Here is another excerpt from my children’s story Peggy and the Lighthouse. This follows on from what I shared yesterday when Peggy set off for a walk with a friend of her grandma’s, Mr Benbow;
“Who lives in those cottages, Mr. Benbow?”
“Well, one of them is my little gaff, and Mr. McIntosh lives in the other, when he’s not on duty. He’s the lighthouse keeper you know. Young Ben is his dep and he bunks with me when he’s not in the lighthouse.”
“Is Mr. McIntosh’s gaff where you were born, you said you were born in the keeper’s cottage?” I wanted to know but I tried to sound polite.
“You’ve got a good memory, Peg! Yes, I was born in keeper’s cottage, lived there till I retired and Mr. McIntosh took over.”
“Weren’t you sad to leave the place you were born and where you’d lived all that long time?” Oh dear, I hope he didn’t think I was being rude about his age. Mummy said you should never ask a grown-up their age, it’s impertinent. I used not to be able to say that word and said interpiment. I used it on one of my stories which I read out to the class and my teacher was really kind and tactful and only told me afterwards. I said ‘thank you very much, I appreciate your tact.’ I had read an adult book from the library and had to look up tactful. My teacher went very red in the face and I thought maybe I had not been tactful to mention it, but she thanked me and said she looked forward to hearing my next story. She’s a very jolly person and as I went back to my desk I could hear her laughing at something. I expect one of the other children had made a joke.
“I was very sad, Peg, very sad. I’d lived there all my life up till then, and my dad before me, and Granddad Tom before him. But needs must, and at least I only had to move in next door!” he did sound sad even though I think he was trying to be brave
“I was sad when we moved out of our house. We didn’t move next door though, we went to another part of town where there was an exclusive apartment for us.”
“That sounds mighty fine, Peg.”
It did sound mighty fine but there wasn’t room for Daddy so he went somewhere else. I said, hmm-mm, because it wasn’t really mighty fine at all. I thought I should change the subject.
“Mr. Benson, excuse me for asking, but do you have any old photographs of the lighthouse in the olden days? I’m very interested in history, you see.”
This cheered Mr. Benbow up and he said, yes he had some lovely old albums which he would be pleased to show me and we set off again towards the lighthouse.
Lois Elsden 