In the surgeon's wagon

He grinned at the idea of that. "Now you're bein' daft," he said. "Don't reckon I'll ever be as good as you. You've been doin' it for years, like, and I c'n only just write me name now."

"But it won't be long. And speaking of writing your name..." She reached for the slate and handed it to him with the pencil. "You should practice that too. Very useful thing, being able to write your name."

He took the slate pencil. It felt strange holding it, awkward somehow.

He wrote slowly, frowning with concentration, sometimes glancing at how she had written his name at the top of the paper.

"Officer jee, ay, bee, are, eye, ee, ell," he said slowly, forming each letter as he said its name. "Then Officer see, oh, tee, tee, oh, en."

He showed her the slate, looking proud.

She laughed with glee. "Oh Gabe, that's perfect!" She gave him a quick small kiss on the cheek. "Now here, hold the pencil like this. No, that finger there." She had to look at an imaginary pencil in her own hand. "Can you write my name? Maggie at least. It's on your paper."

He reluctantly wiped the slate clean, altered his grip and concentrated on writing her name. "Officer em, ay, jee, jee, eye, ee, Maggie," he said, writing slowly as he said each letter.

"That is as beautiful a hand as I ever saw. Do you want to try with a regular pencil on the back of your paper?"

"You're teasin' me, Maggie." But he sounded pleased. "Would you teach me some more letters, or words, or summat?"

"All right." She paused to think, then took back the slate and began to write. "See if you can guess what these say."

"Oh," he said, looking at the first word. "That's really long." He took a breath.
"M, a, ruh.... how do you put that together? Because that doesn't make any sort of sound I know."

"Mar. The A there says ahh, like bar, sharp, father. It's another sound that A makes, besides Aaa and Ay. It sounds a bit like an O in... Cotton."

"So, that's Mar... guh, a, ga, then, um. Ruh, e, tuh, ret... Margaret?" He looked up at her. "So that's your christenin' name? You know, what they call you in church?" He knew her name was Margaret, really, but that was the name the Vicar (or whoever) would have used at her christening, or her wedding, if she ever got wed.

"That's it. It were me mum's name too, and what everyone called her, so they called me Maggie to tell the difference between us."

"It's Ma's name too, only they all call her Meg. It's a nice name."

"Really?" She looked touched and sweetly pleased. "Your ma you have now?"

"Yes. Me ma, not me mum, if'n that makes sense." He reached out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. He liked her hair, he decided.

"And tell me the names of your brothers and sisters again? I remember Billy, I think, and... Betsy?"

"All of 'em? It's a terr'ble long list. There's Billy, then Becky, then me, then Dan, and then Mum died and Dad got married again. Then there was Sukey - Susan - and Sam, Josh, Tabby, Ruth and Malachi." He counted on his fingers. "So, ten of us. I don't know how we all fit into the cottage, neither."

"So, Billy, then Becky..." Maggie repeated, "Then... you? And Dan? And Sukey, and..." She paused to count on her fingers. "I'm still missing half of them. Malachi."

"After Sukey, there's Sam. Then Josh, then Tabby. Tabitha, really, of course. Then Ruth. Then Mal. He'd be about fourteen, fifteen now, I think."

"So about the same age as Micheal, bless. He must have been really little the last time you saw him. So who would be my age?"

"I think the nearest one to you is Sam. Or, no. Josh, though he'd be a bit younger'n you are."

"So it's... Billy, Betsy - no, Becky, you, Dan, Sukey... Sam, Josh, Tabby, Malachi? I need to write them all down. Wait, I missed one. Billy, Becky, Gabe, Dan, Sukey, Sam, Josh, Tabby, Ruth, Malachi."

He grinned at her. "Big family, ain't it?"

"Certainly is! And what's your father's name?"

"Amos. Dunno why we all had names out o' the Bible. Well, all apart from Sukey, who got named after Ma's sister. Leastways, I think it was her sister. Never met her, y'see."