[HerenIstarion]

The table stood in the yard, as time went by. The dawn was replaced by fine morn. People passed to and fro of their own accord. Some eyed the table with mild curiosity, some stopped to look it all over, one even to stroke its dainty legs, but everyone soon remembered their own business and went away. But, as noon brought the warmth of winter son into the air, four lads came out, took the table by its corners and brought it into the Inn, into the very Common Room where it was placed by one of the walls

‘We will use it for flowers’ said Aman ‘and some vases with fruits will look wonderful on it too. Ruby, dear, bring the duster and polish liquid, there is a kind lass – we need to make it presentable first. And white cloth to cover it, the one with primroses embroidery, you know, it is in the left-hand lower box of the wardrobe’

In no time at all, newly acquired table was brought out again, now dusted, polished so its dark brown surfaces shined and sparkled. It was clothed and decorated with colored glass-vases, some holding flowers, some fruits of the kind to be grown in the Southfarthing hotbeds even in wintertime.

For now, it was drawing attention of few children who where already in for the party. Lads and lasses where playing a game of ‘steal an apple’, though Brownlock, who was appointed to look for the preparations outside, was not really ‘guarding’ fructose delicacies against them, just smiled softly and refilled the vases emptied by the tomboys and hoydens. Grown ups, as yet, were preserving their noble hunger for the main fare.