Called by her mother, the little fair-haired girl, who played so happily with the baby, left her game and, placing her charge carefully on the bed, set out six earthen bowls on the plain boarded table, which took up most of the space in the middle of the little room, and summoned the family to supper. Not until everyone was seated did Mistress Pullen lift the great iron pot off the hook on the chimney beam and, resting it on the edge of the table, dole out to each person an allowance, which varied in quantity according to age. In the same way she distributed chunks of coarse home-made bread, and then seeing everyone served, finally she sat down to her own meal.
The Pullens ate without speaking, quickly, noisily, and with evident relish, dipping the bread in the broth and eating the sodden lumps with their fingers. Mistress Amy held the baby on her lap, feeding the little creature with sops from her own bowl.
When all the broth had been disposed of, more bread and an earthen jar of honey were brought out and the meal continued.
Inside the little kitchen all was warm, one might almost say stuffy, for, in spite of the big fire and the number of people inside, the door was shut fast and the one little window which the room possessed was not made to open. However, the noise that the rain, swiftly driven over the marshlands by a fierce wind, made on the glass, and the hissing drops that descended the wide chimney, all helped to make the kitchen as desirable as it could be.
“Joan Bellamie was a-saying that the Captain of the Coldlight hath come back to the Ship, Joseph. Have ye heard aught of it?” Mistress Pullen looked across the table at her husband as she spoke.
Joe dropped his eyes before her gaze.
“Oh, yes,” he said casually.
“Oh, yes, indeed!” Amy’s voice rose again, “and ye did not think to tell me, did ye? Here I work the live-long day, and you so surly that you will not tell me the common gossip of the Island! I’d like to meet another woman who’d rest with ye.” Then she added more quietly. “Did any of his crew return with him, perchance?”
Joe shifted uneasily in his chair, and reached out for another piece of bread before he spoke.
“They did not,” he said shortly.