look at some of my works. Next year I become 20 and'll speak to him again. After all he is already 94 and has no own sons. But he needs a successor. That would be my dream...
April 23rd 1400
Dear companion,
I know, my last (and first) entry lays somewhat back but I have much to do und also now I can write only shortly. That is to say as long until mother finds me here in the haystack of the Shallowgrubbs... Actually I should be with my father at the gardens of the Goodbodies. There is still much to do although we are toiling there since already one week. Why is always so much work in the garden at spring's beginning??? My suggestion was allowing all plants to grow wild but father didn't like this idea very much judging by the glnce he gave me at this... But a grown wild garden looks so wonderful!!! The garden where I always meet up with Fosco, Ruby an the others is also grown very wild. The little hut in it is empty for ages. It is said that the owner was an old lonely man who always let the children play in his garden, so he had company. The adults in the village thought little for that for they believed him to be strange and so only the children were really sad when he eventually died. They kept on going there for playing 'cause nobody of the grown-ups shows up there. Today these children are parents and grandparents themselves – and grown up: they don't go there anymore. The garden belongs to the Frogmorton's children (and young adults) – nobody else comes to here, from no other village! The spot lies sheltered in the North of Frogmorton, between the two arms of The Water. Like a little isle, just for us. First time I got there was with Lilly. I was only 7 then. She showed me– I didn't knew anything about The Isle before. Today I know that all children of the village are taken to The Isle by their older silblings at the age of 7. Who doesn't have older silblings is taken to by some older friends. Because with 7 you are old enough to keep a secret (from the other villages nobody does know anything about The Isle). Here in our village 7 is something like 33 in the whole Shire.
Oh yes, 33 you should be! Then I wouldn't have to go anymore with father to work in the garden while I am anyway thinking all the time only about how to sneak off best!...But – probably I would still have to! And even if father let me staying at home mother would surely make me doing housework – no matter if 33 or not! She always says I should learn doing the housework an my own for as clumsy as I was in everything I would never find a sensible girl who would marry me. Thank you very much!
I have so much time left! I dunno what she's fussing about! Here in the village there are many girls I get along very good with. I see girls only as good friends!
Except perhaps Ruby. She isn't like the other girls. She is a very special friend to me. I can tell her everything, no matter what it is. Secrets are safe with her. And she confides hers to me as well. There is something like a bond between us. I haven't spoke to anybody about this, yet, but I think Fosco and the others have noticed it already, too. At any rate they are teasing us with it. Nevertheless we are only good friends!....Aren't we? Ah no, we're still much too young for such stuff!
Oh no, I hear mother calling me. Crap, how do I now get this book back to my window-sill from where I fetched it unnoticed a little while ago?
Oh luck – she has passed without seeing me. Now I will bring this book back to my room and after this go to The Isle (I haven't been there for a long while). I'll keep the impending telling off for evening.
April 30th 1400
Dear companion,
as you see I survived the anger of my mom quite good at all. Now she keeps me at home because she knows that I can't escape her as easy as father. Therefore now I "may" help her and Lilly with the spring cleaning. Pff – women's work! Sometime I'll have my own hole and there won't have to be tidied up, scrubbed or washed the curtains all the time. When somebody doesn't like this he doesn't have to come ... although I like getting visitors ... hmmm – so what, I'll think about that point when time comes to it. Today is Sunday, so (as a change) there isn't any scrubbing or washing. It is the first picknick-sunday in this year! For lunch we meet the Burrowses from Whitfurrows and the Frumblefoots (Ruby's family) at the big East-meadow (for the Whitfurrowses: West-meadow). It will be a big Hullo at the meadow when both villages will meet there! What a pity that Fosco is at his realtive's in Bywater and Lilly will also not be there. She went to Stock with Bibo and his father. She is supposed to be introduced to some friends of them there. Why can't they do this here???
***
At the luncheon-picknick today there was really a big meeting-up. But except this and the fact that Primrose, the oldest daughter of the Burrowses (she is 22) all the time had a strange look at me and sniggering whispered (God knows why!) with her younger sisters (yesyes – the Burrows- clover) nothing happened.
Till the evening when Lily came home. We two went for a walk and told us about our day. Then she revealed to me that she and Bibo want to give me a secret present for my 19th birthday: my first visit in an inn! How they thought of THAT I just don't know. Mom thinks me too young for inns but Lilly thinks now is the perfect moment for this will be my last birthday with her still living at home. My birthday is on thursday, at friday "it" shall take place. I chose the Golden Perch in Stock. People always say there was the best beer in all the Eastfarthing! Besides nobody knows me there und so there will be at least the chance that Ma and Da (actually I am too old for calling them so…) won't be told everything immediatly. Man, I am so excited...
Dear companion,
I got you from my friend Fosco on the occasion of his birthday. Initially I thought you were a mathom, cause what should I do with a bundle of blank pages? I can indeed read and write (what I'm quite proud on though, we're no very rich family, you see), but it's hardly enough to write books... Then my sister Lilly had the idea, I should just write down what happens in our family and in the village. A good idea I think. Because I scarcly know any people but the ones in the village I could send letters to about these topics. But I didn't know how to call you, after all you aren't real at all. And again an idea came from my sister: "What about calling 'companion'?".
You see my sister has many fantastic ideas.
But I haven't introduced myself yet: I am Milo Sandhill. And in 3 weeks I already become 19!!! I'm looking forward to it, cause I'll give Ruby a self- carved little pony. Let's see what she'll say... I hope she will be glad.
We live in a little hole near Frogmorton. Like I already said I have an older sister: Lilly, she is already 32 und soon willl marry Bibo, the son of the smith. Father says Bibo is a good catch, Lilly says she loves Bibo more than anything else, I say Bibo is a nitwit (but of course nobody is listening to me!). But the dumbest farmers have the best potatoes [this is a word-for-word-translation – it's a German phrase and I don't know the analogous English version]: he is popular with everybody. With the children because he is so strong (but I wouldn't even think him capable of counting till 3), with the adults, because his father was always popular, too, and with the mothers because he is a good catch.
I am not a good catch. My father is a little gardener at the Frogmorton's Goodbody's. My mother was nanny at their place and so she hadn't much time for own children. That's why I am so much younger than Lilly. But at least my mother can write. And I have learnt from her. My father always tries to take me with him to work, so I could learn my later profession. But I don't have a soft spot for garden woirk. I like flowers and plants, but I like carving much more than pulling weeds. While carving one can better think and observe the area... And Ruby likes my carvings. She says I should become a joiner. Perhaps old Greencap would take me in apprenticeship. He says I should grow a bit older the he'll take a look at some of my works. Next year I become 20 and'll speak to him again. After all he is already 94 and has no own sons. But he needs a successor. That would be my dream...
April 23rd 1400
Dear companion,
I know, my last (and first) entry lays somewhat back but I have much to do und also now I can write only shortly. That is to say as long until mother finds me here in the haystack of the Shallowgrubbs... Actually I should be with my father at the gardens of the Goodbodies. There is still much to do although we are toiling there since already one week. Why is always so much work in the garden at spring's beginning??? My suggestion was allowing all plants to grow wild but father didn't like this idea very much judging by the glnce he gave me at this... But a grown wild garden looks so wonderful!!! The garden where I always meet up with Fosco, Ruby an the others is also grown very wild. The little hut in it is empty for ages. It is said that the owner was an old lonely man who always let the children play in his garden, so he had company. The adults in the village thought little for that for they believed him to be strange and so only the children were really sad when he eventually died. They kept on going there for playing 'cause nobody of the grown-ups shows up there. Today these children are parents and grandparents themselves – and grown up: they don't go there anymore. The garden belongs to the Frogmorton's children (and young adults) – nobody else comes to here, from no other village! The spot lies sheltered in the North of Frogmorton, between the two arms of The Water. Like a little isle, just for us. First time I got there was with Lilly. I was only 7 then. She showed me– I didn't knew anything about The Isle before. Today I know that all children of the village are taken to The Isle by their older silblings at the age of 7. Who doesn't have older silblings is taken to by some older friends. Because with 7 you are old enough to keep a secret (from the other villages nobody does know anything about The Isle). Here in our village 7 is something like 33 in the whole Shire.
Oh yes, 33 you should be! Then I wouldn't have to go anymore with father to work in the garden while I am anyway thinking all the time only about how to sneak off best!...But – probably I would still have to! And even if father let me staying at home mother would surely make me doing housework – no matter if 33 or not! She always says I should learn doing the housework an my own for as clumsy as I was in everything I would never find a sensible girl who would marry me. Thank you very much!
I have so much time left! I dunno what she's fussing about! Here in the village there are many girls I get along very good with. I see girls only as good friends!
Except perhaps Ruby. She isn't like the other girls. She is a very special friend to me. I can tell her everything, no matter what it is. Secrets are safe with her. And she confides hers to me as well. There is something like a bond between us. I haven't spoke to anybody about this, yet, but I think Fosco and the others have noticed it already, too. At any rate they are teasing us with it. Nevertheless we are only good friends!....Aren't we? Ah no, we're still much too young for such stuff!
Oh no, I hear mother calling me. Crap, how do I now get this book back to my window-sill from where I fetched it unnoticed a little while ago?
Oh luck – she has passed without seeing me. Now I will bring this book back to my room and after this go to The Isle (I haven't been there for a long while). I'll keep the impending telling off for evening.
April 30th 1400
Dear companion,
as you see I survived the anger of my mom quite good at all. Now she keeps me at home because she knows that I can't escape her as easy as father. Therefore now I "may" help her and Lilly with the spring cleaning. Pff – women's work! Sometime I'll have my own hole and there won't have to be tidied up, scrubbed or washed the curtains all the time. When somebody doesn't like this he doesn't have to come ... although I like getting visitors ... hmmm – so what, I'll think about that point when time comes to it. Today is Sunday, so (as a change) there isn't any scrubbing or washing. It is the first picknick-sunday in this year! For lunch we meet the Burrowses from Whitfurrows and the Frumblefoots (Ruby's family) at the big East-meadow (for the Whitfurrowses: West-meadow). It will be a big Hullo at the meadow when both villages will meet there! What a pity that Fosco is at his realtive's in Bywater and Lilly will also not be there. She went to Stock with Bibo and his father. She is supposed to be introduced to some friends of them there. Why can't they do this here???
***
At the luncheon-picknick today there was really a big meeting-up. But except this and the fact that Primrose, the oldest daughter of the Burrowses (she is 22) all the time had a strange look at me and sniggering whispered (God knows why!) with her younger sisters (yesyes – the Burrows- clover) nothing happened.
Till the evening when Lily came home. We two went for a walk and told us about our day. Then she revealed to me that she and Bibo want to give me a secret present for my 19th birthday: my first visit in an inn! How they thought of THAT I just don't know. Mom thinks me too young for inns but Lilly thinks now is the perfect moment for this will be my last birthday with her still living at home. My birthday is on thursday, at friday "it" shall take place. I chose the Golden Perch in Stock. People always say there was the best beer in all the Eastfarthing! Besides nobody knows me there und so there will be at least the chance that Ma and Da (actually I am too old for calling them so…) won't be told everything immediatly. Man, I am so excited...